The next three opponents the Buffalo Sabres face should go a long way toward showing the Sabres how far they still have to go!
Starting tonight, the Buffalo Sabres will begin a stretch of three games in four nights that will go a long way toward determining what this team looks like next season, and beyond.
No, three games do not a season make. However, each of Buffalo’s next three opponents – Boston, Washington, and Arizona – provide the Sabres with three different blueprints that the franchise should model its own rebuild after.
Boston Bruins
21-16-5, 47 pts.
After losing Tyler Seguin in 2013, and Dougie Hamilton, Milan Lucic and some other players I could care less about during the summer, the Bruins were supposed to be in rebuild mode. For the first time in a while, Sabres fans had reason to believe that Buffalo might be able to top Boston in the NHL standings.
Whoops!
Somehow, the Bruins currently have 47 points, tied with Carolina and New Jersey for the 8th playoff spot in the Eastern Conference. Granted, most pundits still feel that Boston will slip out of playoff contention when all is said and done this season, but even if the Bruins wind up in 9th or 10th place, you the team’s fans will find a way to spin into the feel-good story of the year!
Best franchise EVAH!
Sarcasm aside, what Boston has done should inspire a little fire in the bellies of Buffalo’s players. Head coach Claude Julien has absolutely squeezed every last ounce of competitive fire and potential out of his squad, and the Bruins have played with the determination of a team that wants the world to know they are not dead yet. Love ’em or hate ’em, the Bruins are almost always a fiercely proud group of players who do their damnedest to live up to the lofty expectations of their fan base. It will be good for the Sabres to gauge how well their swagger matches that of a team that perennially expects to be contending for a championship.
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Washington Capitals
33-7-3, 69 pts.
If playing the Bruins gives the Buffalo Sabres a chance to see how their effort and determination stack up against a proud team, going head-to-head against the best team in the NHL provides a whole different reason for the franchise to look into a mirror.
The Capitals start three truly elite players in Alex Ovechkin, Nicklas Backstrom, and Braden Holtby, and oh yeah , T.J. Oshie and Evgeny Kuznetsov are pretty damn good, too. If the Buffalo Sabres are truly in the process of building a team that can compete for Lord Stanley’s Cup in the not-too-distant future, having their weaknesses exposed by Washington should provide Tim Murray with a laundry list of the pieces his squad is still missing.
I had the chance to watch the Sabres battle the Capitals in D.C. back on December 30, and for two periods, the Sabres were one Chad Johnson brain fart away from enjoying a 2-0 lead. As was expected, the Capitals came out and absolutely steamrolled Buffalo in the third period, scoring four goals en route to a 5-2 victory. Certainly, none of us want to see that final result repeated Saturday, but there’s no better way to identify Buffalo’s weakest links.
Arizona Coyotes
22-16-5, 49 pts.
Finally, we come to the ‘Yotes. How the hell is this team in sixth place out West?!? Oh yeah: two rookies that are tearing it up, along with a veteran having perhaps his best season ever, a young blueliner who is scary good and only getting better, and a young goaltender who appears to be legit.
Hmmm. Sounds like the exact same recipe the Buffalo Sabres are shooting for, doesn’t it?
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The difference between Buffalo and Arizona, of course, is that the Coyotes are currently winning with said formula – but a strong showing against them on Monday should give the Sabres momentum heading into the second half of the season. Coyotes rookies Max Domi and Anthony Duclair have combined for 22 goals and 29 assists this season – compare that to Jack Eichel and Sam Reinhart‘s combined 25 goals and 21 assists, and you have to feel like the Sabres are going to begin enjoying the sort of success Arizona is experiencing, soon.
Arizona is also enjoying a huge offensive boost thanks to its young defenseman Oliver Ekman-Larsson, whose stat line of 13-20-33 is just slightly better than Rasmus Ristolainen‘s 8-20-28.
Who knows? Were it not for the resurrection of Shane Doan (16 goals due to his 18.8% shooting percentage!) and the too-good-to-last start of goaltender Louis Domingue (the rookie is 7-2-3 with a 2.21 GAA since getting the nod following an injury to Mike Smith), Arizona might be neck-and-neck with the Sabres in the points department.
Yeah, it’s only three games we’re talking about, but for a team that still has gaps to fill, and a tradition of winning to cultivate, this three-game stretch gives the Buffalo Sabres franchise a trio of chances to shape its vision for the future.