Wanna blog? Start your own hockey blog with My HockeyBuzz. Register for free today!
 

Cuts Like A Knife

November 18, 2019, 8:51 PM ET [4 Comments]
GARTH'S CORNER
NHL news by Garth • RSSArchiveCONTACT
It's been a classic tale of split in personalities for the first two months of the 2019-20 Buffalo Sabres.

The Sabres were first overall in the NHL standings in October. Today, they are struggling mightily to stabilize their course.

After a sizzling 8-1-1 in the first month of their Golden Anniversary season, Ralph Kreuger's young Sabres have been flatter than a pancake in the month of November.

The Sabres have earned just six of the 20 points that have been available to them in November and are currently mired in a 2-6-2 slump.

The Sabres were +14 goal differential in October and are -14 in November having scored just 21 goals while allowing 35 goals against.

The Buffalo power play was #1 with a bullet in the NHL in October after converting on 12 of 39 man advantage opportunities.

In November, the Sabres power play is 2 for 26 and struggling. The Sabres are currently 21 for 29 on the penalty kill in November after killing 23 of 30 in October.

There was a time not that long ago when the Buffalo Sabres were a healthy team.
Not so anymore.

To date, the Sabres have lost 86 man games to injury and number is about to increase dramatically. The Sabres' forward depth has been depleted due to injuries in the past five games.

Defenseman Zach Bogosian's surgically repaired hip has made excellent healing progress. Bogosian has missed the first 20 games of the season. However, the team upgraded Bogosian to day-to-day on Monday. Bogosian may make his season debut on the road trip to Florida later this week.That's the only good news.

On Saturday night, Kyle Okposo suffered a concussion against Ottawa and was forced to miss the game in Chicago on Sunday night. Okposo has suffered four concussions in the past four seasons and is now out indefinitely. Okposo return symptom free from this latest concussion? There is no way to predict the future. The only thing that matters right now is Okposo's health and well being as a human being. Hockey will have to wait.

Forward Tage Thompson was called up to replace Okposo and suffered an upper body injury in his first game of the season agaisnt the Blackhawks on Sunday night. Thompson is now on the shelf of the nexxt 4-5 weeks.

Forward Vladimir Sobotka (lower body) has missed 4 games and will sidelined for the next five weeks.

Forwards Marcus Johansson (upper body) is listed as days to day and has missed 3 games.
Johan Larsson (upper body) has misse dthe last two games.

Johansson and Larsson will not play against Minnesota on Tuesday night in Buffalo.

Defenseman Matt Hunwick (neck) has missed 20 games and counting.
Kreuger spoke with media after Monday's practice. The glass is always half full in Kreuger's world.

"Losing a forward a game now for five games in a row has been quite disruptive. But the guys are working hard to find the right path. It's a different kind of challenge, but it's a good one for us to get to know our ability to adjust and also get to know new players."

The injuries have ravaged the forward depth. On Monday, Kreuger rolled 11 forwards and 9 at practice. The D corps was so over-crowded that Bogosian took reps at forward

Jason Botterill has slim pickings in Rochester should he opt to call up a forward. J-S Dea and Andrew Oglevie are the only two forwards available right now because Tage Thompson, Curtis Lazar and Rasmus Asplund have already been promoted to Buffalo.

Botterill has multiple trade irons in the fire. The time is appropriate for Botterill to trade a defenseman or two for a top six and a bottom six forward.

Prior to the injury insect biting Buffalo on the ass, Botterill was dealing from a position of strength with his NHL GM peers calling him regularly to try to convince Botterill to trade away a defenseman. Botterill has nine defensemen fighting for practice reps. Colin Miller has been a healthy scratch for the past three games. Botterill is obvioulsy showcasing Marco Scandella and other defensemen for a future trade. Botterill has been doing his diligence by scouting forwards in both conferences. Botterill seemingly hasn't liked the trade opportunties that have been presented to him so he stood pat. The Buffalo GM can't sit around and wait any longer.

Trading for a top six and bottom six forward will serve as the tourniquet to stop the bleeding. For as brutal as the Sabres have played at times in November, they are still very much in the playoff hunt.

Botterill owes it to his team to add more even strength and power play scoring. The Buffalo PK has been weakened due to the injuries to highly effective penalty killers Marcus Johansson, Vlad Sobotka and Johan Larsson.





The Sabres will host the Minnesota Wild on Tuesday night. The Wild find themselves occupying the basement of the Western Conference standings. First year Wild GM Bill Guerin has had two months to assess his roster. He now knows what regular players and prospects he wishes to move forward with. Botterill would be wise to deal somee of his defensive depth for a top six winger. Jason Zucker certainly would add needed scoring punch to the Buffalo lineup.

Zucker, 27, scored 14 of his 21 goals last season at even strength. The winger has scored 2 even strength and 3 power play goals this season. In 2017-18, Zucker scored 33 goals, 26 of which were scored at 5v5.




Captain Jack Eichel has erupted for 13 goals and 11 assists in the first 20 games this season. Eichel is enjoying his best start to a season with both goals scored (8, 2016-17) and points (22, 2018-19). Eichel is now on pace for career highs in both categories. His nine even-strength goals also represent his highest-ever total through 20 games (5, 2017-18).

With 8G,9A in his first 20 games, Samson Reinhart has also surpassed his previous best starts in goals (4, 2015-16) and points (13, 2018-19) and is on pace for career highs in both categories.

Jeff Skinner has scored 8 goals this season, all of which have come during 5-v-5 action. Skinner is tied for fourth-most in the NHL trailing Leon Draisaitl (12), Brad Marchand (11) and Auston Matthews (9).


As Eichel, Reinhart and Skinner go, so ogo the Sabres.

Botterill better make a trade for a top six forward before offensive production of Eichel, Reinhart and Skinner cool off.


View this post on Instagram

Let’s get after it 💯💯💯

A post shared by Jason Zucker (@jason_zucker16) on

Join the Discussion: » 4 Comments » Post New Comment
More from GARTH'S CORNER
» Hailing Taxis
» He With The Gold Makes The Rules
» Sedentary Seven
» The Sedentary Seven
» GadZuccs