The Buffalo Sabres and Arizona Coyotes are the mirror images of NHL misery

For how bad the Arizona Coyotes have been this season, you would think no team could catch them in the NHL’s basement. Earlier this month, the Coyotes became the NHL’s first team ever to go 20 games into the season without a regulation win, putting their postseason hopes to bed before they even started.

Going 20 games into the season without a regulation win would certainly give you the worst record in the NHL, no matter the points received in overtime or a shootout. And yet, since the Coyotes gained their first regulation win, a new challenger has approached to take on the mantle of the NHL’s worst team alongside Arizona.

With just three wins in the month of November, the Buffalo Sabres are now tied with the Coyotes at 16 points on the season as the league’s worst team. Though the Sabres have played two fewer games than the Coyotes this season, their 6-15-4 record has them sitting square with Arizona a few games removed from the quarter pole of the season.

Both the Sabres and Coyotes are no stranger to the NHL’s basement over the recent years. The pair have both been in the NHL’s bottom five teams twice in the last three years, with the 2015-16 season seeing them go 23rd and 24th in the league. This season, the Sabres and Coyotes were supposed to take steps forward, at least where their on-paper rosters were concerned.

We’ve outlined what’s been ailing the Coyotes so far this season before. Arizona has seen a rotation of five netminders over the course of the season, as they’ve averaged the league’s worst goaltending corps this season with a .886 save percentage. Starter Antti Raanta was injured in the early stages of the season, and only now after recovering is he starting to play better.

The Coyotes’ offense has also struggled. While rookie Clayton Keller continues to make his Calder Trophy bid with 21 points, Arizona as a whole is the league’s second worst team in the league with a 1.83 GF/60 at even strength. The Coyotes’ offseason moves, like key additions in center-man Derek Stepan or stalwart defenseman Niklas Hjalmarsson, should have helped the team improve by all accounts, yet they sit dead last in the league.

Likewise, the Sabres are almost a near mirror image of the Coyotes. Buffalo has the league’s third-worst goaltending duo with a combined .892 save percentage between Robin Lehner and Chad Johnson. The Sabres’ goaltending was the team’s clear weak point coming into the season, and neither Lehner or Johnson have been up to the task.

That much is made clear by the Sabres’ surprising xGA/60 stat, which measures the expected amount of goals allowed per 60 minutes based on shot type, distance, and other factors. Buffalo has the NHL’s ninth-best xGA/60 at 2.26 and the league’s fifth-worst GA/60 at 2.66, meaning the Sabres are allowing more goals than they should be factoring in the chances their opponents are getting.

At the other end of the ice, the Sabres are last in the NHL with 55 goals for on the year through 25 games played. Their 1.86 GF/60 and 1.84 xGF/60 are essentially break even, despite Evander Kane putting up a career-best point pace this season. While Jack Eichel has been fine with 19 points in 25 games, the Sabres lack the bottom-six depth to help punch their way out of this hole.

We’re not even halfway through the 2017-18 season, and we’re already facing another final standings page with both the Sabres and Coyotes in the bottom five. Even the Edmonton Oilers, who have been basement dwellers, too, in recent years, are tied as the NHL’s third-worst team right now with 22 points.

We’ve seen this movie play out many times before, and it’s hard not to wonder if a shakeup somewhere — via a trade or firing — is coming for the Coyotes and Sabres. Kane has been highly cited in trade rumors as of late, and he’d bring in a fine haul for Buffalo. Yet, that’d signal the end of the Sabres’ season as the team would go back to the drawing board once again. For the Coyotes, they just landed head coach Rick Tocchet in July and young general manager John Chayka has done almost everything right on paper to help the team.

At the end of the day, this season is looking like yet another lost cause for both the Coyotes and Sabres. How long and far they fall, however, will be dependent on what moves they do — or don’t — make next.

(All advance statistics taken from Corsica)