BUFFALO, N.Y. — The Buffalo Sabres have themselves on a nine-game run that has them in third place in the Atlantic Division and a playoff spot.
Buffalo came home from California winning all three games, but there are many reasons for this 7-2-0 record.
Goaltending has been key. Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen has won five straight games and if you don’t count the Montreal game which he only played 40 minutes in because he had gotten hurt in practice, Luukkonen has stopped 154-of-162 shots in six games. That’s a .951 save percentage.
It also shows the Sabres are defending as a team better as that’s a very manageable 27 shots against per game.
James Reimer played his first game as a Sabre on Saturday in San Jose and picked up right where Luukkonen had left off.
He made the save of the year on Macklin Celebrini spinning in the crease and gloving the puck down. Had that gone in, it would’ve given the Sharks a 3-1 lead, and maybe the Sabres wouldn’t have been able to come back and win.
Reimer finished with 31 saves in that game winning 4-2. It was only his third game since training camp started in September.
Lindy Ruff has his team buying into his defensive system. He said when he arrived this was non-negotiable and he wasn’t kidding. Not only are they defending better, but they’re killing plays and turning it into fast transition and offense.
Owen Power is second in the NHL amongst defensemen with 15 even strength points trailing Cale Makar of the Colorado Avalanche by just one point.
Not only is Power No. 2, but Bo Byram is third. Power, Byram, Rasmus Dahlin, Connor Clifton, Mattias Samuelsson, and Jacob Bryson have 14 goals and 42 assists for 56 points. That has helped the Sabres jump to 13th in NHL goal scoring with 3.24 goals per game.
Another huge reason for this nine-game streak is special teams.
Early in the season, the Sabres were in the low twenties on both the power play and the penalty kill. Now, Buffalo owns the longest streak in the NHL with a power play goal in seven straight games and has killed 31-of-34 penalties in the nine games. That’s No. 1 in the NHL during that time period. The power play is fourth.
Only the Toronto Maple Leafs have a better record than the Sabres at 7-1-0.
Tage Thompson has missed five games with his injury and Buffalo is 4-1-0. If you’re going to be a good team, you have to find different ways to win hockey games. They have found a way to get four games to overtime and have lost one, won two in overtime, and won one in a shootout. This is a place where they have to be better.
They need to get some of these close regulation losses to overtime. Then you’re assured of one point and you have the opportunity to play for another.
Last season the New York Islanders ended up in the playoffs because they were able to earn 16 loser points. The Sabres were near the bottom of the league with six. If they had 16 like the Islanders, they would’ve made the playoffs.
Sportsnet in Canada did some research that dates back to the 2005-06 season. They found that since then, just under 77% of the teams that are in a playoff spot on Thanksgiving make the playoffs.
By Thursday, Buffalo will have played 26.8% of their games. If they’re not still in a playoff spot by then, they will be very close. Buffalo has just one game before then, but it’s against the second-best team in the NHL, the 13-3-4 Minnesota Wild. Minnesota is stellar away from home going 9-1-3. Buffalo is 6-4-0 playing in Buffalo this season.
In the past at Thanksgiving, the Sabres are around seven points out of the playoffs with six teams to leap over to get to a playoff spot.
I don’t have a crystal ball to know if the Sabres are going to make it this season, but at least things are a lot different as we watch how it unfolds.
