There is no secret that the latest loss was a tough one for the Buffalo Sabres. Despite outshooting the Dallas Stars 48-30, Jake Oettinger stole the show for Dallas and they beat the Sabres 2-1. While it was a frustrating loss, there was a lesson for the team to carry into their next game as they will welcome in the St. Louis Blues on Saturday afternoon.
The lesson, Buffalo came out flying and started fast. The Sabres haven't played a game in over a week as did Dallas, but Buffalo played well while generating tons of shots. i understand the final score is the only thing that matters at the end of the day, the point is the Sabres played good. They just could not score another goal due to Oettinger playing so well.
Why can Buffalo use this as a lesson for St. Louis? The Blues are also on their break, and their first game back will be against the Sabres. Even though Buffalo has played recently, they will have three days off between the Dallas game and Saturday for the Blues game. That's why if Buffalo can match the performance against the Stars for their next game, they can beat St. Louis.
Though this time, it translates to more goals. Buffalo will either see Jordan Binnington or Joel Hofer, and with all due respect to them, they are not Jake Oettinger. If I had to guess, I would think Binnington will be the guy, but we won't know until Saturday afternoon.
St. Louis is a good team, so it won't be an easy game for the Sabres. Again with all due respect to the Blues, Dallas is a better team. With that being said, hopefully Buffalo can get tons of shots on goal, this time they are goals and not saves.