Phil Housley had the unenviable task of hitting the morning talk show today for his first ever appearance on WGR550 as Sabres head coach. Things couldn't have gone much worse for his club in his first three games as they came away with a 0-2-1 record in a trio of games that exposed some serious flaws.
First and foremost, the Sabres have given up four shorthanded goals through three games, a total equal to that of the entire 2016-17 season. Housley told WGR hosts Howard Simon and Jeremy White that the No. 1 problem in this area comes to decisions with the puck. "When we're trying to get into position to score a goal," said the coach, " and there's a 50/50 (chance for) possession, I think we have to sense a little bit more danger and not stay in and say 'I hope (my) guy gets this puck because I'm gonna get it on the weak side and I'm going to have a glorious opportunity.' In essence it's getting turned over and now guys are getting behind us.
"We need to have a better recognition of that. We have to sense that danger."
In so many words, and where the conversation leaned towards much of the time, more compete and better decision-making seem to be a big part of the Sabres woes.
A lot of it seems to come from a Sabres club that's trying to create offense, which includes puck possession and creating shot opportunities, but are doing so the lazy way--by having someone else do the work or by cheating. When Housley dug in to the nuts and bolts of what he needs to see from his team he said, "We have to recongnize a few areas we need to correct starting with our work ethic. It wasn't so much what teams were doing (to us,) it's what we were leaving them." Which comes in the form of turnovers.
After the 3-2 shootout loss to the Montreal Canadiens in the home opener, the Sabres played sloppy in every zone against both the NY Islanders and New Jersey Devils. That lead to turnovers which lead to a blitzkrieg of goals and a Buffalo team pressing even more to try and create offense, which in-turn lead to more turnovers and more scoring opportunities coming back the other way.
It's a vicious cycle.
Fact is, turnovers happen in the NHL and bad goals against are scored, sometimes in rapid-fire succession. But the best teams gather their senses and put in the work to turn things around. It's something this edition of the Buffalo Sabres hasn't done.
"It's another thing we have to realize," said the coach about the lack of his team's resiliency. "When teams are pushing and we're under siege as a team, we've got to create our own push back and right now we're accepting too much of the push."
That has been a theme in Buffalo for a long time, actually dating back to the 2007-08 season when the Sabres iced a team of skilled players who were great while things were going well but wilted when the going got tough. About the only time any of those teams showed sustained resiliency was when Ted Nolan was coach, but with the sparse talent they iced on a nightly basis at the time, perhaps their play was simply matter of survival.
Even so, there should be a portion of that within players with skill as well. We're seeing that with the play of Evander Kane as he's been the only Sabres player to push back when the momentum was swinging away. Kane is off to a great start and twice in the past two games he's fought the opposition onslaught with an impressive individual efforts while halving a deficit.
In Brooklyn against the NY Islanders he scored two consecutive shorthanded goals as the answer to a three-goal Islanders barrage, the second of which was a strong individual effort after forcing a turnover and taking on three Islanders players for a loose puck:
In Monday's matinee vs. the New Jersey Devils, he put forth a brilliant display of speed, will and skill on the powerplay as he cut the Devils lead to 2-1:
(Thanks to the NHL for those vids)
That's what Housley wants to see. Unfortunately he has a mishmash of players who either lack some of these traits, like skill and/or work ethic and/or smart decision-making, or they're not putting forth the effort to use said traits.
Zemgus Girgensons has all the will in the world, but his skill hasn't caught up with that yet. Nathan Beaulieu has skill and is willing to put in the work, even if it means fighting, but his decision-making has been atrocious. Veteran Jason Pominville still has skills at 34 and always seems to make the smart play, but compete isn't his strong suit. Ryan O'Reilly and Kyle Okposo are skilled players who have that work ethic and know what needs to be done and normally they make the right decisions. None of that is shining through right now. Recently inked Jack Eichel has all that, and a fierce competitiveness ta boot, but even he's been affected by a Sabres team that's akin to a misfiring engine.
Perhaps that's why Housley did some big-time juggling at practice today. According to Jourdon LaBarber of sabres.com, he moved Kane, the team's leading scorer, off of the Eichel-Pominville line and placed him on the left side of O'Reilly-Okposo, neither of whom have scored a goal yet this season. Joining Eichel and Pominville, the only two players other than Kane to register goals, is the aforementioned Girgensons who will be looking to create space for his linemates by wreaking havoc in the opposition zone.
The Sam Reinhart to center experiment seems to be over with for now. Housley had moved Reinhart from top-six right wing to third line center but that changed for today's practice. Reinhart is back on the wing with Johan Larsson centering the third line and right wing Benoit Pouliot on the left, a place that might suit him well.
Here are the lines from practice today according to LaBarber:
28 Zemgus Girgensons - 15 Jack Eichel - 29 Jason Pominville
9 Evander Kane - 90 Ryan O'Reilly - 21 Kyle Okposo
67 Benoit Pouliot - 22 Johan Larsson - 23 Sam Reinhart
25 Seth Griffith - 10 Jacob Josefson - 17 Jordan Nolan
And Housley didn't stop there. He changed things up on defense as well.
Marco Scandella, who was acquired by Buffalo from the Minnesota Wild, moves up to the top-pairing which is why we were lead to believe he was dealt for in the first place. Scandella had been on the second pairing with Matt Tennyson but now assumes his place next to Rasmus Ristolainen.
Housley still has Tennyson on the second pairing, which is a scary proposition, and is paired with Beaulieu making that pair an even scarier proposition.
Bringing up the rear on the third pairing is Jack McCabe with veteran Josh Gorges who has yet to see the ice this season. Gorges may be slow and lack offensive acumen, but he should be able to help settle things down a bit. Gorges is a 33 yr. old veteran that's logged a ton of minutes in a shutdown role throughout his career and a little stability on the back-end at this point in time is not a bad idea.
Here's what those pairings look like:
6 Marco Scandella - 55 Rasmus Ristolainen
82 Nathan Beaulieu - 5 Matt Tennyson
4 Josh Gorges - 19 Jake McCabe
Matt Moulson goes back to the press box and rookie defenseman Victor Antipin will probably be up there as well giving him an opportunity to view play from afar.
Things could change before the Sabres hit the ice in San Jose tomorrow to take on the Sharks, but barring anything weird happening, this is the lineup Housley looks to be going with to help right the ship.
Although he may not be able to find compete in some of his players, perhaps he'll find enough chemistry to make them look respectable.
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