When the Sabres came back from their road trip in California riding a three-game winning streak, Lindy Ruff had a to-do list for that first practice back. He was pleased to have collected six points during the road trip but not necessarily satisfied with how the team played on the way to getting those wins.
His main concern was in the offensive zone. He didn’t see the Sabres executing the extra plays that were in front of them, and he wanted a lot more chaos around the other team’s goalies. He made the clear to players because he knew the Wild and Canucks, two stingy defensive teams, were next up on the schedule.
After getting shut out by the Wild on Wednesday, the Sabres needed two goals late in the third period to force overtime against the Canucks before falling 4-3. The comeback and the standings point the Sabres earned were huge. But this team is playing with razor-thin margins if it can’t produce more offense.
“It’s a heck of a point,” Ruff said. “We keep battling back. We got some good looks. We just didn’t quite make the next play the whole game. The next play was there. We just didn’t connect on the next play. Our power play was out of sync and didn’t connect on plays it should have connected on. We had opportunities to get a lead and didn’t get it and let them hang around. You end up in a game like that. They’re a tough club. We knew that coming in. These last two games have been tough, hard hockey.”
The Sabres are averaging 2.27 goals per game in their last nine games, down from the 3.35 goals per game they had in the first 14 games of the season. As of this writing, the Sabres are 29th in the NHL in high-danger chances per 60 minutes at five-on-five. They are 28th in the NHL in high-danger chances per 60 minutes at all strengths.
For stretches of the season, the Sabres have been too reliant on the top line for offense. But while Alex Tuch is playing at near a point-per-game pace, his linemates have been snakebit the last few games. Tage Thompson has 20 shot attempts and 12 shots on goal in his first two games back from injury but hasn’t found the back of the net. He’s creating chances, but he’s still finding his finishing touch after missing five games with a lower-body injury. JJ Peterka, meanwhile, hasn’t scored in seven games and doesn’t have a point in five straight. With the game on the line in overtime, Peterka made a savvy play to find Thompson for a scoring chance in the slot, but Thompson couldn’t convert after a nice move to get to his backhand. The Canucks scored going the other way to win 4-3.
The Sabres need those two to start scoring again, but the offense can’t all come from them, either. The most encouraging development from this game was the play of Dylan Cozens and Zach Benson, two critical pieces to Buffalo’s secondary scoring. Cozens took a senseless double minor early in the third period after letting the officials know how unhappy he was about the initial holding penalty he got. The Canucks scored on that power play and parlayed that momentum into a second goal moments later to take a 3-1 lead.
“I have to keep my cool,” Cozens said. “It hurt the team and cost us there. I have to be better. That’s on me to keep my cool there. I wanted to get one back for the boys. That was a dumb second penalty by me and I was pissed off and I just wanted to do what I could to help the team.”
Ruff told Cozens on the bench the only way he could make up for it was by scoring. He did just that, ripping a shot by Kevin Lankinen with Benson creating traffic in front. Benson, who already had a highlight reel assist on Bowen Byram’s goal earlier in the game, then got another assist when he put a shot on net with Cozens and Tuch crowding the crease. Cozens and Tuch both deflected it, and Tuch got credit for the goal.
If the Sabres are going to take the next step offensively, more multi-point games from Cozens and Benson would help. And it’s how those two goals were scored that Ruff hopes leaves an imprint on his team. Both goals were the direct result of players getting to the net front and making life difficult for the goalie. That’s something Ruff still wants to see more of from his team. Their five-on-five heat map, compiled by HockeyViz, shows how glaring the net front issue is. This was an issue last season and one that hasn’t been corrected.
“When you’re inside the O-zone and it’s your turn, you have to take a turn,” Ruff said. “It’s built off our scheme. When you miss your turn, it’s usually a chance that we could have had or at least the goalie would have had to fight to see it to make a save. You give a goalie a clear shot and he covers it and now you’ve got a faceoff and the play is ending.”
The good news is the Sabres keep grinding out standings points, with points in eight of their last 11 games. They’re winning in different ways and are a more competitive team than they were a year ago. They’re getting excellent goaltending from Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen more often than not. The defensive play is improving. But until the offense picks back up, the Sabres are going to struggle to separate themselves from other contenders for the final playoff spots in the Eastern Conference.
Quick hits
1. Sam Lafferty didn’t finish this game due to a lower-body injury. Ruff said it’s likely he will miss Buffalo’s game against the Islanders on Saturday. The team recalled forward Tyson Kozak from Rochester as an insurance plan. Kozak hasn’t recorded a point in seven straight games for the Amerks, but he’s developing into one of Rochester’s best two-way players. He’s a strong forechecker and reliable penalty killer for the Amerks who earned his call up the hard way.2. Sabres defenseman Mattias Samuelsson skated on his own for the first time on Friday. That’s a step in the right direction for him as he works his way back from a lower-body injury that is still considered week to week.
3. Byram scored his fourth goal of the season and now has 14 points. No player on the Sabres has been on the ice for more of Buffalo’s five-on-five goals than Byram. He and Tuch, who is up to 22 points in 23 games, lead the way in that category.