PRAGUE — It’s only two games, but it’s tough to imagine a more uninspiring start to the Buffalo Sabres’ season.
One night after the Sabres lost 4-1 to the New Jersey Devils, they returned to O2 Arena in Prague and lost the rematch 3-1. They were outshot 37-18, again came up empty on the power play and have a few new injuries to worry about.
“Find it, fix it, forget about it,” Sabres forward Alex Tuch said. “You have to move on. If you dwell on it too much and look too far ahead, that’s when things spiral out of control. We’re 0-2 to start the year. It’s not the end of the world, but we know we have to be better. Each and every one of us in this locker room needs to elevate and be better. That’s what we’re going to do.”
Under different circumstances, it might be easy to brush off the Sabres’ two losses to the Devils. These games could end up as a footnote in an otherwise successful season. But these losses came on the heels of a summer in which the team brought in Lindy Ruff as its coach, added speed and physicality to the bottom six and spent a lot of time talking about being better at the details of the game. Some of that offseason optimism has faded heading into the home opener against the Kings next Thursday. And as the Sabres leave Prague, they do so with some real reasons for concern.
“We’re going to find out more and more about the group,” Ruff said. “Dealing with adversity is something that can make your team a lot stronger. We’re going to deal with some adversity. Obviously we’re not happy. We had some struggles … We have a lot of work ahead of us. It’s something, you have to take this as a challenge right now.”
The injuries
In the first period, Devils defenseman Brenden Dillon knocked JJ Peterka out of the game with an open-ice hit. Officials initially ruled it as a major penalty but reduced it to two minutes after a replay review. Dillon made contact with Peterka’s head and finished the hit high. It was a hit that should be reviewed by the department of player safety, despite the decision to downgrade it from a major on the ice. After the game, Ruff said Peterka had been diagnosed with a concussion.
Immediately after the hit, Tuch jumped in to fight Dillon. Dillon, who fought seven times last season, had the advantage. But it was an admirable answer from Tuch. Dillon played a chippy game all night, and Tuch was the only one who had a response to it.
“I’m no fighter by any means, but that’s what you have to do,” Tuch said. “That’s what we do in this locker room for our teammates.”
Peterka’s absence is going to test a Sabres roster that was already short on top-end scoring options. With Peterka out, Jordan Greenway jumped onto the top line and Peyton Krebs got minutes on the power play. Peterka isn’t the only injury the Sabres are dealing with, either. Zach Benson didn’t play on Saturday with a lower-body injury. Benson managed to play through the injury Friday night but couldn’t go on Saturday. Add in Nicolas Aube-Kubel, who left the game Friday with a lower-body injury, and the Sabres suddenly have a lengthy injury list.
This could mean that Jiri Kulich, who made his season debut in his home country on Saturday, gets a longer look in the NHL. Ruff said he thought Kulich looked nervous in the game and made some youthful mistakes. But that’s understandable given the circumstances. Depending on the severity of the three injuries, the Sabres may end up needing to recall a forward.
Slow start for the power play
The Sabres’ power play has been a mess to start the season. After going 0-for-4 with the man advantage on Friday night, the Sabres went scoreless on two power-play tries on Saturday. Ruff pointed to the zone entries as the main problem on Friday, and that was a theme on Saturday, too. The top unit has really struggled in that regard. It’s only two games, but it’s not a promising trend after the power play was the main reason Buffalo’s scoring regressed last season. The Sabres promoted Seth Appert from Rochester to run the power play, and Ruff didn’t bring in any assistants from outside the organization. The focus in training camp was on winning more puck battles and getting a better net-front presence on the power play. But the Sabres’ top skaters haven’t been able to enter the zone cleanly to get set up. They didn’t have a single shot on net in two power plays on Saturday.
“It’s really early in the season,” Tuch said. “We haven’t had enough reps in real games honestly. We have to just bear down a little bit. I think we have to support each other a little bit, too. And be predictable for one another, obviously not for the other team, but as much as (we) can for one another and that will help. Losing JJ tonight threw it out of sync. I thought Krebsy came in and worked hard, but it’s still different. We didn’t get the reps with him. We didn’t know how everything was going to work out and that’s what happens. You have to be able to figure it out as the game goes on.”
Where’s the scoring?
In the offseason, general manager Kevyn Adams bet on Buffalo’s top six scorers being able to return to the production they had in 2022-23. He bought out Jeff Skinner, opening a spot for Peterka on the top line. He also left $7 million in cap space unspent. Two games into the season, the scoring depth is already going to get tested with two top-six forwards, Peterka and Benson, out with injuries.
This was the number one question about the Sabres coming into the season. In 2022-23, Buffalo scored the third most goals in the NHL. Last season, Buffalo was 23rd in scoring. Adams didn’t make a meaningful addition to the top of the lineup. Tage Thompson scored on Saturday, but otherwise, the Sabres’ top players have been quiet to start the season. Tuch didn’t have a single shot on net at five-on-five. Neither did Jack Quinn, and Dylan Cozens managed only one shot on net at even strength. It’s much too small a sample, but Buffalo is going to need more from its top lines.
Rasmus Dahlin didn’t make much of an impact for the Sabres across the two games. (Michal Cizek / AFP)
Dahlin quiet through two games
Rasmus Dahlin has 15 shot attempts through two games and only three of those have been on net. On Saturday, he had 12 shot attempts and only one shot on net. He also only has two hits through two games. Dahlin hasn’t hurt the Sabres, but he hasn’t been the difference-maker the Sabres are accustomed to seeing. The only reason this qualifies as a reason for concern is because Dahlin missed a big chunk of training camp with an injury. He was healthy enough to practice in full the entire time the Sabres were in Europe, but he didn’t look like his usual self in these two games. That’s a situation to monitor in the early part of the season.
Familiar issues
Ruff has spoken about how the Sabres need to learn not to lose. By that, he’s talking about the careless plays that set up prime chances for the other team. One of those happened on Saturday when a Dahlin pass to the high slot led to a turnover in the offensive zone. There wasn’t much backchecking, and Mattias Samuelsson misplayed the two-on-one going the other way. Paul Cotter scored to put New Jersey up 2-1. That was a play that looked familiar because turnovers and a lack of attention to detail on the backcheck caused a lot of problems for the Sabres in the last two years. Combine that with the slow start on Friday and it was an uninspiring start to the season. You would have expected the opposite given how last season ended and the coaching change.
