Sabres fans packed into a sold-out KeyBank Center on Oct. 12 for the highly- anticipated opening-night matchup against the New York Rangers. The evening began with a heartwarming tribute to the late Sabres play-by-play legend Rick Jeanneret but ended with a disappointing effort from the home team.
Sabres Couldn’t Find Their Rhythm
The Sabres’ top players were nowhere to be found in this one. Dylan Cozens and Rasmus Dahlin had particularly frustrating nights, finishing with 20.4% and 32.5% expected goal shares, respectively. The usually electric Sabres offense was kept entirely in check by the Rangers’ stingy defense. Aside from a few opportunities from Tage Thompson and Jeff Skinner, the big guns could not generate much.
It was also a rough night for the fourth line, which featured Peyton Krebs, Kyle Okposo, and Zemgus Gergensons, who were on the ice for two crucial goals against. The Rangers controlled possession and thoroughly dominated, holding each to an expected goal share of under 20%.
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The Rangers’ 1-3-1 forechecking formation managed to plug up the neutral zone, and the Sabers didn’t attack with enough speed to get clean entries into the offensive zone. The trap has been tricky for Buffalo to adapt to, and last night was no exception. Even when they had sustained offensive zone possession, the Rangers kept them to the outside, resulting in low-percentage shots that rarely tested goaltender Igor Shesterkin.
On the flip side, the Rangers tested Devn Levi with numerous high-quality chances, and while he wasn’t fantastic, he isn’t to blame for any of the goals against. A Sabres team with most of its core returning from last season looked like they had just met in the parking lot minutes before the game with the lack of cohesion on this night.
Sabres Special Team Troubles
One of Buffalo’s most prominent areas of weakness in 2022-23 was the penalty kill. They had a 73% success rate, which ranked 28th in the NHL. They wanted to get off to a better start on Thursday, but it was more of the same. Chris Kreider got on the board with a deflection goal on the power play that put the Rangers up 2-0 just over 12 minutes into the game. They did settle in and kill the next three Rangers power plays, but the last one happened in the game’s final minutes, with New York’s second unit playing the entire two minutes.
The power-play unit looked uncharacteristically flat in this game. Some credit is due to the Rangers’ penalty killers, who constantly put their bodies in the shooting lanes, turning the Sabres into shin-pad assassins. The Rangers blocked 40% of Buffalo’s shot attempts on the power play. In the future, they need to do a better job of getting shots off quickly so the lanes don’t close on them. In a crucial moment in the third period, with the Sabres down by two, Thompson and Cozens failed to connect on a pass at the blue line, and the Rangers pounced on the turnover, resulting in a short-handed goal that put this game to bed. It’s a long season, but this isn’t the start the special teams units wanted.
Sabres Bright Side
While the home opener was a massive disappointment for a hopeful Sabres team, there were some positives that they can build on going forward. Firstly, I liked their physicality. Buffalo was dead last in the NHL in hits last year, but they did manage to out-hit the Rangers 22-15 in this contest. Newcomers Jordan Greenway and Connor Clifton were both a physical presence in their Sabres debuts. One could argue that higher hit totals sometimes indicate a lack of puck possession, but it was nice to see the team prove that they won’t be as easy to bully as last season.
Zach Benson also had a pretty impressive showing for his first NHL game. He contributed to some productive offensive zone shifts and was one of Buffalo’s best players. He also didn’t shy away from the physical battles, even getting into it with heavyweight Jacob Trouba at one point. He did take a hooking penalty in the first period, which led to the Kreider power-play goal, but that was a miss from the referee, who didn’t notice Benson’s stick being held, so I won’t blame the kid for that one. If he can continue to play like he did in the opener, Benson will be a great addition to the team in his rookie season.
The lone Sabres goal was scored by JJ Peterka. He showed a lot of promise last season, and getting the first goal out of the way early could go a long way in helping him break out offensively this season. Although he didn’t have his best game defensively, it was nice to see Owen Power pick up a point just a day after signing a massive seven-year $58.5 million extension.
The home opener was frustrating, and it proved that the Sabres still have some growing to do. With that being said, the playoffs aren’t decided on night one, so I would urge people to be patient. There were a few positives to take away, and there will still be 81 more chances for them to improve. The Sabres will be back in action on Saturday, Oct. 14, in Long Island, when they look to secure their first win of the season against the New York Islanders.
