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Buffalo Sabres Still Face Up Hill Battle

By Patrick Helper

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The Buffalo Sabres may be nearing the end of a rebuild, but they still have a lot of ground to make up. The battle to regain respect is far from over. If for one second fans or the front office think they can breathe easy now that Buffalo will land a “generational” player they are dead wrong.

The Buffalo Sabres have a long road ahead of them if they want to become relevant in the NHL once again and expecting anything more than slight improvement next season could send the fans and some management personal into a tail spin.

It’s not rocket science here; the Buffalo Sabres have the young talent just waiting to become NHL talent, but in order for that to happen they need more time. Expecting the Sabres to claw and slice their way into the playoffs next year may be hoping for too much. It’s hard to be realistic with all the hype surrounding the addition of Evander Kane and most likely Jack Eichel, but let’s slow down.

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Living on a dream is nice, and sometime a necessary evil but the Sabres dream has been mostly a nightmare for many years. There is always the possibility that the Buffalo Sabres come out on fire and get the jump on a bunch of teams. There is also the possibility that the new look Buffalo Sabres crash and burn.

Success for the next few seasons is linked to a few things. It should be measured by player’s individual growth and the teams over all ability to gel. This is not meant to be a fast turn around and building a winner in Buffalo will take more than two terrible seasons. I’m looking for a 16-20 points jump by the end of the 2015-2016 season.

No, it’s not a huge jump, but I don’t need a huge jump to show me that things are getting better and the Sabres plan is starting to take shape. Sometimes success needs to start small and a the addition of one young “star” does not mean anything to me until he wears the Blue and Gold and shows his skills do in facts translate to NHL success.

Things in Sabreland will get very interesting over the course of the next few years, and having a Stanley Cup team skating in Buffalo is not impossible, but to expect that in a year or two may be unreasonable. Let’s all try to stay grounded and take next year win by win. Those wins do not necessary come from the scoreboard, but by watching the Buffalo Sabres become what we have been promised.

And it isn’t just about the team coming together or having the right players, there is a perception issue surrounding the Buffalo Sabres.

Buffalo had more points than last season. Not by much, but they were better (it was two more wins and two less loser points, so only two points better). Heading into the season everyone knew what the mission was – rock bottom.

The Arizona Coyotes were 33 points worse this season than last, and Toronto was 16 points worse than last season. Edmonton with all their first overall draft picks playing on the team, was five points worse than they were last year (not double digits as the above tweet implies).

Arizona and Toronto seemingly got alibi’s for throwing the towel in and pushing for the bottom, Edmonton is a hot mess from top to bottom – but Buffalo gets the bad rap. That is something that will be harder for them to overcome than the on-ice product which will be much improved next season.

Next: Maybe The Sabres Should Trade Their 1st Round Picks

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