Since the Buffalo Sabres have come back from their European trip to start off their regular season, they have had some success at getting their offense going and locked in some of their defensive efforts. Their overall record now sits at 4-5-1 after their most-recent loss to the Florida Panthers snapped a three game win streak they were on.
The winning streak was a nice sign of their ability to close out games and play some disciplined hockey compared to prior seasons. Their most recent loss to the Panthers was a departure from that trend, and head coach Lindy Ruff did not hesitate to voice his displeasure about it in his post game comments.
If the Sabres are to get back on track, they need to learn from the mistakes they made from that game, and get back to the good habits that they were developing during their short winning streak. Doing so will allow them to keep up with the rest of the stacked Atlantic division teams, and finally stay above the .500 mark.
Dahlin and Jokiharju Need To Be Better
Rasmus Dahlin has typically been the Sabres best defenseman for the past number of years, but this season, he has looked slow and out of position more often than not. Yes, he finally scored his first goal of the season against the Panthers on Monday evening, but beyond that, his offensive choices have been questionable at best and his defensive positioning has been very poor. He has been chasing opposing players like he did in the early parts of his career rather than being patient and steady and just does not look confident right now.
This has also rubbed off on his defensive partner Henri Jokiharju as he too has been a defensive liability for the past few games. He has been stepping up in the defensive zone causing odd man rushes against far too often, and has refused to use his body for better positioning like he normally does; it is these small differences in his game that have been slowly causing problems to emerge.
Making small adjustments to fix the Sabres’ top pairing would make a huge difference for the team as a whole since their other two pairs have been solid to this point. Notably, Connor Clifton has been a quiet performer in his defensive efforts, and has played his role perfectly. Dahlin and Jokiharju need to adjust and go back to what they do well and they too could see the success Clifton is having, but it starts with them both making better decisions.
Sabres Special Teams Are on Life Support
The power play… oh my sweet lord… the power play is one of the hardest things to watch the Sabres try and do this season. Every time the opposing team takes a penalty, I find myself sitting back and just wanting to beg the Sabres to decline the penalty if they could since they are a net zero in goal differential during their man advantage.
They finally scored their first power-play goal of the season against the Detroit Red Wings as Jason Zucker found a way to capitalize, and he ultimately scored their second one as well against the Panthers on Monday evening to balance out the two shorthanded goals they have given up on the campaign. The strategy they have employed for their power play has been lackluster and predictable up to this point, and only against the Panthers did it seem to be slightly different.
The entry into the offensive zone is a lazy setup where they move three players into the neutral zone — two wide, and one in the middle — while one player drops the puck off to a streaking player up the middle from the defensive zone with speed. However, the defensive players all stack up on their blue line and stuff the play, knocking the puck back out and making the Sabres regroup. Their failure to enter the zone consistently kills their momentum quickly, and their overpassing once they are in the zone is even more frustrating.
If they are ever going to find success on the man advantage regularly, they need to abandon the drop-pass entry, and use a more flow based passing scheme when they are in the offensive zone. They are a team that can play with speed and can burn oppositions with their skills, yet most of their players are stationary. They should be adopting a similar power play to the likes of the Colorado Avalanche or the Edmonton Oilers and setting plays up through motion rather than one timers.
Then there is the penalty kill which has been struggling to keep the puck out of the net, but that boils down to over aggression by the defensive players, and over committing by specific defenders like Dahlin, Jokiharju, and Mattias Samuelsson. All three constantly get caught out of position when they pursue opposing players behind the net, or worse, chase players into the corner and get burned with a pass creating a pseudo-odd-man rush as they try to recover. Both Sabres goalies have been hung out to dry too often on the penalty kill this season, but it can be remedied by the defensive players being just a little smarter.
Sabres Need To Get Off to Better Starts
Too often the Sabres tend to let a lead slip away when they have one. Blowing a lead outright and letting a team come back to win is a trend Sabres teams of previous years did constantly, but thankfully the team this season has been much better at holding on to their leads and closing out games. Where their issue has lied is in opening their games and getting off to good starts. Getting a lead in the first place, or simply not allowing the opposing team to dominate them early on, has been a struggle and there are a few things they can do to establish a better precedent moving forward.
It all starts in the faceoff dot — taking draws and having possession right off the bat will allow them to control the pace of play more, and on top of that, it will keep the opposition chasing them for more plays. They currently sit with a 47.4% win rate which is 25th in the league, and that number needs to improve if they want to have more possession time. Their best faceoff men right now are Ryan McLeod who has won 49% (73/149) of his draws and Peyton Krebs, who has won 60.3% (38/63) of his. Ruff has used both of them in key situations and should continue to do so, but there needs to be better performances out of the likes of Dylan Cozens and Tage Thompson who sit at 44.2% and 46.1%, respectively.
Related – 3 Observations From Sabres’ Up and Down Start
Beyond the faceoff dot, the Sabres also need to put more pressure on opposing teams physically. In their own end, they have done a decent job at using their physicality to separate opponents from pucks, but they are reluctant to do it in the offensive zone. They have a lot of big-bodied forwards, but the only one who ever really does anything with his frame is Jordan Greenway. Players like Thompson, Tuch, McLeod, and even Quinn have good size to them that they should be hounding the opposition at every chance they get to win puck battles and using their size to wear them down. Then once the battle is won, the other free players on the ice can use the speed, skill, and open room they have to create a scoring chance happen more often. Pressure is the key, and they need more of it.
Small Adjustments Can Go a Long Way
The Sabres are right in the mix with the rest of the Atlantic Division, and they have the capacity to play well against some of the top teams in the league. They have some of the best scoring numbers at even strength this season, so adding some scoring on the man advantage will only make them more lethal, adding some stopping power to their penalty kill will only help the goaltending, and ultimately a small resurgence from their best player will be just what the doctor ordered. Everything feels so close for them right now, and it is hard to feel like they cannot pull together and do something great with how they have been playing. They just need a little push to be right there with some of the best.
