Remarkably, the Buffalo Sabres are coping with life without two of their top offensive producers.
Life without Jack Eichel and Evander Kane has not been bluer than blue.
If you throw out the 4-0 white-washing suffered at the hands of the Minnesota Wild last Thursday night, the Sabres have played pretty damn well. At 3-3-2, the Sabres have newfound success in their man advantage performers.
How have they done it without Eichel and Kane?
Eichel's high ankle sprain continues to mend. Eichel is two and a hlaf weeks into his recovery period and may and be ready by Black Friday when Buffalo visits Washington.
Kane's cracked ribs are said to be healing on schedule. There is no official time table set for Kane's return to the lineup.
The Sabres have found inspiration and frequent goal scoring via their power play which now has scored eight power play goals in eight games.
The Buffalo power play has helped to off set the large losses created by teh Eichel and Kane absences,
All eight Buffalo Sabres power play goals have been scored by their first unit.
Ryan O'Reilly, Matt Moulson, Kyle Okposo, Samson Reinhart and Rasmus Ristolainen have been outstanding on Buffalo first unit power rangers.
Ristolainen has seven points in eight games played six of his seven total points are power play assists,
In eight games played, Moulson has scored five points on the power play. Moulson has scored four power play goals and an assist. Moulson has yet to record an even strength point.
Of Ryan O'Reilly's seven total points in eight games played, two goals and two assists have come on the power play.
Kyle Okposo has scored seven total points in seven games played with one goal and three assists on the power play.
Samson Reinhart has four total points with one goals and two assists coming on the man advantage.
Add it all up, and Dan Bylsma's first power play unit is now respenisible for scoring 22 total points on 8 PPGs and 14 assists.
The Sabres do their best PP work on home ice where they have scored 3 PPG in 11 attempts (27.3%) in 3 games played. The Buffalo PP does work on the road where they are 5 for 21 (23.8%).
The Buffalo power play enters Tuesday's action tied with Toronto for sixth place in the NHL. The Sabres are clicking at a 25% efficiency rating.
In 2015-16, Buffalo's power play finished 12th overall in the NHL with it's 48 PPG in 254 PP attempts (18.9% ) success rate.
Surprisngly, the Sabres have yet to getpower play production it's second unit.
Bylsma has to be happy about his overall special teams play. His power play is humming along and ranks in the top 10 on the penalty kill, having killed 26 of 30 penalties (86.7%) to rank seventh among all NHL teams.
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Evander and Penelope Teryn Kane wish you aHappy Halloween.