The Buffalo Sabres have been on an absolute roll as of late. Since the hiring of Jarmo Kekalainen as their new general manager, they have looked revitalized and have gone on a fantastic stretch of games, garnering a record of 14-3-1 since his arrival. However, despite their stellar play, there have been a few issues to mire what could be an even more impressive team. From some special teams adjustments to basic hockey sense changes, the Sabres could tweak just a handful of things in their game, and they could become a dominant force in the NHL.
The Power Play… Make It Work
The Sabres currently sit with a 19% success rate on the power play, and that is good enough to be ranked 21st in the league. This leaves a lot to be desired, especially when their ability to score 5-on-5 is outstanding (where they are ranked 9th in the NHL). Similar to last season and earlier this season, the same issues continue to plague them: poor entries, no puck movement in the zone, short possessions, and the same predictable formula over and over again.
Tage Thompson, Buffalo Sabres (Timothy T. Ludwig-Imagn Images)
If this team had a power play that could regularly produce, they would be a force to be reckoned with. As it sits right now, having time on the power play is more of a two-minute time kill for them, and then once things go back to 5-on-5, they go back to their better style of play. The adjustment to be made is simple, just like it has been in the past. They need to cycle the puck, move their feet when in the zone, and not take shots from the same three spots (i.e. one timer from Tage Thompson at the left dot, wind up slap shot from Rasmus Dahlin at the point, or floating a wrist shot from the point and hoping for a tip from Jason Zucker). The power play needs to be more dynamic, and they need to adjust so they can really take advantage of how much firepower they have.
Late Game Penalties Are Killing Them
In the 18 games that the Sabres have played since Kekalainen has taken over as GM, they have taken penalties in the last five minutes six times. That means that one third of their games have had them taking a late-game penalty where they either have had to fight off the opposing team to secure a win in a harder fashion, or fight back for a win themselves. If they want to continue on their winning trend, this cannot continue. They need to reel things in and maintain their discipline late in the game. Lazy and dumb penalties just cannot happen.
They were relying far too much on the resilience and proficiency of their penalty kill to bail them out of these scenarios, but as time has gone on, that has become less and less reliable. The Sabres have gone from around an 87% success rate and being ranked second in the league at the time to now being ranked sixth at 83.2%. While the falloff is not substantial, it is a lot considering how well they were doing. They have great defensive structure on their penalty kill. They just need to stop taking penalties late in the game to prevent the need to stress test those units.
Shoot…The…PUCK!
It really does not get much simpler than that. They need to shoot the puck more. They are constantly missing the net or are just unable to generate the ability to remain in the zone and get scoring chances and shots. The proof is in the pudding, as they say, as the Sabres currently average 27.58 shots per game, and the fact that they recently have been unable to even hit that number is an issue. In their 18-game stretch, they have failed to reach their 27.5 average 10 times (four of those times, they were at 20 shots or less). While they may have continued to scrape by and win by making the most of their scoring chances and grinding out games, low shot totals are not a sustainable way to win hockey games.
That does not mean that they need to suddenly start throwing pucks on net for the sake of padding shot totals, but rather, it goes in conjunction with the prior note of fixing the power play, and with the idea of just maintaining pressure for the whole game. If the power play were more focused and able to perform, that would add a few more shots a game. If the team could stay out of the box in bad situations, then they would not be constantly on their heels and would be able to generate more offense regularly.
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It all boils down to the fact that this team has a lot to offer offensively. They can score. There are plenty of players that can put the puck in the back of the net, and they have the right pieces in place to make their success sustainable. They just need to make some small adjustments to get to the next level. Once they do, they can climb, not only into a more secure playoff spot, but into a realm of respect among the league.
