Looking legit

Published by hockeybuzz.com, 10-15-2019


Are the Buffalo Sabres surprising? Maybe the most surprising team in the league this year?

You betcha.

Are they legit?

Um...It's looking that way.

At 5-0-1 the Sabres are off to their best start since the 2008-09 season. They defeated four of five Eastern Conference opponents, lost another one in overtime and after last night's win now find themselves atop the National Hockey League standings with 11 points. They've scored 25 goals (24+1 for the shootout) and have allowed 13 for a league-leading +12 goal differential. Sure, we can revert back to last season when they went on a franchise-tying 10-game winning streak in November only to fold and finish 27th in the league as a comparison, but...

more on that later.




Last night the Sabres defeated the Dallas Stars 4-0. The Stars didn't shine very brightly yesterday and they did their best to keep the Buffalo forecheck at bay and throttle their speed. It worked for the first period and early into the second but the Sabres got their mojo on and broke the ice with, what else, a powerplay goal by, who else, Victor Olofsson. It was Buffalo's second powerplay opportunity on the afternoon and they scored their league-leading ninth powerplay goal while upping their conversion rate to a league-leading 42.9%.

In one fell swoop Olofsson's blast made NHL history and also ended the Sabres goalless drought against goalie Ben Bishop. Olofsson cranked home yet another powerplay goal from his home in the left circle and in the process the 24 yr. old rookie set an NHL record as each of his first seven career goals (two last season, five this season) have come with the man advantage. His goal came 6:27 into the second period and ended Bishop's shutout streak versus Buffalo at 156:03 which includes back-to-back shutouts against the Sabres last season. In fact Buffalo hadn't beaten Bishop since he was with the Ottawa Senators, a string of 12 consecutive defeats dating back to March 12, 2012.

The goal itself was typical of Buffalo as they moved the puck around and set Olofsson up for the one-timer, but the setup to that powerplay came via a strong stretch where the Sabres had the Stars pinned in their own zone.

It's something we've seen numerous times this season, sometimes often within a game itself, as the Sabres cranked up the forecheck, got on the cycle and hemmed an opponent in. Buffalo kept the puck in the Stars zone for 41 seconds with the puck leaving only as far as the red line before the Sabres shot it back in and got on the cycle again, this time for over a minute. Buffalo pumped four shots the Stars' way, two of them on goal, before Dallas finally iced the puck. All five Stars skaters were on the ice for a total of 2 minutes, 25 seconds and they were so tired and took so much time to set for the faceoff that they were whistled for a delay of game penalty, which lead to Buffalo's powerplay goal to break the ice.

Afterward Buffalo poured it on with a late second period goal by Sam Reinhart off of a nice feed by Olofsson, an early third period goal by Jeff Skinner on a sweet backhand after Vladimir Sobotka sprung him with a perfect saucer pass, and a Marcus Johansson blast from the point less than two minutes later. From then on it was a matter of hanging on for Carter Hutton's first shutout as a Buffalo Sabre.

In chronological order Buffalo beat Pittsburgh in the season opener as the Penguins had the look of a team still transitioning to the regular season (4-1-0 since their loss to Buffalo) and they pounded a talent-laden, yet highly suspect New Jersey Devils team (0-4-2 on the season.) They lost on the road in overtime to the Columbus Blue Jackets (2-3-0) then proceeded to blow two-goal leads but win in the extra session in consecutive games to Atlantic Division rivals the Montreal Canadiens (2-1-2) and the Florida Panthers (2-2-2.) Yesterday they beat a Stars team who are now at 1-5-1 on the season and have scored 1.86 goals per game, second-worst in the league.

Although the records of their opponents helps to keep things in perspective, Buffalo is winning and their doing so by using speed and pressure to dictate the game. Head coach Ralph Krueger is rolling four lines each with their own identity and all four have contributed in one way or another to the team's overall success and his defense pairings have been strong as the duos have built chemistry between themselves and are really getting to know each other's tendencies on the ice.

Krueger's insistence upon freedom and creativity within a loosely structured system has allowed each of his lines to get into a flow while still sticking to the tenants of his overall philosophy. All forwards play defense and to a man are in full support of each other in every zone. They've had breakdowns in Columbus and in the third period against both Montreal and Florida but other than that they've been solid and on many occasions spectacular.

Buffalo has a lot of talent on the team in core players Jack Eichel, Jeff Skinner, Sam Reinhart and a young Rasmus Dahlin. Eichel is bordering on elite status as he's found another gear under Krueger. The 22 yr. old veteran of four full NHL seasons came back from his worst game at Columbus and followed it up with a tenacious and spectacular four-point performance the next game vs. Montreal. Skinner is doing what he does best--finish--and he's doing it away from Eichel while Reinhart continues to be the quiet one while racking up six points (3+3) in six games. Nineteen year old Dahlin came off of a performance vs. Florida where he was benched for the final 8-plus minutes of the third period and looked brilliant yesterday while flashing all the skating, skill and stickwork that he was drafted first-overall for.

Krueger's also has grinding line that brings it every game, a workhorse duo on defense, role players playing their roles to a 'T' and a goaltending tandem that's locked in.

Then, of course, there's that deadly powerplay.

Last year the Sabres tied a franchise record by winning 10-games in a row and it was an awesome, yet totally unexpected thrill-ride. Every game save for one (Philadelphia) was a one-goal win that had plenty of twists and turns with Buffalo pulling it out in different fashion. However, everyone from eye-test hawks to the analytics community knew that it was unsustainable and it turned out to be correct. What wasn't foreseen was Buffalo's death spiral that took them from first in the NHL on November 27 to 27th in the league at season's end leading to the firing of head coach Phil Housley and the hiring of Krueger.

With everything said, is this 2019-20 Sabres team legit?

The answer right now is much more so than last year's team. Buffalo's core is a year older and their lineup was fortified by the acquisition of a number of players, three of which are making huge contributions right now. Johansson willingly moved from wing to a No. 2 center position and he's been great forming chemistry with Skinner. That's allowed sophomore center Casey Mittelstadt to drop to the bottom-six and grow while playing, which he has done. Defenseman Colin Miller has been an excellent mentor to Dahlin while 20 yr. old defenseman Henri Jokiharju and 29 yr. old Marco Scandella look as if they've been playing together for years. Scandella has never looked this good in a Sabres uniform and he may be playing some of he best hockey in his career.

Buffalo embarks on a three-game west-coast road trip beginning tomorrow night in Anaheim to face off against the Ducks before moving up I-5 to faceoff against the Los Angeles Kings the following night. They finish the trip off with a Saturday night matchup against the San Jose Sharks before returning home to take on those same Sharks next Tuesday and when all's said and done this week, we'll have a better indication as to just how legit this Sabres team is.