BUFFALO, N.Y. — There are many problems plaguing the Buffalo Sabres, but one of the biggest ones is their home record the past two seasons.
Buffalo just had its most important homestand of the season and came out .500. Add in the 2-1 loss to the Dallas Stars and they’re 3-4-0 in their last seven home games. Overall, the Sabres are 27th in the NHL at home with a points percentage of .460. Last season, they were also 27th with a points percentage of .463.
You just aren’t going to make the playoffs with a home record like that, and it’s not a fluke. This has been going on for almost two full seasons. Kevyn Adams chose to bring back the exact same core, and now he’s stuck with many of them, and they are proving over time that they don’t shine when it matters the most.
Changes most definitely have to be made, and this organization has to come to the realization that even though they have talented players that want to be in Buffalo, the group as it’s made up is way too fragile mentally, and the home record is just Exhibit A.
A decision has to be made about Casey Mittelstadt. There is no room for their leading scorer in the top six forwards, but they would make room and then sign him.
The assignment for last year’s offseason was to get a top-four defenseman. Adams failed miserably. Maybe the time has come to be bold. Maybe you trade Tage Thompson or Dylan Cozens for a guy that can be with Rasmus Dahlin or Owen Power. It would have to be a top defenseman, but you would then have room to sign Mittelstadt and put him in your top six.
You can’t have fragile guys leading the way, and I'm not saying that Thompson and Cozens lead the way as being fragile, but they’re part of a two-year span where the Buffalo Sabres are one of the worst teams at home.
Buffalo completely outplayed two top NHL teams in the last four home games, yet they lost to the Vancouver Canucks 1-0 and to the Stars. Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen was fantastic in both games, but you totally wasted his effort. Two wins is four more points, and then we’d be having a totally different conversation.
The loss to the Stars kept the Sabres 10 points out of the playoff race and essentially ended their hopes. You could tell the way the players and Don Granato reacted to that loss and I could sense they knew it too.
Four more points would have them six out, which seems more doable. Four more points would have also gotten them past the Montreal Canadiens and Washington Capitals and have them one point in back of both the New Jersey Devils and Pittsburgh Penguins. That means they’d have four teams to leapfrog, not six.
The one thing we did see against Dallas was the return of the elite Rasmus Dahlin. With Mattias Samuelsson out for the season, it was Dahlin that took over playing just seconds short of half the game. He responded with great play in all three zones and with the chances he helped create, could’ve scored enough goals to beat Dallas himself.
If Buffalo is ever to win anything, that’s the Rasmus Dahlin that must show up almost every night.