The Buffalo Sabres' last game was March 9, 2020 against the Washington Capitals. Buffalo won the game 3-2 in a shootout, and then the National Hockey League paused its season due to the COVID-19 pandemic three days later.
Over 10 months later, the Sabres will finally be back on the ice as the Capitals come to town on Thursday to open the 2020-21 season.
Things will look very different than back in March as no fans will be in the building, and the team has made some changes.
Another thing that will look different this season is the Sabres' division.
Gone are the Tampa Bay Lightning, Toronto Maple Leafs, Montreal Canadiens, Ottawa Senators, Florida Panthers and Detroit Red Wings after the NHL agreed to temporarily re-align the divisions for the 2020-21 campaign.
Now Buffalo has to play the Pittsburgh Penguins, Philadelphia Flyers, New York Rangers, New York Islanders and New Jersey Devils as part of the newly formed East Division. The only team remaining with the Sabres from the Atlantic Division, now in the East Division is the Boston Bruins.
It’s hard to rate the division, because there are some question marks.
I thought Pittsburgh declined just a little bit last season, so where are the Penguins? Will they be better, or since they’re starting to get older, is the window closing.
Washington has a big question mark in goal. Their goaltending with Ilya Samsonov and Vitek Vanecek is unproven, so can they be had?
Boston has a huge question mark because superstar winger David Pastrnak had hip surgery and won’t be ready for the start of the season. All-Star winger Brad Marchand should be ready to play starting Game 1, but he had sports hernia surgery and likely isn’t 100%.
The Bruins were tops in the NHL last season with a .714 points percentage, and a big reason is because they were second in the NHL on the power play with a 25.2% success rate. A huge reason for that success was defenseman Torey Krug, who was the quarterback from the point. Krug was sixth in the NHL in power play points with 28, but Boston lost Krug to the St. Louis Blues in free agency.
In addition, captain Zdeno Chara left the team after 14 seasons to sign with Washington.
The Rangers have had some high draft picks lately, getting winger Alexis Lafrenière first overall in the 2020 NHL Draft and winger Kaapo Kakko second overall in the 2019 NHL Draft. New York also signed forward Artemi Panarin before last season and he was a Hart Trophy finalist.
Last season, center Mika Zibanejad put up 41 goals and 75 points in just 57 games. The season before, it was 30 goals and 44 assists for 74 points in 82 games, so there is talent there.
I think the question mark for the Rangers has to be on defense and in goal.
So how much better are the Sabres, and can they break a nine-year string of no playoffs this season?
Taylor Hall made Buffalo instantly better when new general manager Kevyn Adams signed him to a one-year contract back on Oct. 11.
I think the team got hugely better by acquiring Eric Staal from the Minnesota Wild. Yes, Staal is 36-years-old, but he was still producing for the Wild, and finally gives the Sabres a center to play behind Jack Eichel.
Just as important, he’s here to mentor rookie Dylan Cozens. I think Tage Thompson can also benefit from having Staal on the team, and even Eichel can learn from a former captain and Stanley Cup winner.
The Sabres got some depth that has played in the playoffs in Cody Eakin, Tobias Rieder and Matt Irwin, but there are two glaring parts of this team’s game that must improve if there’s going to be a playoff run.
Neither Linus Ullmark nor Carter Hutton performed as a No. 1 goalie last season. Both had their moments, but they have to be better at making the big save at the key time of the game.
I think there’s still more that Ullmark can do to be a No. 1 in the NHL. He’s pretty good when the team is at even strength, but he was just part of the reason why the Sabres were 30th in the league on the penalty kill.
That is the other area that has to improve - special teams.
Buffalo was 30th in the penalty kill and 20th on the power play. I can guarantee that if the penalty killing doesn’t improve, the Sabres will be at the bottom of the division again.
If the Sabres can get into the top-10 in both categories, they have a good chance to make the plays. Last year, that would’ve meant 14 fewer goals-against and five more goals-for. That means the Sabres would improve their goal differential by 19 goals.
Buffalo took steps to improving the penalty kill by bringing in Eakin, Rieder, Irwin and Riley Sheahan. Sheahan is excellent on the penalty kill, and Rieder did a great job in the playoffs for the Calgary Flames, even scoring three shorthanded goals in 10 games.
I think adding Staal to the second power play unit will help it become more dangerous right away.
The Sabres open the season with four-out-of-six games against Washington. What if the Sabres were to get six of the eight points available? That would give them a huge advantage very early in the season. Now that’s not going to be easy, because they’ve never even shown an ability to slow down Alex Ovechkin.
The lines have become an issue with the fans, but that’s nothing new. They’ve been an issue with every coach since Lindy Ruff. Some fans demand Ralph Krueger be fired as soon as he constructs lines that differ, but I’ve learned there are no possible line combinations that will satisfy fans. It’s always the coach’s fault, and players are never held accountable for their own play.
Jeff Skinner is the guy now.
Most fans tell me it’s not Skinner’s fault he only scored 14 goals last season. It doesn’t matter that he had more Grade-A chances than almost anybody else on the team, it’s up to Ralph Krueger to make sure Skinner scores on those chances.
This season, he started training camp on a line with Staal and Sam Reinhart. After awhile, Krueger got tired of Skinner always being on the wrong side of the puck and not battling hard enough.
Skinner was then put on a line with Riley Sheahan and Curtis Lazar, with Krueger saying he’s going to stay there until he starts adhering to the team’s principles. Krueger mentioned that the coaches are working hard with Skinner to get him playing an all-around game instead of hanging around hoping the puck will find him.
It’s similar to what Sean McDermott did with the Buffalo Bills in 2017. He got rid of some very good football players in wide receiver Sammy Watkins and defensive tackle Marcell Dareus, because they hadn’t bought in to the team concept the head coach was selling.
There’s a reason Carolina let a 30-goal scorer go for next to nothing. The Hurricanes couldn’t live with the one-dimensional game.
Jason Botterill was in a bad spot when Skinner was about to become a free agent in 2019. The general manager had done really nothing to improve the team, and the backlash over losing Skinner would’ve been immense. So he way-overpaid, getting him on an eight-year, $72 million deal.
If you want to get into the unrestricted free agent market, you must overpay. More times than not, you regret the contract by three years in.
In the end, I think it’s impossible to predict if the Sabres have a chance for the playoffs.
To do that, I’d need to know how the Bruins, Penguins, Capitals and Rangers are going to do. I need to know if the Flyers and Islanders are as good as advertised.
The one thing I do know, if the Sabres start off slow, we’ll know by the end of February if they have any chance.
We’ll have coverage of all 56 games on WGR Sports Radio 550 this season.
Mike Schopp and the Bulldog get you started Thursday night at 6 p.m. EST with the pregame, followed by the play-by-play with Rick Jeanneret and Rob Ray. Brian Koziol is back for in-game and postgame coverage, and, of course, I’ll be there with interviews and analysis throughout game nights.
I can’t wait to get it all started.