The Buffalo Sabres showed flashes of their high-octane potential in a win over the Senators, but are they truly a high-octane team this season?
The 2024-25 NHL Season is roughly one-eighth of the way complete, and the Buffalo Sabres once again aren’t among the hottest teams, boasting just 11 points on the year. That puts them way back there in the league standings, but are there any metrics they’re doing a better job in?
Maybe they’re more high-octane than we may otherwise believe? The Sabres have had their fair share of games that make you think it’s the red-hot 2022-23 team taking the ice. But other times, they look like a group that completely forgets that the object of the game is to score more goals than the other team.
So, if we ranked the entire NHL by the goals scored metric, where would the Sabres reside?
Not all the teams listed here are among the NHL’s elite class, but there are plenty of contenders. The Jets have been lights out no matter what scenario they’re in, while the Golden Knights, Panthers, Lightning, and Kings have all enjoyed stellar seasons.
The Devils and Capitals continue to experience a better year so far than whatever their respective meltdowns were last season, so they, too, are on the up and up. Only the Colorado Avalanche are struggling, but we can instead blame their goaltending.
This one contains a decent mix of good teams like the Carolina Hurricanes, NY Rangers, and Minnesota Wild, plus solid squads like the Toronto Maple Leafs and Ottawa Senators. The Penguins, Sabres, and Blue Jackets don’t look like playoff contenders, but at least they can pile up goals on opponents at least occasionally.
This one is the largest group of the bunch since many have at least 34 goals, and it made no sense to drop anyone down a tier with some complicated tiebreaker. But it shows us that some of the better teams in hockey don’t need to score much, like the Dallas Stars, the Calgary Flames, and even the St. Louis Blues don’t look half-bad in terms of overall wins (and points).
There are three surprises listed here, and they’re the Oilers, Red Wings, and Predators. But, the Oilers had to make do without Connor McDavid following yet another rough start to the season. The Wings haven’t been anywhere near as high-octane as we thought, but at least they’re slowly climbing the Atlantic Division’s ladder while the Predators are still struggling.
As for the NY Islanders and Anaheim Ducks, I can’t say I’m surprised that they’re ranking so low.
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