The injury situation has been insane at the Buffalo Sabres, and this week offered no respite with two straight 4-1 losses before they pulled off an improbable shootout win last night to end the week better than they started it.
Dan Byslma shuttled a bunch of players up and down from the Rochester Americans as he tried desperately to find the scoring kick the team so desperately needed. All the exposure for the youngsters can only be good, right?
Meanwhile, General Manager Tim Murray and Assistant GM Mark Jakubowski have had their calculators running overtime as they try to stay on the right side of the cap with all the movement. Click here for a fascinating insight into how they’re balancing the books on a daily basis.
As always, we’ve got all the forwards and defensemen who played over the past week in the grading. This week should be interesting because a few players who looked like they had terrible weeks with basic stats were exonerated by advanced analytics.
We’re sticking with the Corsi For % as well the stats beyond just the goals, assists and +/-. For Dan Bylsma we’ve added the team’s overall Corsi For % as a measurable stat.
Rate the player PP, PK and coach’s performances for these games –
St. Louis Blues 4-1 Buffalo Sabres
Buffalo Sabres 1-4 Tampa Bay Lightning
Buffalo Sabres 2-1 Pittsburgh Penguins (SO)