If Arizona shows a heartbeat and wins somewhere I'll feel a whole lot better, but with those schedules and the way the Sabres are sticking around in games against (clearly) superior opponents I feel that we're still going to get edged out.
It feels a little closer to realism than pessimism, but we'll see. It's not as if Arizona hasn't been in their games as well.
Arizona is going to get a few wins down the stretch.
I figure a split with us (we win Thursday, they win on Monday). One of the @Detroit and @Pittsburgh games just seem like "road team wins a game they shouldn't" much like us vs Boston last week. Arizona is due for one of those.
Then you have a home and home vs San Jose. I could realistically see ARZ getting 2 points out of there somehow. San Jose is looks like they have checked out for the year.
Then you have @Calgary @Vancouver and home vs Anaheim. Those @Calgary/@Vancouver are potential to be huge spoiler games. Then the Anaheim Finale could potentially be the ducks resting their starters.
I see potential out there for some points. The big thing is for Buffalo to get the split vs Arizona IMHO 55 points should still clinch it for Buffalo as long as we achieve the split. 3 points in 7 games is perfectly reasonable expectation out of ARZ