This team has talent issues, plain and simple.

When the Sabres were near the top of the standings, back when they had Drury, Briere, and Campbell, they played an aggressive offensive minded style of hockey. It worked because the Sabres overwhelmed teams with their offensive zone pressure. The defense wasn’t relied upon to do much in comparison to most other hockey teams other than provide a strong outlet pass. So smart players like Numminen, Tallinder, and Lydman flourished on the back end.

Now, without the same caliber of talent in years past, the Sabres employ a more defensive minded game plan. There isn’t a single defenseman on this team capable of bearing down, taking the puck away from an opponent and making a smart pass. For the most part, the defense is an above average skating group and that is certainly an asset. But only against teams that have poor puck possession is this defense really designed to play against. The upper echelon teams can do whatever they want in the Buffalo zone and accumulate a tremendous amount of shots on goal because the defense is almost incapable of taking the puck away.

In addition, Buffalo’s forwards are not particularly great in their own zone like, say, a team like Dallas. There are guys who I consider to be above average defensive forwards like Roy, Pominville, Connolly, and Gaustad, but there are also players who either don’t understand their defensive responsibilities or are just not talented enough. A disturbing trend for Sabres fans is watching Kotalik, Paille, Mair, Kaleta, Ellis, among others, just get pinned down in their own zone night in and night out. When the puck is sent up the boards and the winger has to deal with a pinching defenseman, those guys are no match. They are defensive liabilities every shift.

The Sabres don’t have the talent some other teams have. Should we be very surprised with that? The Sabres have the 7^th lowest payroll in the league. Take away Maxim Afinogenov’s current cap number and the Sabres pay less on their players than five teams in the NHL (Los Angeles, Atlanta, Nashville, Phoenix, Toronto). I’m happy that the Sabres are being financially responsible, but you can’t honestly tell me that their competing for a Stanley Cup this year when they spend so little on their players.

I was pretty disappointed with the play of the Sabres against the Red Wings last Saturday. If it wasn’t obvious to anyone before, Detroit is a much better team than the Sabres. They’re a perennial Stanley Cup contender. The final score was 3-1, but the score doesn’t adequately reflect the Red Wings performance. The Sabres were out-shot 48-22 by the Red Wings. Detroit had more shots in the third (23) than the Sabres had in the entire game. Wow.

This game reminded me of some of the regular season games against Ottawa three or four years ago. The Sens, like the Red Wings, used to badly beat us with superior puck control and skating. The Sens would score something like six or seven goals, and the game wouldn’t even be close. This Detroit game, likewise, wasn’t even close.

The Wings methodically broke the Sabres down. They played a perfect game, actually. The Wings were patient with the puck in their zone when they needed to be, crisp with their passes through the neutral zone, and were unrelenting in the Sabres zone. It wasn’t that the Red Wings really outworked the Sabres; rather, their timely pressure and defensive pinching forced the Sabres defense, in particular, into bad mistakes. It was laughable watching some of the Buffalo players try and make break-out passes.

The Detroit players are talented in all facets of the game. Detroit won 65% of the face-offs in the game. This far in the season, Datsyuk, Zetterberg, and Draper have won 57%, 54% and 60% of their face-offs, respectively. That is absurd.

Beyond that, Detroit is well coached and has some of the best veteran leadership in the league. It’s because of their strong core of leaders and solid coaching that Detroit has been able to overcome some goaltending problems. For years, the Red Wings have been winning at a high level without the benefit of a top tier goaltender. It’s actually incredible. Their starting goaltenders this year are Chris Osgood and Ty Conklin that have combined for a .902 save percentage and a 2.72 goals against average. That’s pretty awful when you consider the quality of defense that plays in front of them. For the record, Detroit allows the 5th fewest shots on goal in the league.

One final thought: Ales Kotalik is atrocious at handling the puck. I’m sick of watching him continuously give it away on the power play and in his own zone. The guy has a terrific shot but the 20 or so goals he scores a year is not enough for me to want to keep this guy beyond this year. Kotalik’s short-comings as a hockey player were in full view against Detroit. That’s really all that matters, right? When it comes down to it, Kotalik is clearly not a player capable of competing and making a positive difference against upper echelon teams like Detroit.