Buffalo Sabres: 3 gutsy predictions for Tuesday and upcoming homestand

The Buffalo Sabres faced a gauntlet to open the season against four of the NHL’s more talented teams. Now, they will face lesser competition. 

The Buffalo Sabres finished 3-1 against the likes of the Ottawa Senators, Florida Panthers, Edmonton Oilers, and Calgary Flames. They scored a convincing win against the Vancouver Canucks, and now they have the Seattle Kraken, Montreal Canadiens, and Chicago Blackhawks on the schedule. The latter two games will occur at home.

So after a wild first week and a half, what can we expect from the Sabres in the final game of their first trip out west and upcoming homestand? Here are three gutsy predictions.

1 – Buffalo Sabres win their next three contests

Call me overconfident, but Buffalo managed to upset two of the Western Conference’s better teams, even if they could have played better. They crushed the Vancouver Canucks, a team that came in motivated to score their first victory of the season in front of the home crowd.

With weaker competition coming up, the Sabres should have no trouble scoring three straight W’s here before their upcoming showdown with the Detroit Red Wings on Halloween Night. Not that they won’t have issues, but Buffalo will prove they are better than the more inferior competition out there.

2 – Dahlin scores two more goals

While it’s ultra-bold to believe Dahlin will keep up his one goal per game pace, I can at least see him tacking on a goal in two of the next three games, which will give him seven heading into Halloween. He has routinely given himself sensational looks when in the offensive zone, and it’s the direct reason he’s been scoring so often.

But these are gutsy predictions, so in the one game he does not score, he will log two assists, keeping him on-pace to score over 82 points this year. Will he keep it up? That’s a topic for another article.

3 – Tage Thompson and Jeff Skinner get hot

Tage and Skinner have just five combined points in five games so far, with one goal and four assists. That will change this week, with each scoring four combined goals in the upcoming slate and another four assists.

And let’s make this projection even more interesting: Whoever is not scoring will be busy assisting their linemate. And you can also guess that Alex Tuch will also be getting in on the action, giving Buffalo’s top line some remarkable production this week.

Overall, the Sabres should prove to the NHL universe this week that they are better than the league’s projected cellar dwellers. While Montreal, Seattle, and Chicago have looked better in the season’s early going, they still lack the overall talent and depth, which will eventually take a toll on them. A toll that can begin as early as this week.

(Statistics provided by Hockey-Reference)