Buffalo Sabres report card following a disappointing season
A lot has changed for the Buffalo Sabres in the first two weeks following a disappointing season, so how poorly did the Blue and Gold really fare in 2023-24?
The Buffalo Sabres 2023-24 season wasn’t successful, and we know this given how quickly they let former head coach Don Granato go and replaced him with a familiar face in Lindy Ruff. We know Ruff seems like the only coach in recent Sabres history capable of taking this team beyond an 82-game slate, so the early returns for the 2024-25 report card look pretty good.
And no, don’t take that quip literally, as we have hopefully another 400 to 425 days before anyone writes up such a letter grade for the 2024-25 Sabres. Note that I didn’t say 365 because, with Ruff back in town, we’re all expecting playoffs next season.
But what needs to happen for Ruff to take this team to a place they haven’t been since his first stint as the Blue and Gold’s head coach? For one, general manager Kevyn Adams can’t make any major mistakes, but he’s off to a good start avoiding them. For another, he needs to take a look at just how well this team performed offensively, defensively, and on special teams this past season, then make moves accordingly.
Grading the Buffalo Sabres performance is a good place to start
Whether Kevyn Adams evaluates his team and writes up a report card for them is a mystery, and even if he did, we’re not likely to see it. So instead, this slideshow will give you a sound idea of how well (or not so well) the Sabres played in 2023-24.
This report card is not an evaluation of every player but one of an overall team performance between October 2023 and April 2024. If you watched the Blue and Gold this season, you may have an idea of what this assessment might say.
Or, if Lindy Ruff’s return has brought back your interest and you’d like to know where the Sabres currently stand, keep reading.
The Sabres play suffered in the offensive zone
The most disappointing play of the season came when the Sabres were in the offensive zone, where they finished the year with just 246 goals or three per game. This knocked them from third place in 2022-23 to a meager 22nd in 2023-24, and inconsistency is the best adjective to use regarding just how well they fared.
Early in the year, Buffalo had a tough time figuring out opponents when they tried taking the puck through the neutral zone, and you may remember those nightmare performances against the New York Rangers and Islanders back in October. It foreshadowed what was to come, and it seemed like every other game, they either constantly turned the puck over or gave it away either in the neutral or the offensive zone.
Following their 5-1 loss on New Year’s Eve, the Sabres found twine just 111 times between then and October 12th, scoring just 2.92 goals per contest. In their defense, they got better, with 135 goals in their final 44 games, but 3.06 per matchup isn’t much better than 2.92. Their inconsistencies in the offensive zone haunted them throughout 2024, and they were a major reason for the sudden step back.
Overall, Buffalo gets a C-minus here, mainly for the inconsistencies and the drop-off. But there were times when you saw flashes of the 2022-23 team, and some of their major contributors from that season, like Tage Thompson, got hotter in the latter stages of the season.
Defensive zone play wasn’t bad, but there is room for improvement
The Sabres were a better team in the defensive zone this season, and it’s one reason they finished with a plus-2 goal differential. No, that isn’t great, considering their poor play in the offensive zone should have widened the gap between goals scored and goals allowed. But it shows how much better this team was defensively in 2023-24 compared to what we saw take the ice in 2022-23.
They allowed just 2,402 shots on goal in the defensive zone, which was the ninth-lowest in the league, and 29.29 per game. This effort allowed the Sabres to finish the season with a 51.2 Corsi For Percentage at 5-on-5, which ranked 16th in the NHL.
Unfortunately, even a plus-50 percent in the Corsi did little to help the Sabres in the offensive zone, even if the metric implied they were getting enough puck retrievals and excellent goaltending to give themselves scoring chances.
Since the Sabres played more than well in the defensive zone with just 244 goals allowed while holding opponents’ shots on goal totals to under 30 per game, they’re getting a solid B here. Maybe next season, the Blue and Gold will once again do a sound job keeping opponents in check when they enter the defensive zone, retake possession, and parlay the effort into more goals scored.
Goaltending was great, special teams were subpar
Goaltending has been an issue in Buffalo for nearly as long as the playoff drought, but that ultimately wasn’t the case this season, even if it didn’t come without controversy. Devon Levi was supposed to be the prodigy here, but that didn’t happen and he’s currently in Rochester, albeit having enjoyed some outstanding returns.
Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen was a different story, and you can make a case that he was the reason for the Sabres allowing just 244 goals this season, which was a solid 11th in the NHL. Luukkonen also likely helped keep the Sabres penalty kill afloat, as it finished 13th in the league.
If you remember correctly, Buffalo’s PK unit was on another level to start the campaign before it backslid into the middle of the 32-team pack. That didn’t last all season, and they worked their way back up before settling in 13th.
Nothing dropped off like the power play, and Lindy Ruff will have his work cut out for him as he tries to fix a unit that finished 29th last season with a 16.59 conversion rate. The lack of success on the man advantage only made things tougher for this team offensively.
Overall, Luukkonnen and the goaltending unit get a B-plus, and if Levi returns and improves next season, it won’t be long until that B becomes an A. As for special teams, they get a C-minus, and you can thank the power play unit for bringing that grade to nearly below average.
Verdict
Overall, the Sabres get a solid C (2.0 on a 4.0 scale) for 2023-24, and you can translate this one to something along the lines of this team needing a lot of work before they take the next step. Luckily, the Sabres have one of the NHL’s most experienced coaches and a familiar face, so that will bring reassurance to fans.
But they need to get back to where they were in what is now two seasons ago in 2022-23 as a top-five scoring team while the defense and goaltending continues to improve. If the penalty kill can remain the way it is and ideally rise to the 80 percent mark while the power play returns to where it was in 2022-23, Lindy Ruff’s first year back behind the Sabres bench will be memorable.
Right now, however, the Sabres aren’t there, and it’s why they’re getting nothing higher than a C, which is average in the minds of many. But for this exercise, their overall season was below average. Yet there’s talent in the crease, talent in the defensive rotation, and we already know what the forwards can do. So, if Ruff is the missing piece to the puzzle, 2024-25 will be a fun season.
(Statistics provided by Hockey-Reference)
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