Both the Buffalo Sabres and the Colorado Avalanche are looking to rediscover their scoring touches when they face off on Tuesday in Buffalo.
The Sabres enter the matchup having been shut out in two of their previous three outings. Meanwhile, the Avalanche have been held to a combined eight goals over their past four games.
A key factor in the Sabres’ inability to find the back of the net stems from their struggles on the man advantage. They have gone a combined 0-for-13 on the power play over their past five games, after they had scored at least one power-play goal in 10 of their previous 11 games.
“We just can’t get frustrated,” Sabres forward Dylan Cozens stated when asked about his team’s power-play struggles. “We can’t get on each other, we can’t get yelling at each other and complaining about each other. We’ve just got to go out there and just work.
“You’re not going to score every power play. You’ve got to be OK with that, and if you don’t score on the first one, score on the second one. You don’t score on the second one, you score on the third one. I think we’re just getting a little frustrated as of late and it’s definitely not doing us any favors.”
A matchup with the Avalanche offers up a perfect chance for the Sabres’ power play to get back on track as Colorado has allowed five power-play goals across their past five outings and has just a 71.9 percent success rate on the penalty kill this season.
Tuesday’s clash marks the beginning of a five-game homestand for the Sabres, the longest home stretch of the season in Buffalo, and the start of a five-game road swing for the Avalanche.
The Avalanche just finished a tough stretch in which they faced six consecutive playoff teams from last season, going a combined 3-3-0, but have dropped two straight games.
“I think our guys still believe we can win, they just know it’s a difficult task (on a) nightly basis with some of the opponents that we’ve been facing,” Colorado coach Jared Bednar told reporters after the Avs allowed four unanswered goals en route to a 4-1 loss to the Edmonton Oilers on Saturday. “But I think, yeah, it’s important to get out to a good start. We did that tonight and looked like we ran out of gas …”
“Again, scoring doesn’t come easy, and if you fall behind, it can get frustrating for your team, so morale is definitely part of it. But I think you know (that) you have to reset (on a) nightly basis, which I think we’ve been doing.”
The Avalanche have scored more than three goals just twice over their past 10 games and will be without a key depth piece for longer than they had hoped as forward Miles Wood was recently ruled month-to-month with an upper-body injury.
Avalanche forward Mikko Rantanen has continued to be a driving force offensively this season and was recently named the NHL’s second star for the month of November, after tallying 11 goals and eight assists across 14 games.
Buffalo has claimed victory in two of the last three meetings after Colorado had won the previous eight matchups.
–Field Level Media
