3 X-Factors that will make or break the Buffalo Sabres season

With just 12 days and seven games remaining in the 2022-23 season, the Buffalo Sabres are keeping things meaningful. Can they go even further?

For over a decade, the Buffalo Sabres most meaningful games in April involved them playing spoiler. Maybe they’d beat a division rival and knock them out of the playoffs. But that’s as good as it got for Buffalo, who have since set an NHL record when they missed the playoffs last season for an 11th straight year.

But here we are in April 2023, and the youngest team in hockey finds themselves just a few points out of the WC2 spot. And with seven games to go, including three games in hand over the WC1’s New York Islanders, the Blue and Gold’s slim chances just one week ago have grown substantially.

So can they complete their most  unthinkable and entertaining season by breaking their playoff drought? The Sabres still need some help, but if they want to put themselves in the absolute best position to reach the playoffs for the first time in 12 years, there are three major factors that will make or break their season – factors that don’t involve the obvious issue of other teams helping them out. 

X-factors that will make or break the Buffalo Sabres

1 – Defense

The Buffalo Sabres defense has come on strong in recent games, allowing just 2.6 goals per contest since their win over the New Jersey Devils on March 24th. But we all know how poorly the played throughout most of the month.

The last thing this team needs is to regress back into the group that allowed 33 goals between March 9th and March 21st (4.7 goals per game). Sure, goaltending also had much to do with this meltdown, but given the sheer number of breakaways, times caught out of position, or their inability to figure out an opponent’s attack, bad defense sunk this team.