The Sabres started off their regular season taking part in the NHL’s Global Series event in Prague, facing off against the New Jersey Devils twice this past weekend. They went 0-2 and managed to only score a combined two goals as their offense looked flat and their cohesion was average at best. Passes were constantly being missed, nobody was really hitting the net with their shots, and so many of their expected top players looked invisible for the majority of the two games. If they are going to recover and have a much better October, they will need these players in particular to step up and do a lot more.
Alex Tuch Needs To Keep Things Simple
Too many times as I was watching, Alex Tuch was either skating around doing a lot of nothing or he was trying to make a highlight reel play. There was no in-between with him. He was making blind passes to end up giving away the puck, or skating around and being a perimeter player rather than taking himself to the front of the net for a scoring chance. The simplicity in his game has typically helped him succeed in the past, but for these first two games, it looked like he is trying to be some sort of “star” playmaker. He needs to go back to what he is, and just outwork his opponents, wear them down to win puck battles before going to the net, and score from the hash marks and in.
The one piece of credit he does get is for his immediate response to Brenden Dillon’s hit to the JJ Peterka’s head; Tuch dropped the gloves and fought him. While it was not much of a fight since he didn’t really throw a punch, he at least went right after Dillon and addressed the hit right after Peterka was injured on the play. Tuch has some fight in him, and he has the heart to be the best player that he can be, but he needs to do a lot more for his team offensively if they are going to have any chance of digging out of the 0-2-0 hole they have dug themselves.
Jack Quinn Needs to do… Something
Honestly, if you looked up the definition of invisible in the dictionary right now, you may find a picture of Jack Quinn. In both games he managed to be so unnoticeable that it is astonishing to know that he averaged a little over 17 minutes of ice time. During that time, he managed to be a minus-2 and he put exactly zero shots on goal to top it all off. It is just a shame that after showing so much promise and skill in the preseason, he became such a non-factor so quickly. He needs to find a way to do something.
He has the ability to be one of the Sabres’ best scoring options this season, but it starts with him playing up to a standard that fits with his ice time. If he is going to be a top six forward on the Sabres, then he is going to have to put shots on net and ultimately be a scoring threat who actually makes plays. With Peterka now out with an injury, Quinn will have to step up to the plate even more as the Sabres are already starving for offense. He cannot afford to be a non-factor for multiple games at a time, and head coach Lindy Ruff cannot allow him to be a stagnant player in that span of time either. Ruff will either have to light a fire under him or put someone else in his spot until he is ready to be the goal scorer he is capable of being.
Rasmus Dahlin Needs to Lock In
The Sabres’ newly-chosen captain has had a rough start to his tenure as he has not quite looked like himself this season. So far, Rasmus Dahlin has been playing like he is back in his rookie years and is trying to impress his new coach, rather than being the elite talent he is and making the great plays that he can. He was caught out of position multiple times, slow getting back to defend, made poor passes up the ice to try and force plays to happen, and did not really generate anything offensively. It could be an after-effect of a lingering injury from the preseason and training camp that has him looking a bit off, but if that is the case, it would be better right now if he sits and recovers rather than plays through it and looks as poor as he does.
The newfound pressures of being captain, along with the pressure of needing to win and break the playoff drought are definitely weighing heavily on his shoulders, but now is not the time to let that get to him. Those pressures aren’t going anywhere, and as the declared leader of this team, it is on him to bear the responsibility of accountability and get this team in working order along with the alternates. If he crumbles under the pressure, the Sabres are not going to go very far, so he needs to buckle down and lock in fast.
Sabres Can Recover From Slow Start
If all three of these players in particular step up and be the difference makers that they have the capacity to be, then a quick turnaround for October is definitely in the cards. Systems-wise, they are still figuring things out, the team is learning to play a new style, and there will be a slight adjustment period because of that. However, at the end of the day, most of these players have been on the same team for a number of years, and their familiarity with one another should give them enough chemistry to be making simple plays look easy. That is where the disconnect is right now.
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The difference makers all need to be difference makers, or the season is going to go down the drain fast and fans will turn on them even faster. The “patience meter: for failure is already at an all0time low, and it depletes faster than a 10-year-old iPhone battery, so every big-name player on this team from Dahlin to Tuch needs to step up and do something, anything, to show some life.
