Buffalo, N.Y. (WGR Sports Radio 550) - After returning from a successful three-game West Coast road trip with three wins, the last week for the Buffalo Sabres has seen the team come back down to Earth with a 0-2-1 stretch during Thanksgiving weekend.
Over the last three games, the Sabres have been shut out twice, while only scoring three goals in their overtime loss to the Vancouver Canucks on Friday. Despite the lack of goals, the Sabres have outshot their opponents, 102-72.
Where Sabres head coach Lindy Ruff wants to see his team improve over the course of the next few games is creating higher quality chances on goal.
"The whole focus for us is creating more offense. When we do create the opportunities, [it's about] finishing, "said Ruff on Tuesday during his weekly appearance on the "Jeremy and Joe Show" on WGR. "The focus at yesterday's practice, and coaches meetings for a couple days was we've lost too many games just due to the fact we haven't finished. If you look at where our offense is that, most of it has been driven a lot by our defenseman. I think there are some things we can do better. Moving the puck quicker inside the offensive zone, getting it into the middle of the ice to tighten up the other team, to use the outside of the rink once we get to the middle. We've looked at a lot of different schemes, and really trying to get to where we can quicken it up."
The Sabres are now back home for the next five games, looking to find some more consistent scoring, and get back in the win column to stay in the race for a playoff spot.
While the Sabres have had issues creating offense with their forwards, some of their offensive defensemen like Rasmus Dahlin and Owen Power have gotten involved in the offensive zone.
"Those guys in our scheme have a green light to join, and be that third or fourth person," said Ruff with Jeremy White and Joe DiBiase. "I think we've seen how dangerous they are. I think a lot of times teams, when they're looking for offense, will look for their D to get more involved. I think we've got that piece of the puzzle where they have been involved, they've been able to join."
The Sabres' offensive problems have not been only while playing at 5-on-5. Throughout the season, Buffalo's power play has been quite inconsistent. After not scoring on their first 22 attempts of the season, Buffalo was able to find its stride, becoming one of the better teams in the NHL on the man advantage. However, the Sabres are now regressing back to where they were at the beginning of the year, struggling to sustain offensive zone time while on the power play and finding the back of the net.
Ruff feels the reasoning for Buffalo's recent struggles can be closely paired with the offensive issues they're having at even strength.
"The problem is similar to our 5-on-5, where we haven't found that next play," Ruff said. "There's been a couple of great opportunities that we've missed through this little stretch, where we've had that backside guy wide-open and we didn't find the play, or a guy like Peterka just missed his shot. So those opportunities have been there. The reason I said earlier in the year that I was confident that we were going to get it going is we had quite a few good looks that we didn't convert on."
The Sabres will drop the puck on Tuesday night against the Colorado Avalanche just after 7 p.m. EST, with pregame coverage on WGR starting at 6 p.m. EST during "Schopp and the Bulldog".