Doohickie

I mentioned it upthread I think, but there was a point where the Sabres were in their defensive alignment, taking the middle away, and all the Sabres were just watching the puck get passed around. As the puck got passed to the point/high slot, Peyton Krebs suddenly sprinted at the guy and forced the puck over the blue line for a much needed clear. I get wanted to stick with your defensive alignment, but I also think the Sabres need to do much more of what Krebs did there: Whoever's covering the puck carrier needs to rush at them and take their time and space away. This is what the Sabres consistently don't do. I think it's the fundamental reason for their late collapses: They're too content to just let the opponent pass the puck around in the Sabres zone and too often there's that guy open for just an instant that cashes in a goal. Break up the play before that pass. Pressure the puck carrier ALWAYS. Don't let him think. If you look, that's what teams do to the Sabres when they're in the offensive zone. I know nothing about hockey but geez this seems obvious to me. In football terms they should be zone blitzing rather than dropping back into coverage.

Interesting to see which players are at or above 50% Dahlin & Byram, no surprise. Neither is Clifton... he's not a big scoring threat but he does have a nice stretch pass. Zucker has been hot lately, so no surprise there. McLeod plays the game right, we all know that. That leaves Benson and Krebs. Interesting that they both are > 50% xGF while both having only 14 points apiece and a -2 +/- rating. The really interesting thing about that is statistically they are nearly twins but everyone loves Benson while a lot of people here hate on Krebs. Krebs made a critical play late in the Carolina game where, instead of maintaining his position, he sprinted toward the puck carrier and forced a clear when the Sabres were pinned down in their own zone. He's never gonna be a top line player but he certainly has a place on a good team and I don't think he's part of the problem.

The way things worked out in this game, I'd rather have the future trivia question statistical anomaly.

...and the first part *is* a given???

I'm willing to give the Bills social media team some leeway after they put out this masterpiece a couple years back:

Perhaps he's just a quasi-intelligent shade of the colour blue.

Everything I looked at on NHL.com points to McLeod with the third goal. Looks like it's decided.

Officially they gave McLeod the first star, Luuk the second and Cozens the third. But I agree, Luuk turned in a first star performance. Well ackchooallee

When Krebs got aggressive they got the clear. Coincidence?

Nice job, Tyson.

fify

Advantage Buffalo.

Tage almost buried that.

Since the start of the game when the Sabres were leading shots 5-1, the Canes have doubled up the number of shots the number of shots by the Sabres since. Not sustainable.

P P Time!

Monday Night Football Syndrome.

Didn't one of the Sabres get tripped by the blue line just before the end of the penalty? They didn't call that one...

So did the ref.