Published by hockeybuzz.com, 11-29-2018
If there's a hockey fan on earth who predicted that the last place Buffalo Sabres from 2017-18 would be atop the National Hockey League just over a quarter-way into this season, stand up and be counted...and bring the proof. Fact is, no one predicted that quick of a last-to-first move as it's never been done before. According to the team, the 2018-19 Sabres are the first team ever to lead the NHL outright in points 25 games into the season after finishing the prior season with the worst record in the league.
Buffalo sits atop the mountain and heads into tonight on a 10-game winning-streak, which ties franchise-best, and will face a Lightning team that is only one point behind them in the league standings. With their win last night the Toronto Maple Leafs are second-overall, tied with the Sabres at 36 points apiece but having played one more game. The Nashville Predators, who host the Arizona Coyotes tonight, are tied with Tampa at 35 points.
It's jumbled at the up their right now, but just the very fact that Buffalo is a part of that jumble is pretty amazing. The Sabres started out the month having lost two of three but that lone win represented a breakout offensively as the pummeled the Ottawa Senators 9-2. They had a 7-6-2 record prior to their road game at Montreal to start this run and sat fifth in the Atlantic division, 18th in the league, which actually wasn't so bad for a team that finished dead last the season before. But Buffalo has managed to cobble together a 10-game run by winning in many different ways with all but one of the games having been decided by one goal including four that went to overtime and three in the shootout. The Sabres three regulation wins included one-goal wins vs. Tampa (2-1) and at Minnesota (3-2.) Buffalo defeated the Philadelphia Flyers 5-2 at home for their only win of more than one goal.
Along with timely goals and an overall team resiliency giving them the belief that no lead is too large to overcome, goaltending has played a key role in this run. Starter Carter Hutton is on an eight-game winning streak, giving him the third-longest winning streak in franchise history. He, like the team, started out his run against the Canadiens as he made a relief appearance for backup Linus Ullmark and won in overtime. Prior to that Hutton was 4-6-1 with a 2.87 goals-against average and a .909 save-percentage. He heads into tonight's game with a 12-6-1 record, a 2.50 GAA and .920 Sv%. Although it doesn't show up in the overall stats, Hutton and Ullmark have both been excellent during this run (and even beforehand) in that they're coming up with the big save when needed.
The duo of Jeff Skinner and Jack Eichel have been on fire during this run, both with 11 points. Skinner has 10 goals during the streak, two of them game winners while Eichel has 10 assists with his lone goal being the overtime winner against the Pittsburgh Penguins. Adding to that duo is a defense that has been a handful for the opposition. During the streak d-men have contributed eight goals including three multi-goal games with Rasmus Ristolainen potting the game-winner in overtime at Montreal to start the winning -streak.
And in a tribute to Buffalo's depth, nine different players have scored game-winning/deciding goals. In order they were Ristolainen (overtime,) Casey Mittelstadt (shootout-winner,) Kyle Okposo, Conor Sheary (SO,) Jason Pominville, Eichel (OT,) Evan Rodrigues, Skinner (OT,) Sam Reinhart (SO,) Skinner.
Lest we forget while basking in the enthusiasm of this run, the Sabres face Tampa team that has been a final four playoff team in three of the last four seasons while making it to the Stanley Cup finals in 2014-15. The Lightning came into the season as Cup contenders and still remain so despite the loss of starting goalie Andrei Vasilevskiy for up to six weeks. From their speed and firepower up front to their solid d-corps, Tampa boasts the league's second-best goal-scoring rate at 3.68 goals/game and the league's sixth-best powerplay unit at a 26.7% conversion rate. The Sabres own the league's eighth-best penalty kill with an 81.9% kill rate.
Interesting note, Buffalo's defensemen have outscored the Lightning d-men 14-12 on the season with every Sabres blueliner scoring at least one goal (Tampa has two without.)
Buffalo heads to Tampa tonight and will visit the Florida Panthers tomorrow night which is typical as the Sabres usually face off against those two Atlantic division foes on the road in consecutive games. The Sunshine State roadie hasn't been particularly kind to the Sabres as they've gone only 5-13-0 in the last five seasons, while being swept in five of those nine series. Buffalo has only one sweep to it's credit (Nov. 10 & 12, 2015) and are a paltry 1-8-0 in the second game of the set although when they've played the Lightning first they're 3-2-0 at Tampa.
The Sabres escape the chill of Western New York looking to extend a hot streak that has reached a franchise record 10 consecutive wins and are up against an Eastern conference heavyweight in the Tampa Bay Lightning tonight. Although Buffalo may have caught some teams by surprise earlier in this streak, including Tampa in the third game of this run, teams are coming out looking to knock them down. But so far the Sabres have been up to the task.
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