The Need to Knows
- The Time: 5pm
- The Place: Climate Pledge Arena in beautiful Seattle, WA
- Place to Watch: KONG, KHN Networks, Amazon Prime, MSG-Buffalo, SportsNet 360
- Place to Listen: KJR 93.3-FM
- An Opposing Viewpoint: Die by the Blade
Game Preview
The Sabres are in hell.
Not a fiery, cataclysmic, souls wailing in agony and demons laughing kind of hell, that’s at least interesting. That’s a dramatic, expected kind of hell that overstimulates the senses and at least keeps you interested with each new horror you see. Their disinterested ownership and patently neglectful front office has created a team that is individually talented, but never enough to actively gel together and become a serious threat to contention. Just about every draft inevitably ends in disappointment or the top player finding greener pastures. Their building has the most unusual acoustics I’ve ever personally experienced and it feels like it’s yearning for a past it can never return to. Their best defenseman regularly has nights where he looks like he needs his position explained to him.
The Sabres hell is a mire that stretches into the horizon and beyond that. You cannot see another soul, the smell makes you nauseous, but not enough to vomit. The air makes your skin clammy and cold but not enough to chill you to the bone. There is no path, and every step makes you sink up to your knees in pitch black mud. There is no sun, no moon, only fog, the stench, the wet sounds of your futile steps forward, and the pesky sound of a mosquito you know is there but can’t quite see or locate.
Forever.
But hey they’re 5-5-0 in their last 10 so it can’t all be bad, right?
What has to be causing Sabres fans the most grief is that they’re not exactly the worst team in the world when it comes to creating chances. Sure, they’re no Colorado, but they’re certainly a lot better at it than San Jose or Boston are right now. Their Penalty Kill in spite of it’s love for giving up quality shots is 2nd overall in the league, Tage Thompson looks more like himself than he has in recent months, Josh Doan is finding quite a bit of success in Sabres Blue, Jason Zucker is a power play menace, things could and have been a lot worse for this team. So what’s the deal? Well, their issues usually lie in their defense, which usually ends up getting split on clean breakouts, and in net, where Alex Lyon and Ukko Pekka-Luukkonen have struggled to main consistent. The middle of the slot has been a major pain point of defense for the team in specific, which corroborates that it’s generally pretty easy to get those quality chances if you can pull one of their defenders off their assignment.
The Kraken will have to once again figure out a plan for one of their better players being out, as Jared McCann’s lower body injury will keep him out of the lineup for the next three weeks. Mason Marchment has been heating up which I do appreciate, but we need to start seeing some work put in by guys like Kaapo Kakko and Frederick Gaudreau.
Oh yeah, and play a clean game because otherwise you’re going to be in the torment nexus. Do not self-torment nexus yourself on the PK.
LET’S GO KRAKEN, LET’S GO SQUIDS