The Buffalo Sabres are 2-2 on the season after a lackluster showing Thursday night in a 4-0 loss to the Dallas Stars.
The Sabres have carried over some special teams woes from last season; Buffalo is 0-13 on the power play in its first four games.
Head coach Lindy Ruff addressed the struggling powerplay after the Sabres' loss to the Stars, saying they have been making changes trying to get things going.
"We haven't been doing the same thing. I mean, we obviously made some changes," he said. "We had a couple of great opportunities. I mean, our first power play wasn't any good. I'm not going to try to disguise that. Our second one, when you have [Zach] Benson all alone in front of the net, and you get a couple of whacks, you've got to put that in the back of the net. We had some guys who abnormally didn't handle a puck very well tonight, and that really hurt us."
The Sabres are the lone team in the NHL to yet score with the man advantage.
"It's a delicate place to be, you know, because you don't want them squeezing the sticks," Ruff said. "You got to keep working at the things you think are going to make it effective. We've been putting in the extra time, trying to make sure we've got this figured out, and how to solve pressure."
Solving the powerplay is one thing, but also getting off to a better start is another. The Sabres have trailed by multiple goals in every game this season.
"Got to start better. If you look at the two really good chances in the first five minutes, we got to start putting some of those away. You look at the other night, the couple really good chances we had where we didn't execute. We got to be able to put those in the back of that," Ruff added. "Our starts have to be better. We have to start putting the puck in the back of the net early. Yeah, we all got to be better. Everybody."
For Sabres assistant captain Mattias Samuelsson, it's about simplifying the game.
"You're at home, get the crowd into it, get pucks in deep, try to wear them out. I think there are a lot of ways we could get off to a better start, but I think just simplifying it, putting them on the heels a little earlier," said Samuelsson.
Buffalo's next chance to get the power play going comes when hosting Utah on Saturday at 7 p.m. before closing out the five-game home stretch Monday at 1 p.m. against divisional foe Florida.
