Published by hockeybuzz.com, 2-24-2019
At the conclusion of yesterday's matinee with the Washington Capitals, Sabres fans couldn't help but wonder where this type of team had been the past two-plus months. Granted, the Caps were at the end of a six-game road trip and a 1pm start probably didn't help matters, but Washington did awaken from their sleepwalk as the game went on and the defending Stanley Cup champions twice left those at KeyBank Center with a feeling of angst.
Quite often this season, as well as during their recent four-game losing streak (0-3-1,) the Buffalo Sabres would look strong early only to be overtaken in the mid-to-latter portions of the game and it looked as if this one was headed in that direction. Buffalo jumped out to a 2-0 lead in the first period and saw Washington cut the lead by one early in the second period but a very late Sabres powerplay goal restored their two-goal cushion heading into the second intermission. The Capitals cut the lead again just 4:16 into the final frame but Sam Reinhart's beautiful tip just 83 seconds later to made it a 4-2 game before the Sabres locked it down the rest of the way. Reinhart, who had scored Buffalo's second goal, would add a 185-foot empty-netter for the third hat trick of his career.
The second period was crucial for the Sabres yesterday and it could have ended up a disaster. Buffalo ended the prior stanza with a 1:58 powerplay but nothing came of it and they couldn't extend their 2-0 lead. Washington came to life with Alexander Ovechkin scoring his 44th of the season just 2:28 into the frame and it set off a flurry of action directed at Buffalo netminder Carter Hutton. But other than the Ovechkin's laser of a goal-scorer's goal, Hutton came up big. The 33 yr. old netminder came up with two more big saves over the next seven minutes to keep the game 2-1. It was the type of goaltending performance that bolstered the team during their 10-game winning streak but was mostly missing since.
Hutton's play has been average at best and it seemed as if he'd lost his ability to track the puck, at least on a consistent basis. However, beginning with their game Thursday nigh at Tampa, Hutton seemed to have found the form that saw him leave the month of November with a solid 12-7-1 record, 2.63 goals-against average and .917 save percentage. Between the last game of the winning streak and Thursday's shootout loss in Tampa, Hutton posted a 3-11-3 record with a 3.10 GAA and .901 Sv%.
Buffalo's backs are clearly against the wall if they want to make the playoff this season. Back in November all they had to do was play around .500 hockey and they'd have pretty much been set. Unfortunately they produced the NHL's second worst record (12-18-6) over that time-span. Only the Ottawa Senators, who look to be in a scorched earth rebuild-mode, have less points (28) than the Sabres.
The doldrums started in December but began to level out in mid-January when Buffalo started a stretch where they alternated between wins and losses thus giving many in Sabreland hope that they were at least stopping the bleeding. However, with the playoffs still within sight the Sabres had a trio of winnable games against teams below them in the standings but came up small losing all three games by a combined 14-5 score. The worst of them might have been against the Florida Panthers on Tuesday night in front of owners Terry and Kim Pegula. It was an embarrassment that had fans in Buffalo ready to focus on the 2019 NHL Draft with calls for the firing of head coach Phil Housley. And if those in Sabreland were looking at a move or two by prior to tomorrow's 3pm NHL Trade Deadline to spark the team, on Wednesday general manager Jason Botterill basically said that this team is on it's own.
Hours after he and the owners watched the embarrassing game against the Panthers, Botterill fielded some pretty tough questions from the local media in Tampa, the site of their next game. The second-year GM did some dancing as he focused on the positive steps the entire organization has made year-over-year and then defended his coach a bit later. At the end of the day, Botterill had stuck to his guns and reiterated that he's not willing to mortgage the future on a rental player and that he feels the grind of a playoff push against teams that are "clamping down" at this time of year is good for the development of his young players.
To his credit, they responded with an excellent game against the Lightning, although they lost in the shootout, and yesterday they strong, winning performance against the Capitals.
The Sabres still remain outside of a playoff spot with one team to jump and their recent play has kept them six points out of the second wild card. We could play the "ifs and buts" game but it's futile at this point. Buffalo has 66 points on a 29-24-8 record which puts them where they should be. There are three teams above them in the wild card standings and they have a game in hand on each of them but they also need to watch their back's as the Philadelphia Flyers are only one point behind having also played one more game than the Sabres.
Buffalo heads into tomorrow's trade deadline looking to get on a roll to narrow the gap. Although six points doesn't seem like a lot to make up, in the NHL-world of three-point games, teams can get points on almost a nightly basis and it's difficult to make up ground, unless you go on a tear. Although there are many in Sabreland who'd like this team to make the playoffs, and would welcome an impact trade to bolster their chances, there may not be a player available that cold satisfy Botterill's desire to trade for the present and the future in one transaction and therefore not much should be expected tomorrow.
Heading into the post-deadline week, Buffalo has a tough matchups against Toronto, whom they'll play twice next week, as well as Philadelphia and the Pittsburgh Penguins, the team directly ahead of them in the standings right now.
Luckily, the teams of interest ahead the Sabres didn't have all that great of a stretch last week as they either potted three points (PIT) or four points (WSH, CLB, MTL, CAR) which makes Buffalo's losing stretch even that much more dreadful. Time's a wastin' as the Sabres have only 21 more games and if they want to have a legit shot at the playoffs, they're probably looking at hitting the 96-point mark. That translates into a 30 point finish or roughly a 13-4-4 record.
Here are the teams of interest in the standings heading into next week:
Washington Capitals (2nd Metropolitan)--75 points
Columbus Blue Jackets (3rd Metro)--73
Montreal Canadiens (4th Atlantic, 1st wild card)--73
Carolina Hurricanes (4th Metro, 2nd wild card)--72
Pittsburgh Penguins (5th Metro)--72
Buffalo (5th Atlantic)--66
Philadelphia Flyers (6th Metro)--65
Who's hot in their last 10 games:
Carolina 8-2-0
Columbus 7-3-0
Who's not:
Buffalo 4-4-2
Pittsburgh 4-4-2
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