Reprinted with permission from hockeybuzz.com
Because of the amount of information that has been rolling through the consciousness of every hockey fan attached to their NHL teams and affiliates, were going to keep this team stats page as brief as possible.
The Buffalo Sabres finished the month of February in 26th place and proceeded to move what players they could at the NHL Trade Deadline yesterday. All-in-all the team is playing well despite their 25-31-7 record and yesterday at the podium GM Tim Murray mentioned that after a reporter prepped a question by saying "the improvement in areas of [the Sabres] has been pretty clear this year."
After the reporter finished, Murray took the opportunity to lay out just how he felt about the team's progression.
"I'm actually happy you said that because I was hoping I wasn't the only one that thought we improved in many different areas other than the standings," began Murray. "I know where we are in the standings. It's frustrating and it pisses me off, but I think we've improved greatly."
Murray went on to speak of the three-game, West Coast road trip the team finished just before the trade deadline. He said a number of GM's called him to mention the progress they'd made and he qualified the integrity of the commendations by saying, "They know the way I am, they don't have to stroke [my ego]. We gave up four goals and won one game out of three. The way we played heavy and competed in those three games, I think we're a competitive team."
Their present standing is what it is and the following numbers are what they are while the eye-test will tell you that they've been playing much better than their record indicates. Buffalo had a pretty tough schedule through the first 2/3 of the season, especially during a particular month of November, but they'll have the easiest strength of schedule throughout the entire league the rest of the way (45% win-percentage of remaining opponents.)
Another indication of just how well they've been playing is the number of one-goal losses. Of their 38 regulation, overtime and shootout losses, 19 of them have been by one goal. It's the fifth most in the league behind Minnesota (23,) Toronto and Vancouver (21 each) and Edmonton (20.) In addition to that they had three games where an empty netter was scored while they were down by a goal and ended up losing the game by two.
They're a far cry from where the were last season, as they should be, but there's still a long way to go and Murray put it in the proper perspective, "There's a lot to like, but we need to improve."
Buffalo Sabres Team Stats/League Rankings:
Wins
--October: 4 (T-23rd)...(MTL, 10)
--November: 10 (T-20th)...(DAL, 19)
--December: 15 (T-24th)...(DAL, WSH, 28)
--January: 20 (T-26)...(WSH, 35)
--February: 25 (27th)...(WSH, 45)
--2014-15: 23 (30th)...(ANA, 49)
Atlantic Division Standing
--October: 7th...(MTL)
--November: 7th...(MTL)
--December: 8th...(FLA)
--January: 7th...(FLA)
--February: 7th...(FLA)
--2014-15: 8th...(MTL)
Eastern Conference Standing
--October: 14th...(MTL)
--November: 13th...(MTL)
--December: 15th...(WSH)
--January: 14th...(WSH)
--February: 15th...(WSH)
--2014-15: 16th...(NYR)
League Standing/Points
--October: 24th/8 pts...(MTL/20)
--November: 24th/22...(MTL/39)
--December: 28th/34...(DAL/59)
--January: 27th/44...(WSH/74)
--February: 26th /57...(WSH/94)
--2014-15: 30th/54...(NYR/113)
Points Percentage
--October: 36.4% (24th)...(MTL, 88.3)
--November: 45.8 (24th)...(DAL, 79.2)
--December: 44.7 (28th)...(WSH. 78.3)
--January: 44 (28th)...(WSH, 78.7)
--February: 45.2 (27th)...(WSH, 77.0)
--2014-15 32.9 (30th)...(NYR, 68.9)
Goal Differential
--October: -8 (25th)...(MTL, +22)
--November: -8 (22nd)...(MTL, +32)
--December: -13 (22nd)...(DAL, +39)
--January: -22 (28th)...(WSH, +54)
--February: -23 (23rd)...(WSH, +60)
--2014-15 -116 (30th)...(NYR, +60)
Goals/Game
--October: 2.27 (22nd)...(BOS, 3.90)
--November: 2.21 (27th)...(DAL, 3.50)
--December: 2.29 (28th)...(DAL, 3.49)
--January: 2.26 (28th)...(WSH, 3.32)
--February: 2.32 (29th)...(WSH, 3.26)
--2014-15: 1.87 (30th)...(TBL, 3.16)
Shots/Game
--October: 33.8 (1st)
--November: 29.5 (18th)...(LAK, 32.1)
--December: 29.7 (15th)...(DAL, 32.4)
--January: 29.3 (T-17th)...(PIT, 32.3)
--February: 29.4 (17th)...(PIT, 32.9)
--2014-15: 24.2 (30th)...(CHI, 33.9)
Goals-against/Game
--October: 3.09 (24th)...(PIT, 1.82)
--November: 2.54 (13th)...(NYR, 2.08)
--December: 2.58 (14th)...(WSH, 2.11)
--January: 2.66 (19th)...(FLA, 2.18)
--February: 2.62 (16th)...(LAK, 2.27)
--2014-15: 3.28 (29th)...(MTL, 2.24)
Shots against/Game
--October: 26.9 (5th)...(WSH, 25.1)
--November: 28.4 (5th)...(CAR, 25.3)
--December: 29.4 (16th)...(CAR, 26.2)
--January: 30.6 (21st)...(CAR, 26.5)
--February: 30.9 (23rd)...(CAR, 26.8)
--2014-15: 35.6 (30th)...(LAK, 27.0)
Powerplay
--October: 22.7% (9th)...(BOS, 35.3)
--November: 21.3 (8th)...(BOS, 32.4)
--December: 19.3 (15th)...(BOS, 29.4)
--January: 20.9 (6th)...(WSH, 26.8)
--February: 19.6 (11th)...(WSH, 23.7)
--2014-15: 13.4 (30th)...(WSH, 25.3)
Penalty Kill
--October: 71.4% (29th)...(NYI, 92.3)
--November: 75.4 (26th)...(ANA, 87.5)
--December: 77.4, (25th)...(ANA, 88.0)
--January: 80.6 (17th)...(ANA, 89.6)
--February: 82.7 (9th)...(NYI, 87.4)
--2014-15: 75.1 (30th)...(MIN, 86.3)
Faceoff Percentage
--October: 50.4% (14th)...(SJS, 53.7)
--November: 50.1 (17th)...(CAR, 54.0)
--December: 50.5 (13th)...(CAR, 53.2)
--January: 50 (T-17th)...(CAR, 53.9)
--February: 49.5 (23rd)...(CAR. 53.8)
--2014-15: 44.9 (30th)...(BOS, 53.6)
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