So far, the 2023-24 season has not gone how the Buffalo Sabres have wanted as they sit with a 0-2-0 record and have shown some glaring issues that need to be addressed sooner than later. The offense has struggled to put points up on the board, but the team also has had some huge defensive lapses that have buried them early in their first two games. If they want to find success in their home stretch this week, they will need to do a lot more in the defensive zone to finally give some help to Devon Levi.
They need a slight shakeup on the defensive end, and there are a few options for them to make that happen. While defender Jacob Bryson is currently scratched, he is not the answer to their problems. The solution can instead be found by shifting the players they already have into more optimal positions, so the chemistry can grow, and the proper leaders can do what they do best.
Power and Jokiharju Need To Split Up
Once again this season, defender Henri Jokiharju is playing in the top four alongside Owen Power, and it is off to a rocky start. The chemistry between them is off, and neither of them plays well with the other. For some reason, they continue to be put together despite a better option being available to Don Granato. Granted, Power has been seeing time with Rasmus Dahlin when the team is in need of an offensive push, but the fact that Power and Jokiharju are placed together on the same pairing regularly needs to stop.
After signing his big contract extension, Power is out to prove that he deserves it. He is easily still the Sabres’ second-best defender, but he is still very young and needs a proper mentor. With him taking on more of an ice time workload compared to Jokiharju (Power – 24:38, and Jokiharju 16:36) it makes more sense to put him with a more steady defender. While Power gets that, Jokiharju would be put down on the third line with Connor Clifton, who has settled nicely into his role there. The two of them would compliment each other well enough, that it would allow veteran Erik Johnson to step up to the second pairing with Power.
Johnson Deserves To Play More
Right now, Erik Johnson has not been playing nearly as much as he should be. Yes, his age is a factor, but as it sits, he is averaging just over 12 minutes of ice time per game, and I feel like he could add on a few more minutes each game. Considering how Don Granato is deploying his defenders, and favoring the likes of Dahlin, Power, and Mattias Samuelsson, he has the flexibility to use Johnson on the second pairing and play him upwards of 16 minutes per night. His defensive awareness, combined with his veteran presence will only help someone like Power in the long run, and it will only improve the Sabres’ chances to prevent goals against each game.
Johnson has been seen on multiple occasions in their first two games talking to the young players in order to keep them in the game and having the right mentality to dig themselves out of the holes they’ve dug. He is not only an inspiring leader, but he has the gameplay skills to back it up. He is positionally sound more than any of the other players on the Sabres’ defensive core, and he plays with the most grit besides Clifton. The Sabres need someone like him to surge some energy into them, and having him out on the ice, will only benefit the team as a whole.
Good Defense Leads To Good Offense
This Sabres team has some of the best transitional players in the league, and their top units are designed to transition from one end of the ice to the other at top speeds. For some reason, there has been a severe lack of this feature, as they all seem to solely be focused on scoring, rather than defending first, and then transitioning. The defense needs to do better, but the offensive players need to help out too. Without support from both groups, winning games is going to be a nightly struggle.
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There is only so much Levi can do each night. So far, I would only say there have been one or two goals that have gone past him where a save should have been made, but the rest of them have been the fault of bad bounces of the puck, or poor defense. Levi just needs a little bit of support, and this team will get rolling fast. It all starts by adjusting small parts of the lineup, but it is ultimately the execution of the defensive scheme that will matter the most. The Sabres have a nice home stretch to iron their defensive issues out, and they can finally get to a place they want to be as the season progresses.