The Buffalo Sabres had two days off on their road trip after Friday’s loss to the Winnipeg Jets 4-1, allowing them to catch some of the cold western Canadian air before playing four road games this week.

They were snakebit 5-on-5, creating a myriad of 22 high danger chances, according to Natural Stat Trick, but scored only once.

That prompted head coach Lindy Ruff to shuffle the lines ahead of Monday night’s game against the Calgary Flames.

“We can’t be happy with our 5-on-5 play. The opportunities are there, but we’ve got to talk about finish versus opportunity,” Ruff said after practice Sunday in Calgary.

There’s a redundancy to calling these “big games” but the Sabres were showing encouraging underlying numbers before back-to-back losses, and found themselves in the basement of the Eastern Conference.

Fast forward to a 7-4 loss on Monday night against the Flames, and you see a Sabres group that surrendered those seven goals on 28 shots.

Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen was pulled after the 2nd period, allowing five goals on 22 shots. Buffalo kept getting within one goal, but shot themselves in the foot, with brutal defensive zone breakdowns and no timely saves.

For the Flames, they’ve scored 13 goals this season against the Sabres, and just 66 goals against the rest of the league in 29 other games.

Part of the line shuffling was placing Jordan Greenway on the top line. But then he was sternly benched and played only 9:44.

It’s starting to look eerily similar in Buffalo, who fell to 11-14-4.

Circus

The Sabres just can’t win games away from KeyBank Center, with a road record of 2-9-2, the worst in the league by margin.

There’s also some…how should I say, maybe discontent between Ruff and GM Kevyn Adams.

Buffalo is carrying three goalies right now, which they’ve made a habit of doing in recent years: Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen, Alex Lyon, and Colten Ellis.

UPL has been playing much more consistently, while Lyon only started twice in November.

This roster spot used on a third goaltender plays a part in the Sabres loaning Noah Ostlund to Rochester on Sunday, to open a spot to call-up Zach Metsa, a 27-year-old who will fill-in as the team’s seventh defenceman.

Now, Ostlund’s numbers don’t jump off the page, 3-3–6 in 20 games played, and playing just over 10 minutes in his last two games. But he did score twice vs the Oilers, just none in the nine games since.

However, here was Ruff on the Ostlund demotion:

“I thought his playmaking inside the game, he’s been one of our top guys that has been in on really good plays, he set other guys up, and defensively played well, so there was no negative. The only negative was him going back down.”

Similarly, Isak Rosen was sent down in late November, and produced seven points in 10 games.

So…what the heck is going on? Unfortunately, it looks like another Sabres circus.

Norris is back

Josh Norris is back — and that matters for this team.

After going down in their first game on Oct. 9, it took almost two months to get Norris back into the lineup, coming back in a fury with seven points in four games.

However, he’s been on the ice for several goals against. He is -7 in the last three games alone.

The positives

A couple things of note that show the Sabres had been playing better. Before their last three game skid, their expected goal share was at 56 per cent, one of the best marks in the NHL during a 10-game stretch.

In fact, before the Calgary game they sat ninth in xG% at 5-on-5, it’s just that they are 24th in actual G%.

They are 6-7 now since Rasmus Dahlin’s return to the lineup after seeing to his wife and her scary health problems, and the team is getting healthier all around with Jason Zucker and Zach Benson both returning to the lineup.

Their 62 goals at 5-on-5 is top-10 in the league, but their 72 against are third worst (the Oilers are worst by the way).

Notes…

Tage Thompson snapped a six-game goalless drought with his snipe on the Sabres PP. That was his team leading 13th goal of the season.
Although Jason Zucker had this three game PPG streak come to an end, he did have a wicked saucer pass to setup the Thompson snipe.
That streak made him just the fourth Sabre in the past 15 years to achieve that feat. The other three? Thompson, Dahlin, and Victor Olofsson.
Michael Kesselring is still out, leaving the Nov. 15th game against Detroit. Jiri Kulich hasn’t played in over a month after a blood clot issue.
Alex Tuch anyone? Tuch to Edmonton, anyone? Buffalo team lead in points with 10-15–25 this season. Pretty, pretty, pretty, preeeeeeetty good.
Since being acquired for JJ Peterka, Josh Doan has almost the same number of points. Doan is just three points off Peterka’s pace with 8-12—20, which is already a new career high.
Zachary Benson. Sixteen games, no goals. But 11 assists is alright. It’s his third season and Buffalo needs him to pop off.
Despite surrendering two goals while shorthanded Monday, the Sabres penalty kill is right near the top of the league.
The Oilers lost an ugly one 5-1 to the Sabres on Nov. 17, but typically do well at home vs Buffalo. They’ve won three of their last four at Rogers Place vs the Sabres, winning 3-2 on Jan. 25 thanks to Nuge’s two goals, and Skinner making 39 saves.
With Edmonton scoring 15 goals in their last two games, I’m sure many fans would like to enact revenge, particularly on Sabres colour commentator Rob Ray, who made this quip about the Oilers netmindering on the broadcast.

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