Unbalanced scoring weighs down Sabres
Four players own 58.5 percent of goals
The joke goes that Thomas Vanek is such a natural goal scorer that he can probably score on a plane, in his sleep, anywhere. Well, he did exactly that late Saturday night and it actually further shines a spotlight on one of the Buffalo Sabres’ biggest problems.
Vanek scored both goals in Buffalo’s 3-2 loss Saturday night at Montreal. A few hours later, his league-leading goal total was amended from 17 to 18 by the NHL after he was credited with one at 3:11 of the third period in Friday’s 4-3 win over Pittsburgh in HSBC Arena.
The goal was originally given to Drew Stafford, who appeared to redirect a Vanek pass past Penguins goalie John Curry. But the ruling was apparently that the puck was knocked in by backchecking Pens defenseman Kris Letang and not Stafford.
So Vanek has 18, meaning the Sabres have gotten 38 of their 65 goals from just four players — Vanek, Jason Pominville (eight), Derek Roy and Clarke MacArthur (six each). That’s 58.5 percent of the offense, making the Sabres one of the most unbalanced attacks in the league heading into tonight’s visit by Nashville.
The lack of secondary scoring is one of several factors in the Sabres’ recent troubles. Buffalo is 3-7-0 in its last 10 games; the only NHL team worse is Tampa Bay (1-6-3).
The only quartet that entered Sunday with a higher percentage of its team’s goals is in Philadelphia. Jeff Carter, Simon Gagne, Mike Knuble and Mike Richards have 47 of the Flyers’ 76 goals (61.8 percent). Vanek and Pominville’s 26 goals are second-most for a tandem, behind only the 29 of Carter (16) and Gagne (13).
But while the Flyers have been getting goals from plenty of other places and are third in the Eastern Conference in scoring, the rest of the Buffalo roster has been largely quiet. A dozen Sabres who have played at least 13 games this season have zero, one or two goals.
“On any team, you can’t rely on just two or three guys,” Vanek said. “We can be better. We think we can have four or five guys get in the 20s and be goal scorers out there.”
“It’s a big thing for every team in the league to get scoring after the big guys,” said winger Ales Kotalik, a five-goal man who could return tonight after missing seven games with a hamstring injury. “We’ve got a good group of forwards here who can put the puck in the net. We just have to start to do it.”
The injuries to Kotalik and Tim Connolly have been big factors in Buffalo’s scoring woes. But the defense corps has combined for only three goals and several players are simply in dry spells.
Maxim Afinogenov has one goal for the season. Paul Gaustad was scoreless in 12 games until scoring twice Friday night. Stafford snapped an 11-game drought Friday. Jochen Hecht has one goal in his last 11 games. Daniel Paille is scoreless in the last 10.
“I call it ‘puck luck,’ ” coach Lindy Ruff said. “We need some puck luck and we haven’t had any on a lot of good plays.”
Paille, a 19-goal man last year, has just two this season and has been a healthy scratch twice.
“There’s been games where you don’t notice him and there’s games where all you did was notice him,” Ruff said. “He’s got to be fired up every shift he gets on the ice. His penalty killing was good but his commitment away from the puck wasn’t good enough. If you do the little things right, work when you don’t have it, I won’t worry about whether goals come or not.
“But when you get scored against combined with no scoring, that makes it tough.”
Even some of the scorers aren’t immune as MacArthur is scoreless in 10 straight games and Pominville is scoreless in five. MacArthur has, however, had 14 shots on goal in the last five and has been close to breaking through.
“It’s tough because you want some to go in to take the tension off but at the same time I’m happy to get the opportunities,” MacArthur said. “I’ve been finding the right holes. They’re going to go in eventually and I just have to stick with it and not give up on it.”
“He’s had some good opportunities. If he took a little bit more time on the one play, it’s just an easy lob in the net,” Ruff said. “When you’re pressing, you pull the trigger a little too soon and it doesn’t go in the net.”
Log into MyBuffalo to post a comment
MyBuffalo is the new social network from Buffalo.com. Your MyBuffalo account lets you comment on and rate stories at buffalonews.com. You can also head over to mybuffalo.com to share your blog posts, stories, photos, and videos with the community. Join now or learn more.
Reader comments