The kneejerk reaction to the fact that the Buffalo Sabres play eight of their next 10 games in KeyBank Center might be to cringe, and there is fair reason.
Since the start of the 2013-14 season, the Sabres have been the NHL’s worst home team with a .472 points percentage. With an annual 41-game home schedule, the Sabres haven’t won more than 21 times downtown since going 25-10-6 in 2009-10, their last division championship season.
In the last three full seasons since the Covid-19 campaign, only four of the 48 NHL teams have made the playoffs with fewer than 22 home wins (the Islanders last year, Seattle in 2022-23 and Washington and Los Angeles in 2021-22).
Teams have to pile up points in their home arena, and the Sabres just don’t.
With the highly billed Dallas Stars in town on Tuesday night to start this 10-game stretch that goes through Nov. 14, the Sabres need to keep trending better at home.
People are also reading…
“It’s where a lot of lot of teams will feed off, and we have to become one of those teams that feeds off the home ice and playing in your own building,” head coach Lindy Ruff said after practice Tuesday in LECOM Harborcenter. “One game at a time, but we know that this is an important stretch, for sure.”
The Sabres went 21-19-1 downtown last season, which was actually their best home record since the Covid-19-shortened 2019-20 season (20-11-4). The problem was that it took until mid-February for them to establish anything, as they went 9-3 in their last 12 after the season had mostly slipped away.
The Sabres officially are 1-2 at home this year, counting their opening loss to New Jersey in Prague. They’re 1-1 in Buffalo, with a win over defending Stanley Cup champion Florida, and five of the six periods have been excellent. The problem was the three-goal flameout in the third period of the home opener against Los Angeles.
“That’s how we feel about it, and we’re excited to come back here for a bunch now,” defenseman Connor Clifton said. “The KeyBank Center was rocking, at times, the first two games. It was great. We’ve been trying to get better each day and build what we have in here, bear down a little and when things aren’t going our way, make teams earn what they get.”
Sabres defenseman Connor Clifton, right, knows what it is like to play for a dominant home team.
Clifton knows all about what it takes to have success at home, playing for a Boston Bruins team that was dominant in TD Garden.
In the 2022-23 season, the Bruins set a franchise record for home wins while going 34-4-3. They started the year by setting a club mark for consecutive home wins with 14, and went 22 straight without a regulation loss (19-0-3, which included a New Year’s Eve overtime loss to the Sabres).
The Bruins were 29-9-3 at home in 2018-19, the year Clifton was part of a team that went to Game 7 of the Stanley Cup Final. They were 22-4-9 in 2019-20 and 26-13-2 in 2021-22.
“In Boston, if you weren’t having a good game, it was a ‘B’ game, and you can win with a ‘B’ game,” Clifton said. “If you drop it to a ‘C,’ ‘D’ game, you’re going to lose, every time. Schedules get tough for every team around this league. That’s what makes it fun, and it makes it so hard to play in, too. If you don’t have your legs, you’ve got to bring something else to the table, and find a ‘B’ game.
“Our game in Columbus (Thursday’s 6-4 loss) was not good, and we still had a chance. To me, that was probably a ‘D’ game, and you don’t really win with a ‘D’ game.”
The Sabres have been one of the NHL’s best 5-on-5 teams in the early season, but defensive lapses and an 0-for-21 power play have them lagging at 2-4-1.
“It feels like we’re far ahead of where we were this time last year in the way we’re playing, but a couple games haven’t gone our way, and that’s our fault,” Clifton said. “That L.A. game, for sure. You’d think nine times out of 10, you win that game.
“The other night (Saturday’s 4-2 win in Chicago) was good. We’ve still got to find a way to play a full 60 (minutes), but we jumped them in the first period, and then we just let them back into it. But then we had a great third and finished the game strong.”
Tuesday’s game starts four in a row at home, with other visitors being Detroit (Saturday), Florida (Oct. 28) and the New York Islanders (Nov. 1). Also coming to town in this stretch are Ottawa, Calgary, Montreal and St. Louis.
Stars shoot to top
Dallas has started its season 5-1 and has allowed only nine goals in the six games. The Stars and Winnipeg are the best home teams thus far, at 4-0. Dallas had 113 points last season, one behind the New York Rangers in the Presidents’ Trophy race.
“They’re one of the elite teams in this league,” said Sabres center Ryan McLeod, who beat Dallas in last year’s Western Conference finals while with Edmonton. “So you’ve got to play hard, or they’re going to do their thing.”
The Stars lead the league on the penalty kill at 95.2% (20 of 21). The Sabres remain last on the power play, although they did have some better scoring chances against Chicago.
Practice update
Winger Jordan Greenway, who missed Saturday’s game with a lower-body injury, practiced fully Monday and Ruff said Greenway is a “good possibility” to play Tuesday. Zach Benson skated as an extra in practice and might sit.
