Tampa, Fla. (WGR 550) – The Buffalo Sabres finished their 2023-24 season on Monday with a 4-2 win in Tampa Bay against the Lightning. Once the team was eliminated from playoff contention last Tuesday, they went 2-0-1.
Dylan Cozens wasn’t all that interested in talking about a game Monday that he had two goals and an assist, which helped him finished with three goals in the final two games.
It’s only the playoffs, and missing the playoffs this year that Cozens will be thinking about every time he’s on the ice and in the gym this summer.
After scoring 31 goals last season, Cozens ended this year with just 18.
Despite not playing well the past two seasons, Eric Comrie was always a good teammate, and never brought his own situation into the room.
Comrie was fantastic on Monday, making huge saves on Brayden Point, Nikita Kucherov and Anthony Cirelli. He ended his night with 31 saves on 33 shots faced, and won just his second game of the season. His two wins this year sandwiched seven losses in-between.
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Buffalo held Alex Ovechkin without any goals in their three games against the Washington Capitals this season. Lightning winger Nikita Kucherov has 142 points this season, but in four games against the Sabres, he also didn’t score.
When the pressure is off, this team plays free. The Sabres did it again in Tampa on Monday, outshooting the Lightning, 16-7, in the second period alone.
If you want to know what this team needs in the offseason, all you have to do is go back and look at Emil Lilleberg's hit on Zach Benson from behind, plastering him face-first into the wall. Not one Sabres player got anywhere near him, not then and any other point during the game after that.
Sabres head coach Don Granato was asked after Monday's win if he’s been given any assurances that he’ll be back next season. He declined to comment on that, just wanting to stick with talking about the game his team just won.
The Sabres finished the 2023-24 campaign with a 39-37-6 record, which was good for 84 points in the standings. That’s seven points worse than where the team finished last year.
What makes it worse is they got great goaltending from Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen and, occasionally, Devon Levi. They were quite a bit worse than last season when they had sub-par goaltending for much of the season.
Now comes the interesting part, the offseason.
There’s so much work to do, and all the headway they made last year has been lost. Players no longer want to come here like they did last summer, so they won’t be able to acquire players with no movement clauses.
The players will be cleaning out their lockers on Wednesday and Thursday, while Granato and general manager Kevyn Adams are scheduled to talk on Friday.
