‘If you are a Sabres fan, the most encouraging part of this is the team would have been competitive in these games even with league-average goaltending. They are right around break even in net shots and expected goals, which indicates the run of play in these games is balanced. Forwards Victor Olofsson, Rasmus Asplund and Tage Thompson have been regularly dangerous in these games. More shocking, five Sabres defenders – new additions Robert Hagg and Mark Pysyk, along with Jacob Bryson, Rasmus Dahlin and Colin Miller – have all seen favorable scoring chance differentials to open the season. I’m not even going to try and recall the last time we saw something like that in Buffalo. It’s been, well, quite some time.’