Tage Thompson is the Buffalo Sabres’ best goal-scorer and, for the second straight season, finished with 40 or more goals. However, one area where he has surprisingly struggled is on the power play, and after 20 power play goals in 2022-23, he has had only 22 combined over the past three seasons.
Thompson was recently on Wingmen with Matthew and Brady Tkachuk and talked about one night that he really wanted to get a power play goal. It was shortly after returning from the Olympics with a gold medal, and the Sabres were playing the Washington Capitals.
On the podcast, Thompson was asked what was going through his head when he took five slapshots on one power play shift. “We went out for a power play, and I can’t remember who their backup on the bench was, but he looked at me right before the faceoff and said ‘let’s see that muffin kid’, and I was like alright, you will probably see a couple,” Thompson said.
Thompson was right that they would see a couple because, in fact, the Capitals saw five on one shift as the puck continued to just come back around to him. He unfortunately couldn’t connect on any and talked about how he had to skate back to the bench right past the greatest goal-scorer in the history of the NHL.
“I just skated past their bench, and I was like, there is only one guy in the league that could do that, and he is sitting on their bench. Their whole bench was dying laughing,” Thompson said.
That one player is obviously Alex Ovechkin, who owns the NHL career record for goals. Thompson went on to talk about how he was hoping to get some kind of acknowledgement from Ovechkin after that shift. “I was just trying to get a little street cred, a little respect from him. I just wanted a head nod or something like ‘that’s it kid’.”
Buffalo Sabres need to find a way to unlock Tage Thompson on the power play
Even though the Sabres didn’t score on the power play, that was one of their more effective power play shifts of the season. The Sabres have not been a very effective power-play team in the past two years under Lindy Ruff, as they ranked 24th in 2024-25 with a power-play percentage of 18.8% and then 20th in the NHL with a power-play percentage of 19.5% last season.
It is hard to imagine that the Sabres are not better with players like Thompson and Rasmus Dahlin running their top power play. The fact that they have the players to have a Top 10 power play should speak to the issue being scheme or strategy. This absolutely should be a point of emphasis when they come back together for training camp in September ahead of next season.
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