With the 2026 MLB season is set to get underway in the coming days, I thought it'd be fun to keep the hype for the new campaign going by writing a Buffalo Sabres piece with some ties to baseball.
I am aware that much of the attention is being fixated on the NHL playoff race, but it's worth having a little fun when the world around you is tense. Yes, I made that saying up on the spot but my point stands.
Enter the 2025 Toronto Blue Jays, who finished the regular season with a record of 94-68 (wins and losses) while claiming the American League East division title on the final day of the regular season. They also earned the first seed in the AL playoffs and defeated the New York Yankees and Seattle Mariners en route to the World Series, where they came one win short of their first Commissioners' Trophy since 1993.
Though the Sabres have yet to clinch their spot in the playoffs and there is still two-and-a-half months worth of hockey to decide a Stanley Cup champion, the comparison between the two teams is readily apparent.
All sports teams have their ups and downs
The 2025 Blue Jays are a perfect example of this.
A 26-28 start to the season brought back bad memories of a wasted 2024 and the previously-made-known disdain for the Ross Atkins-and-Mark Shapiro-led front office only grew.
But since starting with just 26 wins in their first 54 games, the Blue Jays would go 47-23 over their next 70 games; that run allowed the team to capitalize on the struggles of the Yankees and take a five-game lead in their division with just under 40 games to play.
Despite an end-of-August slump that saw the team go 6-9 over their next 15, the Blue Jays would win 10 of their next 13 games to regain their five-game division lead. That said, a seven-game losing streak saw the Jays lead dissipate entirely, with the team only ahead of New York on a head-to-head tiebreaker. A late-game surge in their final game against the Boston Red Sox would end the team's losing streak, and a sweep in their final series against the Tampa Bay Rays would give the Jays their first division title in a decade.
The playoffs would see the Blue Jays cruise past the Yankees in four games, but a 2-0 hole in the ALCS against the Mariners quickly ended all the momentum accrued over the last month. The team did battle back to tie the series, but they would have to come back from a 3-2 deficit in dramatic fashion to advance to the World Series. That World Series saw Toronto rally from a 2-1 deficit against the Los Angeles Dodgers to put themselves a game away from winning it all; however, two straight losses on home soil would see the team lose the series in heartbreaking fashion.
The Sabres' 2025-26 regular season has been quite similar to this point. An 11-14-4 start to the season put Buffalo on thin ice; with the Detroit Red Wings and San Jose Sharks off to strong starts, the Sabres were in danger of having the league's longest playoff drought by an even wider margin. A 10-game winning streak brought Buffalo back into the playoff chase, while a 14-5-2 run was more than enough to give the Sabres control of a playoff spot heading into the Olympic break. Since the pause in play, Buffalo has lost just once in regulation; as a result, the team finds itself in the lead of the Atlantic Division and just one point back of the Carolina Hurricanes for first in the entire Eastern Conference.
Like how the Blue Jays ended their decade-long division title drought, making the playoffs would allow the Sabres to end at least one curse; not only would the Sabres end their 14-year postseason absence, but they could also win their first division title since their Northeast Division triumph in the 2009-10 season.
As the Sabres know, your stars matter ...
For Toronto, it was shortstop Bo Bichette and first baseman Vladimir Guerrero Jr. who were seen as the biggest names, but ALCS Game 7 hero George Springer and second-year third baseman Addison Barger weren't far off.
As the season went on, players like baseman Ernie Clement and pitcher Trey Yesavage earned big roles for the Jays and would contribute their own big moments throughout their run.
The Sabres' run has also been powered by a combination of talents. Stars like Alex Tuch and Tage Thompson have been central to the team's offense, while newcomer Josh Doan has been a wonder for the offense's middle lines. On top of the established offensive contributors, young newcomers like Noah Ostlund and even Konsta Helenius have provided their own moments to help the Sabres claim key points in the standings.
The same can be said for the defensive end of the ice. Rasmus Dahlin's point-per-game pace has helped to give the blue line a role in the offense, while the addition of Logan Stanley via the trade deadline gives the team the bite it needs to succeed in the late-season/postseason games that Buffalo has not had the opportunity to play all that often over the last 15 years.
... but you have to pay them, as Buffalo will soon find out
The Blue Jays entered 2025 with a Guerrero Jr. contract hanging over their heads like it was a pitch thrown by Brendan Little (I'm sorry that had to be done).
They got him a $28.5 million contract, avoiding arbitration in the process. And just weeks into the regular season, the front office was able to get Guerrero Jr. a 14-year, $500 million extension to keep him in Toronto for the long-term future.
And following the Jays' postseason run, the front office was able to get Alejandro Kirk and Daulton Varsho locked up to contracts via arbitration. Not only that, but they were also able to re-sign veteran pitcher Max Scherzer (also known as Mad Max) to a one-year deal.
Buffalo is in a similar position right now. The front office was able to get Doan to agree to an extension worth $48,65 million over seven years, but Tuch's situation is hanging over their heads like another Little pitch (I'd crack a Jeff Hoffman joke but that would be pushing it for obvious reasons).
Maybe a deep postseason run gets everyone to the table to agree on a long-term deal within the $10 million range, but there's a decent chance that, like Bichette, Tuch ends up leaving for a new challenge following the conclusion of Buffalo's season.
And how can Buffalo learn from Craig Berube's thoughts?
During the Blue Jays' run in October, Toronto Maple Leafs head coach Craig Berube provided some of his own thoughts about the team and how his players could learn from them.
"I watch the Blue Jays, and I have watched them pretty closely throughout the playoffs, and a little bit before. I have had the opportunity to meet the manager, the coaches, and some players," Berube said. "They are a very tight-knit group. I watch their guy, Vladdy [Guerrero Jr.], closely. I watch how he interacts with all of the guys, how much energy he brings all of the time, and the happiness for his teammates when they do something well. He has a lot of energy and a lot of positive vibes around him. A lot of them do, but he is their main guy. He brings that. The whole team feeds off of it."
While the Leafs haven't exactly lived up to the tight-knit, positive-vibe personality that the Jays embodied with success (besides the post-Ducks stretch of play), Berube isn't wrong. When Vladdy got hot during the playoffs, the rest of the Jays' offense did as well; save for the first two games against the Mariners, Guerrero Jr. delivered at least a hit in every one of his playoff appearances.
For the Sabres, we're seeing the same phenomenon at play. When someone like Tuch or even Jason Zucker gets hot and carries the offense, everyone brings their game up a notch. Even long-criticized defenseman Owen Power has been part of the rallying cries; the Mississauga native tallied a goal and an assist against Anaheim while recording at least one point in four of his last seven games.
Whether it all ends in a division title, a Conference Finals berth, or even a Stanley Cup title remains to be seen. But the Sabres have done well to ensure that this season has happened as is, and their ability to play to each other's strengths and rally around their teammates has worked wonders so far.
As a result, there's a decent chance that the Sabres can both live up to the Blue Jays' standard and potentially surpass it.