It’s not over, but…
The MoneyPuck site calculates that the Buffalo Sabers have a 6% chance of making the playoffs. The Athletic site is more severe: 3%, mainly due to the quality of the opponents they still have to face. In other words, the Sabers are not dead… but they are not strong. They are still stuck six points behind the Pittsburgh Penguins, the current holders of the last available spot. Although they have one more game to play, they also have to keep the Florida Panthers out of their way, to whom they concede three points. It must be said that they did not help their cause: on February 26, they knocked on the door of retail, but have since then presented a poor record of 4-8-2. The Sabers, however, earned a crucial 2-0 win over the New York Islanders on Saturday.
Traffic in front of the net
The specialized site Evolving Hockey calculates that the goalies of the Buffalo Sabers offered one of the worst performances in the NHL this season. By making the difference between the goals expected and the goals allowed five against five, the formation is indeed ranked 30e rank out of 32, with about fifteen goals allowed “too many”. Considering that the Buffalo attack is in great shape, it will be understood that by erasing some of these unfortunate goals, the spring would undoubtedly be more promising. Cause or consequence of this state of affairs, we observe a singular threesome in front of the net. The Sabers started the campaign with Craig Anderson and Eric Comrie, but Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen stepped in in November after Comrie suffered an injury. When the latter returned, the three masked men were kept in the formation, without any clearly standing out from the others. Comrie, however, shut out the Islanders on Saturday. Will he be the one to face the Canadiens on Monday? We’ll see. However, it would be surprising if Devon Levi was offered a first start. The Quebecer has just arrived from the university ranks and, due to a delay in issuing his work visa, he has only been training with the club since Thursday.
Tage Thompson among the big boys
The title of this paragraph is not a clever reference to Tage Thompson’s 6’6″, but to the extraordinary season he is having. With 44 goals and 89 points already, he has 10 games left to reach the magic thresholds of 50 and 100, respectively. If he succeeded, he would join a very select club in the Sabers, made up only of Pat LaFontaine and Alexander Mogilny. General manager Kevyn Adams has to pinch himself every morning remembering that the 25-year-old winger is tied to his team for the next seven seasons and will pocket an average of 7.1 million in the meantime, a boon for the power player he has become. Special mention also to Jeff Skinner who, alongside Thompson, has just reached 70 points for the first time in his career.
A first Norris in Buffalo?
Not since the franchise’s arrival in Buffalo in 1970 has a Sabers color holder won the Norris Trophy, awarded to the defenseman par excellence of the season. That could soon change over the next few months or years. In his fifth campaign in the NHL, Rasmus Dahlin offers an exceptional performance. With 65 points to his credit, he is fifth among defensemen in the league, four points behind second place held by Josh Morrissey. Presumably those voting for the Norris award will have a soft spot for Erik Karlsson, who could become the first defenseman in 30 years to score 100 points. But with his solid defensive game and the gargantuan workload he puts in – 25 min 39 s of average use – Dahlin will certainly be “in the conversation”, as they say in the trendiest living rooms.
Recruits from hell
At the heart of yet another reconstruction, the Sabers have relied on three rookies throughout the season so far. They are also the only team in the NHL to have seen three first-year players play at least 60 games. The most prolific of the trio is obviously Owen Power, the very first player selected in the 2021 draft. The young 20-year-old prodigy is the league’s leading rookie defenseman in scoring (28 points), tied with Ottawa Senators Jake Sanderson. Ottawa. Power, however, plays more than his competitor (23 min 44 s per game) and has a nice differential of +8. He will probably be a candidate for the Calder Trophy. They’re less talked about otherwise, but forwards Jack Quinn and JJ Peterka, with 34 and 29 points, respectively, seem to have settled in Buffalo for good. If this team could (finally) find a goalkeeper capable of stopping pucks, it will be good for a very long time.
The duel between the Canadiens and the Sabers, in Buffalo, will take place this Monday at 7 p.m.