The Buffalo Sabres finally won a regular-season game Wednesday, beating the Ottawa Senators to get their record to 1-3-0. But if you think the Sabres are out of the woods now, think again. The Sabres are still going to have to play extremely hard to recover in the Atlantic Division standings.
Why? For one thing, lust look at the current standings position of the Senators team the Sabres just beat. Ottawa has put up a 2-3-0 record out of the skate, with the Sens being outscored 18-7 in those three defeats. So we know the Sabres weren’t taking on an elite Ottawa team Wednesday.
The Sens will be a much better squad when they get star forward Brady Tkachuk back from injury, but as far as the Sabres go, they’d best believe Ottawa will give them a far tougher test than the one they had Wednesday.
These inter-divisional games are so important to win, so that was heartening for the Sabres. But they didn’t play a perfect game Wednesday. Far from it. Because even in a winning game against the Sens, they still gave up four goals. That means Buffalo has allowed 14 goals in its four games this season. And that’s not acceptable.
The margin for error in Buffalo is as thin as a wasp’s wing. But the biggest thing – as crazy as it sounds – is that the Sabres can’t get complacent. To get back in the race for a Stanley Cup playoff spot, they’re going to need many more wins to be in the playoff conversation.
More Misery For Sabres As Buffalo Loses Third Straight Game To Start New SeasonAny way you want to frame it, losing three straight games to start the season is a disaster for the Buffalo Sabres. <a href="http://thn.com/buffalo">The Sabres</a>' third straight defeat came Monday at the hands of the <a href="http://thn.com/colorado">Colorado Avalanche</a> -- a legitimate Stanley Cup frontrunner -- and once again, offense was a problem for Buffalo.
Judging by last season, you need 40-44 wins just to get into a wild-card. So you can see why the road ahead is so tough for the Sabres. Their poor start to the current situation had fans anxious, but to be honest, they should still be anxious for this team for quite some time. It’s going to take a consistent effort to get this Sabres team across the finish line as a playoff team.
And if they can’t do it, change will be on the horizon in Buffalo.