The Buffalo Sabres have gone from losing three straight to begin the season to inserting a three-game winning streak in the final full week of October to losing another three straight. The latter losing streak should have led us to believe the first 12 games of the 2024-25 campaign were disastrous, and rightfully so.
If you read my pregame piece yesterday, you’ll have realized I had little faith in the Blue and Gold against what looked like an overachieving Ottawa Senators team. Then the Sabres outlasted and outplayed the Sens in what was a 5-1 beatdown, courtesy of JJ Peterka’s and Bowen Byram’s two goals to go with sensational playmaking from Tage Thompson.
But should this big win restore our faith in the Sabres? Um, the short answer is no, and it should go without saying why that’s the case. That said, it also tells us to, once again, step back and say something like, “Ah, maybe they just needed a few (or a dozen) games or so to figure things out.”
At this point, all I can do is sigh, shake my head, and deliver, to the best of my ability, a very serious convo about what I think of this Sabres team and who they are.
The Sabres have no identity and, therefore, will keep riding waves
Currently, the Sabres rank 14th in the league with 41 goals scored and sit at 23rd with 43 allowed. Although they keep showing flashes of what we saw in 2022-23, their lack of consistency gives me one revelation: This team has absolutely no identity, and no, occasionally scoring five goals in a game doesn’t mean they’re a high-octane team again.
If the Sabres want to finally forge a true identity, something that looked to be the case earlier in the year as a team who wanted to land relentless body checks and methodically move the puck up the ice, they need to get and stay consistent. I may have mentioned that in the past, but the problem continues to linger for what has once again been an irrelevant and disappointing group.
The Blue and Gold have an opportunity awaiting as they’ll square off against the NY Rangers next. New York is once again the class of the Eastern Conference alongside the Florida Panthers, so it’s an opportunity for the Sabres to pull off an upset.