Anyone who’s closely followed the Buffalo Sabres this season has almost certainly been incredibly frustrated at multiple points. The Sabres don’t make sense right now, and it can be maddening. They’ve beaten the best team in the NHL (at that point) multiple times – games they had really no business winning, they’ve won. And yet, games that they should’ve had, they’ve lost.
A few examples of the former: the Sabres’ 5-2 win over the Vegas Golden Knights on December 15 and 3-1 win over the Boston Bruins on December 7. Vegas was 20-5-5 heading into the game, significantly better than the Sabres’ 12-15-3 record. Yet it was Buffalo who came out on top, with a decisive four-goal effort in the third period that sent the Knights home to their castle with a big, juicy L.
Similarly, the Bruins were 17-4-3 to Buffalo’s 10-14-2 record. Another division leader opponent – and another Sabres win. Buffalo put together a 60-minute effort in both games. Their strong start also made the difference, whether by actually scoring or by limiting their opponent from scoring. (The Sabres have had a lot of difficulty with first periods this season, regularly falling behind by one, two, three or even more goals before picking up their effort later in the game.)
But then, Buffalo follows up the Vegas win with a 2-0 garbage effort in Arizona the following day against the Coyotes, a team much more evenly-matched with the Sabres. Go figure. Is it a matter of playing up to the good teams, and not putting as much of an effort forth against the more even matches? Is it a matter of wanting to prove people wrong? Is it a lack of conditioning? What the heck is going on?
Essentially, if you look at an upcoming game for the Sabres and it’s against a team that’s significantly better, somehow, Buffalo will probably win. If it’s against a team that’s around the same or even worse than the Sabres, they’ll find a way to lose. It’s an incredibly frustrating conundrum, and it’s costing Buffalo points that could be super valuable down the line if they have hopes of playoff contention.
This team needs to figure it out, and quickly. The season is nearing its midway point, and if the Sabres can’t find some consistency both within a 60-minute game and between games, they’ll find themselves even further down the wild card ladder and outside the playoff picture faster than you can say Zubaz.