I am not a huge fan of panic, so I headed for numbers earlier to hopefully dismantle my sped-up heart rate regarding Buffalo’s horrific 6-10 (FINE. 6-8-2) home start to Year One PHH.
It didn’t go so well.
To be frank, that’s one bad 6-10 mark for a team that’s winning 73 percent of its games away the FN Center. FN, indeed.
Let’s begin with the obvious: 6-10 is a worse home winning percentage than all but four teams (we’ll get to those teams in a minute when I drop the hammer on you) and tied with Anaheim. Yes, the same Ducks who lost to Buffalo when the Sabres were “home” in Europe.
More fun: Of the 11 NHL teams (37% of all teams) that have a below .500 home record, just three — Buffalo, Toronto and Phoenix — are currently in playoff positioning. One of those 11 lost at “home” in Europe… to the Sabres.
More funner: That three of 16 teams currently in playoff positioning is absurdly misleading given recent history. Since the lockout, just five of 96 playoff teams have boasted more losses than wins at home.
Outliers: How significant were those five anomalies?
1) The 05-06 Oilers went to Stanley Cup Finals as an 8-seed
2) The 08-09 Ducks won their first round series as an 8-seed
3) The 09-10 Bruins won their first round series as a 6-seed
4) The 09-10 Habs went to the Eastern Conference Finals as an 8-seed
5) The 10-11 Rangers lost in the first-round
Back to present day depression: Discounting the “road” win at Los Angeles, four of the Sabres’ remaining seven road wins come against the only four teams in the NHL worse than Buffalo at home: Montreal (2), Carolina, Nashville and Columbus.
It’s likely that injuries are a major reason for the team’s recent slump, but there’s still very little excuse for the home losses. I’m going on record beginning with this game against Florida that the team’s in worse shape than I previously thought.
And I still wouldn’t fire Lindy Ruff, but that’s a post for a day when I don’t work.
Email: nick@fcbuffalo.org
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Well, I’m hoping for a win regardless. The last game I went to was the Washington game and that was the Sabres only home win in like the last six or seven home games. Maybe I bring goodluck. hahahahaha
There’s still time. Last year, they didn’t win at home until mid November. They lost in overtime to the freaking Thrashers at home, if I recall correctly.
Here’s a stat that should provide some comfort – the Sabres reached the 30 point plateau two weeks before they did last year.
Dey just need to kick Roy off da team again
the only stats you need to know is Mr Softee ZERO Stanley Cups. The only thing youll be writing about it “this whiner liner guy ended up being right all along”!!