Buffalo Sabres head into a make or break portion of the 2022-23 season
The Buffalo Sabres are only a few points behind in the wild card race, and their upcoming slate of games could set them far behind the eight-ball.
The Buffalo Sabres will face and should defeat the San Jose Sharks to conclude their Western Conference road trips this season. Then the hard part arrives, since the Blue and Gold will return to the East and face the Toronto Maple Leafs, Tampa Bay Lightning, Florida Panthers, and Washington Capitals.
The Maple Leafs blew out the Sabres during their only meeting so far this past November, and Buffalo has yet to defeat a Florida team this season. They also barely escaped Washington back in January.
I don’t want to say this, but it’s easy to envision Buffalo losing these next four games following their tilt against the Sharks. And if they can’t win any of them, their playoff hopes aren’t necessarily dashed, but their margin of error will have become ultra slim.
Buffalo Sabres can’t drop all four games between February 21st – 26th
Ideally, the Sabres beat the Sharks, and win at least two of their games when they head back east. It would give the Sabres six out of a possible 10 points, upping their total to 64 on the season. This may still reduce their margin of error, but at least Buffalo would still have a fighting chance heading into an ultra-manageable game against the Columbus Blue Jackets on the 28th.
This is the part of the season where young teams can sink their playoff hopes, or dramatically reduce them. Lack of experience in these situations could cause players to overthink and overcomplicate things, two detriments to the Sabres game all season.
The good news? With experience, they shouldn’t face similar issues next year. The bad news is obvious. If they fall flat on their faces to close out February, they will be relegated to playing spoiler for yet another season.
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But you can be rest assured, because at least this team’s arrow is pointing north. And even if the Sabres fall flat next week, they still have another month-and-a-half to make some sound progress.
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