Things just took a MAJOR SHIFT in Buffalo…

Things just took a MAJOR SHIFT in Buffalo…

Things just took a major shift for the Buffalo Sabres. After shutting out the defending champ, Florida Panthers, coming off another huge win last week, the Sabres have completely changed the narrative around their team. And it starts with Josh Don and Zack Benson. Two guys off to insanely hot starts with Josh Don reviving the Sabres special teams in a way that no one could have anticipated. We have to go into everything that’s going on with the Sabres after this amazing stretch of games. Mark, a team that was basically thrown to the bottom of the league. people making fun of them knowing, “Oh, look, it’s the Sabres. They’re doing it again.” They have shifted that narrative so much. A three to nothing win. We’re going to get into some goalending. We’re going to get into Owen Power at the top of this here. But there’s a guy we got to start with, and that is Josh Don. First on the team at 5v5 via Natural Statrick and expected goals for percentage, high danger chances, Cory percentage. He’s first across the board. But it’s really his special teams. This tweet here from Connor Hurley really drives it home watching Josh Don single-handedly revive the Sabres power play to respectability. Mark the special teams here despite the rough start to the season. They have been amazing. You want your special teams to add at least to 100%. That’s kind of the benchmark. The Sabres are at about 125% right now. Fifth best power play, best penalty kill as of the recording of this video. And it starts with Josh Don. This guy has been off to an unbelievably hot start. And I think the big thing with Josh Jones, sometimes you see guys come out and they’re really good five on five or might not be good on the power play, but Josh Jones is one of the best five on five players and a huge part of the power play. What this kid is doing is incredible. We’ve seen his dad do it with Arizona. We’ve seen him take a big leap with Utah last year. But Josh Don is going to be a name that a lot of people around the NHL are going to start to know. You look at the stats, two goals on the power play, one assists on the power play. He goes out and everything he does five on five. This is the making of a breakout season for Josh Stone. He’s going to continue making an impact on the Buffalo team and it wouldn’t shock me if he comes out as one of their top performers at the end of the season. Josh, I don’t know if you feel the same way. And listen, it could just be because Chain Done is one of my favorite players of all time. But I think Josh Stone is going to be a name that’s going to make a crucial statement this year and a major statement across the NHL as what looks like a steal of a trade for Buffalo at this point. I mean, you know, there’s a lot of time left to see how this trade will pan out again with the Utah Mammoth. You got Purka. You have Kessle Ring who’s currently on IR. Like, there’s a lot of moving pieces here. We still don’t know the highs and lows of these guys, but at the moment, Josh Don again, like his performance is unbelievable. Like again, the impact stats, love him, right? And you look at the the game scorecard here. He’s right there, second on the team. Look at that individual offense graph for Josh Don. Yes, I know he got he got a good amount of points in this last game, but like, you know, right up there with the best on the team. Power and Dian around him. And Josh Don is again one of those guys that I don’t think many people outside of Buffalo Winnipeg to have one of these point per game starts and to lead the team, at least tied with Zack Benson, who we’ll get into in a second, in scoring. He has been really unbelievable. But to again piggy back off that Mark, we do have to talk about Zack Benson, too. 6 days ago, he watched their home opener from a hospital bed and tonight he made his season debut and recorded four assists. Absolute dog. This was their last game, but he picked up another point versus the Florida Panthers to bring him up to five points in just two games. I mean, Zack Benson when he was drafted, there was a lot of hype around him. You know, a smaller guy, but so fast. From the moment he first stepped on the rink in the NHL, you could see the talent was evident. And so far this season, again, he’s clicking as well. Right up there. Again, him and Josh Dome were the two best forwards in terms of game score. Even the team defense above average being better than average when he’s on the ice. So, Zack Benson and Josh Don, this combo right now, Marcus, is kind of working very, very well. You can see two games, five assists, five points, four shots without him 0 and three with him two and0. This guy, I don’t even want to say is the X factor because we knew he was good, but this is again like you want to talk about a hot start, I don’t think it gets any better than this guy right here. And I think the big thing is looking at the grand scheme of it, we’re seeing the youth movement finally come and listen, they have young guys. Even Dian is still a very young player. Power is young. Dave Thompson’s not in his 30s, but I think this second wave of youth movement is what’s going to set aside the Buffalo Sabres. We know they have good talent. We’re going to touch on their goalending. They have a lot of X factors, but I think these players stepping up, including Zack Benson, is exactly what Buffalo