Buffalo Sabres Winning Streaks Not Cause For Concern
By Tim Redinger
The mission was clear for last year and this year. Draft often and draft high. It seems the memo has been lost with the message in the locker room very clear right now – and that is winning hockey games. The Buffalo Sabres have won five of their last six games, which includes a season long three game winning streak.
As far as the standings go, they have climbed themselves ahead of teams in the Eastern Conference, and if the season ended today, would be looking at the top two picks from the outside. This team isn’t making a run at the playoffs, but they also aren’t guaranteed to pick first or second, if the season were to stop today.
December is going to ground the Buffalo Sabres. You have the Tampa Bay Lightning three times this month. You also play the Boston Bruins, Los Angeles Kings, and New York Islanders. Competitive might be the word of the month, but you should see the losses start the mount again this month.
There is no glory in a race for eighth this season. Granted, it isn’t in any professional athletes core to lose, its not what they put the skates on every day for. This isn’t a playoff team that has got off to a rocky start and needs to recover. They are also the same Buffalo Sabres team that wasn’t supposed to be as epic bad as they were to start the season. The team is riding an emotional high right now as things have come to fruition. The lineup is finally meshing and coming together, but for how long, only Tim Murray knows.
Buffalo Sabres Players on Expiring Contracts
Unless you have been deemed mission critical by the organization, expiring contracts are the biggest ticket out of the Buffalo Sabres organization at this point, and the price tags are out there.
Drew Stafford – long ired by the fanbase and the organization. One would have thought that his increased leadership role would have helped his game. Maybe he still isn’t able to take the game seriously. He is near the top in all aspects of the stat chart for the Buffalo Sabres,unfortunately that means he poor stats as well. His plus/minus is a -11 through two months of the season, and he only trails Tyler Myers in penalty minutes.
Patrick Kaleta – Kaleta has been so far able to change his way of doing things, but he is also still getting those personality penalties. Buffalo born and raised, there are hockey teams that wouldn’t mind finding Kaleta on their team for a playoff run, or for some shoring up of their third and fourth line.
Brian Flynn – he has paid his dues and is set to break into the NHL on a permanent level. This organization, especially Ted Nolan is high on him, he will likely be kept around by the organization. What are you going to get out of Flynn the rest of this year, a player putting it out there that he is ready for the NHL, and worthy of a nice little contract.
Sticking with the forwards, Chris Stewart and Torrey Mitchell are in the final year of their contracts, and were brought in on trades. I could take or leave Torrey Mitchell, but I think Chris Stewart has proven he is the type of player that you can help build a franchise around. He isn’t the flashy superstar that the Buffalo Sabres need, but he is the power forward that they are desperate to have on their team.
Defensively, the future is already in the system. We need to make room for the young guys that are going to be the blue line of tomorrow, without taking away their veteran safety net. All three guys on expiring contracts will be playing for different teams next year, if not before the trade deadline this year. Andrej Meszaros and Andre Benoit are placeholders, and neither one has done anything to show that they still want to be with this team.
December could be a long month for fans, and the Buffalo Sabres could stand to lose a few points down the stretch here.