BUFFALO – Thirty-three games remain in what has become a lost season for the Sabres, starting with tonight’s home contest against the Boston Bruins.
After the Sabres emerged from their 13-game winless skid last month, they found their footing a bit, winning some games and igniting a flicker of hope. A torrid week or two could’ve vaulted them back into the thick of the playoff race.
But having lost four out of their last five outings, including three of the four games on their west coast trip last week, they’re stuck in the Eastern Conference basement, a distant seven points behind the Pittsburgh Penguins for 15th place entering Monday’s schedule.
Despite owning just 18 wins – only the hapless Chicago Blackhawks and San Jose Sharks have fewer this season – and an ugly minus-20 goal differential, the Sabres can be a pretty competitive team.
Yes, they’ve endured their fair share of rough losses. Still, if they had closed out some games in which they’ve blown multi-goal leads or finished a few more scoring chances in those tight contests in which they’ve thoroughly outplayed their opponent, perhaps they’d be chasing a wild card spot.
In Saturday afternoon’s 3-2 loss to the Edmonton Oilers, the Sabres scored first for the 31st time this season. Incredibly, they’re just 14-12-5 in those games.
The Sabres blew two one-goal leads in Edmonton and began the third period tied at 2. They outshot the Oilers 41-34 and recorded 74 attempts.
In losing their last two games, the Sabres registered a whopping 151 shot attempts.
“We had the stick on the right people and for whatever reason didn’t hit our mark,” Sabres coach Lindy Ruff said Monday in KeyBank Center.
Captain Rasmus Dahlin said the Sabres “just got to move forward” following their road trip.
“We know we have built some stuff in our game,” the defenseman said. “We just got to continue to grow. That’s the frustrating part, too, to not win when you’re playing better. It’s a big moment.
“We got to take real good care of late in the third period, we can’t get scored on, stuff like that. We still have some stuff to figure out. But, yeah, a step in the right direction.”
Dahlin said he sees “a lot” of growth in the Sabres. He said their starts are much better than last season and they’re playing “a little bit better” with the puck.
“And then competing, that’s our biggest growth,” he said. “We’re skating right now and we’re being hard on the opponents.”
While those improvements could benefit the Sabres down the road, it hasn’t translated into many wins.
For all of their struggles, the Sabres seem to have remained in a good place. During Monday’s practice, players were smiling and appeared to be loose.
“There’s been a lot of frustration this year, there’s a lot of bad times,” Sabres center Dylan Cozens said. “We’ve been through a lot these last few years, and it sucks. You got to find ways to still come to the rink the next day and try and put things behind you, or else things can get really ugly and bad around here.
“So we’re just trying to keep it as positive as we can. Even though we know that it’s not good enough and, obviously, we’re not happy. But we don’t want to create a negative environment, a bad culture.”
If the Sabres truly want to see growth, they will pull the trigger on some trades sooner rather than later.
Then, they can elevate young players like Rosen, Helenius, Ostlund, and Johnson and let them gain valuable experience and build chemistry before the start of next year.
Im excited the Sabres are entertaining offers on trading Power. He’s soft, and IMO he’s always going to be soft. Trade him. Get rid of that contract and sign Byram long-term. Trade Cousins too, and get rid of his contract. He has totally fallen off the last two years.
Trade Jokiharju, Bryson, Lafferty, and Krebs too.
Sign Zucker and Malenstyn to 1-2 year deals.
That’s my 2 cents.
Why care. The sabres will not amount to anything while Adam’s is GM. Feel bad for the players. No support from management.