Buffalo Sabres 2016-17 Predictions: January
The Buffalo Sabres could actually begin 2017 with a .500 record . . . but they will need to become road warriors in order to keep it that way in January!
The Buffalo Sabres will finish the 2016-17 in the the NHL’s top-20: there, I said it.
No longer in tank mode, the Sabres will be cellar-dwellars no longer (unless the injury bug hits hard, of course – no one can foresee that). Whether the team makes the playoffs is up for debate, as I have only said 1,000 times, but I think we can all agree that this team should be able to top 90 points next season and give themselves a fighting chance.
So we’re all on the same page, after predicting how well the Sabres will do in October, November and December, I have them starting 2017 with a record of 17-14-5. Some people will tell you that’s an above .500 record, but overtime losses are still losses. (It bugs me how a year ago announcers were saying the Sabres would be a .500 team had they finished 35-35-12. Folks, that’s a losing record, and distorting it by saying they would have had a .500 points percentage is a 21st century head-scratcher.)
My prognostication, then, would put the Sabres somewhere around the 40-point mark after three months of play. Think on this: the New York Islanders had 47 points in 38 games after beating the Buffalo Sabres on December 31, 2015 – good for second place in the Eastern Conference at the time.
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So, if the Sabres do have close to 40 points after three months, they should be in the thick of the playoff hunt when January, 2017 comes a’knocking. Let’s see what the first month of the new year has in store for the Blue and Gold.
January schedule:
Tuesday, January 3: Sabres vs. New York Rangers
Thursday, January 5: Sabres vs. Chicago Blackhawks
Saturday, January 7: Winnipeg Jets vs. Sabres
Tuesday, January 10: Philadelphia Flyers vs. Sabres
Thursday, January 12: Sabres vs. Tampa Bay Lightning
Friday, January 13: Sabres vs. Carolina Hurricanes
Monday, January 16: Dallas Stars vs. Buffalo Sabres
Tuesday, January 17: Sabres vs. Toronto Maple Leafs
Friday, January 20: Detroit Red Wings vs. Sabres
Saturday, January 21: Sabres vs. Montreal Canadiens
Tuesday, January 24: Sabres vs. Nashville Predators
Thursday, January 26: Sabres vs. Dallas Stars
Tuesday, January 31: Sabres vs. Montreal Canadiens
Eeks. Where do I start with this schedule? The amount of road games is the most obvious obstacle in Buffalo’s journey to the postseason. Nine road games, only one of which is sandwiched by home games, means the Sabres will spend most of the month traveling from city to city and sleeping in hotel rooms. Fatigue could become a factor, especially at the tail-end of the month, when the Sabres finish January on a four-game road trip.
The quality of Buffalo’s opponents also poses a challenge, as seven of the eleven teams the Sabres play in January were playoff teams in 2015-16. On the one hand, going up against the likes of Dallas, Chicago, Tampa Bay, and so on will give the Sabres the chance to see how well they stack up against the league’s best.
And on the other hand, it will probably amount to 5-6 losses in the month when it is all said and done, since most of those games will come – you guessed it – on the road.
Sabres record in January: 5-7-1
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The Buffalo Sabres will have a tough time moving up in the standings in January, and could actually slide backwards. Maybe I’m being too harsh, but this team is still incomplete, and will have a really difficult time keeping up with the NHL’s best. As a result, January will dampen the playoff hopes of many Sabres fans.