The Buffalo Sabres may have flopped in their Western Canada/West Coast finale, but they have huge opportunities coming their way.
The Buffalo Sabres are currently 4-2-0, and they have some favorable and competitive matchups heading their way for the upcoming homestand. And yes, you can expect a better Sabres team more akin to the one that beat the Edmonton Oilers, Calgary Flames, and Vancouver Canucks as opposed to the team that gassed out against the Seattle Kraken.
With roughly 45 hours off between games and the home crowd at their backs, look for the Sabres to take advantage of the lesser competition on home ice. Yes, I know, the Kraken weren’t exactly stellar competition, but when you’re on Day 9 of a nine-day road trip with two of your top four defensemen missing because of injuries, bad games are going to happen.
That said, the Sabres will still face some adversity since Henri Jokiharju and Mattias Samuelsson both landed on injured reserve. But with more repetition from the likes of Lawrence Pilut, Casey Fitzgerald, and Kale Clague, the group can at least prove themselves to be serviceable.
Major opportunities await the Buffalo Sabres
The homestand will begin against the Montreal Canadiens and Chicago Blackhawks on Thursday and Saturday, with the Canadiens currently sitting eighth in the Atlantic with six points. This is a game that even a Sabres team with a banged-up defensive rotation can beat on their home ice.
The Blackhawks have an identical points total to the Blue and Gold, and have been a bit of a surprise in the early going, and the Detroit Red Wings, who the Sabres play on Halloween Night, also clock in with eight points at the time of this writing. These two matchups give the Sabres an opportunity to beat two teams who they are evenly matched with from a points standpoint.
Buffalo’s homestand will end against the Pittsburgh Penguins on November 2nd, and as I outlined in a previous article, the Sabres fared better on their road trip than the Penguins have. And although Pittsburgh has yet to play the Vancouver Canucks and Seattle Kraken, two teams they will face in the coming days, they lost by multiple goals to the Oilers and Flames.
The showdown vs. Pittsburgh could indicate the Sabres compass continues to point north while the stagnating Penguins could be showing signs of age, wear, and tear. Either way, it will once again give Buffalo an opportunity to defeat one of the NHL’s proudest and most stable franchises.