3 burning questions for the Buffalo Sabres heading into Week 13
By Sion Fawkes
The Buffalo Sabres are limping into Week 13 having put on arguably the most disappointing season of the 32 NHL teams at the midway point. So far, they have given their fan base little reason to believe that the postseason is in their foreseeable future. But it’s still only Week 13, and in the 100-plus-year history of the NHL, strange things have happened.
However, when a team has been awful for the most part through the first half of the season, question marks surrounding them continue to pile up. Below, you will find three of the most pressing as we venture into Week 13 of this trying campaign.
Burning questions for the Buffalo Sabres in Week 13
1 - How will the Sabres play following yet another extended rest period?
The Sabres had four days' worth of rest since their blowout loss to the Ottawa Senators to close out the calendar year. Now that they’ve had four days to reflect and some time to practice, perhaps they can finally inch closer to solving a few issues that have become perpetual this season.
Maybe they will once again show us that they are a better team than they have played so far and surprise us with a four or five-goal performance either tonight or this coming Saturday. With four days in between games, this team should logistically be more than ready to roll, but we also know that the Sabres have discovered how to defy logic in the worst ways possible this season.
2 - Will we see new defensive pairings at any point?
As you probably heard, the Sabres busted out some new defensive pairings in practice this week. However, there was no guarantee that the new pairings would appear in an actual game. As head coach Don Granato put it, they were to “build familiarity.”
That said, it doesn’t quite rule out that we wouldn’t see the Sabres roll out such pairings in a game situation. We will find out at some point today whether we see something like the Rasmus Dahlin - Henri Jokiharju duo reunite, and if not, it doesn’t mean we won’t see them down the road.
Source: 'An elite player' | Mittelstadt's linemates share thoughts on his productive start by Katelyn Kardaman, NHL.com/Sabres
3 - Will the Sabres finally make pedestrian goaltenders look pedestrian?
The Sabres will face the Montreal Canadiens tonight, and none of their goaltenders have fared incredibly well this season. Wait, take that back: They played the Sabres rather well, just like many fringe NHL talents in the crease have.
We discussed a couple of days back that the Blue and Gold need to step up and figure out how to stop making such fringe talents look like All-Stars. So, maybe this week the Sabres will finally put a stop to this nonsense, and put up a goal-scoring frenzy like they did a couple of weeks back vs. the Toronto Maple Leafs.
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(Statistics provided by Hockey-Reference)