An attempt to be humorous and logical about the Buffalo Sports Scene.

Friday, January 16, 2009

Its a long battle ahead.



Even with last nights exciting comeback win in Dallas. There is still a lot of hockey left, and every one of the games will be a battle to stay in the playoff picture. (Battling will be said a lot) Unfortunately for the Sabres there seems to be a little separation of the 7th and 8th spots and the 6th spot. The Devils are 4 points ahead with a game in hand and the 5th placed Flyers are 6 points ahead of the 7th spot Sabres. There are 38 games left for the Sabres. So there is a chance if the Sabres stay hot, get 2 points in 65% of their games, they could leapfrog the Devils or Flyers. But we all know the Sabres aren't consistent at anything. And if they maintain a slight about .500 record, we would be happy with that. And don't look at the top of the standings because the Sabres are a astonishing 21 points behind the Bruins.

Which means basically for the next couple months. Their are 4 teams vying for 2 spots. The Leafs I think are too far back and will only play spoiler, their time comes next year.

As Sabre fans we only need to concentrate on the Hurricanes, Panthers and Penguins. Everyone else is pretty much pointless. The Bruins, Caps, Rangers are way too far ahead and we can only hope they beat the teams the Sabres need to lose. And no charity points. Nothing more frustrating then the Charity point.

The Sabres don't play the Pens anymore this season, going 2-1-1, so really there are no makeup points there. They took 5 of 8 points, and that's huge.

The Sabres next game is against the Hurricanes, which is the first game of the year in the 4 game series. 2 more games in February and what could be a huge game, a April 9th matchup, the second last game of the year, followed by the annual throwaway game versus the Bruins to end the year.

The Sabres have already lost to the Panthers once this year, but have three more matchups. The next one is Monday in Miami, the next two are in March, both at Home.

Thats 7 more games against two of the key opponents in the playoff push. The Sabres absolutely need to take 10 of those 14 points, to stay nicely ahead and keep their playoff status. They have a 6 games on the road coming up. (With a break) And a 13 game schedule in February. February is the do or die month for the blue and gold.

Then March 4th is the trade deadline, where the Sabres are bound to make 1 or 2 moves. They need a little more grit and veteran leadership. Nothing flashy, but sensible, is what they need. They need to make the Playoffs this year, or the fans will turn away.


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Buffalo, NY, United States
A Stay at home dad, who has more hot takes then your average stay at home dad.

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