The Western Conference grind portion of the Buffalo Sabres' schedule continues this week. The Sabres will play three of their next four games against West opponents St. Louis and Nashville having just played the Dallas Stars, St. Louis, and San Jose last week.
All things considered, the pesky Sabres have he'd their own against the big, fast, super skilled Western powers.
Dan Bylsma will want to stress to his team to stay out of the penalty box tonight.
Last Thursday, Alex Steen scored the only shootout goal and had two assists in the St. Louis Blues' 3-2 victory against the Buffalo Sabres.
Tonight, the same two squad renew Thanksgiving holiday acquaintances in Buffalo.
The Sabres outplayed the Blues 5 on 5, however, ultimately lost the game on special teams. Sabres penalty killers allowed a Jamie Benn PPG in Saturday night's 3-0 loss in Dallas. They also surrendered 2 PPGS in last Thursday's loss in St. Louis.
Kevin Shattenkirk and Vlad Tarasenko popped power-play goals for The Loo, which got 32 saves from Jake Allen.
Sam Reinhart and Ryan O'Reilly scored to force OT for the Swords.
Linus Ullmark made 27 saves in the loss.
Ullmark will tend the bars for Buffalo while Jake Allen will get the net for the Blues.
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Tyler Ennis told Buffalo Hockey Beat that he has to simplify his game moving forward.
“It’s tough because I know I can make the plays,” Ennis said.
“I know I can make tricky plays, fun plays. I think you got to get back to basics and simplify and build from that.”
Ennis is -5 in his past 10 games. His frequent untimely trips to the sin bin led to PPGs against the Sabres in Dallas and St. Louis.
In his defense, Ennis was dealing with an injury earlier this month. Perhaps he is still bothered by his injury.
Whatever the case may be, Ennis has to be better in all three zones.
Offensively, Ennis is fine. He has scored one goals and has chipped in five assists in his past ten games. He has generated only 19 shos in his past 10 games. However, his two offside calls nullified goals against the Sharks and Stars in a five day span last week. He has been turning the puck over in alarming fashion lately. Dan Bylsma preaches a "North" game where the D feed the forwards with quick-ups and the forwards attack the opponent through the neutral zone with speed. Ennis seems to be soloing far too much for Bylsma's liking and he is not using his line mates in the o-zone which leads to poor decisions with the puck. And turnovers.
Ennis admitted that he may be gripping his composite stick too tightly these days.
“I want to make plays, but it’s not happening right now,” he said. “I just got to work my way out of it. Maybe when one goes in the monkey will come off my back".
Dan Bylsma acknowledged Ennis' big play capabilities. It sounds like Bylsma is looking for Ennis to buy in to the "less is more" strategy.
“You can’t make those plays in every situation and at every point you touch the puck and when you’re 90 feet from your goal or 120 feet from your goal, 150 feet from your goal,” he said. “He’s just got to simplify his game. He is a special player, can make those plays.”
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Paul Stastny will make his return to the St. Louis lineup tonight after missing 16 games due to the broken foot sustained on 10/16.
St. Louis is in the middle of playing nine games in 16 days leading into the Thanksgiving break and has opted for rest as opposed to practicing on limited off days. The Blues have lost four of six (2-3-1).
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Zemgus Girgensons and Mark Pysyk will sit this one out for Buffalo.
Girgensons has missed the past three games with an undisclosed injury and Pysyk sat out the past two games with a bone bruise.
The Sabres have been slumping on offense having scored only four in their last four games.
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