Early season losses to Columbus, Anaheim, and Arizona put Buffalo behind the eight ball
Even after a 4-1 victory in Calgary on Sunday, the Buffalo Sabres find themselves a longshot to make the playoffs with three weeks to go in the regular season. The Sabres are six points in back of the Washington Capitals, but face two significant hurdles.
The first is that Buffalo has three teams in between them and the Capitals at 79 points, with Detroit at 78, the NY Islanders at 75, and New Jersey at 74. The second is that the Sabres have the fewest games left on their schedule of the clubs in the race. Even though they play the Capitals twice and New Jersey at home and in Detroit in the final 10 games, their odds of making the postseason according to Moneypuck are 2.5%.
While the losses to Detroit, Vancouver, and Edmonton on their five-game road trip may serve as the final nail in their coffin, the reason for the Sabres being on the outside looking in for a 13th straight season are losses to three teams in the bottom five of the NHL standings.
Buffalo dropped both games to the Anaheim Ducks; a 4-2 road loss on January 23rd, and a 4-3 loss at Key Bank Center on February 19 in which they allowed Anaheim to score four goals on 14 shots. The most embarrassing loss of the season may have been a 9-4 drubbing to Columbus just before Christmas, in which the Blue Jackets scored seven straight goals, and the Sabres goal-scoring woes were front and center in a 2-0 loss in Arizona on December 16, in which they were shutout by Coyotes backup Karel Vejmelka.
Wins in those games would have Buffalo at 81 points and with better than a 50/50 chance of being in the playoffs. Instead, the club is likely looking at more questions of what direction they will take in the offseason in terms of potential changes to their coaching staff and roster.
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