BUFFALO, N.Y. — As the Buffalo Sabres hit their bye week and the All-Star break, they trail the Detroit Red Wings for the Eastern Conference’s final playoff spot by nine points. How did this team get here, because it wasn’t supposed to be this way.
The Sabres were supposed to build on last season where they had a points percentage of .556 and missed the playoffs by one point. Young players were supposed to get better and blossom and the playoff drought was supposed to end.
Unfortunately for the fans of Buffalo, nothing has changed, and it's actually gotten worse.
Most of the young players have regressed this season and regressed badly. You can start with Rasmus Dahlin. For the Buffalo Sabres to be a good team, Dahlin has to get back to being the elite defenseman that made him one of the best in the National Hockey League. The Sabres can’t win when Dahlin is average to pretty good. Dahlin needs to dominate games like he used to, and that hasn’t been there this season.
I don’t care if Dahlin leads all defensemen with 13 goals and is eighth in points with 38. He’s been tentative in many games, been sloppy too much, and has been a big reason the Sabres' power play has plummeted to 28th in the NHL.
Last season Tage Thompson had 47 goals and 47 assists for 94 points. This season his 82-game pace is 30 goals and 30 assists for 60 points.
Dylan Cozens had 31 goals and 37 assists for 68 points last year. His assists are still there, but he’s on an 82-game pace for just 18 goals.
Last season Jeff Skinner became a much better player because he set a career high by a lot for assists. Skinner had 47 assists to go with his 35 goals. He’s on the same pace for goals this season, but his 82-game pace for assists is 33.
Last season Alex Tuch had 36 goals and 43 assists for 79 points. This year his 82-game pace is 27 goals and 39 assists for 66 points.
There has been improvement starting with Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen, who has really gotten quite a bit better. JJ Peterka had 12 goals and 20 assists for 32 points last season, This year he’s on an 82-game pace for 31 goals and 26 assists for 57 points. Casey Mittelstadt had 15 goals and 44 assists for 59 points last season. This year he’s on pace for 21 goals and 50 assists for 71 points.
The power play bottoming out has really hurt this club because, for much of this season, they’ve been good 5-on-5, but for me, the biggest reason this team is floundering is in too many games, they’ve not been ready to play in the first period.
In the first period, Buffalo has been outscored 62-34. In one game, they gave up four first-period goals to the New Jersey Devils. There have been too many times where they’ve given up two or three first-period goals and then had to chase the game all night.
They’ve pretty much played even in the second period being outscored 48-47, so then there’s this big charge in the third period to try to get back into games. Buffalo has outscored its opponent 62-41 in the third.
Most of you want to blame Don Granato and he does deserve some of the blame, he is the head coach, but fans always want to let players off the hook.
This is the National Hockey League, and if you’ve reached this level and you need a coach to motivate you to play well, you don’t belong in the NHL. Too many times this team doesn’t compete and that to me is an individual flaw in a person. If you don’t have pride and the burning in your belly to compete at this level, you need to be gone.
Recently, the Sabres posted a 9-6-1 record. Since Dec. 30, Buffalo is third in the NHL defensively with a 2.31 goals against average. In that time Luukkonen is 6-3-0 with a 1.57 goals against and .940 save percentage, so they’ve gotten goaltending and improved their defense, yet they haven’t gained even one point in the playoff race.
All I heard in the offseason was to get rid of Luukkonen and trade for a goalie because that’s why they’re bad. Guess what, they’re worse and Luukkonen has been fantastic and the defense has been almost the best in the league in 2024, yet Buffalo hasn't gained even one point in the standings.
Kevyn Adams has work to do, and he might want to take a look at the blueprint for the Vancouver Canucks to see that his team is not constructed correctly.