Are you still wondering why the Buffalo Sabres are only 11-15-2 and are ranked 27th in the NHL standings today?
Their margin for error is razor thin due to their -11 goal differential.
The Sabres have only scored 69 goals for in their first 29 games of the season. That's an average of 2.38 goals for per game. The good news is that the Sabres have scored 20 power play goals so far this season. The bad news is that they have scored only 41 goals while 5-on-5.
Seemingly, the Sabres are giving up a goal for very goal they score.
That's the kind of stuff that gives NHL head coaches acid reflux and shortness of breath.
No lead is safe for the Sabres right now. They are either fighting to get back into games or they are hanging on for dear life to preserve a lead.
Did you stay up to watch the Calgary game on Thursday night?
If you did, you saw a microcosm of all that is ailing the Sabres this season.
Their goalies are good but not good enough right now.
Also, the Buffalo D go through segments inside games where they fall prey to an aggressive two-man fore check by the opponent. Before you know it, the Buffalo D turns over a puck and the opponent uses it to create zone time and puck possession. What we are seeing now that we didn't see a month ago are the quality scoring chances that the Sabres D and forwards are handing over to their opponents on a nightly basis.
How many 2-on-1 down low plays do the Sabres D have to be victimized by before they correct the problems?
The plan of correction is a work in progress right now as there are very few examples of the D and goalies working together inside shifts. Seemingly, when the D breaks down the goalies are there to make the save. When the goalies cough up chances against and long rebounds the D are having to work at a frantic pace to clear the zone.
There appears to be no harmony between the goalies and the D right now.
Winning teams have D and forwards who work in lock step with there tenders. Not the Sabres.
We saw multiple examples of it in Calgary.
After falling down 2-0 after 40 minutes of play, Rasmus Ristolainen scored a natural hat trick in the third period. Ristolainen forced the score to 2-2 and 3-3 ties. Ristolainen's heroics were flushed straight down the crapper when Sean Monahan scored a back breaker of a game winning goal just 55 seconds after Ristolainen's hat trick marker, his seventh of the season.
Where were the two Buffalo D-men on the Granlund goal with 7 seconds remaining in the second period? Where?
On the GWG, Monahan was given carte blanch to drive through the neutral zone with no resistance at the Buffalo blue line. Rather than aggressively jump Monahan above the face off circle, the Buffalo D allowed Monahan to use his speed and skill to get into position to throw a pedestrian puck past Johnson.
Of course, Johnson will wear the goat horns for allowing the regrettable game winning goal, but Josh Gorges and Ristolainen also deserve blame.
Soft goals against and poor defensive zone play by the D and forwards killed Buffalo in Vancouver, Edmonton and Calgary. It's no surprise that they went oh for three on the western roadie against struggling Western Conference teams.
What irks me is that those were three winnable games. The Sabres should have earned at least 4 points on the road. They needed a regulation win or a loser point in order to infuse some into their room. Instead, they failed. Miserably.
Now, they return home empty handed.
The degree of difficulty increases exponentially because the LA Kings, Detroit Red Wings, Anaheim Ducks and Chicago Blackhawks are the next four opponents. Four of their next five games will be played on home ice.
The Sabres will get a one week break after the Chicago matinee on 12/19. They won't play again until Boston travels to Buffalo on Boxing Day.
Between now and then, Sabres head coach Dan Bylsma and GM Tim Murray will be having some serious discussions about their current roster.
Subjects to be discussed include: What to do with the goaltending? Is the blue line strong enough to compete every night? Where is the primary, secondary and tertiary scoring?
At this current pace, the Sabres will find themselves in 30th place overall on Christmas Day.
There will not be no pity parties nor excuses being made for the poor outings out west.
The Buffalo Sabres are mired in a goaltending and defensive crisis right now.
The tandem of Chad Johnson and Linus Ullmark continue to trend downward with their inconsistent play. The Johnson-Ullmark duo have allowed 80 goals against in their 29 combined games played. Their combined 2.76 goals against average ranks them 21st in the NHL heading in to Friday night's action.
Johnson is the NHL's 48th ranked goalie in terms of save percentage. Ullmark ranks #41 in the NHL.
In his 19 games played, Chad Johnson is 7-9-1 and carries a 2.54 GAA and .906 save percentage. Johnson has allowed 45 goals on 481 shot attempts.
Linus Ullmark is 4-6-1 has a bloated 2.85 GAA and .909 save percentage. Ullmark has allowed 31 goals on 340 shot attempts.
Remember that guy named Jhonas Enroth?
Jhonas will return to Buffalo with his LA Kings on Satuday night. Enroth ranks #2 in the NHL right now in terms of save percentage (.962) and GAA (1.19).
Philly's Michal Neuvirth is #6 in the NHL with his .938 save percentage and 10th with his 1.99 save percentage.
The moral victory for Sabres goalies is that they are barely doing better than 59th ranked Anders Lindback and his .900 save percentage.
U.S. Thanksgiving has come and gone. Bylsma and Murray have made their list and checked them twice. They know which players are naughty and nice. Bylsma and Murray now now know what their pluses and weaknesses are. They know which players they can trust and those that they cannot seem to get a handle on. The majority, if not all NHL GMs have been playing the cell phone game with their peers. The groundwork for trades has been laid.
