(WGR Sports Radio 550) - It’s going to be an uphill climb for the Buffalo Sabres in order to snap their two-game losing skid on Saturday.
The Minnesota Wild were home on Friday and beat the Colorado Avalanche in a shootout, 3-2. That was their seventh-straight win, while Buffalo’s best this season is two-straight victories.
The Wild have points in 10-consecutive games, going 9-0-1. The only blemish was a 2-1 overtime loss to the San Jose Sharks.
Buffalo has fallen back to last place in the Eastern Conference, and to 29th in the NHL with a points percentage of .458.
Sabres owner Terry Pegula was in the building on Friday to see his team get waterboarded by the New Jersey Devils, 5-0. Loud chants of "Fire Adams" and "Sell the Team" greeted the Sabres owner.
Since he does nothing about it, he’s obviously is not unhappy with what he’s seeing. It’s also obvious that him being heard by general manager Kevyn Adams is more important than winning, and Adams does listen and treats him very well.
Playoffs have pretty much been gone for two weeks, but if you’re wondering, the Sabres are six points behind the Ottawa Senators for third place in the Atlantic Division. They’re seven points out of the two Wild Card spots held by the Pittsburgh Penguins and Philadelphia Flyers. The ninth place New York Islanders also have 29 points.
The Avalanche lead the NHL with 40 points. That’s almost double than the Sabres, who have 22.
That’s how much of a failure Adams' five-year rebuild has been.
Buffalo has only given up two power play goals in the last six games, and three in the last nine. However, the Sabres have fallen to second overall in the league this season at 88.1%, behind only the Tampa Bay Lightning (88.5%).
The power play is 21st at 17.4%.
Meanwhile, the Sabres are 27th in goals-against this season at 3.50 goals per-game, and are 19th in goals-for, averaging three goals per-game.
Alex Lyon played in goal against the Devils on Friday, and gave up five goals on 23 shots. That means either Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen or Colten Ellis will get the call on Saturday.
Ellis hadn’t played in 10 days before that game.
Buffalo is 6-3-1 in their last 10 against Minnesota, and 5-4-1 in St. Paul, Minn.
Minnesota is 12-5-4 in their last 21 games against the Sabres.
Goaltending has been stellar for Minnesota lately.
Filip Gustavsson is 5-1-1 in his last seven with a 2.09 goals-against average and a .920 save percentage.
Not to be outdone, 23-year-old Jesper Wallstedt has three shutouts in his last five starts. In his last six games, he’s 6-0-0 with a 1.14 goals-against average and a .967 save percentage. In that same time period, Gustavsson is 3-0-1 with a 1.69 goals-against average and a .929 save percentage.
Wallstedt was Minnesota's first-round pick (20th overall) in the 2021 NHL Draft. While Buffalo, to this day, is still struggling to find a No. 1 goalie, they took Isak Rosen 14th overall in the same draft.
Karill Kaprizov has a six-game point streak, scoring six goals and eight points.
Kaprizov is 10th in the NHL with 30 points in 25 games. His 16 goals are No.
3 overall in the league.
Matt Boldy is also having a great season with 14 goals and 14 assists for 28 points in 25 games. Boldy was the 12th overall pick in the 2019 NHL Draft. Buffalo and former general manager Jason Botterill took Dylan Cozens seventh overall in that draft.
In 310 NHL games, Boldy has 272 points, while in 386 games, Cozens has 229 points.
Just another in the long line of draft mistakes for the Sabres.
Join Brian Koziol and myself for pregame coverage on WGR starting at 7 p.m.
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