Record
--January: 4-4-2
The Buffalo Sabres started out the season with six new forwards in the mix: Taylor Hall, Eric Staal, Riley Sheahan and what turned out to be a completely new 3rd line to start the season, Cody Eakin, Tobias Rieder and 19 yr. old rookie forward Dylan Cozens. Hall and Rieder have made their presence known through 10 games with Rieder being a pleasant surprise as he's showing speed and scoring as well as a strong 200' game while carrying the bottom-six and helping the penalty kill on the second unit. Although Staal has contributed offensively and looks to be having a positive effect on Cozens, the 37 yr. old has looked his age as he tries to get that heavy Chevy rolling while gaffes in his own zone have been detrimental and still more turnovers have made things extremely difficult on the team.
As for Cozens, he came straight from the 2021 World Junior Championships and hit the ice flying. Although he's made some rookie mistakes and is still getting a feel for the NHL, the game itself doesn't seem to be too fast for him and he's really impressed thus-far earning second-line minutes next to Staal.
Buffalo has really struggled with 5v5 scoring and find themselves near the middle of the pack so far. Considering six of their first 10 games have been one-goal affairs, with two others being losses by two goals via empty-netters against, every goal counts and 5v5 scoring needs to improve or they'll end up on a road that's all too familiar. The Sabres rode two hot streaks early in each of the last two seasons with a similar formula only to fall apart when it mattered.
Right now every game matters as there are only 56 games in the season meaning every point counts. At 4-4-2, Buffalo is right in the middle of the eight-team MassMutual East division despite efforts that have been mostly sketchy save for a couple of good games and one impressive one where they beat the Philadelphia Flyers 6-1. Special teams have been carrying the Sabres as they have the eighth-best powerplay and 10th-best penalty kill, but when it comes to 5v5 they mostly look disjointed.
Head coach Ralph Krueger has some soul-searching to do when putting his lines together as he's caught between a hard-headed belief in players following his system and fashioning his team to his players strengths. Such is the case with winger, Jeff Skinner.
Skinner was a 40-goal scorer before the arrival of Krueger last year and he was noted as much for his 5v5 scoring (191 goals, 5th-most in the league from 2010-11 to 2018-19) as he was for his less-than-stellar defensive game (minus-96, 4th-worst in that same time period.) Since the new coach arrived, Skinner has been Krueger's doghouse under the ruse of wanting balanced scoring amongst as many lines as possible. It hasn't worked out as Skinner scored only 14 goals in 59 games last season (all of them at even strength placing 3rd on the team) and has yet to twinkle the twine this season while playing bottom-six minutes almost exclusively.
These two rams are butting heads and it's not doing anybody any good. However, common sense demands attention to Skinner's 29 goals/82 games career scoring average, his contract which has seven more years at $9 million/season and the fact that he has a no-movement clause. Krueger has resisted giving in thus far but he really needs to do something fast as Skinner looks close to taking the money and running with 46 games to play. I highly doubt the word 'kapitulieren' is in Krueger's motivational book, Teamlife--Beyond Setbacks to Success, but for as worldly as Krueger is, and he's a magnificently well-rounded and intelligent individual, this is the National Hockey League where the salary cap is extremely important, talented players are well-paid and managing egos is the betriebsart in North American professional sports.
In addition, the Sabres are in a division that's widely regarded as the toughest division in the NHL and they have the league's longest playoff drought at nine years, just one shy of the league record. Krueger may need to entertain the thought of Stolz schlucken to give his team the best chance to make it to the playoffs. If he's gonna do it, he needs to do it fast. Though his Sabres are struggling, the race for the fourth spot in the East could be a dog-fight and he'll need to get everything he can out of every player he's got if he wants them to remain in it.
Another thought Krueger might want to entertain involves Skinner taking the top left wing spot next to Eichel (where he had his career-high 40-goal season) and dropping Hall to the second line. In addition to hopefully maximizing what's left of Skinner flailing confidence, the Staal line needs more skill, speed and experience. Victor Olofsson is trying to hold his own 5v5, and he's made great progress in his sophomore campaign, but he's not there yet. Having him move to the right side to help create a third scoring line a isn't bad idea as he can still kill it on the powerplay while providing a top-nine scoring threat. Also in play with that move is the separation of Hall and Eichel. Sure, it looks deadly on paper especially with Reinhart on the right side, but those two love the puck on their stick and we haven't seen a consistently strong, complimentary relationship yet with only one 5v5 goal between them (Eichel.)
Perhaps this might work:
Skinner - Eichel - Reinhart
Hall - Staal - Cozens
Rieder - Lazar - Olofsson
Sheahan - Eakin - Okposo
And we should also keep an eye on Okposo and Casey Mittelstadt with the former looking way past his prime and the latter looking like he's on the upswing.
Buffalo Sabres 2020-21 Individual Stats Leaders
Points
Goals
Assists
Powerplay Assists
Primary Assists
Plus/Minus (Bottom)
Goalies
