Sabres winning the Atlantic Division is critical for their NHL playoff run

We are about a week away from the 2025-26 NHL regular season coming to an end, and the Eastern Conference playoff race is getting very interesting. The wild-card race may be tight but nothing is as close as the Atlantic Division. There is a three-way tie for first place and that trio of teams have 102 points.

The Tampa Bay Lightning, Buffalo Sabres and Montreal Canadiens are deadlocked, and all of them have four games remaining. As for the Sabres, getting home-ice advantage for at least the first two rounds of the postseason is crucial. Buffalo broke the 14-year playoff drought. Now it's time to get home-ice advantage to boost its hopes of making a deep run.

Just like in every sport, getting additional home games in the playoffs is a huge deal. It gives you a chance to immediately set the tone in each series. If the Sabres can secure those extra KeyBank Center contests, it could determine how far they can go in the postseason.

Buffalo Sabres' final push for the Atlantic Division title features a favorable schedule

If Buffalo wants to accomplish starting the playoffs at home, the next few games could go a long way.

Wednesday night, the Sabres will be in Madison Square Garden to take on the Rangers and then will host a playoff hopeful in the Columbus Blue Jackets on Thursday. Getting four points in two games will give them a great chance for home ice.

Here's the kicker, though: Tampa Bay and Montreal play each other Thursday night and that will be an extremely crucial game for both teams.

If Buffalo can win its next two games, it will put a ton of pressure on both the Lightning and Canadiens to win their other upcoming games.

For the remaining schedule, the Sabres play the Blackhawks on the road and then close out their season at home against Dallas.

Tampa plays at Montreal and Boston before returning home to face the Detroit Red Wings and Rangers.

As for Montreal, they host the Bolts and Blue Jackets before finishing on the road against the New York Islanders and Philadelphia Flyers.

As you can see in the Twitter/X post above, the Sabres have the easiest strength of schedule amongst the three teams, while Montreal has the hardest.

Buckle up Sabres fans, it's going to be one heck of a ride. But if Buffalo can win their next two games, I would bet they can clinch a home-ice spot to start the postseason.

Winning the Atlantic Division should also allow the Sabres to avoid facing Tampa Bay or Montreal in the opening round. Instead, a likely matchup between the Lightning and Canadiens would knock one of the conference's best teams out right away, improving Buffalo's chances.

A lot rides on the final games of the regular season as the Atlantic race comes down to the wire.