Buffalo Sabres Win Fourth Straight

The Buffalo Sabres haven’t been to the Stanley Cup Playoffs since the 2010-11 season, but if the first five weeks of the 2018-19 NHL season are indicative of things to come, that run of futility will come to an end.

On November 16th, the Sabres beat the Winnipeg Jets in Winnipeg 2-1 on a shootout for their fourth straight victory. Jeff Skinner scored his 14th goal of the season on a power play early in the third period to tie it at 1-1, and Conor Sheary scored the game winner in the shootout.

Skinner was picked up in an offseason trade from the Carolina Hurricanes, where he’d spent his first eight NHL seasons. He’s been a great pickup so far, with 14 goals (second in the league) and seven assists. Sheary was another off season trade pickup, this time from the Pittsburgh Penguins. He has six goals and four assists. Some more scoring punch was badly needed; the Sabres were last in the NHL in goals scored in 2017-18, with 199. Not surprisingly then, they were 25-45-12 (62 points), which was the worst record in the league.

So while the team added some offense to help out Jack Eichel and Jason Pominville, they also decided to go after some help in goal. They went in big time there, signing free agent Carter Hutton from the St. Louis Blues. Hutton led the league with a 2.09 goals against average and .931 save percentage last season. He picked up his eighth win of this season in that November 16th game. Hutton had 29 saves in the team’s 2-1 win November 13th win over Atlantic Division (and Eastern Conference) leader Tampa Bay.

The victory over the Jets improved Buffalo’s record to 11-6-2 (24 points), good for third in the Atlantic Division behind Tampa Bay (29 points) and Toronto (28 points). They are tied for third overall in the East with Columbus.