Buffalo Sabres feeling the weight of heavy expecations early

It hasn’t been the start that fans of the Buffalo Sabres were hoping for from their team.

Days before the first game of the 2023-24 regular season, the Sabres signed 2018 No. 1 pick Rasmus Dahlin and 2021 No. 1 pick Owen Power to eight- and seven-year contract extensions, respectively. Many pundits and reporters saw this season as a breakout campaign for a Sabres franchise that hasn’t made the playoff since 2010-11.

But so far, Buffalo is 2-4-0 and last place in the Atlantic Division with a goal differential of minus-five. We’re not even a tenth into the season, but after the Sabres’ 3-1 loss to the Montreal Canadiens on Monday, some are wondering if those goals of playoff hockey were unrealistic.

On Tuesday’s episode of Daily Faceoff LIVE, Frank Seravalli and Tyler Yaremchuk discuss the tough start for Buffalo and what the team needs to do to get back on track.

Tyler Yaremchuk: I dug into some of the numbers. Their five-on-five numbers are good, their penalty kill is good, but then I saw that their power play stinks. If you look further, Tage Thompson and Alex Tuch have only combined for two points.

I look at everything going on — poor power play, couple start players not producing — is it as simple as that? Once Thompson and Tuch get going, is this team going to start winning? Or are there underlying issues we didn’t think there would be at the start of the year?

Frank Seravalli: The lack of scoring and power play trouble is definitely not something that I saw coming. I thought this team would hit the ground running, especially with Thompson hoping to get another level in his NHL career as a bonafide superstar. That hasn’t been there. Their power play is 2-for-21 to start the year.

I think what’s more alarming than all of that is they’ve had a slew of home games and only one road game up to this point, and in that they’ve played a few non-playoff teams from last year. It makes you wonder: if the Sabres are going to be a playoff team this year, which they entered the season with expectations with for the first time in awhile, are they feeling the weight of those expectations early?

You can watch the full episode here…