Inside The Penalty Box 11.12.07: Buffalo Missing Drury and Briere
Posted by Neil Borenstein on 11.12.2007
The Buffalo Sabres’ offseason was one they would like to forget. And blocking it out of their memory is probably the top thing they did, since they did very little to replace the huge losses cause by the departure of Daniel Briere and Chris Drury via free agency. In this edition of Inside The Penalty Box, Neil Borenstein discusses the Sabres’ current last place showing in the Northeast Division being a result of not realizing the magnitude of Briere and Drury leaving over the summer.
he impact of losing Chris Drury and Daniel Briere is a bit larger than the Buffalo Sabres expected. A team so dominant last season that it won the President's Trophy, the Sabres are currently last in the Northeast Division and tied for last in the Eastern Conference with only six wins and 13 points.
The Sabres have only scored 44 goals and tallied 78 assists this season through 16 games. That puts the team on pace for a total of 225 goals and 399 assists in 2007-2008. Last year, the Sabres led the NHL in both offensive categories with 298 goals and 534 assists. That's a drastic one-year drop in production pending things remain the same for the rest of the season. And it's hard not to think that it has everything to do with the fact that the Sabres lost two of its three top scorers from the 2007-2008 season this summer.
Buffalo was content with promoting its second line from last season to the top. They were forced to sign Thomas Vanek to a seven-year, $50 million after the Edmonton Oilers tendered him an offer sheet. As a result, he was thrust into the spotlight as the team's top star on offense. After a 43-goal and 41-assist performance the previous season (second of his NHL career), Vanek became "the guy" that was supposed to overcome the loss of both Drury and Briere to free agency. He was the player, after all, that sandwiched in between Briere and Drury in scoring, ranking second on the team.
Derek Roy and Maxim Afinogenov, the Sabres' sixth and seventh ranking scorers, respectively, last season joined their linemate on the top line in Buffalo this season. As a source of secondary scoring last season, they were incredible. And it was expected that they turn it up a notch as the premier line in Buffalo this year. Unfortunately, that has not been the case.
So far this season, Vanek has only four goals and 10 points, Roy has six goals and 11 points, and Afinogenov has six points between three goals and three assists. Surprisingly, Tim Connolly and defenseman Brian Campbell lead the team in scoring with 12 points apiece. The line expected to lead the charge with the playmakers expected to make everyone forget about Drury and Briere have failed to meet the hype. Maybe the two departed stars were actually more important than many in Buffalo expected:
"It is a tough loss to have to have Chris Drury and Danny Briere move on from the team, but I think our attitude remains, our talent remains, and the core group of guys remain," Ryan Miller said in an NHL media conference call on September 17. "I think that as much as they helped us out and were great teammates and very productive players, it wasn't all them. A lot of what went into the game was the work of the guys who were put in. And if we can have guys step up, fill some roles; we're going to have some new guys on the team this year, guys who are going to make the push to be full-time NHL players. I think we are going to have a drive and an attitude that should be assertive."
Miller hasn't exactly exemplified that drive and attitude himself this season.
While the offense is slacking in many ways, the Sabres' biggest deficiency this year is their defense. And it all starts with Miller, who is 5-8-1 in 14 games. His goals against average is 2.77 and he has a save percentage under .900 (.898). The GAA is close to what he had all of last year (2.73), but it must also be noted that he wasn't particularly fantastic last year despite being a 40-game winner. Don't get me wrong – Miller was good. But he was not elite and was a beneficiary of playing on a high-scoring team, which isn't a luxury he has this season.
His optimism about guys stepping up with the losses of Drury and Briere was a bit much, and he hasn't exactly taken steps in improving his game with their absences. It's more important now than it has been the previous two years that Miller step up his game and perform better in between the pipes. He doesn't have the most dynamic offense in the NHL to bail him out anymore.
In front of Miller, things aren't too much better. Whereas the team's total plus/minus was plus-299 last season (Vanek led the league at plus-47), only one player actually has a rating on the positive end this year (Daniel Paille: plus-3). It certainly doesn't help that Teppo Numminen and Dmitri Kalinin are currently sitting on injured reserve. But the players that are there need to help out Miller from letting in three or more goals, something opposition have done against Buffalo 11 times this season.
In recent games, despite losing three out of four, the Sabres have played better defense. They only allowed two goals in a shutout loss to the Montreal Canadiens on Nov. 5, one goal in a 2-1 victory against Boston on Nov. 7, three goals against the Toronto Maple Leafs in a shutout loss on Nov. 9 and two goals against the Bruins in a 2-1 loss on Nov. 10. If they can keep up that kind of play, the defense will be holding up its end of the bargain. It has to protect the team from letting in astronomical amounts of goals. At least, unless the offense can find it's stride.
