We’ve got Sabres Mania here at The Coaches Site, and if you're looking for a feel-good story this spring, then you'll catch it too. The Buffalo Sabres have shocked the league, while maybe not being so surprised themselves, by going on yet another heater as the 25/26 NHL season winds down to an inevitable crescendo.
The Sabres are going to make the playoffs.
How are they doing it? By using a not-so-secret method to score more goals than the other team more often than not. We've talked about it before, and then they kept scoring so we talked about it again, but what we haven't talked about is the individual skill required to put the puck in the net.
When a team is on the power play they're more likely to score on one-timers or cross-ice plays, and of course rebounds and deflections. To borrow from University of Michigan head coach Brandon Naurato, these goals are mostly scored off the pass. Think of Nikita Kucherov passing to Steven Stamkos (🙃) or Brayden Point on the power play. Players score off the pass at 5-on-5 as well, but you're a lot more likely to see goals scored off the carry as opposed to off the pass (as opposed to the power play). Think of zone entries or o-zone play. All of Buffalo's goals from the first half of March can be seen in the posts linked to above, but it's the clips in this post that take inspiration straight from Naurato's course here at TCS, Mastering Pro Shot Selection & Goal Scoring.
Sure, there's an empty-netter and even a shootout goal in there, but it gives you a clear idea of goals scored in motion using pull shots. Take a look at the clips and check out Naurato's course if you want some goal-scoring tools that are pretty popular with the hottest team in hockey.