There is a shortage of salary cap space available in the NHL right now. Many teams are either at or are scraping their cap ceiling which means that if a trade would be executed it would have to be a dollar out, dollar in type trade.
Thus, the deafening silence in the NHL trade market.
Murray has been searching high and low for a veteran left D since Johnny Oduya accepted the UFA contract for the Dallas Stars last July.
The Sabres blue line is better when Mark Pysyk is playing. He is listed as week-to-week. Bylsma plays the Ristolainen-Gorges duo as his top pair. Zach Bogosian has added needed depth since returning from injury three weeks ago. The Buffalo top three group is solid. They need help in slots 4-6. Pysyk certainly helps Jake McCabe play better, however, the youngsters struggle when not paired together. Cody Franson is getting better on the defensive side of the puck and is a solid #5. Mike Weber missed multiple weeks after he underwent a knee procedure in November. Weber is still trying to find his rhythm after his long layoff. Carlo Colaiocovo has been a gritty worker but I like him as my #7.
Murray has had his eye on Anaheim's Cam Fowler and Hampus Lindholm. He has also scouted Winnipeg's Toby Enstrom. There are other lefties that Murray could trade for that would add immediate value to the Buffalo blue line.
Murray said earlier this month that he isn't going to make a trade for a young left D just to sit down a young left D. He wants to add a left D who can immediately step in and take the Buffalo D core up a notch.
Murray's ready to deal. The impediment is that that 16 NHL teams have $3 million or less in available salary cap space today. So, Murray waits, and waits, and waits for a trade partner to emerge from the cluttered landscape of horse traders.
The NHL Board of Governors met in California earlier this week.
NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman said next year's salary cap may increase $3 million. Bettman said the range is a "very, very, very rough projection" and will be based on several factors, including the diving Canadian dollar. The 2015-16 NHL salary cap is set at $71.4 million this season, with a floor of $52.8 million. In the 2015-16 model, the upper limit would be $74.4 million and the the floor would then be $55 million.
The NHL holiday roster freeze goes into effect on December 19. It will run through December 27. Per NHL CBA rules, no trades, waiver moves or loans will be allowed in the moratorium window.
For two months, I've been imploring Tim Murray to make a trade. Or two trades.
Murray cannot continue to use the Johnson-Ullmark duo as a BandAid to patch the wound caused by Robin Lehner's high ankle sprain injury. Lehner was injured eight weeks ago and as is the normal couse of action, his ankle isn't healing at the pace that the Sabres had anticipated that it would, Lehner suffered a setback two weeks ago which has moved back the original prognosis of 8-10 weeks recovery time. At this rate, we may not see Lehner on the ice again until early to mid-January. What will Lehner's physical and respiratory conditioning be like when he returns? He wasn't in great shape at the time of his high ankle sprain. Lehner has been off the ice for 8 of the 12 months in the calendar year of 2015. He was concussed by a collision with former Ottawa teammate Clarke MacArthur on February 14. His concussion was so serious that his neurologists would not let me skate or train until they finally gave him clearance in early August. That six months off the ice cause Lehner to lose his sharpness and overall hockey conditioning. He was just finding his way back during training camp but was injured again on October 8.
What if Lehner returns in early January and he needs 2-3 weeks to get his game back in order?
Are Bylsma and Murray willing to lose games and struggle while Lehner gets his “A… game back? Are they willing to pencil in Johnon and Ullmark and roll the bones?
My take:
Johnson-Ullmark have played well at times for Buffalo. We seen glimpses of brilliance from each goalie. We have also seen periods of indecision, poor technique and distraction which have contributed to poor goals against at critical junctures inside games.
I like Johnson as a 20 game backup goalie. I've seen bad habits creep into his game in the past two weeks. Is he tired? Fatigued? I would not blame him if he was. He has played a lot of hockey in the past two months. He likely needs time off to get back to practicing his technique, tracking pucks and playing efficient angles. Johnson looked exhausted to me in the third period in Calgary. He labored to get up off the ice after making a sequence of saves. At times, he looks like he is doing yoga in his crease because of all of the time he spends on his side, back and stomach. I need my starting goalie to stay upright and when he commits to his butterfly, I need him to pop back up to his blades swiftly and without hesitation. Johnson, in my opinion, has some noise in his game right now. He needs to work on it in practice.
In my opinion, Ullmark needs to go down to Rochester to work on his technique and puck tracking. He tends to lose his composure during goal mouth scrambles and he likes to resort to flopping on his belly to cover pucks. This is a dangerous way to play the net because if you don't make the save, you are out of position and the net is wide open. Ullmark is a solid prospect, owever, he is not Dominik Hasek. The scouting report says to crowd his crease, get in the blue ice and make Ullmark and his D anxious. Rattle him early and often and he will lose his focus. He needs to feel good about his game again. Playing 30 games in Rochester will help restore his technique and consistency.
It's December 11. I'm hoping that Tim Murray will shock the hockey world by trading for a goalie and a left handed D in the next eight days. Waiting until early January to address personnel issues may just slam the door on Buffalo qualifying for a playoff spot this season.