It’s a Sabres game day! It’s also a chance to see the probable first line of your 2021-2022 Buffalo Sabres.
The Sabres’ opening line of the 2020-2021 season featured a $23.2m trio comprised of Taylor Hall, Jack Eichel and Sam Reinhart. This season’s top line of Jeff Skinner, Casey Mittelstadt and Victor Olofsson will cost the Sabres $16.5m which is buoyed substantially by the $9m per year contract of Skinner. Fans will get their first glimpse of that line tonight at KeyBank Center for 7 pm puck-drop against the Pittsburgh Penguins. It’s natural to assume that this line will be considerably worse than the one that opened last season, and the underlying numbers would almost certainly tell you that last season’s top line would wipe the floor with this year’s group, although the actual counting numbers tell a different story.
The first line last season ended up getting broken up prior to Jack Eichel’s injury, but let’s take a look at what that trio of players accomplished prior to the former-captain’s departure: Jack Eichel played 21 games last season and scored 2 goals last season while dealing with all sorts of maladies, ailments and ennui. Taylor Hall infamously managed a paltry total of 2 goals during the same span before being dealt at the trade deadline, and Sam Reinhart managed 9 goals in 21 games before Eichel left.
That’s right: $23m bought the Sabres 13 goals in 21 games between that trio.
Every talking head from every corner of the hockey universe will tell you that this year’s Sabres will be worse than last year’s team due to the key departures, despite the fact that the stars that the Sabres counted on last year – with the exception of Sam Reinhart – were pretty bad. Hall and Eichel managed four(!) total goals in 42 combined games! That’s unbelievably, terribly bad, and yes, I am rehashing this ancient history for a reason.
It’s almost inconceivable to me that the trio of Skinner, Olofsson and Mittelstadt could produce less than that. Say what you will about Skinner being overpaid, he can still skate and shoot the puck, and now he can do so in a more freewheeling system. Olofsson is going to get his goals on the power play, if not 5-on-5. Mittelstadt should be able to manage more than two goals in 21 games. So sure, you can tell me that this team is worse than last year in terms of big names and high-end talent, as well as in net, but you can’t tell me that this year’s trio will score fewer than 13 goals through 21 games. You’d think that the Sabres lost Alex Ovechkin and Wayne Gretzky in the same year if you listen to the national voices discuss the line-one downgrade year-over-year.
That’s absurd. These guys aren’t dead yet.
Frankly, it’s becoming a little bit sickening to read the constant stream of obituaries for this team before the season has even begun. Let’s see some games from this young group before assuming that they can’t meet the incredibly low standard set by Ralph Krueger and company last season before declaring the team dead in the water. Hopefully the young leadership group of the Sabres can use the constant negativity to coalesce together and surprise the hockey world. No, I’m talking about making the playoffs, however, they can avoid finishing last if they put a consistent effort on the ice every night and if the top line can score more than 13 goals in 21 games to start the season. The Sabres will need this line to develop chemistry early and learn each other’s tendencies and habits if the team is to avoid being the laughingstock of the league for an 11th straight year.
Let’s take it a step further with the second line comparison. Staal and Cozens totaled 7 total goals for the Sabres for the entirety of their time with the Sabres last year. The combination of Cozens being a year older along with the potential emergence of winger JJ Peterka could see that duo manage higher total in the first month of the season, let alone an entire season, not to mention what Tage Thompson or Anders Bjork could add on top of that.
Could they be absolutely awful due to sub-par goaltending? Sure. Let’s just wait and see how the key pieces come together before declaring the season dead already.
That evaluation process continues tonight.
************
Thoughts from last night’s game:
- Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen could be in the mix for one of the two goaltending spots after stopping 18 shots in the first period last night but he faded as the game went on, although it should be acknowledged he didn’t get much help. Dell was incredibly shaky on Wednesday and no one has seen 40-year-old Craig Anderson play yet, so it looks like Dustin Tokarski is leading the pack with his solid 30 minute opportunity. The Sabres should probably start looking at the waiver wire for goalies.
- Baffling decision by Don Granato to break up Peterka and Cozens when they provided excellent entertainment against the Blue Jackets.
- The Red Wings announcers did a good job roasting the Sabres for being generally inept over the past 10 years. The Sabres opted not to provide their own feed of the game which hilariously flies in the face of Kevyn Adams’s edict to connect with the fans better. The fans generally think the Sabres organization is inept, so I suppose the Wings’ announcers did a good job connecting with the Sabres faithful. The feed was otherwise borderline unwatchable with weird musical interludes and highlights intruding during game play.
- Lots of choppy plays and whistles made this game somewhat of a snoozer. The Sabres will likely trim their roster in the coming days and that’s a good thing. The Sabres need to start narrowing in on some defense pairs and allow the offense and defense to get on the same page.
- Tage Thompson had a strong game as he frequently showed a willingness to use his size. Thompson was boxing players out on the defensive side of the ice and he used his big frame to shield the puck and create opportunities in offensive zone. The Sabres need him to take a step and Thompson may be ready to oblige.
- The Red Wings announcers were raving about Cozens all night. They frequently called him the best player on the ice.
Buffalo Sabres Blogger • 
Join the Discussion:
»