In the wake of a disappointing 1-0 loss to the Minnesota Wild, the Buffalo Sabres were hoping to add a few more goals to the score sheet and get back on the right side of the win column against the Vancouver Canucks. The Canucks aren’t quite the same team they were a season ago but are still formidable in their own right.
The Sabres trailed 3-1 in the third period and a furious comeback allowed them to salvage a point out of it. In the end, they dropped a 4-3 decision to the Canucks and there are a few takeaways worth discussing from the game. Let’s get into it.
This Sabres Team Doesn’t Give in
There are a lot of things that stand out in a negative way from the past 13 seasons in Buffalo. Maybe the most frustrating thing about those teams is that they would go down by a goal and the game would feel out of reach. Most of the time, their play corresponded with that feeling.
This season, the Sabres have shown more fight than they have in ages. They’ve come back a few times and Friday afternoon (Nov. 29) was the latest. Down 3-1 after Pius Suter scored on a breakaway, Sabres fans no doubt felt like the game was over. But the Sabres themselves were definitely not done.
Dylan Cozens answered with his fifth of the season just over four minutes later and Alex Tuch tied it on a tip-in 1:39 after that. Even in games like this where the effort ultimately falls short, it’s nice to see that the Sabres don’t just lay down and die like they would have for so many years before this.
The Power Play Was a Letdown
The Sabres had a nice stretch of about seven games where they scored at least one power-play goal. Things have gone stagnant again, and the league’s 26th-ranked power play wound up falling short when the Sabres needed them the most on Friday afternoon.
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We will hear a lot of talk about potential trade targets for the Sabres, but the key to the season may be the special teams. As the penalty kill goes, the team goes, but a rebound from the power play would certainly go a long way toward the playoff push. The Sabres went 0-for-5 against the Canucks and any of those chances could have been the difference.
The problems with the power play on Friday were more a symptom of how the offense has played lately (more on that below). It would be nice to see Tage Thompson uncork a bomb that gets both he and the power play moving in the right direction once again.
Perimeter Offense Isn’t Going to Cut it
For the second consecutive game, the Sabres significantly outshot their opponent. They outshot the Wild 39-29 yet couldn’t find the back of the net. On Friday, they outshot the Canucks 34-22, including 18 shots in the frenzied third period where they ultimately tied things up.
Over the last few games, the Sabres have done a good job peppering the net, but they are mostly shots from the perimeter. There have been very few high-danger chances, making life on the opposing goaltender relatively easy. A ton of shots are great but if the goaltender can see every shot, it isn’t doing much.
Vancouver did a great job of keeping the Sabres away from the middle of the ice. Only when the Sabres were able to get pressure from right in front did they manage to score a pair of goals. Vancouver goaltender Kevin Lankinen was good, facing a total of nine high-danger chances, but the Sabres were kept away from him for the most part.
Still an Important Point
The loss is disappointing, make no mistake about it, but getting that point was critical. The turnaround is a short one and Saturday’s (Nov. 30) tilt with the New York Islanders is big because that is going to be one of the teams competing directly with the Sabres for a wild card spot as the season wears on.
There aren’t going to be many games from here on out that feel anything but important. The Sabres look like a different team than they have in recent seasons, but there is still too little margin for error to take nights off. Good teams find a way to rack up points even when they have no business doing so. That’s what the Sabres need to do.
