Early Snapshot Of Eastern Conference Shows The Difficult Road Ahead For Sabres

The Buffalo Sabres road to repeating as an Eastern Conference playoff team this season appeared challenging, not only because of the departure of Alex Tuch and Bowen Byram would put more onus on the Sabres youngsters being able to fill the void, but also because a number of clubs looked to be better on paper. After two weeks, some of those teams are proving that evaluation is closer to reality. 

The Florida Panthers, who the Sabres will host on Monday afternoon in the finale of their five-game homestand, are an unbeaten 2-0-2 and second in the Atlantic, in spite of losing team captain Aleksander Barkov and veteran winger Brad Marchand to injury. 

The Ottawa Senators are tied for the lead in the Atlantic with a 3-1 record, which is somewhat surprising after the departure of Brady Tkachuk, but newcomer William Eklund suffered a severe ankle injury in a 2-1 win over Philadelphia that is expected to keep him out an extended period, while Tampa Bay is 3-1 after a 3-2 victory over Minnesota on Thursday with backup Dennis Hildeby making 34 saves.  

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Boston has started strong with a 3-2-0 record and throttled the Sabres opponent on Saturday, the Utah Mammoth, 6-0 at TD Garden on Thursday, while the Toronto Maple Leafs stole a point against the Vegas Golden Knights, thanks to a 40 save performance from Sergei Bobrovsky. The Leafs are 2-2-1 to start the season and Auston Matthews appears to be fully healthy for the first time in three years. 

The big surprise is the New York Rangers, who lead the Metro and the East with a 4-1-0 record. The Montreal Canadiens are surprisingly struggling at 1-2-1 and are behind the Sabres by a point, and will have to battle the next month without star forward Ivan Demidov. Buffalo has two more games on their five-game homestand before finishing October with seven of the next eight games on the road.

What occurred last year, when Buffalo was in last place in the East in early December and finished atop the Atlantic Division is not likely to be repeated. The Sabres will need to stay within range early in the season to remain in the mix for the postseason.  

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