What more can be said about the 2024-25 Buffalo Sabres season? Myriad three-game winning streaks have been had but it’s hard to talk about them with a 13-game losing streak thrown in there. Failing to beat good teams like the Vegas Golden Knights and having their backs broken (twice!) by the Colorado Avalanche has become the hallmark of this season.
So you’ll have to pardon the negativity if it felt like a loss was inevitable as the club hosted the Washington Capitals. Despite déjà vu with a late tying goal from the Capitals, the Sabres held on to take the win in a shootout. Let’s get into the takeaways.
The Top Line Carried the Team
Sometimes you just need your top line to dominate and do their job. Thankfully for the Sabres, that’s what happened on Monday night. Alex Tuch took the reins and scored twice – once in the first, one early in the second – to give the Sabres an edge heading into the second half of the game.
Tage Thompson picked up the slack by scoring his 19th of the season a little more than a minute after Tom Wilson tied the game at two. Getting a marker on the power play is always big given the inconsistencies of the unit as a whole this season.
The Sabres don’t have superstars like some other teams, so it’s nice when the top line just takes charge at times. Thompson, Tuch, and J.J. Peterka combined for three goals and two assists on the night with the latter two scoring in the shootout as well.
This Team Still Can’t Hold a Lead
The biggest, most glaring issue – and maybe the staple of these losing Sabres – has been their inability to hold a lead. If there is one thing that will end the drought, it’s being able to take advantage and close games out when they are leading late.
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Here, the Sabres were the better club, yet Aliaksei Protas tied the game with his 18th of the season with just under five minutes to go. These kinds of goals are deflating, but when they happen so routinely, they are outright demoralizing.
How do you fix this kind of issue? How do you tell a team to stop blowing leads? That’s the kind of thing that the coaching staff and front office have to figure out. Unfortunately, we have 13 seasons of evidence that it isn’t a problem they are capable of solving.
One of the Strongest Defensive Efforts in a While
What won’t jump off the page is that this was probably one of the strongest defensive efforts the Sabres have had in some time. It wasn’t perfect – it never is going to be with this team – but it was pretty solid against a good team.
Collectively, they got in front of shots and managed to limit the turnovers, winning at nearly a 2:1 clip. Where the team defense is seemingly always lacking is in the third period, late, when the team has a lead. Particularly, in front of the net.
That’s what happened in this game. Protas was left all by himself in front of the net and got not one, but two whacks at the puck. That’s all he needed to tie the game up. Net front defense has been abysmal this season even when collective team defense has been strong.
Just Kind of Idling
At this point, the Sabres are just kind of treading water. The sad part is that they are just six points back of a wild card spot with as bad as they are playing. If they could string together even a decent month, they would be a threat to make the playoffs.
Until they can figure out how to protect leads and beat good teams regularly, nothing will change. They have done their best to give away extra points with late collapses and it isn’t enough to just get a single point in these games.
