3 reasons fans can be optimistic about the Sabres despite falling short of the playoffs
The Buffalo Sabres concluded their 2023-24 season against the Tampa Bay Lightning, and it was a disappointing six months for a team with playoff aspirations.
The Buffalo Sabres had just about everyone in the NHL universe behind them when the 2023-24 season started in October, but unfortunately, we found out that the playoffs once again weren’t meant to be. Consistency was tough to come by, and now, fans will be hoping 14 is the magic number to end this near decade-and-a-half of misery.
But maybe the 2024-25 season will be the year because despite the team falling short of the NHL playoffs, it wasn’t like this was a lost season. Go to places like Chicago, San Jose, Anaheim, and Columbus, and you will find four lost seasons, with the Blackhawks as the only team listed that can really get excited about their future.
In Anaheim, San Jose, and Columbus, there are still a lot of ‘what-ifs,’ but at least the Hawks have Connor Bedard as their unquestioned franchise player, and he gives their fans something positive to build around. Meanwhile, in Buffalo, Sabres fans have more than just one franchise player, and they are a lot closer to contention for 2024-25 than Chicago, or at least that’s the case here in April 2024.
Falling short of the postseason doesn’t mean Sabres fans can’t be optimistic
One major reason fans can look fondly at this 2023-24 team despite falling short of the playoffs is that the Sabres never gave up on the season, nor did former head coach Don Granato lose the locker room. The Blue and Gold had more bad moments than good ones between October and December 2023, yet they still drew a winning record and solid points total between January and April 2024.
Fans are undoubtedly critical of Don Granato, but it speaks volumes when this group keeps faith in their coach and in the system, even when times are tough. This young team easily could have gone astray and quit on their coach during those first few rough months of the season, but it didn’t happen, and they were watchable on most nights.
While keeping players engaged is a testament to Granato, despite the fact it did not save his job, it fell short of the three reasons fans of the Blue and Gold should still be optimistic about this team heading into an ever-important summer break.
Sabres finally have a legitimate tandem at goaltender
Devon Levi needs to earn his spot next season, or else he should spend another year in Rochester. But his numbers with the Amerks have been stellar in 23 games as of April 15th, with a 0.925 save percentage and a 2.48 GAA. Levi also has 14 wins, and if he plays well in the postseason and the 2024 preseason, he’s winning the 1B job.
Whether Levi opens the season as Luukkonen’s 1B in a role akin to something we saw from Jeremy Swayman in Boston last season is something we won’t immediately know. But if the Sabres feel he needs more time in Rochester, it won’t be too long before he’s in Buffalo while any stopgap gets reassigned to the AHL. This is assuming that stopgap is playing like a backup goaltender and not as a solid supplement to Luukkonen.
Regardless, the Sabres have a legitimate tandem at goaltender, and we will see it often next season assuming general manager Kevyn Adams re-signs Luukkonen. If not, then it’s Levi’s net, but let’s go with the most possible scenario and suppose one of the Sabres most valuable players this season is back in the crease.
Luukkonen and Levi will be another year older and more experienced, and we should anticipate a more productive season from both when they become a full-time tandem. That’s something the Sabres haven’t had lately, and it’s refreshing to see not one but two competent goaltenders in the system.
The Blue and Gold won’t be getting any younger
This rebuild has been a long one, and this season, it’s grown tedious, with the Sabres once again factoring near the bottom of the NHL in age. While the Blue and Gold may have had experience from a chemistry standpoint, injuries delayed that chemistry from properly developing this season, leading to age and inexperience playing a major factor in this team’s difficulties.
Early on, injuries forced them to recall Isak Rosen, Jiri Kulich, Brandon Biro, Ryan Johnson, Lukas Rousek, and Brett Murray, and the revolving door seemed to be endless. While we don’t know if early season injury woes will strike this team again, we do know that top prospects like Rosen and Kulich are closer to being “NHL-ready,” especially since they had gotten an early taste of the big league this season.
We also know the team should remain intact, with hopefully an impact player coming in from another organization either via trade or free agency. Even without a potential upgrade, the big club being another year older gives us more room for optimism.
This young team has now seen what it’s like to score big but miss the playoffs, along with seeing far better performances in the net despite the overall lack of goals scored. Their experiences over the past two seasons, plus reassurance that they’re finished getting younger, means this team will start finding solutions when things aren’t going their way - whether in the offensive or the defensive zone.
Buffalo’s top players showed that 2022-23 was no fluke when healthy
Tage Thompson, Jeff Skinner, and Alex Tuch didn’t produce the same way they did last season, and given their star-studded numbers in 2022-23, it probably wasn’t happening anyway. But we didn’t expect the significant drop-off, one in which hitting just 60 points was hard to come by.
One reason the trio of Tage, Skinner, and Tuch didn’t hit the 79-plus-point mark in 2023-24 had to do with the unfortunate fact that they had a hard time staying on the ice alongside one another in the first half of the season. But in the second half, things calmed down, and the trio combined for 75 goals when the dust settled.
It’s a smaller, more disappointing number, but when sharing the ice once the injury bug stopped biting, the trio helped this team play better hockey from January 2024 through April 2024. Sure, they had some bad weeks - few teams didn’t, especially in the East - but through April 15th, the team ended up 24-18-5, with 53 points.
Their goals scored to goals allowed ratio sat at 135 to 112, and their power play was a much more adequate 20.5 percent. The above points total through the final 47 games had the Sabres on pace for between 92 and 93 points, in case you were curious, when adjusted for 82 contests, but the plus-23 goals scored to goals allowed jumps out more than anything.
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(Statistics provided by Hockey-Reference)