Record:
January 4-4-2
Heading into this shortened, 56-game season featuring 8 games each against division foes in the newly formed MassMutual East, the Sabres wanted to improve in some specific areas that looked to have accelerated their fall last year. First and foremost was the penalty kill.
Buffalo missed the expanded playoffs by a couple points in the shortened 2019-20 season and the PK was the primary culprit. Their 74.6% kill rate was only .30 of a percentage point better than the Detroit Red Wings, by far the worst team in the league. As the saying goes, your goaltender should be your best penalty killer and last year that aspect failed as a 3.12 overall goals-against average wasn't nearly enough to get the job done.
In the estimation of many, an improved PK, even slightly, may have led to enough added points to break the Sabres playoff drought, which stands at nine years and counting.
Moving to the offensive side of special teams, Buffalo's powerplay last season was worse than the prior year dropping to 20th overall with an 18.9% success rate. Slight upticks in goals-for/game and 5v5 goals/game did little in the goal scoring department as they increased their average by only .10 goals per game.
The Sabres were woeful at generating shots last season (29.3/game good for 30th in the league) and they've shown a marked increase in that department by pumping 32.2 shots/game (7th) through the first month of the season. However, that's offset by a poor shooting percentage which has kept them at the exact same goal-scoring rate as last season (2.80 gf/game.)
It's been a Jekyll and Hyde season thus far (mostly on the Hyde side) and it still may be a bit too early to find any definitive trends other than a much stronger PK and a definitive increase in their faceoff percentage. The Sabres came in at a 55.9% win-rate on the dot to end the month which is second in the league only to the Boston Bruins. New center Cody Eakin leads the Sabres and is fourth in the league (59.7%) for players who've taken at least 125 draws while team captain Jack Eichel sits 19th at 54.5%, which is world's better than his career average of 43.7% prior to this season.
As we watched this team through it's first 10 games of this season, we're still trying to figure out what they're all about. Buffalo has talent up front but often look disjointed and they've got a coach who stresses individual freedom, but wants that done within a defensive structure. Ralph Krueger is the team's fourth head coach under their third general manager since their dive to the bottom of the standings beginning in 2013-14 and as you look over his process post-tank, not much has changed overall. Having said that, no one should count them out this early when you have the likes of Eichel, Taylor Hall and Sam Reinhart leading a solid group of forwards, a revitalized Rasmus Ristolainen who along with young vet Jake McCabe has stabilized the defense, and a talent like defenseman Rasmus Dahlin who's beginning to turn his awful start around. But...they need to get it together quick. There's no time to waste and the sooner they figure out that talent alone won't get them to where they want to be, and the coach figures out how to maximize the talent on hand, the better off they'll be.
Wins
--2018-19: 33 (26th)...(TBL 62)
