Nine days, four games, three losses, one win, one franchise/league-shaking trade.
There's your synopsis of the Buffalo Sabres' road trip that ended with a thud, courtesy of Thursday's 5-2 loss to the expansion Seattle Kraken.
Jordan Eberle scored a pair of third-period goals to complete the first hat trick in Kraken history and Seattle overpowered the Sabres before a roaring sellout crowd.
The 5-4-1 Sabres flew home Friday and have to ponder the lessons of the road quickly because they're back on the ice Saturday in KeyBank Center against the Detroit Red Wings and Monday against Washington in Capital One Arena. Only after that game do they get a three-day break.
The trip had a bit of a split personality. The Sabres blew leads of 3-0 and 2-0 in games at Anaheim and Los Angeles, respectively, but at least managed to pull out an overtime win over the Ducks. On the second half of the journey, however, their defense got pillaged in San Jose and Seattle as the club gave up five goals in each game. Against the Kraken, in fact, the shots on goal were 30-11 through two periods.
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Here are some trip takeaways:
1. The deal is done
Eichel, 25, exits the Sabres having experienced zero playoff games in six seasons since he was drafted second overall in 2015.
It's best for this club moving forward to have the Jack Eichel deal done. With each new set of internet rumors, the situation become more of a distraction.
"Every time you go on your phone, it's all everyone seems to be talking about," center Dylan Cozens admitted Thursday in Seattle.
With the deal done, players don't have to wonder if they're going to be part of it. They know who has returned, but also that Alex Tuch may be a ways from joining the lineup and Peyton Krebs' promotion from Rochester is uncertain.
"Not only do you have a departure, you have an incoming and that's something to handle," said coach Don Granato. "There's different roles and different scenarios whenever you bring players in and players are, 'What's my role? How does this affect me?' ... That always takes time in this situation."
2. What's up with Dahlin?
No, we don't just mean the pratfall he took trying to pull the puck out of the net and fire it away after Seattle's empty-netter Thursday night. In 10 games, Dahlin has no goals and five assists. He only has 16 shots on goal. He's getting a ton of ice time (a team-high 23:08) but not doing much with it, especially when you consider he's running at a career-high 70.7% offensive zone starts.
Fell asleep early last night and missed this gem from Dahlin 😂 #LetsGoBuffalo #Seakraken pic.twitter.com/y0rQenLecP
— Buffalo Hockey moments (@SabresPlays) November 5, 2021
Defensively, Dahlin is a mess. He has struggled since partner Henri Jokiharju went down in the season opener and Will Butcher hasn't been a great fit. You wonder when Granato will juggle the pairs, given Dahlin's situation and the terrible game the Mark Pysyk-Robert Hagg duo had in Seattle.
Dahlin has been prone to turnovers – especially around the offensive blue line – and has been beat in all manner of ways by opposing forwards.
"I don't think he's been poor," Granato insisted after the loss in San Jose, when Dahlin was toasted on a 1-on-1 rush by Tomas Hertl and the eye test clearly said otherwise. "He's a guy that battles frustration. We see him make mistakes and now he's not as assertive as he needs to be. He can't be tentative and hesitant."
Bottom line: Although Dahlin is only 21, he's played 207 NHL games. He's a former No. 1 overall pick in the first year of a three-year, $18 million deal. He has to be better.
"You want to have a good first impression just to get a little comfortable, get to know some of these guys, get those nerves out," Krebs said.
3. Depth up front
The Sabres need Casey Mittelstadt and Victor Olofsson back, and Olofsson has a good chance to return Saturday after he missed the final two games of the trip.
The club doesn't have the depth yet to weather injuries. That will change some when Krebs and the injured Tuch are both on the roster.
Seven goals over the last three games of the trip won't get the job done. The biggest breakthrough player to date has been Rasmus Asplund with four goals and eight points. Cozens has just one, putting him atop the list of guys who need to start finding the net pronto.
"If you want to be mad Eichel is an ex-Sabre, this one lies squarely at the feet of Terry and Kim Pegula, as well as Dan Bylsma, Phil Housley, Ralph Krueger and Jason Botterill," Harrington writes.
4. Tough to take the road
The Sabres are 4-1 in Buffalo and have been pleased at the atmosphere created in KeyBank Center even though the crowds have been the tiniest in franchise history. They're 1-3-1 on the road, where Granato can't get the matchups he wants and the forwards haven't been driving play on the forecheck.
Not having the last change is a big issue. So is communication. The Sabres have played in mostly sleepy visiting arenas thus far but that wasn't the case Thursday in Seattle, where a sellout crowd of more than 17,000 roared from start to finish. Granato pointed out it was a playoff-type atmosphere, the kind no one on the club has seen on the road since before the pandemic hit.
After the loss in San Jose, Granato fretted over easy goals his team gave up and how they changed momentum.
"You give something easy to the other team, it's more than giving it to the team," he said. "In some places, you're giving it to 18,000 people to get excited."
5. Net results
You can't ask for much more from the Sabres' goalies. But when will it be too much to ask for them to keep playing this way?
Craig Anderson (4-2, 2.50/.921) and Dustin Tokarski (1-2-1, 2.44/.924) have given this team a chance to win every game. Tokarski nearly pulled a flat-out steal in Seattle when the Sabres easily could have given up five or six goals in the first 40 minutes.
The goalies have been the club's best penalty killers too, with Anderson running a .950 save percentage on the PK that's tied for third among NHL goalies who have faced at least 10 shots in short-handed spots.
But this team has to give them help. Seattle and San Jose combined for 50 scoring chances overall and 17 of the high-danger variety according to NaturalStatTrick.com. The Kraken had three short-handed breakaways that Tokarski turned away.