Buffalo Sabres: 3 key people to watch for the 2019 season
By Jasmine Yen
As the 2019-2020 season approaches, many eyes will be on the Buffalo Sabres and these three key players. Will they be enough to push the Sabres forward?
Eight seasons have gone by and the Buffalo Sabres still have not been able to make it to the playoffs. When they got Jack Eichel in 2015, it was widely thought that the Sabres’ fortunes would change. It did not.
Winning the draft lottery in 2018 and getting star defenseman Rasmus Dahlin was thought to boost the team but when April came around, the Sabres were on a golf course rather than on the ice.
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Buffalo has good players, it’s just a matter of executing through a full season. If the Sabres want to play hockey in April, these three people will need to step up and lead the team in the right direction.
3. Ralph Krueger
Ever since Buffalo fired Lindy Ruff in 2013, the team has not had a head coach for longer than two seasons. The coaching carousel has to end with the Sabres in order to establish some stability and to give coaches an actual chance.
The hiring of Ralph Krueger is very intriguing and this out-of-the-box thinking for the Sabres could pay dividends for the team. Instead of picking a generic name from the small pool of NHL coaches, Buffalo went out and hired someone with just 48 games of NHL experience.
Krueger has a ton of experience in coaching hockey as he has coached many international teams. He was the mastermind behind the crazy surprise that was Team Europe in the World Cup back in 2016. He brings a fresh face and will also bring a new style of play for Buffalo.
Rasmus Ristolainen said a few weeks ago that he wasn’t able to “enjoy hockey” due to all the losing and he’s the second Sabre to say something along those lines. The year before, Ryan O’Reilly said that he “lost the love for the game” before getting traded to the St. Louis Blues. The Sabres have a very toxic locker room right now and bringing in a new set of eyes to fix the problem is a great idea.
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2. Jeff Skinner
Jeff Skinner is coming off the most productive season of his career and enters the 2019-2020 season with a brand-new 72 million dollar contract. Last season he recorded 40 goals (6th in the league) and his new contract shows that the Sabres expect nothing less.
Skinner’s production is vital for the Sabres’ success as he was one out of three players who produced more than 60 points for the team. If Buffalo wants a chance at the playoffs, they’re going to need their star players to show up and Skinner is one of them.
Last season, he was producing at a pretty consistent rate until it fell off in January. After the Sabres snapped their 10-game winning streak, his production trailed away and he had just three points (1G 2A) in the month of March. This season, Skinner needs to make sure he produces consistently and to become a leader. He shouldn’t just be producing when everything is going well, he needs to be part of the core that drives the team forward when things aren’t going as planned.
1. Rasmus Dahlin
Rasmus Dahlin was not happy with last season. He’s a great player and great players don’t enjoy losing too much. His rookie season was phenomenal as he proved to the league why he was the #1 pick and his play so far indicates that he will soon be one of the top defensemen in the league.
Dahlin is part of the Sabres’ core and he has already been very vocal in the media about his displeasure. He also talked about how the winning streak showed him that this team is capable of winning and he’s determined to make this upcoming season a better one.
This is exactly the kind of energy Buffalo needs right now. They spent many seasons being passive and accepting that they won’t make the playoffs. Being okay with losing is dangerous, especially for a professional sports team.
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These players need to get angry. They need to find a spark to motivate them through 82 tough games and Dahlin seems ready to fire them up. Even though he’s just 19 years old, he will be one of the pillars for this franchise going forward and the team needs him to step up and become a leader for them.