Buffalo Sabres vs Buffalo Bills: Who Has Better Season

Oct 4, 2013; Buffalo, NY, USA; A general view of the pre-game light show for the game between the Buffalo Sabres and the Ottawa Senators at First Niagara Center. Mandatory Credit: Kevin Hoffman-USA TODAY Sports

Buffalo Sabres Staff Writer, Joseph DiBiase

Both the Buffalo Sabres and the Buffalo Bills have had loud and impactful offseasons. Both teams have improved their current roster, and their playoff chances for the upcoming season. However they are still built differently.

The Sabres are built for the future. While they may turn out to be a playoff contender this season, the majority of their key players are years away from their prime like Eichel, Reinhart, Girgensons, and Ristolainen. Even their older key players like Ryan O’Reilly, Zach Bogosian, and Evander Kane have still yet to reach their primes as well.

The Buffalo Bills are built to win now. It’s harder to keep a great team together in football than it is hockey. Marcell Dareus is only 25, but the Bills need to lock him down with a long term deal. Mario Williams is 30 and Kyle Williams is 32, so they don’t have a lot of great years left. Even newly acquired running back LeSean McCoy is on a timeline. McCoy is 27 years old, so by today’s standards at running back he has maybe 3 good years left. The Bills need to win now.

Looking at this season I believe the Bills will have a better season. Despite their woes at quarterback the rest of the team is tops of the league. With Rex Ryan and company the Bills should be competing for the best defense in the NFL. We’ll still have to wait and see how guys like Duke Williams, Ronald Darby, and Preston Brown do in a full season playing significant time. This offseason they built up their weapons on offense in McCoy, Percy Harvin, and Charles Clay. If the Bills can get even decent quarterback play, they should no doubt be a playoff team.

The Sabres have more holes than the Bills. The forwards look great on paper. They have five centers that any fan would feel comfortable playing on their top 3 lines in O’Reilly, Girgensons, Eichel, Reinhart, and Larsson. Defense and goaltending is the question mark. The Sabres better hope Rasmus Ristolainen takes a big step this year, because the amount of guys they can play big minutes is small. Zach Bogosian and Josh Gorges are reliable veterans, but they are both injury prone.

Mark Pysyk is promising and I believe he’ll have a really good year, but he is still unproven in a full 82 game NHL season. A big X factor is if they can get anything out of rookie Jake McCabe this season. McCabe looked phenomenal at developmental camp and to me he looks NHL ready. In goal Robin Lehner is a guy with lots of potential, but he is unproven and has had concussion issues. Backup Chad Johnson is the farthest thing from a quality backup plan as a starter this year.

My predictions would be that the Bills go 10-6 and grab a wild card spot, and that the Sabres finish with around 90 points and miss the playoffs by 5 or 6 points. My hope is that both teams make it for the first time since I was 4 years old.

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