Twenty-four hours after the game was originally scheduled to be played, the Chicago Blackhawks will play the Buffalo Sabres in western New York on Thursday night — provided that the teams can find the stadium amidst all the snow that’s buried the city of Buffalo in the last few days.
This was supposed to be the year that the Sabres took another step forward in the franchise’s overall progress towards snapping Buffalo’s lengthy playoff drought, which stretches back to 2011. The Sabres went from 75 points in 2021-22 to 91 last season, missing out on the postseason by one point but with the promise of better days ahead. Those days haven’t quite arrived, though. Buffalo currently has 42 points in 44 games, a 78-point pace that wouldn’t be enough for postseason consideration. There’s still time to make up that ground, but Buffalo sits in seventh place in the Atlantic Division and 14th in the Western Conference, which makes for an awfully steep uphill climb from here.
There’s not much of anything Buffalo’s doing well this season. The collective offensive output (2.95 goals per game, 22nd in the league) and defensive output (3.23, 20th) isn’t great and neither are the special teams: its power play is ranked 26th at 14.4 percent, the penalty kill 18th at 79.1. Buffalo has had a better go of late, with four wins in its last six, but remains not all that far removed from noteworthy postgame comments by captain Kyle Okposo after the team was booed off home ice following a 9-4 thumping by the Columbus Blue Jackets just before Christmas.
It’s a roster certainly not devoid of talent, as the blue line is highlighted by a pair of recent No. 1 overall picks in Rasmus Dahlin (2018) and Owen Power (2021) with those two split among Buffalo’s top-four alongside old Henri Jokiharju and Erik “still not as good as the guy who was drafted two spots behind me” Johnson, respectively (should also mention that Johnson was a No. 1 overall pick, but way back in 2006). But the younger forwards in Buffalo appear to be scuffling. Tage Thompson seemed destined for stardom after a 94-point season in ’22-23 but has just 27 (14 G, 13 A) in 34 games this season. Dylan Cozens, the No. 7 overall pick in 2019, has just 22 (7 G, 15 A) in 42 games after 68 (31 G, 37 A) in 81 last season and is currently sidelined with an upper-body injury that will have him in the press box against Chicago. Center Casey Mittelstadt leads Buffalo’s offense with 38 points (12 G, 26 A) in 44 games, but he’s below a point-per-game pace when there were three Sabres over that pace last season.
In net, Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen has not been quite as hard to solve as the spelling of his name, although his numbers aren’t terrible with a .906 save percentage and 2.77 goals-against average. He’s just 24 years old, though, and 22-year-old backup Devon Levi seems like a work in progress as well (.889, 3.32).
It all just adds up to a team that appears to have regressed mildly after steady progress for the two prior seasons, the kind of season that turns coaching seats hot. And Cammi Granato’s brother, Don — a former Blackhawks assistant — is in his third season behind the Buffalo bench with questions continuing to be asked about how much longer he’ll remain in that role.
As for the Blackhawks, the only new development emerged on Wednesday, with Nikita Zaitsev sent to IR with a right knee injury and Louis Crevier recalled from Rockford to fill the roster spot. No word yet if Crevier actually made it to Buffalo yet, as that Class Three Killstorm of a blizzard made travel in and around Buffalo virtually impossible.
If Crevier doesn’t play, it would be either Isaak Phillips stepping into the lineup or Connor Murphy returning from the nagging injury that kept him out of Tuesday’s victory over the San Jose Sharks. The goalie spot seems like it’d be Mrazek’s although Soderblom could get the nod with Chicago heading back home after this one for a Friday night game against the New York Islanders.
Oh, and a win in this game would give Chicago its second winning streak of the season. So there’s that. .
Let’s go Hawks.
Tale of the Tape
Blackhawks — Statistic — Sabres
44.17% (31st) — 5-on-5 Corsi For — 50.83% (12th)
41.91% (32nd) — 5-on-5 Expected goals for — 49.93% (17th)
2.23 (31st) — Goals per game — 2.95 (22nd)
3.59 (29th) — Goals against per game — 3.23 (20th)
44.6% (32nd) — Faceoffs — 46.7% (28th)
13.1% (31st) — Power play — 14.4% (26th)
75.7% (27th) — Penalty kill — 79.1% (18th)
How to watch
When: 6 p.m. CT
Where: KeyBank Center, Chicago
TV: NBC Sports Chicago
Webstream: ESPN+
Radio: WGN 720