Buffalo, N.Y. (WGR 550) - For the last three games, Buffalo Sabres head coach Don Granato has reduced Owen Power’s ice-time, and it seems like the 21-year-old has played better hockey.
For the last two games, he’s been paired with veteran Erik Johnson, and it has seemed to work.
Granato’s new defensive pairs looked really good in Montreal on Thursday against the Canadiens, but not as good in Pittsburgh on Saturday against the Penguins. However, in both games, they all competed hard.
In his last three games, Power has played 18:03, 17:38 and 18:36. Power hasn’t had a minus game since being a minus-4 on Dec. 19 in a 9-4 loss against the Columbus Blue Jackets.
In the seven games since then, Power has four points and has been plus-10.
Now plus/minus is not a good stat and isn’t used much anymore, but I’ll mention as far as the Sabres defensemen go, Power, Henri Jokiharju and Erik Johnson are all plus-4, and Connor Clifton is plus-3. I think what that does tell us is the Sabres haven’t been a bad team at even strength.
Overall, Power is second on the team behind Rasmus Dahlin, averaging 22:19 of ice-time per-game.
Granato has changed his tactics with the team both at practice and the way he talks. I asked Granato how he felt about Power, and he’s not satisfied with him or anyone else.
"There’s been some good. All these guys there’s some good, but we want more consistency, and we want a higher level," said Granato on Monday after practice. "We’re continuing to push to that, so they have to be better. I want better tomorrow than I saw last game, so I’m not saying I’m satisfied with what Owen did or what anybody else did the other night. Great, we got a win, I love it, but we've gotta get better."
Power says he’s enjoyed playing with Johnson.
"He’s someone that’s really easy to play with. He’s smart, he’s simple and he’s played the game for a long time," said Power on Monday after practice. "He’s someone that’s been huge for me to play with, but to just have in the locker room and talk to and learn from."
The Sabres host the Seattle Kraken at home on Tuesday, supporting a horrible 8-9-1 home record. The Sabres went loss, win, loss, win at home up until Dec. 5 when they lost their second-straight, and then lost to the Canadiens in a shootout. After that, it was back to win, loss, win, loss, win.
"Do guys put more pressure on themselves or play tighter at home? Anything you say can be, 'Well that’s an excuse.' I mean, I don’t even like talking about it," Granato said.
"Get in the moment, which we haven’t been. Get more competitive,, because when we struggle at home, we don’t shoot, we’re not competitive enough, we’re not willing to work enough. That’s the pattern, so if we want to go out and compete, we’re pretty fricking good. But when we have trouble at home, we probably didn’t compete hard enough and it’s as clear as day that we’re not attacking the net. Is there a guy driving? Is there a shot mentality? And when we’re not good, we’re passive, we over stickhandle, we’re not direct."
You could tell Granato was getting angrier as he spoke.
"When we’re not good, we’re not going to retrieve a puck with consistency," he said. "Maybe a couple of guys are. Girgensons is a big leader in that regard, and when you see him out here, he does it every single time. It’s his habit. We don’t have enough guys that that’s their habit, so to me, that’s it, If you’re asking psychologically, yes there’s a psychological component, but we’re not getting to that aggressive play. You can tell it doesn’t make me happy."
Kyle Okposo skated with the teammates on Monday, but says he wanted to see how his lower-body injury reacts throughout the day. Granato says his captain won’t play on Tuesday night.
You’ll hear from Okposo during our pregame coverage on WGR before Tuesday’s game.
Meanwhile, wingers Jordan Greenway and Victor Olofsson both missed Monday’s practice due to illness.
