if Sabres won those 1 goal gms. they would be only 3 pts. out of playoff spot

[DetDannyWilliams]

Jake McCabe looks at the NHL standings and sees the Sabres near the bottom. Then he looks at Buffalo’s record in one-goal games and understands why.
The Sabres have made the leap from doormat to competitive team, but they have one huge hurdle to overcome. They need to win the close ones. Buffalo is 11-13-9 in one-goal games, a winning percentage of .333 that ranks 29th in the 30-team NHL.

“It’s five games, 10 points and we’re right back in the mix of things. Looking back now, it’s even tougher.”

The defenseman, who will join the rest of the Sabres in hosting Carolina on Saturday afternoon, was on the mark with his assessment of five games being the difference. The teams in the middle of the rankings for one-goal games have a winning percentage of .488. Switch five losses for five wins, and Buffalo’s record of 16-8-9 would be .484. Add 10 more points to the Sabres’ total, and they’d be tied with the Hurricanes just three points out of a playoff spot.

Including Thursday’s 3-2 loss in Montreal, nine of the Sabres’ last 18 games have been decided by a goal. They are just 1-3-5, leaving a bunch of attainable points in the hands of others.

“There’s a ton of those this year,” forward Zemgus Girgensons said in First Niagara Center. “Our standings would be way different if we had half of those one-goal games the other way.

http://sabres.buffalonews.com/2016/03/11/sabres-seek-better-results-in-one-goal-games/

[DetDannyWilliams]

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">McCabe: &quot;We play good hockey, but we make those big mistakes that end up costing us games.&quot; <a href="https://t.co/DIbfDRviXy">https://t.co/DIbfDRviXy</a> <a href="https://t.co/BWmQTCyCsd">pic.twitter.com/BWmQTCyCsd</a></p>&mdash; John Vogl (@BuffNewsVogl) <a href="https://twitter.com/BuffNewsVogl/status/708669154014982144">March 12, 2016</a></blockquote> <script async src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

[YardRat]

That's kinda humorous they had a winning record in one goal games while tanking.

[gebobs]

That's kinda humorous they had a winning record in one goal games while tanking.

Well, not quite. Remember, the 8 on the end are losses. So technically, they were 18-21 which is still surprisingly good for such an awful team, much to your point. But what that tells you really is that they couldn't beat anyone by more than a goal, that they had to keep it close, slog it out, to even have a chance. 2+ goals and they were 5-38.

This year, they've had 16 wins by 2+ goals, more than the last two full seasons combined. That's what you want, right. No one wants it to go down to the last few minutes nursing a one-goal lead.

This year, the Sabres have been having trouble adjusting to the new OT format. They just don't have a breadth of talent to throw out there against other teams. With three skaters, the bench is shortened drastically. Maybe a third to a half of the roster won't even get on the ice. Guys like Larsson and Foligno wouldn't see the ice in OT on a lot of other teams.

Same thing in the shootout. Take the Minnesota game. Whereas Bylsma is forced to go to a guy like Foligno as early as the fourth round, Torchetti rolled Parise, Coyle, Koivu and Pominville and still had legitimate shootout threats with Vanek, Suter, Niederreiter, and Granlund.

[OpIv37]

After all the losses, after all the draft picks, after all the moves to bring in guys like Kane and O'Reilly, it's a bit disheartening to hear that a team with two Sabre rejects is still more talented.

[gebobs]

Hehe. Strachan makes three.

Minny is a pretty good team with some god players but they're mostly long in the tooth. The Sabres will be clobbering them by next year.

Of their top 8 scorers, 5 are over 30. Only two of our top 10 are over 30 and neither of them may be here next year.