The Buffalo Sabres are looking for their first win in nearly two weeks as they take on the Dallas Stars in a 2 p.m. matchup at the American Airlines Center. Here are some of the major storylines for both teams heading into the game.
Combo Breaker: The Sabres haven’t won a game since the day after Valentines Day when they beat the Islanders 6-3. In the five game since, they’ve been outscored 24-10 en route to five consecutive regulation losses. The Stars are 6-3-1 in their last 10, and they are coming off a shootout loss to the Nashville Predators on Thursday night.
In Net: It figures to be Craig Anderson who will get the start for Don Granato’s squad after Dustin Tokarski played Friday night’s game. Anderson has had a rough month as he’s compiled a record of 1-4-0 in February with an .884 save percentage.
Veteran advantage: The Stars are a fairly old team, with Joe Pavelski occupying a dual role as the oldest player on the team at 37, as well as the team’s points leader with 54 points in 51 games. Joining him are fellow veterans Tyler Seguin (30), Jamie Benn (32), Bradon Holtby (32) Alexander Radulov (35), Anton Khudobin (35), Andrej Sekera (35), and Ryan Suter (37).
Sweet ‘17: The 2017 draft was very good to the Dallas Stars who have three difference-making 22-year-olds on the team all from that draft: third-overall pick Miro Heiskanen, 26th overall pick Jake Oettinger, and second-round pick Jason Robertson. Oettinger leads all goalies on the team with a .921 SV%, Robertson has 47 points in 43 games, and Heiskanen leads all Dallas defenders in points. That’s an excellent draft.
Where They Stand: The Stars are currently two points out of the 8th and final playoff wildcard position currently occupied by the Edmonton Oilers. A win today by the Stars would give both team identical 29-20-3 records, though Edmonton would remain ahead in the standings as they have 24 regulation wins to Dallas’s 18. The Sabres are 15th in the Eastern Conference and 28th in league standings. They, uh, are not competing for a playoff spot.
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Much has been made about the Sabres seemingly heading in the right direction this season with the emergence of young players like Tage Thompson and company, along with the rebirth of Jeff Skinner and Kyle Okposo, but perhaps the wrong lesson is being learned here. Rather than doubling down on young players for next season, perhaps the Sabres would be wise to shelf a young guy or two in the minors and load up on useful veteran talent if they actually want to be a competitive team next year.
For the purposes of discussion, we’ll use the Stars as the level of competitive that is both attainable and realistic. They are just outside of the playoffs, and yet, with a couple of wins in a row, they could leapfrog another team and find themselves right back in.
The Stars template, such as it is, is heavily reliant on older players while allowing the younger wave of talent to play key roles. Now the Stars are by not exactly a franchise to model success around as they’re hovering right around the edge of the playoff picture, but it does offer a blueprint for how the Sabres could be competitive as soon as next year.
Up front, Kyle Okposo is essentially giving the Sabres what Jamie Benn gives the Stars, and Alex Tuch is currently providing the same benefit that Joe Pavelski gives to the Stars, but the Sabres could sure use a guy like Roope Hintz who can put up 43 points in 49 games.
The Stars have their young goaltender Oettinger on track to play around half of their games this year, which is probably what the Sabres would have liked from Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen this season. Behind Oettinger, the Stars have Brayden Holtby who has a .912 SV% across parts of 23 games. The Sabres have not gotten anything approaching that level of stability from their veteran net minders.
The discrepancy between the two franchises in terms of a veteran talent gap is most evident on defense. The Stars are chock full of established players like Ryan Suter, Jani Hakanpaa and Esa Lindell to complement their young, budding superstar in Heiskanen. Benn’s acquisition looks even better for them in retrospect as John Klingberg can offer inconsistent play from year-to-year. Rather than plug and play a young guy, they went out and landed an established player in Suter who can still play the game at a pretty high level.
Likewise, Hakanpaa is a nice, steady veteran who provides some defensive cover. No one is going to confuse him with a superstar, but the Sabres could really use a player or two like him. They don’t have a veteran presence who can take care of the defensive zone.
Chasing the modest level of talent that is Roope Hintz, Brayden Holtby, Ryan Suter and Jani Hakanpaa could be the difference between another lost season and one that has the Sabres competing well into March. There’s no reason put off moves like that.