Buffalo Sabres: Three Stars of November
The Buffalo Sabres have gone through two months of a Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde act. Going from a three-game sweep on a California road trip without Tage Thompson to a three-game losing streak with Thompson is an amalgamation of their 11-11-2 season. Though it’s currently a gloomy outlook in the “City of Good Neighbors,” there are many players who performed very well in November. Here are the three stars for the Sabres from the past month.
Third Star: Rasmus Dahlin
A little case of déjà vu as Dahlin earns the third star for the second month in a row. In October, Dahlin was recovering from an injury for the first half of the month but now looks to be fully healthy and playing great. Dahlin was tied for the most goals and points in November with five and 13, respectively. In his first season as captain, his leadership has been on display by making his fellow defensemen better. According to Natural Stat Trick, Henri Jokiharju, Dahlin’s defensive partner last month, went from third among Sabres’ defensemen in expected goals percentage at 48.08 percent to fifth at a much worse 37.7 percent without Dahlin. The same trend can be seen with Dahlin’s current partner, Bowen Byram, who slightly increased his expected goals percentage from 47.34 to 48.77 percent from October to November. Also, Byram increased his Corsi percentage, the relative amount of shots, blocks, and misses he gets compared to his opponents, from 48.91 to 52.95 percent, a leap from fifth to second among the team’s defensemen, only behind Dahlin, who again led Buffalo’s blue-liners in expected goals and Corsi.
Second Star: Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen
Considering he finished the month 5-2-1 and put together a .943 save percentage and 1.57 goals-against average in his only regulation losses, it was tempting to give Luukkonen the first star. However, he finished the month on a real stinker against Vancouver, giving up four goals on 22 shots, which spoiled his would-be .938 save percentage for the month down to .926. Despite that, his numbers were among the best in the league for goalies with his workload. For goalies that played at least 500 minutes in November, Luukkonen ranked first in goals-against average, third in save percentage, and fifth in goals saved above average, according to Natural Stat Trick. The Finnish netminder has been a major reason that the Sabres are even idling by at their current record, and he’ll have to continue his exceptional play since the team is about to take on the streaky but very explosive Colorado Avalanche on Tuesday, followed by the Winnipeg Jets, a team that has been firing on all cylinders since the season started.
First Star: Alex Tuch
The new team leader in points gets the first star for November. When it was announced that Thompson would be placed on injured reserve, that created a huge opportunity for Tuch to step up, and that he did. The Sabres were buzzing after going 4-1 in Thompson’s absence while Tuch was essential in every single victory. He scored the game-tying goal against the Blues that took the game to overtime for the 4-3 win. Also, he assisted in the game-winning goals against the Kings and Ducks; in Los Angeles, he won a scrum for the puck and swung it back to Dahlin, who shot it for Jason Zucker’s deflection goal, and his body check on Olen Zellweger gave Buffalo an odd-man-rush which led to a Jiri Kulich overtime goal in Anaheim. The former Boston College Eagle scored the go-ahead goal against the Sharks to secure the victory on a successful road trip. Tuch has shown his value to this team, being the only skater to play in at least 35 minutes on both the penalty kill and power play units last month, including scoring two shorthanded goals to prove how versatile he is.
