@boosbuzzsabres
Prior to the Buffalo Sabres road trip in Florida, some the things we wanted to see out of this team moving forward centered around little steps. The Sabres had just come off what might have been their best game of the season in Boston but lost to the Bruins 3-2. Both Buffalo goals were scored by defensemen that game and it continued a bad trend that has been haunting the Sabres all month as secondary scoring from forwards through nine November games had almost completely dried up. Only three Sabres forwards outside the top line had goals in that span--Jeff Skinner, Johan Larsson and Curtis Lazar, all with one each.
That has slowly begun to change as Zemgus Girgensons (two goals vs. Florida,) Jimmy Vesey (goals in now three consecutive games beginning in Tampa,) and Casey Mittelstadt (first goal in 17 games last night vs. the Toronto Maple Leafs) have joined the usual suspects of Jack Eichel, Skinner, Victor Olofsson and Sam Reinhart in scoring goals. After beating the Leafs last night, the Sabres are 2-1-1 in their last four games and have lit the lamp 15 times, all by the forwards and all at even strength. On the downside the powerplay has been all but non-existent with only one goal all month (by Rasmus Ristolainen vs. Boston) in 35 opportunities (3.5%,) but it is a good sign that the Sabres have been able to tally at even strength these past four games.
Buffalo's blueline has also gotten healthier as Zach Bogosian is once again patrolling the back end. Bogosian had missed the first quarter of the season with some complications from April hip surgery extended his stay on injured reserve. He returned to the lineup four games ago and has been averaging roughly 19 minutes/game. The 29 yr. old veteran of over 600 nhl games seems to be a calming presence on the blueline and as of right now he seems to have given the team a boost of confidence. Bogosian has also been an anchor for Buffalo's penalty kill averaging a blueline-high of 3:25 shorthanded time-on-ice since returning and in those four games the Sabres have killed off 12 of 14 penalties (85.7%.) Prior to that Buffalo's penalty kill had given up 10 goals on 29 opportunities for a 65.5% kill-rate.
Special teams play has killed Buffalo this month as they've had more shorthanded goals against (2) than powerplay goals scored (1.) In all the Sabres are being outscored 14-1 during special teams play (2 shorties and 12 powerplay goals against.) Can they go lower? Sure, anything's possible but the law of averages will eventually catch up and the tide will turn. How much it turns remains to be seen but it will eventually turn.
The Sabres confidence had been sinking right alongside their 1-7-1 record before the Florida trip and we're beginning to see signs that their getting it back. As mentioned, having Bogosian back seems to have given them a boost but lot of it has to do with Eichel carrying a heavy load for this team and willing them to win. Eichel has been all-in and has been a beast all season with 16 goals and 18 assists in 26 games. He's riding an eight-game point streak (eight goals, seven assists) which includes scoring all four goals in a win vs. Ottawa and a two-goal, one assist performance in last night's 6-4 win against Toronto.
However, in looking at that, some credit needs to go to goalie Linus Ullmark as well.
The 26 yr. old Ullmark has had his moments like last night when he couldn't handle a carom off of the back wall and Toronto's John Tavares snuck one in to make the score 2-0. But there are times within the game where he comes up big, like last night when he stopped the Leafs William Nylander and Kasperi Kapanen on breakaways. Ullmark is 2-0-1 in his last three starts and although he has a rather bloated 3.00 goals-against average he's got a .913 save percentage and has been coming up big when the team needed him to.
Sabres bench boss Ralph Krueger gave Ullmark the start in six of their last eight games (3-2-1) and as of now he's is clearly better than Carter Hutton.
That said, Hutton will get the start tonight at Toronto for the second game of a home-and-home with the Leafs, which isn't too surprising as goalies rarely play back-to-back games any more. But it's not too far-fetched to believe that Ullmark may have taken the reigns as Buffalo's No. 1 goalie right now.
