Remember how outright bad the Sabres power play was early this season? If you have a short memory, let’s flashback to before October 26th, when the Blue and Gold managed a terrific zero percent conversion on the man advantage.
For a while there, it looked like things were shaping up to be rather bleak in the City of Good Neighbors, much like it was last season any time the Sabres were at 5-on-4. But, as fate has had it recently, that hasn’t quite been the case.
From October 26th through November 22nd, the Sabres have converted 11 of their past 37 power play opportunities, good for a 29.7 percentage. And if you want more fun, they have converted at least one power play in all but one game in that same timeframe, showing a dramatic improvement so far from last season.
The uptick in productivity on the power play has further solidified the Sabres status as one of the better goal-scoring teams in the league, in which they are 12th with 62 heading into Friday’s slate.
Will the Sabres continue to play well on the man advantage?
Now, the burning question is whether this will continue. While the Sabres have once again proven to be one of the more high-octane teams in the NHL, they’ve also allowed 61 goals. That said, it’s shaping up to be one of those seasons in which they’ll need to score roughly four goals per game just to remain consistent, something they’ve proven so many times this season they’re incapable of doing.
Amidst an important road trip in what has once again become a competitive division, the Sabres better hope they can keep up this momentum, or they’ll fall back to reality quickly. But with a pair of easy opponents coming up on Friday (Anaheim Ducks) and Saturday (San Jose Sharks), they have a golden opportunity to be four points richer come Sunday morning before heading into a short homestand against two very good hockey teams.
Ideally, the power play won’t lower itself to its upcoming opponents’ talent level tonight or tomorrow, or else there’s a good chance the Sabres will mess this one up if they can’t find the net again at even strength. The latter was the case against the LA Kings, even if the Sabres did pull off a rather interesting three-peat, thanks to their power play.