In Week 24, I was feeling confident in the Buffalo Sabres. They were barely alive for a playoff spot and they went on to lose two of the three games. It all started with a pitiful effort on home ice against the Ottawa Senators which had them losing 5-0 after the first period.
Tage Thompson went off in the next game against the New Jersey Devils where he scored four goals in a 5-2 Sabres victory. The following night, they went on to lose against the Toronto Maple Leafs 3-0 after their power play was nowhere to be seen.
As we are about to enter April, Buffalo has seven games left. When it comes to the playoffs, they are on life support and barely have a heartbeat. Borrowing some miraculous miracle, it looks like they will the postseason for the 13th consecutive season. It's a shame too because if they were higher up in the wild-card race, this would be a huge week.
In the three games they will play, all three opponents are either in a playoff spot or in the race. On Tuesday night, Buffalo will host the Washington Capitals. At the current moment, the Capitals are in a playoff spot. With a record of 36-27-10 and 82 points, they are in third place in the Metropolitan Division. After a slow start to the season, Washington has been playing some good hockey as of late, which is a big reason why they're in a playoff spot.
On Thursday night, the Philadelphia Flyers come to town. Philadelphia and Washington have the same amount of points, but the Flyers occupy the second wild-card spot at the moment. It will be the third and final meeting between the two teams as both of them have one win each.
To close out the week, Buffalo will be in Detroit to take on the Red Wings for the final time. This will be the fourth matchup as Detroit has two wins against the Sabres, their most recent one came a couple of weeks ago.
For my prediction, I think Buffalo wins two games. They will lose against Washington but beat Philadelphia and Detroit.