{"id":709835,"date":"2026-11-12T15:57:24","date_gmt":"2026-11-12T15:57:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/709835\/"},"modified":"2026-11-12T15:57:24","modified_gmt":"2026-11-12T15:57:24","slug":"a-sobering-reality-hovers-above-the-struggling-buffalo-sabres","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/709835\/","title":{"rendered":"A sobering reality hovers above the struggling Buffalo Sabres"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Buffalo Sabres leadership group was on the same page after getting demolished<\/a> by the Atlantic Division rival Tampa Bay Lightning on home ice Wednesday evening.\n<\/p>\n

“We have to look ourselves in the mirror after this one,” Sabres captain Rasmus Dahlin told reporters<\/a>.\n<\/p>\n

Alternate captain Tage Thompson added<\/a>: “Just look in the mirror and try to find ways that we can be better, and do it every single shift.”\n<\/p>\n

Here’s a harsh truth that will be staring back at them when they gaze into the mirror: Buffalo isn’t going to win 39 of its last 53 games again.\n<\/p>\n

That’s how the Sabres finished the 2025-26 season, which allowed them to end the longest playoff drought in NHL history. But that was a once-in-a-lifetime run<\/a>. A perfect storm of factors combining to allow an 11-14-4 club to suddenly become borderline unstoppable.\n<\/p>\n

History isn’t going to repeat itself. The goaltending isn’t good enough, the special teams are an unmitigated disaster at times and the finishing, previously a core strength, has gone missing.\n<\/p>\n

If they want to make a second straight trip to the postseason \u2014 HockeyStats.com<\/a> pegs their odds at just 39% after the blowout loss to the Bolts \u2014 they can’t wait until mid-December to turn things around again. The Eastern Conference is too strong.\n<\/p>\n

How the loss to Tampa Bay materialized was also concerning.\n<\/p>\n

It was shades of the old Sabres. The defensive breakdowns were constant as players starting trying to make plays completely out of structure, which allowed the Lightning to generate an endless stream of high-danger chances to start running up the score.\n<\/p>\n

Last season, there was a certain flow to Buffalo’s play. Even if something went wrong or it fell behind by a couple goals, it was able to reestablish its system to create chances in transition and generate an effective cycle in the offensive zone.\n<\/p>\n

Everything feels hard for the Sabres right now. They can’t get anything going offensively<\/a> on a consistent basis and, when they don’t capitalize on some early chances, things begin to snowball when the opponent build a lead.\n<\/p>\n

It’s still early. They have 66 games left to rediscover the magic<\/a>. But their level of performance across the board through the first 18 contests is causing some alarm bells to start ringing. They shouldn’t push the panic button, but perhaps it’s time to take it out of the drawer.\n<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, let’s jump in to the latest installment of our Sabres player grades series<\/a>.\n<\/p>\n

Buffalo Sabres comprehensively crushed by the Tampa Bay LightningSabres Player Grades<\/p>\n

Player<\/p>\n

Grade (1-10)<\/p>\n

Tage Thompson<\/p>\n

8<\/p>\n

Josh Doan<\/p>\n

7.5<\/p>\n

Peyton Krebs<\/p>\n

7<\/p>\n

Jason Zucker<\/p>\n

6.5<\/p>\n

Josh Norris<\/p>\n

6.5<\/p>\n

Ryan McLeod<\/p>\n

6<\/p>\n

Rasmus Dahlin<\/p>\n

6<\/p>\n

Zach Benson<\/p>\n

5.5<\/p>\n

Sam Carrick<\/p>\n

5.5<\/p>\n

Mattias Samuelsson<\/p>\n

5<\/p>\n

Olen Zellweger<\/p>\n

5<\/p>\n

Zach Metsa<\/p>\n

5<\/p>\n

Owen Power<\/p>\n

4.5<\/p>\n

Beck Malenstyn<\/p>\n

4.5<\/p>\n

Jack Quinn<\/p>\n

4<\/p>\n

Noah Ostlund<\/p>\n

3.5<\/p>\n

Tyson Kozak<\/p>\n

3<\/p>\n

Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen<\/p>\n

2.5<\/p>\n

Colten Ellis<\/p>\n

2.5<\/p>\n

Conor Timmins<\/p>\n

1<\/p>\n

Buffalo Player of the Game: Tage Thompson<\/p>\n

Thompson was one of the few Sabres players who was able to help generate some attacking pressure against the Lightning on Wednesday. His goal early in the third period, which briefly trimmed Tampa’s lead to 4-3, ignited the crowd.\n<\/p>\n

The Bolts responded with two goals over the next three minutes to end the comeback dreams, but it was still a strong overall performance for Buffalo’s offensive cornerstone, who’s on pace for his first 50-goal season<\/a> despite the team’s struggles.\n<\/p>\n

Finding a way to get Thompson more open looks on the power play is still a work in progress, though.<\/p>\n

Sabres Quick Hits
\nThe goaltending grades may feel a bit harsh considering Buffalo’s defensive lapses but, at some point, the Sabres need some tough saves<\/a>. Neither UPL nor Colten Ellis has been able to step up to secure the No. 1 role while Alex Lyon has been sidelined by injury.
\nJosh Doan is playing better hockey and the goals should start coming more regularly.
\nA solid, albeit modest, return to the lineup for Ryan McLeod after a pair of healthy scratches.
\nConor Timmins had mostly played well since his return from injury but it was a dreadful night for the third-pair defenseman against Tampa.
\nThe Sabres (8-7-3) begin a six-game road trip Thursday night against the Chicago Blackhawks (4-13-1) at the United Center.\"\"Add us as a preferred source on GoogleFollow<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Buffalo Sabres leadership group was on the same page after getting demolished by the Atlantic Division rival…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":709836,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5105],"tags":[5,189,4,540,92,5168,5167],"class_list":["post-709835","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tampa-bay-lightning","tag-hockey","tag-lightning","tag-nhl","tag-tampa-bay","tag-tampa-bay-lightning","tag-tampabay","tag-tampabaylightning"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nhl\/117604296096085782","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/709835","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=709835"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/709835\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/709836"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=709835"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=709835"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=709835"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}