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Buffalo exploded for four goals in the second period against Toronto yesterday afternoon as they continued their stellar play in the middle frame. The Sabres have scored 32 of their 76-goal total (42%) in the second period which is sixth in the league only three goals off of the leader (PIT, 35) and it's quite the departure from the last four seasons.
The middle 20 minutes had been a real struggle for Buffalo the last two years under Phil Housley. From 2017-19 Buffalo ranked 28th in the NHL with 142 of their 419 goal-total (34%) coming in the second frame. Under Dan Bylsma from 2015-17 it was 129/328 or 39%.
Going back a little further, from 2007-2012 under head coach Lindy Ruff, Buffalo ranked 6th in the league over that span scoring 408 of their 1175 goal total (35%) in the second period. In fact Ruff had some pretty balanced scoring through each frame with 352 in the first period (7th in the league) and 387 in the third period (13th.)
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After tonight's game at Scotiabank Arena in Toronto, Canada, the Sabres will have completed a stretch of five games in seven nights. They went 2-1-1 in the first four games.
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Toronto and Buffalo have faced off 216 times since the Sabres came into the league with Buffalo holding a 116-73-26 advantage. The Leafs brought in a franchise record-tying five-game winning streak into KeyBank Center last night but it was halted in the 6-4 loss.
With the win last night, the Sabres extended their record in the home game of a home-and-home with Toronto to 11-1-2 (two ties) and haven't lost since December, 1970. However, they have a 2-10-1 record on the road in this series.
Overall, Buffalo is 3-6-1 in their last 10 games up north.
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Sabres coach Ralph Krueger is keeping his starting lineup a secret. With no morning skate, Krueger met the media this morning saying, "we'll announce whether we'll go 7/11 or 6/12 tonight."
Krueger had started using seven defensemen and 11 forwards in Florida out of necessity and it proved successful against the Panthers in their 5-2 win, even though they didn't have their best game. He has used the same configuration the last three games as well with mixed results, although they've been playing pretty good hockey (save for a bad third period at Tampa Bay.)
He offered the gathered media a glimpse of why he likes that 7/11 setup instead of a traditional six defensemen/12 forwards. "I've actually always liked it as a coach," he said. "It gives you options to really mix different guys into the lineup. You see the top-end guys don't get extra ice-time out of it, it's more of a sharing of guys that sometimes don't get the minutes and I think they're more into the game when they do that and for the defense, when you're playing the pace we are right now against the level of teams we're playing against right now they have more energy for their battles when you play with seven.
"It's also difficult for the opposition to read or react to your lineup."
As for the defensemen, here's the even-strength time on ice for players who've played in at least three of the last four games:
Jake McCabe (3 games)--16:03
Bogosian--15:40
Henri Jokiharju--15:14
Ristolainen--14:59
Marco Scandella--14:44
Brandon Montour--14:19
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The Sabres right now are third in the Atlantic Division and Krueger was asked by a reporter if there was a psychological advantage to seeing the team in that spot after all they've been through lately. Krueger's answer was intriguing to say the least, especially for those who intently follow the team every minute of every shift of every game. "We're not going to care about the standings at all until April 4 (the end of the season,)" said Krueger. "It's something that we've spoken about from the start. We need to take care of developing a consistent game here.
"We're in a learning phase with the Buffalo Sabres and we want to stay competitive and stay in the race but above all it's about our development right now. Small picture. Taking care of that. We love the last five games, they've been against very strong opponents, we've been in every game, we've made life difficult for other teams. The results didn't go our way (2-2-1) but we feel there's a real interesting phase developing right now of consistency within the style of play.
"We've had the heaviest workload in the National Hockey League here of late and you still see the guys on topic and on page so we're expecting them to be able to do that again tonight."
The Sabres started out on fire, then went ice-cold and while we in Sabreland were dissecting individual plays within a 60-minute game and working up a myriad of trades to bolster the team (while also unloading supposed undesirables,) Krueger was sticking to a plan of ingraining a style of play regardless of the end result. It's a difficult task, especially when some players are on their fifth head coach.
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