Mike Harrington: Even with OT missteps, Sabres are on a good path through first 10 games
So far the Sabres are right in the mix, one point out of a playoff spot in a mob scene of teams that has the bottom six in the Atlantic Division all with either 10 or 11 points.
We’re at 10 games down, 72 to go. So it’s time for a first reflection on a growing sample size of Buffalo Sabres games.
On one side, you have the rather ugly first three games of the season and whatever the heck that first period was of Tuesday’s 4-3 overtime loss to the Columbus Blue Jackets in KeyBank Center.
On the other side, you have the 4-1-2 run the Sabres are on in the last seven games heading into Thursday night’s second visit to Boston this month.
Sabres goaltender Alex Lyon eyes the puck in the second period against the Blue Jackets on Tuesday in KeyBank Center.
Joed Viera, Buffalo News
Overall at 4-4-2, the Sabres are slightly behind where you’d like them to be. They got 10 points in the first 10-game segment, and the goal should be 12 for as many 10-gamers as possible. If you did it in all eight of them, that would be 96 points and likely plenty of wiggle room to make the playoffs.
So far the Sabres are right in the mix, one point out of a playoff spot in a mob scene of teams that has the bottom six in the Atlantic all with either 10 or 11 points.
The Sabres are getting healthier, with defenseman Michael Kesselring’s Buffalo debut on Tuesday particularly notable. Alex Lyon has been a revelation in goal, clearly sweeping the No. 1 job away in stunning fashion from Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen.
An outgrowth of Lyon’s play: Goalie coach Mike Bales and fellow assistants Seth Appert (forwards/power play) and Marty Wilford (defense/penalty killers) all seem a whole lot smarter than they were last year. Funny how that works. The penalty kill is No. 1 in the NHL too. Saves matter.
Kesselring had some puck bobbles in the game but you could easily see what all the summer intrigue was about. He’s quite a skater and puck mover and isn’t reticent to look to the net. He had three shots on goal in the game and a team-high nine attempts.
“He’s going to be a huge help for us,” said winger Josh Doan, Kesselring’s teammate last year in Utah. “You saw shades of how good he can be tonight.”
Sabres defenseman Michael Kesselring, left, moves the puck against Blue Jackets defenseman Damon Severson in the second period Tuesday at KeyBank Center.
Joed Viera, Buffalo News
It’s tough to see the Sabres blow third-period leads and lose in overtime for two straight games. That’s two points frittered away and they have to buckle down in overtime.
Saturday in Toronto, Jack Quinn and Owen Power combined to flub an odd-man rush and the Sabres got burned the other way by a John Tavares breakaway.
More of the same Tuesday. Jiri Kulich got stoned by Columbus goalie Jet Greaves on a breakaway in the first minute of OT and then dropped coverage on the winner by Blue Jackets forward Miles Wood. Power was neither strong enough on the wall or in coverage in front of the net to kill the play.
Frustrating for sure. Especially when you see five other Atlantic teams win Tuesday and Florida get a point with a shootout loss to Anaheim.
“We gave everyone a little bit of a heart attack out of the gates there this year and that was hard on us and on everybody,” said Doan. “But I think we’re starting to trend in that right direction. We’ve got to learn how to defend leads at the end of games because that’s a position we as a group expect to be in late.”
“I think you can look at it maybe last year that would have been a game that we let a point slip away,” said coach Lindy Ruff, referring to the one point his team did get. “There was a lot about it I liked, about how we were playing that third period.”
Specifically, it’s two games in a row where the Sabres gave up basically nothing in the final 20 minutes in the way of odd-numbered situations. But still didn’t come out with two points. Don’t want that trend continuing.
Overall, the special teams have been outstanding but the club is still waiting for someone to go on a heater offensively as seven Sabres have either three or four goals thus far. Rasmus Dahlin has no goals and a team-worst minus-8 rating in a struggling start that’s an understandable outgrowth of the harrowing summer he spent in Europe with his fiancée, still back in Sweden rehabbing after a heart transplant.
There are only three NHL teams left without a win on the road: The Sabres and Philadelphia are each 0-2-1 and Toronto is 0-2-0. On Thursday, the Sabres will look for a measure of revenge for the 3-1 loss in Boston on Oct. 11, the game that started with Bruins building a 16-1 advantage in shots before Buffalo found some equilibrium.
The November schedule is foreboding. There’s two games in a 10-day span against Utah, which entered Tuesday as the shocking leader of the Western Conference. There’s also a game at Carolina, where the Sabres haven’t won since 2016, and another at Colorado, which has one regulation loss in its first 11 games. Plus a Thanksgiving Eve visit to Pittsburgh, which might be the surprise of the league at 7-2-2 under new coach Dan Muse.
And the eight November visitors to Buffalo? Yikes. Three of the top four teams in the Metropolitan are coming, starting with Saturday’s visit by Washington. Alexander Ovechkin has 899 career goals heading into Friday’s game against the New York Islanders and could still be in pursuit of his milestone 900th goal when the Caps hit town.
Thanksgiving week will be a bear, with home games against Carolina and New Jersey surrounding a trip to Pittsburgh. Also at home in November, Utah is coming for JJ Peterka’s return game. So is Edmonton. And Connor Bedard-led Chicago. Not an easy stretch.
Simple objective: Stay in the mix. Avoid slumps. Grind out points.