Led by JJ Peterka and Company, the Buffalo Sabres crushed the Pittsburgh Penguins yesterday to kick off their preseason. So, should we trust that the Sabres are getting it right after one preseason game, or do we need more of a sample size before we can be truly optimistic?
The short answer is yes and no. Yes, we can be optimistic because not only did Peterka look good, but the Lafferty line also held up and looked like it’d been together for a while. Okay, in a sense, that’s been the case since Beck Malenstyn and Nicolas Aube-Kubel are familiar with one another, but still, the first step for a fanbase to grow optimistic is to beat teams you’re supposed to beat.
The Penguins didn’t play anyone relevant last night, but that’s okay, because again, the Blue and Gold had to skate out there and prove they could beat a soft opponent with a few players who will make up their bottom-six. Now, had they gone out and played a bad game, it wouldn’t have meant we’d have needed to push the panic button, but yeah, I’d have been concerned.
We can be cautiously optimistic about the Sabres right now
The NHL preseason always coincides with the beginning of the college football season, and what’s the common denominator in the latter most of the time in September? You often see games that will end up as blowouts - for example, Kent State lost a pair of games 71-0 and 56-0 in back-to-back weeks against teams that SHOULD have beaten them that badly.
It serves as a confidence booster for those teams as they get ready to begin conference play, just as last night’s game should have boosted the Blue and Gold’s (and their fans’) confidence that general manager Kevyn Adams made a few good moves.
But, just as fans all over the FBS landscape should be cautiously optimistic because their teams blew out some fringe FBS competition, Sabres fans should also exercise cautious optimism. It was basically an A-squad playing against a B-squad last night, so yeah, more challenging games later on will be necessary.
But they still passed the first test, so as players get reassigned later in the preseason, we’ll see the Blue and Gold face tougher competition. At which point, we’ll get a better and more accurate sample size of where this team might stand come the regular season, which kicks off on October 4th.