Buffalo, N.Y. (WGR Sports Radio 550) - In the last seven games, the Buffalo Sabres are last in the NHL, averaging just 1.86 goals per-game. That’s 13 goals in seven games.
The power play is just 10% during that time, but it’s more than that.
Tage Thompson has been back for three games and has had many Grade-A scoring opportunities, but hasn’t found the net. Thompson had 21 shot attempts in his first two games back from injury.
"There’s been some good, I think there’s been some rust," said Sabres head coach Lindy Ruff following Monday's practice. "I think he’s had some good opportunities, he’s probably had more primary opportunities to score, he had the overtime opportunity against Vancouver that you’d like to see him finish. But inside of that, I don’t think he’s hit his mark with his shot. In the [Minnesota] game, I thought there were a couple where he got the goalie square in the chest."
JJ Peterka hasn’t scored in eight games, while Jack Quinn hasn’t scored on a goaltender at all this season.
Someone who is scoring is Alex Tuch. He has three goals in five games, and he thinks the goals will come very soon.
"I think we’ve just got to believe in this group, believe in ourselves that we can score goals, and you just have to keep that confidence that you can get the puck in the back of the net," said Tuch following Monday's practice.
"As a unit, we need to get into the dirty areas a little bit better. And we have to do a couple of the little things right, and we’ll be able to get some more odd-man rushes out of it. And when we do have the opportunities, we need to bear down and bury them."
It seemed, to me, that against the New York Islanders, the team got to the net in the first period, but didn’t work hard enough to get to loose pucks and rebounds. Honestly, that was the first time I noticed that all season.
"We lost some battles, we were almost there on a couple others. We just have to make sure that the next time, the determination is just a little bit greater," Ruff explained.
The Sabres have had three three-game winning streaks, followed by three three-game losing streaks this season. That tends to kill all the ground you made going 4-1-1 and 7-2-0.
Buffalo is now three points behind the Boston Bruins for third in the Atlantic Division, and three points out of the two Eastern Conference Wild Card spots that are held by the New York Rangers and Philadelphia Flyers.
Tuch knows that trend has to change.
"We have to take pride in being able to bounce back a little bit better" he said. "You’ve got to find whatever went wrong in that one game, and you’ve got to move on."
"It’s an 82-game season, and no team is going to go 82-0. You have to be able to after you lose a game, go back and play your best game yet. We damn well don’t want a four-game losing streak to happen, so we have to be good tomorrow against Colorado.”
Ruff went over the first quarter of the season with his coaching staff, and they decided to change the framework of practice.
"We did more small ice drills, in tight plays, making the next play. We just feel we haven’t finished that next play a lot of the time, and sometimes we’ve missed making that play. So just try to breathe a little more confidence into our guys," Ruff said.
On the injury front, Ruff thought forward Sam Lafferty would be out week-to-week, but he’s doing OK. He adds it could be one of those shorter-term injuries.
Meanwhile, Mattias Samuelsson and Jordan Greenway are both still skating on their won. Ruff says they’re still waiting to see if the procedure done on Greenway helped him and will allow him to play sooner.