This 75 In 75 Series for the Buffalo Sabres is supposed to be full of bold predictions, but those predictions come at varying lengths.
I’ll warn you right now: This is not the boldest prediction, because I can legitimately see the Buffalo Sabres reaching this number I’m about to share. As you know, last season, the Blue and Gold swept the Detroit Red Wings, but you may not have realized that they put up 26 goals on their Atlantic Division adversaries.
So far in Detroit, the Yzerplan hasn’t delivered results, and it’s somehow caused regression defensively, so going bold…to an extent…for 2023-24, your Sabres will hang 28 goals on the Red Wings in four games this season – that’s 7.0 goals per game.
Think it’s the most outrageous prediction yet? Again, it’s not so bold when the Blue and Gold hung 6.5 per game on them last season. It’s also not so bold when you consider that the Sabres themselves allowed another Atlantic Division adversary, the Boston Bruins, to score 14 goals on them across their final two meetings of the 2022-23 season.
Buffalo Sabres can hang 28 goals on the Red Wings this season
If the Sabres haunted the Wings last season by stacking eight goals on them in one game, five and six across the next two, respectively, and seven during their playoff push, then 28 is not out of the question. With as bad as Detroit could be defensively in 2023-24, it’s entirely plausible that the Sabres may not be the only team in the Atlantic that, at the absolute least, gets close to this number.
If you go back to Bold Prediction #15, I stated the Sabres would have at least seven players scoring 20 goals or more. Well, this is the series that will help them out, especially those players who will score closer to that 20-goal threshold.
Often, I like to end articles by saying, “It will be interesting to see if this happens.” But considering how high-octane the Buffalo Sabres will continue to be next season, and how empty the cupboard is defensively for Detroit, it’s completely believable that this is going to happen.
(Statistics provided by Hockey-Reference)