The question during the summer about the Buffalo Sabres was how were they going to replace the offense lost by the trade of winger JJ Peterka. The club added depth pieces in wingers Justin Danforth and Josh Doan, and defensemen Michael Kesselring and Conor Timmins, but did not add a top-six forward to replace Peterka’s 68-point output. In his opening remarks at training camp on Wednesday, GM Kevyn Adams’ answer was for his club to give up less goals.
"Scoring is an area that we've done pretty good job, in terms of putting the puck in the net. We have players that can score. To me, it's less about who's replacing the goals and more about how are we not giving up as many and what are we going to do to be better defensively? How are we going to manage the puck better? How are we going to just play a more mature game," Adams said. "We were very intentional about this in the off season, I'm less worried about the talent and the scoring and trying more to get that harder-to-play-against, two-way, veteran players, guys that understand how to play in this league and that was where the focus was."’
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Adams and head coach Lindy Ruff’s expectations are for the club to be more disciplined in their own zone and limit chances, while at the same time expect for youngsters other than top scorers Tage Thompson and Alex Tuch to pick up the goal-scoring slack. The Sabres are expecting a fully healthy Josh Norris to make a big difference, as well as an increased contribution from wingers Zach Benson and Jack Quinn
. "I think there's some ability internally for guys to be elevated. Zach still a young player, but now he has been in the league a couple of years, and learning how the league works." Adams said. "I had a really good conversation at the end of the year with Jack, a heart-to-heart in some ways, in terms of honesty that he owned, where he was deficient in certain ways, and he went to work. I believe in his character, in the work ethic. I'll bet on that kid all day long. So I do expect us to have some bigger production out from both."
This refrain is similar to what was heard two years ago after the Sabres gave up 300 goals against and missed the playoffs by a point. Former coach Don Granato stressed that his club needed to cut down on the goals allowed and buy into a more two-way game. Buffalo did improve defensively, cutting their goals allowed by 56 goals, but their offense also dropped by 50 goals and they missed the playoffs by a larger margin. While there have been some significant changes to the roster in the last two years, the Sabres will have to prove that they can be better at both ends of the ice to improve their chances of making the postseason for the first time since 2011.
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