An interesting week for the Buffalo Sabres. With the playoffs quickly approaching, some players got time off to tend to their battle wounds while Lindy Ruff attempted to incorporate all four new additions from the trade deadline, with vary degrees of success.
The Sabres ended up with one regulation win, one shootout win and a close defeat at home against the Capitals where they simply could not got the offense going.
Honorable Mentions
Owen Power
The young defenseman takes a lot of flak for various reasons from the fanbase, but there is no doubting that he has upped his play this season. And as he’s worked on his defensive game, his scoring numbers have seen a resultant drop.
This week though we saw him jump into the rush more, and he bagged a point in each of the three games, finishing with a goal and two assists, going +4 on 22:43 a night.
Alex Lyon
The Lyon King continues to rule the roost. He played two games this week and won both, improving his home record to go with his excellent road win numbers. His save percentage dipped this week as the Sabres held the Sharks and Leafs to minimal shot numbers while giving up five goals.
Lyon had .868 sv% and 2.40 GAA, with a season record of 19-8-3, .913 sv% and 2.62 GAA.
Player of the Week
This week is a shout-out to Jack Quinn. As part of the Sabres speedy line with Jason Zucker and Ryan McLeod, he’s been racking up points without getting goals but this last week he finally found his scoring touch with a hattrick against the Sharks, adding a goal against the Leafs and the shootout winner last night as well.
Speaking of the shootout, Quinn’s technique and ability to rip off shots from anywhere reminds us of one Ales Kotalik from another barnburning Sabres team from a different era.
Quinn is now top 5 all-time in NHL shootout percentage (61.5%) for skaters with a minimum of 10 attempts, after passing Trevor Zegras & Artemi Panarin last night (source).