Well the winning streak is over and a three game losing streak is full on with the Leafs in town tonight. What can we expect from the Sabres over the next few months and what should we be asking the GM to do in the interim given how this team has played so far this year?
Let’s look back first before looking forward:
Sabres 10 game winning streak involved 7 one goal wins (as does the present three game losing streak involve three one goal losses). That’s hockey. The difference between winning and losing many times comes down to a deflection/bounce/post/hot goalie. In seven of those 13 games, however, the Sabres have scored two goals or less in regulation. In those same 13 games they have scored 40 non-shootout goals. In those 13 games Eichel has 15 points, Skinner has 12 points and Reinhardt has 14 points. No other Sabres forward has more than 6 points during that span. The fact that our defensemen are outscoring our bottom 7 forwards 14-9 speaks volumes for how bad our bottom-six are offensively. Going into this season I expected 15-20 goals from guys like Bergund and Sobotka. I expected Girgensons, Rodrigues, Larsson, Thompson and the rest of the bottom-six or seven to score 40 combined. This clearly isn’t happening and now is the time to do something about it.
Let’s now look forward:
Lets do what should have been done years ago and rid ourselves of Girgenson. He has two goals this year and both went off parts of his body. His hands suck and he is useless as an offensive weapon. If we had third line scoring then you could justify keeping him on as a fourth line grinder. That, however, is not the case. We have seven fourth line grinders on this team and very few, if any, third line scorers. Jason Pomminville gets points (as does everyone) when he plays with Eichel and Skinner or via Power play. Sobotka and Larsson are decent fourth line guys. Thompson has shown recent flashes as has Mittelstadt but both are playing second line with Okposo. That’s the problem: no one for the third line yet we have guys down in Rochester who are scoring and aren’t getting the callup. Victor Olofsson has 7 goals and 19 points in 18 games. Alex Nylander and CJ Smith both have 6 G and 11 A in 21 G. In addition we have guys like Guhle and Borgen who along with Pilut could be replacements for veteran Dmen should we trade any of them.
I’d love to see some call-ups. Trade guys like Girgenson or send him to Rochester and give these young guys a chance to see what they can or cannot do. We have three first round picks next year. We should really look to adding a scorer over the next month or so by trading some of these young assets. Eichel and Skinner cannot continue to score most of our team’s forwards goals and continue to win. They need secondary and tertiary scoring. Either give the young guys a chance or use some of them as bargaining chips to bring someone in who can help now.