Published by hockeybuzz.com, 11-6-2018
Buffalo Sabres bench-boss Phil Housley has been stressing a "shot mentality" since he came on board last season and it's finally beginning to take hold as an influx of talent, depth and speed has helped bring that to fruition. The 2017-18 edition of the Sabres had that mentality, somewhat, as they finished 20th in the league at 31.2 shots on goal/game but this year they've upped that a bit to 32.9 SOG/gm (ninth in the league) and lately have sent a barrage of rubber at the opposing goalies. In their past six games Buffalo has hit the 40-shot mark four times and has averaged slightly over 39 SOG/game.
On Sunday they followed up a 41 shot-performance against the Ottawa Senators with 40 SOG at New York against the Rangers and for the second time in six games took over 70 total shots. Unfortunately for the Sabres, they faced the Rangers Henrik Lundqvist on Sunday and he was a wall allowing only one goal, a rebound from in tight by Buffalo's Conor Sheary, as the Rangers went on to win 3-1.
Despite some ups and downs, including some serious ones like the nine goals Buffalo scored on Saturday against the Sens followed by the one goal against the Rangers the next night, the team seems to have found itself. Sabres Captain Jack Eichel tipped his hat to Lundqvist post-game but didn't seem distressed at the loss. "I thought we played pretty hard," he said to the gathered media, " I thought we had a lot of chances.
"We played a pretty good game but obviously we have to find a way to get one by [Lundqvist.]"
The Sabres were in control for long stretches of the game but took a hit very early the second period when the Rangers opened the scoring with two goals in a 19-second span. The bad news is that there were breakdowns and poor coverage on both goals but the good news is that those things can be corrected. And, unlike past seasons, the Sabres have shown the ability to mount a comeback mostly by playing their game. Sometimes they come back all the way and win, sometimes they don't, but you really can't count them out.
After getting one back in the third period Eichel was asked about the team's confidence-level in the latter stages of the game being down only one goal. "Going into the third (period) we were pretty confident that we were going to make a push. [Sheary] gets his goal and I think we all expected to get the next one."
That mind-set of "we all expected to get the next one" is something that we haven't heard about post-game, nor seen on the ice, in years.
At it's core this is still a young team with players finding their way. They're still prone to breakdowns and they need more finish, but they're progressing nicely and starting to believe in themselves and they type of game they're playing.
It's a big step that won't consistently show up in the results now, but if they continue on this path they're reap the benefits a little further down the road.
*****
Props to the Sabres for not letting losing streaks get out of hand thus far. In knowing that they were still young at their core, one of the things they needed to do this season was avoid prolonged losing streaks and so far they've managed to do that. Buffalo stopped a three-game slide with the win over Ottawa and only lost two in a row one other time.
Last season the Sabres lost four games in a row on seven occasions which included losing 10 of 11 (1-8-2) during two separate streaks in November. There were a total of 31 games involved in those and they went a combined 0-27-4.
That's how you end up being a last place team and so far it doesn't look as if Buffalo is headed in that direction.
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