needed. Listen, they had a bad start. I did a video on that, and I apologize for being wrong about this cuz the Sabres are rolling. But I think at the end of the day, seeing the guys step up with Josh Don, with Zack Benson, even with Owen Power, I think this is where we’re going to start seeing Buffalo finally getting their stuff together and hopefully make a push for the playoffs. This is a team the fan base deserves to be in the playoffs. management probably doesn’t on some points, but I do love what they’re doing. Owen Power finally looks good. A big body going out having a statement came Josh. I think with the trio of these three guys, I think they’re finally hitting that curve. And it starts once again with these young second players coming up. Yeah. And Owen Power again, like maybe hasn’t gotten that point production you would have wanted throughout his first little while in the NHL, but you can still see the potential. It’s oozing every single day and 23 minutes time on ice per game. I mean, he led the team again in game score last game. The individual and team offense and defense was so good when he was out there. I mean, him and Diene have both been doing an amazing job for the Sabres Decor. I mean, objectively, they have so many good defenseman, right? Even Samuelson has been showing up a little bit. And again, this is they they still have some guys on IR. I can just show you that list. Look at the IR, right? You do have Kessle Ring who was a big part of that Purka trade still in IR. You have Lucin on IR. You have Josh Norris who just went on IR and you can pull off these two big wins and I want to go to their goalending for a second because that was a big concern when we found out like oh he’s not really going to be able to play but right now like Alex Lion kind of coming in and playing pretty well for the Buffalo Sabres and not something I think anyone necessarily expected two wins in five games but with a 930 save percentage this year Mark it’s about getting that production from the guys down your lineup the guys that you weren’t expecting to have to come out and do these amazing things This is the kind of thing that can again pivot your team from a streaming team who’s like losing a bunch in a row to a team that can put a few wins together and really gain some confidence back. And I think the big thing is listen, Alex Lighten’s doing good. You can see Ukapokin and coming through that when he gets back he’s going to be the starting goalender. But one underrated thing when looking at the goalenders, you have a backup goalender and Coltton Ellis who they claimed off waiverss from the St. Louis Blues. He has no NHL experience at this point but the numbers win in the AHL are absolutely phenomenal. a 938 percent. It’s with Springfield last year, I believe, when he was in the juniors. Absolutely dominant. I’m pretty sure he led his junior team in shutouts in team history. This is a kid that’s not someone you can just look at and say, “Hey, it’s a random guy, not getting starts. We don’t care about him.” Because I truly do think Colton Ellis is a goalender that can get you quality starts. Once again, hasn’t played in the NHL for a regular season game, but every other tier that he has played in, he has been phenomenal. I’m super high on this kid if you can’t tell already. I think St. Louis lost out big losing this guy. So, when he gets in, listen, there might be a rough patch, but I also think this is an underrated thing where you have so many goalenders that are very young and Colton Ellis is still there that can make an impact on this roster. And youth is again the big thing. Yes, there are some guys that are maybe not so young anymore. And again, if we take a look at the lines here, you know, you do have those questions around Alex Tuck right now. Some reports coming out he might need 101 million to stay, which is like, well, we’ll see. But when you have guys like Josh Don coming up, right, even a guy like Jack Quinn who could work his way up the lineup, your top line there of Yuri, Koulik, Zack Benson, and Taage Thompson, like Thompson’s still 27, he’s in his prime, and the other two guys are producing pretty nice. I mean, Koulik’s going to take a bit of time to really come into his own, but Payton Kreb’s still 24 there on the third line. Like, you do have a nice mix of veterans with young guys, but overall, your core is very young. And I think right now, Buffalo still has time to work out these little kinks, these little things that are not working right for them. But being able to get a huge win followed by a shut out of the defending champs is going to do wonders for any team. And it’s why this could very well be a huge shift for the Sabres. Let us know what you have to say down about all this down below. Because that’ll do it for this episode of Hatrick HQ. But guys, we have videos coming out on your favorite teams every single day. So if you enjoyed every second of this video, I think we earned that subscription. It’s one click, but we promise you that we’ll keep you up to date with all your favorite teams right here. I’m Josh Gos, my co-host Mark Pie. We’ll catch you in the next one.

The Buffalo Sabres have taken a major shift with back to back wins and great production from Josh Doan, Zach Benson, and more. Mark Pye and Josh Gosse break down all this and more on this episode of Hat Trick HQ.
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