The Buffalo Sabres' playoff hopes could hinge on a grueling 10-game stretch. Can they rise to the challenge and end their 14-year playoff drought?
Quinn Hughes (left); Owen Power (right) -- (Timothy T. Ludwig, USA TODAY Images)The Buffalo Sabres have been enjoying success of late, but they’re still in a dogfight to hang onto a Stanley Cup playoff berth. And their next 10 games could be the difference in making or missing the post-season.
The Sabres start the week on a five-game road trip, with showdowns against the Carolina Hurricanes, Nashville Predators, Montreal Canadiens, New York Islanders and Toronto Maple Leafs. Do any of those teams sound like pushovers to you? Us neither. But that’s only the first half of the Sabres’ next five games.
Once they finish up with the Islanders game, the Sabres will play the Los Angeles Kings, Canadiens (again) and Florida Panthers, the Tampa Bay Lightning, and the Pittsburgh Penguins. Again (and with due respect to the Penguins), that’s nine games out of 10 that the Sabres get an opponent who could beat them.
That means, between now and then – ‘then’ being three weeks from today,– the Sabres could find themselves either in a top-three position in the Atlantic Division, or they could be in the basement of the Eastern conference once again. The difference between being a playoff team and a non-playoff team is razor-thin, and that’s why every game counts.
The Sabres will need to produce about 14 standings points out of 20 points available to them in their next 10 games. Anything less than that, and there’s room for competing teams to leapfrog them in the standings.
The Sabres have to show right now that they’re a different group than the Sabres teams that wilted beneath the pressure that has built every year since Buffalo last was a playoff team.
But there's no question the Sabres have a major test in the 10 games ahead. And the way they respond to that challenge will largely dictate whether they can end their playoff drought, or see it increased to 15 years.