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Buffalo Sabres Latest OT Dramatics Has Team Within Shot Of Playoffs - Seriously
The Buffalo Sabres’ third-straight OT victory suddenly has the team with striking distance of a playoff spot. We couldn’t believe it, either!
What the hell is going on with those Buffalo Sabres?
I mean, let’s cut right to the chase: the Sabres are riding a three-game winning streak (rare), which has involved three come-from-behind overtime victories (incredibly rare) and 11 goals scored by what was the worst offense in the NHL just a few weeks ago.
So I repeat: what the hell is going on?
There’s so many good things happening with this Sabres team right now that have contributed to this three-game OT winning streak. Buffalo’s goaltending has been pretty strong throughout the first half of the season, and while it wasn’t the best part of the Sabres’ game Tuesday night in Nashville, both Anders Nilsson and Robin Lehner dazzled in the first two games of this streak. You also have to give this team credit: the Sabres were trailing in the third period of each of the last three games, and came back to tie those games, twice on the road in semi-hostile territory (the Nashville crowd had a pretty healthy amount of displaced Sabres fans). Hell, the Sabres erased three separate deficits in Nashville – that takes some serious resolve, people.
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I remember covering the Anaheim Ducks two seasons ago when they set a record for most third-period comebacks, and I can tell you this: once a team believes they can come back, they will fight to the death for the remainder of the season. No hole will seem too deep for this team, so watching them claw back and tie the game at 4-all with just over a minute to play Tuesday had me feeling good about OT (and the second half of the season in general).
Goaltending and willpower can only get you so far, though; at some point you have to be able to score, and this the most noticeable difference between this Buffalo Sabres team the past three games (and really, the majority of the month of January) and the one we saw in October, November and December. Since 2017 started, the Sabres have scored 37 goals in just 11 games and have managed to raise their GF/GP to 2.43 – still not great (only 25th in the entire NHL) but better than last place, which is where the Sabres sat in December. (Remember when Buffalo was the only team in the NHL to average less than two goals per game? I do!)
Somehow, the Sabres have morphed into a team that could barely put two pucks into the back of the net on a nightly basis into a team averaging 3.63 in the month of January. I can’t tell you how that ranks among all 30 NHL teams this month (I do have a day job you know!), but as far as the Sabres go, it’s a dramatic turn of events, a total flipping of the script that has to make you wonder what kind of voodoo magic coach Dan Bylsma is practicing in the bowels of the KeyBank Center. Clearly, having a forward corps that is almost 100% healthy has a great deal to do with Buffalo’s new-found ability to score – never underestimate chemistry! – but could it be that Bylsma has loosened the reins on his players a little bit?
Whatever the case may be, the Sabres’ January push now has them at 49 points, with only four points separating the Sabres, New York Islanders, Detroit Red Wings, Carolina Hurricanes, New Jersey Devils, and the Tampa Bay Lightning from the 8th seed in the Eastern Conference, which is currently owned by the Toronto Maple Leafs. I am not sure which is crazier: the fact that only four points separates last place in the East from a playoff spot, or that the Buffalo Sabres have somehow managed to throw their hat into the playoff race.
This is what the “Everyone Gets A Medal” mentality has done to the NHL, with its illusion of parity – but it is what it is. Another few games in which the team earns at least a point, and suddenly the 8th spot is actually a reality for the Sabres.
What this all means is that the Buffalo Sabres’ next game, at Dallas on Thursday, suddenly has importance: a win could push Buffalo ahead of Florida and give them the 10th spot in the East, which is where I was hoping this team would be hovering around come February. Sabres hockey, where reality is stranger than fiction!
