Buffalo Sabres’ Loss To Chicago Proves The Team Is Not Quite Ready For Primetime
The Buffalo Sabres got spanked by one of best teams in the Pacific Division for the second time in February, showing just how far this team has to go to become playoff-ready.
The Buffalo Sabres had a simple mission Sunday afternoon: win, and find themselves closer to a playoff spot than they have been in Lord-knows how many years.
When the day started, the best case scenario for the Sabres was to win their game against the visiting Chicago Blackhawks and find themselves in a tie with the Boston Bruins for the second wild card spot in the Eastern Conference. Even if things did not go entirely Buffalo’s way, the team still could have found itself heading into its bye week just one point out of a wild card spot courtesy of a win against the ‘Hawks.
Instead, the worst-case scenario happened: Buffalo found out the hard way that you cannot give a 40-minute effort against a seasoned team like the Chicago Blackhawks, losing 5-1 and failing to make up any ground in the playoff race. Too bad, since the rest of the Sabres’ competition not only won their games on Sunday or Monday (both Boston and Toronto won Sunday, while Florida won Monday), but have a chance to put some distance between themselves and the Sabres while the Sabres are enjoying their bye week (Florida plays one more time before the Sabres resume their schedule; Boston and Toronto, twice).
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In short, the Buffalo Sabres had their biggest test of the season . . . and they failed, miserably.
Which is perfectly fine – I mean, what else did we expect?
After all, the Sabres hosted the Anaheim Ducks on February 9 and got beat 5-2. (Yes, I’m ignoring the fact that Buffalo owns the San Jose Sharks right now – there is always an exception to the rule.) The Sabres still cannot figure out how to beat the Washington Capitals, either, or the Boston Bruins for that matter.
In short, this is a Buffalo Sabres team that is faring about as well as could be hoped: they are good enough to make a run up to about the 11th or 10th spot in the Eastern Conference, but still not good enough for primetime. The best teams in the NHL would finish the Sabres off pretty quickly if this team did manage to snag a wild-card spot, unless Buffalo’s goaltenders could absolutely stand on their heads for an entire series.
Fans who are demanding that GM Tim Murray try and make and try in order to push this team over the hump are missing the point – this is exactly where the Sabres should be at this point of the rebuild. The team is definitely in need of a top-4 defenseman, preferably a left-handed shot, to pair with Rasmus Ristolainen, and still needs to get more scoring out of its third and fourth line of forwards. However, since this team is short on skilled players, it is best for the front office to stay put when it comes to addressing the team’s defensive deficiencies. There will time enough during the offseason, when a few players are set to come off the books, for the Buffalo Sabres’ brass to shore up the team’s weaknesses.
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The Buffalo Sabres are not quite ready to consistently go toe-to-toe with the best teams in the NHL, but you cannot deny that this team has shown progress this season. This offseason should be a busy one for GMTM, as he still has significant work to do, but tinkering with his roster at this point of the season makes very little sense. Best to let it ride, let the players gain experience, and attack the offseason with a vengeance with the 2018 Stanley Cup Playoffs in mind.