--2017-18: 25 (31st)...(TBL 54)
--2016-17: 33 (25th)...(WSH 55)
--2015-16: 35 (23rd)...(WSH 56)
--2014-15: 23 (30th)...(ANA 49)
--2013-14: 21 (30th)...(BOS 54)
East/Atlantic Division Standing
--January: 6th...(WSH, PHI)
--2018-19: 6th...(TBL)
--2017-18: 8th...(TBL)
--2016-17: 8th...(MTL)
--2015-16: 7th...(FLA)
--2014-15: 8th...(MTL)
--2013-14: 8th...(BOS)
Eastern Conference Standing
2020-21: N/A
--2019-20: 13th...(BOS)
--2018-19: 13th...(TBL)
--2017-18: 16th...(TBL)
--2016-17: 15th...(WSH)
--2015-16: 14th...(WSH)
--2014-15: 16th...(NYR)
--2013-14: 16th...(BOS)
League standing/Points
--2018-19: 27th/76...(TBL/128)
--2017-18: 31st/62...(NSH/117)
--2016-17: 26th/78...(WSH/118)
--2015-16: 23rd/81...(WSH/120)
--2014-15: 30th/54...(NYR/113)
--2013-15: 30th/52...(BOS/117)
Points Percentage
--2018-19: .463 (27th)...(TBL .780)
--2017-18: .378 (31st)...(NSH .713)
--2016-17: .476 (26th)...(WSH .720)
--2015-16: .494 (23rd)...(WSH .732)
--2014-15: .329 (30th)...(NYR .689)
--2013-14: .317 (30th)...(BOS .713)
Goal Differential
--January: -2 (T-18th)...(COL +13)
--2018-19: -45 (26th)...(TBL +103)
--2017-18: -81 (31st)...(TBL +60)
--2016-17: -36 (24th)...(WSH +81)
--2015-16: -21 (20th)...(WSH +59)
--2014-15 -113 (30th)...(NYR +60)
--2013-14: -91 (30th)...(BOS +84)
Goals/Game
--January: 2.80 (20th)...(MTL 4.13)
--2018-19: 2.70 (23rd)...(TBL 3.89)
--2017-18: 2.41 (31st)...(TBL 3.54)
--2016-17: 2.43 (24th)...(PIT 3.39)
--2015-16: 2.43 (25th)...(DAL 3.23)
--2014-15: 1.87 (30th)...(TBL 3.16)
--2013-14: 1.83 (30th)...(ANA 3.21)
Shots/Game
--January: 32.2 (7th)...(TBL 34.0)
--2018-19: 32.9 (8th)...(CAR 34.4)
--2017-18: 31.2 (20th)...(FLA 34.4)
--2016-17: 30.4 (15th)...(PIT 33.5)
--2015-16: 29.5 (17th)...(PIT 33.2)
--2014-15: 24.2 (30th)...(CHI 33.9)
--2013-14: 26.3 (30th)...(SJS 34.8)
5v5 Goals
--January: 15 (T-14th)...(VAN 30)
--2018-19: 154 (21st)...(TOR 206)
--2017-18: 119 (31st)...(TBL 196)
--2016-17: 126 (28th)...(MIN 187)
--2015-16: 121 (28th)...(DAL 167)
--2014-15: 110 (29th)...(TBL 181)
--2013-14: 96 (30th)...(ANA 190)
Powerplay
--January: 30.8% (7th)...(WSH 44.4)
--2018-19: 19.5 (16th)...(TBL 28.2)
--2017-18: 19.1 (20th)...(PIT 26.2)
--2016-17: 24.5 (1st)
--2015-16: 18.9 (12th)...(ANA 23.1)
--2014-15: 13.4 (30th)...(WSH 25.3)
--2013-14: 14.1 (29th)...(PIT 23.4)
Goals-against/Game
--January: 3.10 (22nd)...(CAR 1.67)
--2018-19: 3.27 (24th)...(NYI 2.33)
--2017-18: 3.39 (29th)...(LAK 2.46)
--2016-17: 2.82 (19th)...(WSH 2.16)
--2015-16: 2.62 (15th)...(ANA 2.29)
--2014-15: 3.28 (29th)...(MTL 2.24)
--2013-14: 2.96 (25th)...(LAK 2.05)
Shots against/Game
--January: 30.4 (19th)...(BOS 22.9)
--2017-18: 32.7 (23rd)...(CAR 28.9)
--2016-17: 34.3 (30th)...(LAK 25.9)
--2015-16: 30.6 (22nd)...(NSH 27.3)
--2014-15: 35.6 (30th)...(LAK 27.0)
--2013-14: 34.3 (28th)...(NJD 25.5)
Penalty Kill
--January: 82.6% (10th)...(COL91.7)
--2018-19: 80.9 (12th)...(TBL 85.0)
--2017-18: 77.9 (22nd)...(LAK 85.0)
--2016-17: 77.6 (25th)...(BOS 85.7)
--2015-16: 82.6 (9th)...(ANA 87.2)
--2014-15: 75.1 (30th)...(MIN 86.3)
--2013-14: 81.4 (20th)...(NJD 86.4)
Faceoff Percentage
--2018-19: 47.9 (T-27th)...(PHI 54.7)
--2017-18: 51.5 (7th)...(CAR 54.1)
--2016-17: 49.6 (17th)...(ANA 54.7)
--2015-16: 49.4 (21st)...(ARI 54.7)
--2014-15: 44.9 (30th)...(BOS 53.6)
--2013-14: 46.8 (29th)...(NSH 53.1)
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