The Buffalo Sabres are in Free Fall

[SteelerNation]

They should intentionally tank again like they have done for the last 5 years. Maybe then will they make the playoffs with yet another lottery pick. Then another prospect will go to waste their prime years there.

 

[KCC]

If only they were in the West they would be 6 points up in the wild card with a game in hand on the Ducks. lol

 

[Crazy Cizikas]

Reality check.

They are gonna get slapped around in the playoffs by TB or wsh/pitt

Reality check. Tb, wsh, Pitt will end up being slapped around in the playoffs by tb wsh, Pitt. This is a nice improvement year for Buffalo. And even if they get slapped around in the playoffs, it a step in the right direction.

 

[MessierII]

The team isn’t good enough to lose eichel and be good

 

[AveryStar4Eva]

They are back to where they hoped to be at the start of the season; fighting for a playoff spot. The team still has big holes in the roster and they will fill them. For now stay the course and keep those draft picks unless young talent is heading to Buffalo.

 

[WTFMAN99]

Auston needs to worry about breaking himself...don't gloat about an oft injured player...he has a tendancy of hurting himself...then comes the excuses....

Did you put any thought into this post at all?

Year 2: Eichel: 61GP
Year 2: Matthews: 62 GP

Year 3: Eichel: 67GP
Year 3: Matthews on pace for 68GP

Matthews also played 1 more game than Eichel in their rookie years. Pot calling the kettle black here.

 

[Derg12]

Free Fall? Naw. Plenty of us here in the Eternal Land of Lake Effect felt they were, at best, a bubble team. My own expectations for success this year is between Wild Card and out of the bottom 10.

That winning streak was a bonus, but didn't change many of our opinions on the season.

 

[KevinRedkey]

Auston Matthews broke the Buffalo Sabres, they haven't been the same since.

Finding a way to bring up the Leafs in a non-Leafs thread is now the HF equivalent to this.

 

[HaNotsri]

We won an insane amount of one goal games during the streak. Now we are losing them instead.
We scored 3 own goals versus the Hurricanes and still only lost by one while playing terrible.

Our GM traded away a 1C for cap dumps. Hard to recover from that.
It doesn’t help that our coach is worse than most hfboard posters when it comes to being obsessed with certain players.

You can always trust on Sobotka or Okposo to be out there when the game is on the line.
Sheary is complete garbage but he’s still on the PP2.

 

[MarkusKetterer]

I assume this a reaction to the joke thread of "the Sabres are a top 5 nhl team" that everyone that wasn't a Sabres fan took seriously. The Sabres issues are that they have no secondary scoring on a consistent basis. It might pop up here and there, but overall, they have nothing. If they make the playoffs this year, great. If they don't, it's still gonna be a plus. Because they weren't last (assuming they don't go on like, a 25 game losing streak).

 

[7even]

Buffalo is currently WC2 at .591 for the season,which means they need .591 the rest of the way to make it. At .500 they will come up short.

Not necessarily. Depends on how the teams under them do.

 

[icanconfirm]

What goes up must come down. Looking at past 3 of seasons, the sabers have a strong support at the 46-47 (wins here) games played mark. If they fail to hold there, we're looking at a possible 5 game slide so this key support needs to hold. Luck has it that the sabers play the oilers for their 46th game so I am expecting a bounce. I will be entering a long here, wish me luck.

 

[LEAFANFORLIFE23]

Reality check. Tb, wsh, Pitt will end up being slapped around in the playoffs by tb wsh, Pitt. This is a nice improvement year for Buffalo. And even if they get slapped around in the playoffs, it a step in the right direction.

Is it though? because they did this once before going from 54 to 81 points and everybody got excited, then they went from 81, to 78, to 62 points, so you can say it's a step in the right direction, and it certainly looks to be, but they is a step they alright took once before and couldn't sustain it the next year.

Progress isn't breaking out one year and then taking 4 steps back which they did the last time.

Progress is breaking out and then Sustain it.

The Sabres have to Sustain it, they can't finish with say 85 points this year and then 75 next year .

Personally I think they HAVE to keep Skinner he has made a BIG difference

 

[Canada Drai]

 

[Star Ocean]

They need alex nylander not tage thompson

 

[613Leafer]

If they make the playoffs, they’re ahead of schedule. Maybe not next year, but soon enough this team will be dangerous. Just don’t pay skinner 10 million per year.

They've missed the playoffs for 7 straight seasons and drafted Eichel in 2015.

I wouldn't say making the playoffs this year would be "ahead of schedule". Buffalo's pretty widely looked upon as being behind schedule.

Though I would say making the playoffs this season would exceed preseason expectations.

 

[Furio]

They are still very green. I think clinching a wild card spot would be a huge accomplishment for this young team, and to expect anything beyond that (this year) is being naive.

They have a lot of young talent and some solid prospects. They have the potential to make a ton of noise over the next decade.

 

[Uncle Scrooge]

Too thin up front still.

Mittelstadt and Thompson are big part of the future but they aren't there yet to be relied upon as strong top 9 players on a consistent basis.

Sheary isn't producing like you'd hope after a change of scenery.

Sobotka has 7 pts in 41 games while averaging 15 mins a game.

Okposo looks like a shade of his 50-60 point form.

Simple fact is the Skinner-Eichel-Reinhart magic played a huge part of their 10 wins, and will play a big part in any future hot stretch they might have. Without it they aren't very good yet.

And even if that line is clicking it's still no Avs or Bruins line.

 

[thewall]

Don't be ridiculous, Eichel is a New Englander, he'd never trade himself to Montreal.

He once said in an interview thst he really liked the Habs growing up.

 

[BB88]

The depth in the East is so garbage that they'll still likely make the playoffs.

 

[thewall]

They need a goaltender and still need an upgrade on d. Still need to re-sign Skinner, or someone similar..

Buffalo really only has to worry about Montreal and they suck even more than Buffalo, so Buffalo should make the playoffs unless they really choke.

Being 4th in the division means nothing. Then you have to worry about the Islanders, Carolina and the Habs.
Who ever gets in will be swept or out in 5 games no matter what.

 

[Royal Thunder]

We are exactly where we should be, middle of the pack and in the playoff race. Goaltending and defense have been good, currently the lack of secondary scoring is by far our biggest downfall. The season is going about as well as we could have hoped, and in a couple seasons we are gonna be beastly.

 

[LeafFever]

I called and argued with Sabres fans on here. Their advanced stats during the 10 game win streak were bad and it was a fluke.

 

[Sam Spade]

The depth in the East is so garbage that they'll still likely make the playoffs.

Is this a typo?

 

[Panthaz89]

I mean if we are going to take a 10 game win streak out of the sample size and include the 5 game losing streak after.......