Similar to the Buffalo Bills a few years ago, the top storyline surrounding the Buffalo Sabres is their playoff drought. Unfortunately, it will continue to be the first topic for this team until they end their 14-season playoff drought.
On Wednesday, head coach Lindy Ruff met with the media ahead of training camp starting this week. He made it clear what the Sabres must do to end the streak, and it doesn't involve scoring more goals.
"Not many teams have a 44-goal scorer, 37, a couple of 20-goal scorers," Ruff said. "We need to be better at keeping it out of our net than we need about scoring more goals."
The Sabres head coach is right that the Sabres had no problem scoring goals as they were eighth in the NHL in goals scored with 269. They also did a good job scoring early in games as they outscored their opponents 92-68 in the first period.
However, the final two periods were a different story as they would be outscored 107-84 in the second period and 107-86 in the third period.
It's all about defense for the Buffalo Sabres' playoff hopes
The teams that win in the defensive zone and limit goals are the ones that have the best chance to make the playoffs. Last season, of the 16 teams that allowed the fewest goals, 15 of them made the playoffs. Meanwhile, the 16 teams that scored the most, only 12 made the playoffs.
This offseason, the Sabres certainly tried to improve their blue line and on paper, the moves make a lot of sense. They would bring in Michael Kesselring as part of the JJ Peterka trade and he will be paired with Owen Power. He should complement Power and help unlock some of the production that hasn't been there yet for the former first overall pick.
They also traded for Connor Timmins, who should slide in on the third pair of this defense. The best move though, may be one they didn't make, and that was not trading Bowen Byram. All of these players, along with Rasmus Dahlin, give the Sabres a really good blue line that can help them improve on last season's performance.
While the moves on defense look good, the key to all of this lies in the crease and Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen. If the Sabres starting goalie can bounce back to what he did in 2023, then playoffs are a real possibility.
Lindy Ruff was right to point out what the Buffalo Sabres need to do, and it is good to hear they identified the right issue. It will now be up to the players to deliver on those improvements.