With only 2.7 goals per game compared to a league-leading 3.57 from last year, this team is a shell of its former self in the scoring department. Now, I'm not trying to ream the Sabres management here on losing Drury and Briere. It's at least been reported that they pushed hard to keep Drury and he just wanted to play with the New York Rangers. I don't recall hearing anything about the Sabres' approach to keeping Briere, but he probably would have left regardless, as well. Buffalo was going to head into this season without those players no matter what they tried. And they had to match Edmonton's offer for Vanek since losing Drury, Briere and Vanek in one offseason would have absolutely destroyed the Sabres.
My major problem with the Sabres is that they completely misjudged the affect losing their top two centers was going to have on the team this year. They failed to notice many of their wins last year came in high-scoring games and not defensive battles. This team was four lines deep and could battle, but primarily won thanks to being able to score more goals than the opposition. That has so much to do with Briere and Drury. Combined, those two players had 164 of the team's 832 points (19.7 percent). And they lost their only playmaker with over 42 assists, and two of their four 30-goal scorers. That is a lot of offense lost. And I refuse to believe the departures of Briere and Drury caught the Sabres completely offguard. They should have prepared for it.
Instead, to counteract the losses of their top centers, the Sabres did a lot of internal re-signings, but brought in virtually nobody new through free agency or trades. They didn't even attempt to re-sign Dainius Zubrus, who could have at least been a decent third line center on this year's team.
Jochen Hecht is good player at center, but he hasn't had a season with more than 37 assists in his seven years in the NHL. Paul Gaustard is a third-year player who hasn't had a season with more than 24 total points. Tim Connolly's production is a nice surprise, but there was no way the team knew this seven-year veteran who hasn't had a season with over 39 assists and only played two games last season was going to come out with 0.84 assists per game. Essentially, the only big playmaker the Sabres had to count on this season was Roy. There goes being four lines deep, I suppose.
Two years of magic is now history in Buffalo. The Sabres came out of the lockout one of the better-adapted teams in the NHL. They came out of nowhere to be the second best team in the Northeast in 2005-2006, and the President's Trophy winners as the best regular season team in the NHL last year. They made the Eastern Conference Finals two years in a row, and did it last year despite some lackluster postseason play.
That's in the past now and they are currently one of three teams in the last place in the entire NHL with 13 points. A sharp decline in offense from last year is to blame, which in turn exposes the team's suspect defense. And though the Sabres likely would have lost Briere and Drury no matter how hard they pushed to keep them, little-to-no attempt at trying to replace at least some of their production mixed with a belief that the team could still compete at the level they did last season shows how foolish and ill-prepared Sabres management was coming into this season.
Feedback …
Redden is a marked man right now. The only way he remains in his hometown is if he takes a massive paycut. If he had a better season last season he would be re-signed. However, that wasn't the case, so he will have to take a paycut or find a new home.
I also believe your assessment of Ottawa being a team of three players as 100% wrong. The big three (Spezza, Heatley, Alfie) are the main offensive force. But any good team can't win on offense alone, which is where the shutdown team of Phillips and Volchenkov come in. Paddock is putting those two out against the top lines in the NHL and for good reason. Heck, Volchenkov some nights has as many saves as the Ottawa goalie.
With Gerber stepping up this year, Ottawa now has two viable starting goaltenders.
So while the big three may be the offensive spark, Ottawa has more depth than meets the eye. Just surround the big three with bargain, cheap secondary players and you have a winning formula.
- Scott
Thank you for the e-mail, Scott.
I don't deny that the Senators have pieces to compliment their big three, but it's hard to deny that Ottawa is not nearly as dominant as they are without that top line. Sure, Phillips and Volchenkov are key shutdown players, but defense is not what won games for Ottawa last year and I doubt it will be what does it for them this year. It's going to help, but the top line is the key to Ottawa's success. Sure there's depth and a good defensive presence, but the main attraction in Ottawa is Heatley, Spezza and Alfredsson. Getting that top line locked up for several years to come is a huge step in keeping the Senators atop the Eastern Conference.
As far as Redden is concerned, the fool decided to say he would consider a paycut to stay in Ottawa. Conveniently, this was a few days after the column came out, so I guess I was wrong about his relationship with the front office. I thought it was a shaky one following this offseason. I suppose he got over it.
Thanks again for the e-mail Scott, and everybody keep it coming!
Send all comments, questions, suggestions and telephone numbers from the ladies to br7qbsteelers@yahoo.com.
Until next week, you have just been Inside The Penalty Box!
he impact of losing Chris Drury and Daniel Briere is a bit larger than the Buffalo Sabres expected. A team so dominant last season that it won the President's Trophy, the Sabres are currently last in the Northeast Division and tied for last in the Eastern Conference with only six wins and 13 points.
