The Sabres already got plenty of ground to make up in January, even if things aren’t entirely hopeless if you view them from a certain angle. Right? Of course! Anyway, you might think that things will be absolutely hopeless when you check out who the Blue and Gold will square off with this month. At least at first glance.
Starting tonight, they’ll have their hands full in Denver in a big game against Casey Mittelstadt (remember him?) and the Colorado Avalanche. Then, they get to face Jack Eichel and those mighty Vegas Golden Knights on January 4th.
Hey, if your stomach’s churning right now, you’re not the only one. But it’s not like the Sabres can’t beat the Avs and their cool new goaltenders. Nor the Knights, where Jack Eichel looks like a front-runner to win the Hart Trophy. And just a side note: I said a front-runner, not the front-runner. Nah, they’ll be playing arguably the front-runner when they invade Denver in Nathan MacKinnon.
Anyway, they’ll have a home game coming up on January 6th vs. the Washington Capitals. Should be an easy one, right? Yeah…no. But, at least they’ll face the Ottawa Senators on the road after that before a three-game homestand erupts that involves the Seattle Kraken, Carolina Hurricanes, and Pittsburgh Penguins.
If the Sabres luck out early in the month, they might have a chance
Yep, the Blue and Gold have got to luck out against either the Avs, Knights, or Caps. But Ottawa, Seattle, and Pittsburgh are beatable, even if the ‘Canes aren’t.
Anyway, it’ll be the underperforming Kraken again, the drama-filled Vancouver Canucks, and the up-and-down Calgary Flames in a three-game road trip. Now, those are three winnable games, and if the Sabres can’t pull off an upset or two earlier in the month, they’ll have to win all of them.
Oh boy, who am I kidding? Since they’re further back in the conference, chances are, they’ll need to win all three of those contests anyway because the Edmonton Oilers and Boston Bruins are next.
They’ll face Jeff Skinner and Company to close out the four-game road trip before the Bruins come to town. But who knows? Maybe the Sabres will catch one or both of them on a bad day, right? To close out the month, the Blue and Gold will face what should still be an underachieving Nashville Predators team.
Maybe they’ll win that game, pull off some upsets, and beat the teams they’re supposed to beat, right? Yeah, maybe. If they do, they’ll still be in the thick of things once Groundhog Day rolls around. But if not, at least the sun’ll be in the sky a little longer as we steamroll into February.