Sabres Scoring Issues Continue During Recent Stretch

The Buffalo Sabres finish up their homestand on Wednesday against the Tampa Bay Lightning, hoping to go .500 after losses to the Ottawa Senators and Vegas Golden Knights. The Sabres, in both games, got excellent goaltending from Colten Ellis, but managed only one goal and struggled on the power play. 

In Sunday’s loss, Buffalo dominated the opening 20 minutes, but could not beat Knights goalie Adin Hill on 14 shots. The Sabres had three opportunities on the man advantage in the second period, and gave up a short-handed breakaway goal to Mitch Marner and an even strength marker from former Sabre Jack Eichel. Beck Malenstyn narrowed the lead to 2-1 early in the third, but Tomas Hertl scored just 1:17 later to re-establish the Vegas lead and stifled any thoughts of a comeback. 

"We  made  some  poor  decisions," Sabres head coach Lindy Ruff said. "(In) the  Ottawa  game,  we  made  some  poor  decisions.  We  had  a  really  perfect first  period; (we) just  needed  to  carry  that  on.  I  think  we  thought  our  power  play  was  going  to  be  easy.  I'll  give (Vegas) a  lot  of  credit.  They  did  a  great  job  in  shot  lanes.  They  blocked  a  lot  of  shots  around net  front.....we  had  roughly  six  to  10  opportunities  in  that  same  area  that  just  needed  to  be  a  little  harder."

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The Sabres continue to struggle to find their offensive mojo. The 7-6 win over Anaheim was against one of the worst defensive clubs in the NHL (29th in the NHL) and featured a natural hat trick from Tage Thompson. Their 5-2 win over Columbus was against a club playing in the second of back-to-back gamesm but they only scored one even strength goal against San Jose (who have given up 69 goals this season - 30th in the NHL), and in losses to the Sens and Golden Knights.  

GM Jarmo Kekalainen has to be looking for some offensive help in the trade market, but deals do not normally start happening until after us Thanksgiving. Short of Dylan Larkin having a change of heart about playing in Buffalo, the Sabres may have to remain patient, or be willing to pay a steep price to teams like Chicago and Pittsburgh, who according to Elliotte Friedman are beginning to explore making deals earlier than usual. 

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