News Article: NHL.com Sabres' Season Preview
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Gabrielor
"Win with us or watch us win." - Rasmus Dahlin
Jim Bob
RIP RJ
His reasoning for his take that the Sabres won't make the playoffs this season makes sense.
The Sabres do have a lot of teams to jump over to get into the playoffs. While I hope they can do it, I wouldn't bet a whole paycheck on it happening.
So, if I had to make a prediction today, I would say the same thing.
It's pretty silly to dismiss any team in the East right now in terms of playoffs, except Detroit and maybe NJ?
There's Washington, Pittsburgh....and then about 12 teams vying for 6 spots. Some will get banged up, some will get lucky breaks, etc.
Buffalo has a good of chance as any, especially playing in the Atlantic instead of the Metro. Buffalo could win the division. No juggernaut teams here.
haseoke39
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I appreciated his candor. Usually these league-media types are all weeeeeeellll anyyyythings posssssssible, and he's just like, Nope.
Sabre the Win
Joke of a Franchise
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Gabrielor
"Win with us or watch us win." - Rasmus Dahlin
No, but hearing his dismissive, laughing attitude got me mad, and hopefully the team will be too.
'Dose of reality?' Notice, I didn't argue any of his points, just his presentation, so you have the wrong address for this hot take.
My issue is that what he said was stupid. "Too many teams to jump over"
We aren't in the metro where two out of the three divisional spots are locked up with Pittsburgh and Washington.
There's no juggernaut team here that's going to get 110+ points.
If I'm handicapping the division right now, i'd say
Tampa Bay having a strong rebound season.
Boston/Ottawa/Montreal/Toronto/Buffalo/Florida all in one big pile of "teams that can go either way next year"
Detroit having a bad bad year.
haseoke39
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Four of those "either way" teams that you're slotting us with finished 17+ points ahead of us last year. So unless they're all eithering strongly one direction, it's pretty reasonable to conclude we have to catch up on a lot of teams.
http://www.espn.com/nhl/standings/_/year/2016
Alot changes year to year.
Of the teams I listed (Boston, Ottawa, Montreal, Florida), none of them "improved" significantly in the offseason. Toronto added Marleau, but failed to address their defense, their biggest weakness, in a significant way.
Buffalo upgraded their D (Scandella, Beaulieu. Antipin) addressed their biggest issue (coaching), and have several young players (Girgensons, Reinhart, McCabe) who could take the next step in their development.
OkimLom
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Much like a Toronto had to catch up to a lot of teams from the year prior.
It's a new year, ANYTHING can happen.
Sabre the Win
Joke of a Franchise
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I think only Montreal and Florida are the shaky ones but Florida had a coaching change too, people under estimate Ottawa's coaching, Marc Crawford has been resurgent with that offense in the SHL and now behind the bench in Ottawa. Boston is still the same team that finished ahead of us and their core is still healthy and capable to play and as for Toronto, they still made playoffs even with a crap defense albeit a very healthy season and that's where I think Toronto could crumble.. if injuries plague that offensive core.
Either or, any way you want to look at it, Sabres have a lot needing to go right with them and wrong with other teams.
I don't predict playoffs this year, I haven't since the start of the off season even with our adds but I hope to see a crazy race for the wild card.
It's true there are probably 12 teams that could claim a chance of at worst a WC. The Sabres definitely don't have as good of a chance as many others.
The moves Buffalo made this off season should make analysts say "Buffalo has a chance..." and that's about it. Fans and analysts have no idea how a team will mesh. It was hard to imagine Toronto meshing as well as they did last year. Babcock, et al, meshed well with a bit of luck on the injury side and did well. Columbus was similar last year as well.
IMO it's nearly impossible to predict how a team will grow / decline year to year with the addition / subtraction of players. The safe bet on Buffalo is they are probably not going to be a playoff team again, but they could have a shot at a WC.
SackTastic
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