BUFFALO, N.Y. — There are many reasons why the Buffalo Sabres are dangerously close to missing the playoffs for the 13th straight year, but a huge reason is they aren’t very good at picking up loser points. Those are the points you get for losing in overtime or a shootout.
Buffalo only has five loser points this season, while two of the teams ahead of them are with the league leaders. The New York Islanders are two points ahead of the Sabres, but they have 15 loser points. The Washington Capitals have nine loser points and lead the Sabres by four points.
After winning three straight games, the Sabres have hit a rough patch since Saturday, losing two of three games.
Let's just use those two losses as an example. On Saturday in Detroit, the Sabres weren’t playing very well, but were only down by a goal until 13:52 of the third period. If you’re going to be a good team, you have to figure out how to get that game to overtime, even though you’re not playing well. You have to get one or two points out of that game.
In Vancouver on Tuesday, the Sabres were just awful. By the middle of the third period they had just two decent scoring chances on Casey DeSmith, but at 9:23 of the third, Rasmus Dahlin scored a pretty goal to cut the deficit to one goal. Buffalo had 10:37 to tie the game and get a point. Again, good teams understand they’re fatigued from playing the night before, but still figure out a way to tie the game and get it to overtime to make sure they get a point. The Canucks didn’t score the empty net goal until 18:09.
If Buffalo just got one point in both of those games, they’d be tied with the Islanders, two in back of Washington and just three points behind the Red Wings for the Eastern Conference’s eighth and final playoff spot.
After the Sabres play in Edmonton against the Oilers on Thursday, they sit in Calgary for three days waiting to play the Flames on Sunday. That means all the teams in front of them get the opportunity to pick up points and pull away from the Sabres as they sit and watch.
I don’t like teams getting points when they lose, but those are the rules and the Sabres aren’t using them to their advantage. The Boston Bruins do as they lead the NHL with a points percentage of .693 and they have 15 loser points. It really can help a team that maybe isn’t as good to get themselves into the playoff picture.
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