@boosbuzzsabres
It should be an interesting night at the rink in Washington DC tonight when the Sabres face off against the Washington Capitals. Fans in the nation's capital are celebrating their first World Series Championship since 1924 as the Washington Nationals finished off a heavily favored Houston Astros team in seven games on Wednesday. The 2019 Nats championship comes on the heels of a 2018 Stanley Cup win by the Capitals, their first-ever Cup win.
Party vibes will be swirling all around the Sabres as they take on the Caps and hopefully Washington captain Alex Ovechkin has been showing his baseball counterparts just what celebrating is all about. Ovechkin and his team mates embarked on a legendary post-championship party that began in Las Vegas, where they defeated the Golden Knights in five games, with the party stretching from days into weeks. The captain was quoted as saying, "Get some beers, get some whatever and start celebrating."
That they did.
It wouldn't be surprising to see the Commissioner's Trophy at Capital One Arena along with many of Nationals players and odds are that the Sabres will face a surge of championship energy enveloping the place. About all you can do is tip your hat to the Nationals, weather the storm and go about your business.
For the Sabres that means getting their mojo back after faltering a bit in the latter part of October. Buffalo got out to a great start and generally looked just as good in the process but as the month wore on some blemishes were developing. Although their record is 9-2-2 overall, the Sabres are only 1-1-1 in their last three games and didn't look like they had the jump they had at the start the season. At least not for a full 60 minutes. And with that, about all you can say is, welcome to the grind.
Buffalo played 13 games in 26 nights to start the season as next weekend's participation in the NHL's Global Series left them with a condensed schedules before and after their trip to Stockholm, Sweden. Buffalo plays a back-to-back this weekend and will have five days in between another back-to-back with the Tampa Bay Lightning overseas on November 9 and 10. They have four days on the backside to re-acclimate to North America before playing 10 games in the next 17 days to finish off the month of November.
As we look back on the month of October we see the Sabres with solid offensive numbers. They're being more selective in their shooting while averaging 30.2 shots/game (23rd) but they're averaging 3.31 goals/game (11th in the NHL) and are 13th in the league with 27 goals coming 5v5. In addition, their powerplay is once again a force to be reckoned with. Buffalo led the NHL in powerplay efficiency three years ago but faltered the last two seasons and are presently producing at a 29.8% clip, good for second in the league.
The Sabres have also gotten some good goaltending to help the cause. Despite allowing the sixth-most shots-against/game (33.5,) as well as having the league's 20th ranked penalty kill (79.5%,) their 2.46 goals-against average is sixth-best while their plus-11 goal differential also ranks them sixth in the NHL.
Head coach Ralph Krueger wants his charges to play an up-tempo, possession game and he wants his team on their toes regardless of the score. That focus on possession is hindered a bit as their faceoff win percentage is 25th in the league (47.8%) and maybe even more troubling is their defensive-zone percentage on the dot which is only 43.5% (28th.)
Perhaps that contributed to another troubling stat that we'll give some attention to. During Buffalo's hot start when they went 5-0-1 they were lauded for keeping their foot on the gas when playing with the lead. In those six games the Sabres 5v5 shot attempt differential while playing with the lead was +19. After a three-game California road trip that dropped considerably to a minus-23 and they finished the month at a minus-34.
The Sabres have had three days between games this week for the first time this season. They should be well rested and they should have gotten in some quality practice time to work on their deficiencies. They have a tough back-to-back with a visit to Washington tonight before coming home to face the NY Islanders tomorrow night. This weekend represents a huge challenge as the combined record of the Capitals and Islanders is 17-5-3.
