Next Men Up (buffalo sabres)

Buffalo Sabres fans are lashing out at hockey machine revving tension.

Rightly so.

Phil Houlsey's first month on the job as head coach of the team that drafted him into the NHL can be best described in a word:

Mercurial.

Up. Down. Up. Down.

It's one month into the season and yet the Sabres find themselves at a crossroads. Housley's club has earned their 27th place lot in life by way of their 4-8-2 record.

What the H-E-Double Hockey Sticks is wrong with Housley's Sabres?

Where to begin?

Secondary and tertiary scoring is missing in action. Uneven goaltending keeps rearing it's ugly head.

I sincerely believe that Robin Lehner and Chad Johnson are not the cause of the recent failures. The busted Buffalo D corps isn't helping the Sabres goaltending situation.

The way I see it, the Sabres have two fatal flaws:

Opponents are exploiting Buffalo's patchwork quilt of a D corps. The Buffalo power play has run out of juice.

Housley's blue line has been ravaged by injuries.

The Buffalo Sabres have played only 14 games this seen yet have already accumulated 69 man games to injuries, 28 of which have affected defensemen.

“Next man up… has become “next men up… for the Buffalo Sabres and their duct taped together D.

On Saturday, Housley's best defender was added to the injury list.

Rasmus Ristolainen (day-to-day) missed Saturday night's beat drop kick in Dallas due to an “upper body… injury he suffered in Buffalo’s 5-4 win over the Arizona Desert Dogs on Thursday night. With Ristolainen in the press box, Dallas pounced all over Buffalo's AHL-quality blue line and scored a 5-1 victory.

The extent of Ristolainen's injury is not known at this time.

Here Housley’s up-to-the-minute M*A*S*H unit:

Zach Bogosian (lower body, October 5; injured reserve) – 14 games missed Josh Gorges (lower body, October 20; injured reserve) – 7 games missed Nathan Beaulieu (upper body, October 21; injured reserve) – 6 games missed Rasmus Ristolainen (upper body, November 4) - 1 game missed Evan Rodrigues (hand, October 5; injured reserve) – 13 games missed Jacob Josefson (lower body, October 17; injured reserve) – 7 games missed Justin Bailey (lower body, November 2) – 1 game missed

When will Bogosian be returning? Beaulieu? Gorges?

Housley isn't saying.

In the meantime, the struggle is real.

Replacing Ristolainen on the fly on game day in Dallas was a virtual impossibility for Housley. Ken Hitchcock did what all future Hall Of Fame NHL coaches do. He exploited Houlsey's weakness. Hitch implored his forward troops to blitz Matt Tennyson, Taylor Fedun, Justin Falk, Viktor Antipin, Jake McCabe and Marco Scandella. And, boy did they. The shooting Stars were met with little to no resistance by the under-manned Sabres and emerged victorious.

Housley now has hope that Ristolainen will be healthy enough to play against Alex Ovechkin and the Washington Capitals on Tuesday night. Housley and his new D coach Chris Hajt better find a solution to their D zone woes and fast. Housley and Hajt cannot practice their D today as it's an NHL CBA-mandated day off. Were I Houlsey, I'd tell Hajt "meet me in my office at Noon. We have a lot of work to do. We are going to fix this mess".

The Capitals are the 15th ranked offense in the NHL having scored 43 goals for in 14 games played. Ovechkin, Kuznetzov, Backstrom, Oshie and the Caps will kill you if you give them clean zone entries and allow them to crash the blue ice.

Ristolainen's loss hurts Buffalo in every facet of the game. He leads the NHL with 27:09 TOI per game. He plays against the other team's number one line at even strength. He also QBs a power play point and kills penalties.

Monday morning, the Sabres will assemble in preparation for the Caps.

When they do, top organizational D prospect Brendan Guhle better be on the ice at HARBORCenter. Guhle, 20, is exactly what the doctor has ordered for the Sabres in this their time of need. Guhle is mature beyond his years. Guhle exemplifies all of the qualities that Housley looks for in his elite defenseman. Guhle plays with poise and purpose in all three zones. He skates like the wind, both forward and backwards. He completes the breakout pass to forwards on the move. He plays fast. He clears the crease and wins corner battles. He's physically fit and is intelligent. He knows how to defend away from the puck. Instinctively, Guhle knows when to jump in and join the rush and when to hang back and protect the fortress.

Jason Botterill has nothing to lose calling up Guhle. The kid earned a job Buffalo opening night roster by way of his exceptional play in the exhibition games he played. Guhle was Buffalo's best player at September's Prospects Challenge against the Devils, Bruins and Penguins. Guhle was also Buffalo's best defender at development camp in July.

Guhle can't fix everything that is killing the Sabres right now, however, he will infuse immediate hockey intelligence and skill. The kid has grace under pressure, which many of the D corps members lack right now. I'm looking at you, Tennyson, Fedun, and Falk. All due respect, playing three AHL D will only lead to trouble.

Spare me the whole tired narrative of: "Guhle is a left-handed D and the Sabres need a righty".

My answer to that is Guhle is better than Tennyson, Fedun and Falk. Tennyson has zero points in 14 games and is -8 for the season. Tennyson is -5 in his last 5 games. At this point, I'd go so far as to play Guhle on his opposite side. He's a lefty. Big deal. He's better on his backhand than Tennyson, Fedun and Falk are on their forehand.

Another huge area of concern is Buffalo's man advantage. Let's just call it the man DIS-advantage.

Buffalo's power play has been tied up, taken away and help for ransom.

The Sabres PP was #1 in the NHL last season. Today, the Sabres PP is one rung from the basement of the NHL PP rankings.

From 1st overall PP to 29th overall PP in 14 games.

Brutal. Just brutal.

The Buffalo fan base is screaming for massive roster moves and trades.

I'm telling Jason Botterill to pump the brakes and fix what is fixable. Then, if the PP doesn't respond in kind, go ahead and make a trade.

This much is true:

Jack Eichel, Evander Kane, Ryan O’Reilly, Kyle Okposo, Jason Pominville, Samson Reinhart, Rasmus Ristolainen, Jake McCabe and Viktor Antipin haven’t forgotten how to create power play scoring chances. On paper, this is a collection of some of the best and most proven successful PP performers in today’s NHL.

So, why the power outage?

When Housley was hired, he brought in his own coaching assistants. Bob Woods ran the PP for Dan Bylsma. Woods is now running the PP for Bruce Boudreau in Minnesota. Housley hired former LA Kings assistant coach Davis Payne to run his PP and oversee his forwards. Payne has had a full training camp plus 14 games to find success.

Where is it?

Payne's scheme is the 1,000 lb. gorilla in the room.

The Buffalo PP is failing at an 87.5% rate. Save your 12.5% success rate participation award.

I don't blame the talent. I blame Payne's PP scheme. Woods' scheme wasn't broke. Why break it?! Woods' simplified PP attack made opposing PKers back off and collapse. By comparison, Payne's system isn't being respected by opponents. Rather than back down and collapse, Buffalo opponents are attacking the point men and pressuring the walls. The result has been an NHL-leading 6 shorthanded goals against.

Being 6 for 48 on the man advantage is a joke. The refs have handed the Sabres 48 get out of jail free cards and they have squandered 42 of them.

Why?

The. Struggle. Is. Real.

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