After nearly 15 seasons without seeing the playoffs, it’s hard to determine what “bottom” is for the Buffalo Sabres anymore. It’s pretty easy to point to the epic collapse and 5-4 loss to the Colorado Avalanche as bottoming out and you wouldn’t be wrong. Mailing it in during a 5-2 loss to the Utah Hockey Club is another place you could point.
Coming into Monday night’s game against the Detroit Red Wings, both teams needed to find a way to get out of their funks. For a brief while, it looked like the Sabres might finally snap their ugly losing streak. Instead, they blew yet another lead, ultimately losing in a shootout 6-5. Let’s get into the takeaways.
The Bottom Six Makes the Team Go
It has become very evident by watching the Sabres that the bottom six is what makes this team go. When they are on, applying pressure regularly, owning possession in the opposing zone, and creating offense, the Sabres are a much different (and better) team.
Jason Zucker came out of his slumber with a pair of goals and an assist. Peyton Krebs, temporarily elevated because of Jack Quinn being scratched, chipped in a pair of assists. Ryan McLeod, Blake Malenstyn, and Nicolas Aube-Kubel all contributed with points.
One of the biggest complaints coming into the season was how ineffective the bottom six was a season ago. That has been addressed and they have largely been good this season, doing what has been asked of them. If only the top six could match them, the Sabres would be rolling four dangerous lines.
Net Front Defense Is Awful
James Reimer wasn’t as bad as the five goals against would have you believe. Heck, he even made a few very big saves when asked. The problem is that the defense around him just isn’t good. It wasn’t good when the injured Rasmus Dahlin was still in the lineup and it’s even worse now.
A great example came in the third period. Leading 5-3 with less than 10 minutes to go, Andrew Copp cut the lead to one by simply moving around in front and waiting for the rebound to come to him. Bowen Byram weakly tried to stop him, but it was never even a question. Copp’s first goal of the night was even worse, standing in the middle of four Sabres who did absolutely nothing to deter him.
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This has been a theme not just this season, but during the entirety of the drought. Everyone gets caught looking at the puck and not their assignments. The Sabres blew their lead last night in part because they can’t take care of business in front of their own net.
This Team Doesn’t Know What to Do With a Lead
Stop me if you’ve heard this one before: the Sabres blew a lead late in the third period. They’ve now blown leads in their last four games and five in their last six. Blowing early leads is one thing, when there is still plenty of time for the opposition to find momentum and get back into the game. It’s the late leads being blown that is crippling this team.
Guys stop moving their feet. They lunge for pucks instead of hustling and trying to win the one-on-one battles. There are far too many instances like the Copp goal referenced above where players are simply standing around and just watching. That’s what losing hockey looks like.
It’s hard to even say what the reason is anymore. They have a new coach and several new players, yet here we are seeing the same old issues. Maybe it’s just a stink on the franchise at this point. That’s a lot harder to deal with in the long run. Whatever it is, it’s bad enough to lose. Losing because of blown leads is what kills a team.
This Just Isn’t a Good Team
At the end of the day, this just isn’t a good team. The top line is pretty good but not great. Defensively, they can skate for days but there is a distinct lack of defensive presence and physicality. The special teams run hot and cold, though the power play is mostly cold.
Above all else, the Sabres can seemingly never get everything moving together. The bottom six was great against the Red Wings, but team defense suffered, and goaltending wasn’t good enough to bail it out. If there is a fix at this point, it’s anyone’s guess. Time is rapidly running out on this season.