Buffalo Sabres 2018-19 Team Stats (League Rankings)...(Leader):
Wins
--October: 9 (T-1st)
--2018-19: 33 (26th)...(TBL 62)
--2017-18: 25 (31st)...(TBL, 54)
--2016-17: 33 (25th)...(WSH, 55)
--2015-16: 35 (23rd)...(WSH, 56)
--2014-15: 23 (30th)...(ANA, 49)
--2013-14: 21 (30th)...(BOS, 54)
Atlantic Division Standing
--October: 2nd...(BOS)
--2018-19: 6th...(TBL)
--2017-18: 8th...(TBL)
--2016-17: 8th...(MTL)
--2015-16: 7th...(FLA)
--2014-15: 8th...(MTL)
--2013-14: 8th...(BOS)
Eastern Conference Standing
--October: 3rd...(WSH)
--2018-19: 13th...(TBL)
--2017-18: 16th...(TBL)
--2016-17: 15th...(WSH)
--2015-16: 14th...(WSH)
--2014-15: 16th...(NYR)
--2013-14: 16th...(BOS)
League standing/Points
--October: 3rd/20...(WSH/21)
--2018-19: 27th/76...(TBL 128)
--2017-18: 31st/62...(NSH/117)
--2016-17: 26th/78...(WSH/118)
--2015-16: 23rd/81...(WSH/120)
--2014-15: 30th/54...(NYR/113)
--2013-15: 30th/52...(BOS/117)
Points Percentage
--October: .769 (2nd)…(BOS .833)
--2018-19: .463 (27th)...(TBL .780)
--2017-18: .378 (31st)...(NSH .713)
--2016-17: .476 (26th)...(WSH .720)
--2015-16: .494 (23rd)...(WSH .732)
--2014-15: .329 (30th)...(NYR .689)
--2013-14: .317 (30th)...(BOS .713)
Goal Differential
--October: +11 (6th)…(VAN, +17)
--2018-19: -45 (26th)...(TBL +103)
--2017-18: -81 (31st)...(TBL, +60)
--2016-17: -36 (24th)...(WSH, +81)
--2015-16: -21 (20th)...(WSH, +59)
--2014-15 -113 (30th)...(NYR, +60)
--2013-14: -91 (30th)...(BOS, +84)
Goals/Game
--October: 3.31 (11th)…(NSH, 4.08)
--2018-19: 2.70 (23rd)...(TBL 3.89)
--2017-18: 2.41 (31st)...(TBL, 3.54)
--2016-17: 2.43 (24th)...(PIT, 3.39)
--2015-16: 2.43 (25th)...(DAL, 3.23)
--2014-15: 1.87 (30th)...(TBL, 3.16)
--2013-14: 1.83 (30th)...(ANA, 3.21)
Shots/Game
--October: 30.2 (23rd)…(LAK, 36.2)
--2018-19: 32.9 (8th)...(CAR 34.4)
--2017-18: 31.2 (20th)...(FLA, 34.4)
--2016-17: 30.4 (15th)...(PIT, 33.5)
--2015-16: 29.5 (17th)...(PIT, 33.2)
--2014-15: 24.2 (30th)...(CHI, 33.9)
--2013-14: 26.3 (30th)...(SJS, 34.8)
5v5 Goals
--October: 27 (13th)…(NSH, 37)
--2018-19: 154 (21st)...(TOR 206)
--2017-18: 119 (31st)...(TBL, 196)
--2016-17: 126 (28th)...(MIN, 187)
--2015-16: 121 (28th)...(DAL, 167)
--2014-15: 110 (29th)...(TBL, 181)
--2013-14: 96 (30th)...(ANA, 190)
Powerplay
--October: 29.8 (2nd)…(BOS, 30.9)
--2018-19: 19.5 (16th)...(TBL 28.2)
--2017-18: 19.1 (20th)...(PIT, 26.2)
--2016-17: 24.5 (1st)
--2015-16: 18.9 (12th)...(ANA, 23.1)
--2014-15: 13.4 (30th)...(WSH, 25.3)
--2013-14: 14.1 (29th)...(PIT, 23.4)
Goals-against/Game
--October: 2.46 (6th)…(BOS, 2.00)
--2018-19: 3.27 (24th)...(NYI 2.33)
--2017-18: 3.39 (29th)...(LAK, 2.46)
--2016-17: 2.82 (19th)...(WSH, 2.16)
--2015-16: 2.62 (15th)...(ANA, 2.29)
--2014-15: 3.28 (29th)...(MTL, 2.24)
--2013-14: 2.96 (25th)...(LAK, 2.05)
Shots against/Game
--October: 33.5 (26th)…(PHI, 28.3)
--2018-19: 33 (23rd)...(CGY 28.1)
--2017-18: 32.7 (23rd)...(CAR, 28.9)
--2016-17: 34.3 (30th)...(LAK, 25.9)
--2015-16: 30.6 (22nd)...(NSH, 27.3)
--2014-15: 35.6 (30th)...(LAK, 27.0)
--2013-14: 34.3 (28th)...(NJD, 25.5)
Penalty Kill
--October: 79.5 (20th)…(SJS, 90.4)
--2018-19: 80.9 (12th)...(TBL 85.0)
--2017-18: 77.9 (22nd)...(LAK, 85.0)
--2016-17: 77.6 (25th)...(BOS, 85.7
--2015-16: 82.6 (9th)...(ANA, 87.2)
--2014-15: 75.1 (30th)...(MIN, 86.3)
--2013-14: 81.4 (20th)...(NJD, 86.4)
Faceoff Percentage
--October: 47.8 (25th)…(PHI, 57.6)
--2018-19: 47.9 (T-27th)...(PHI 54.7)
--2017-18: 51.5 (7th)...(CAR, 54.1)
--2016-17: 49.6 (17th)...(ANA, 54.7)
--2015-16: 49.4 (21st)...(ARI, 54.7)
--2014-15: 44.9 (30th)...(BOS, 53.6)
--2013-14: 46.8 (29th)...(NSH, 53.1)
Join the Discussion:
»