Sabres need to quickly regain their thunder vs. Lightning
"There's just no room for error in this division right now, no room for the kind of abhorrent hockey the Sabres played on their road trip to Ottawa and Washington to fall to 2-3-2 in their last seven games," writes Mike Harrington.
So, is Monday a good time for the Buffalo Sabres to see the Tampa Bay Lightning again, or is it the worst time?
That showdown for the division title we've all been pointing to in the wake of the 8-7 classic of March 8 seems to now be a game to merely keep the Sabres alive for the top spot and out of the No. 3 hole in the Atlantic.
With Tampa Bay and Montreal combining to go 16-2-2 in their last 20 games − and the Habs suddenly entering Sunday's rematch with New Jersey on an eight-game winning streak − the Sabres are on a 106-point pace and could be looking at third place and no home-ice advantage in the first round. What a shame that would be.
Sabres center Tage Thompson, right, moves the puck against Lightning left wing Brandon Hagel on March 8 at KeyBank Center.
Joed Viera, Buffalo News
There's just no room for error in this division right now, no room for the kind of abhorrent hockey the Sabres played on their road trip to Ottawa and Washington. They're 2-3-2 in their last seven, hitting the kind of roadblock every team does, but one they've avoided since December.
"All the teams we've been playing are playing for playoff lives, and we've just been cruising too casually," Tage Thompson said in the wake of Saturday's loss. "The kind of hockey that it's going to be in playoffs (is) even more desperate, more intense, and we haven't matched that last two games. So we've got to look at these two games and look in the mirror and fix that, find our game, build something."
The Sabres need this game so bad, you wonder how much avenging they can afford to do with Tampa forward Brandon Hagel in the wake of last month's ambush of Rasmus Dahlin.
Retribution might be called for, and you can be certain there will be plenty of shenanigans in this game, but you can't do anything stupid and hand out free power plays, either.
Not the way Nikita Kucherov has been playing. The Tampa Bay star is up to 43 goals and 125 points, one behind Connor McDavid for the league lead. Kucherov is averaging more than two points a game in his last 14 (10-19-29).
"Our defensive side of the game has been unbelievable up until lately, and we have to fix that. Fix it quick," Alex Tuch said. "They're a high-powered offense. They've got one of the best players in the world on their team, and we give him time and space, and we give him opportunities, he's going to make us look silly out there."
The Sabres will undoubtedly be greeted by a wild scene in KeyBank Center. The fans will likely act like lions looking to devour a steak when the Lightning hit the ice, but also still be giddy enough to unleash a roar about the end of the playoff drought.
There was an unfortunate bit of anticlimax to the Sabres' clincher. The Bills, remember, ended their 17-year drought in 2017 with the euphoria of the Andy Dalton touchdown as they waited in their Miami locker room while fans watched in the stadium concourse.
The Sabres didn't get a roaring full house downtown, ticking off the final few seconds, as they did in Game 81 vs. Philadelphia in 2011. And they didn't get a celebration on the ice Thursday in Ottawa after laying an egg in the Canadian capital.
A bunch of them were probably asleep for the game-day nap when the buzzer went off in New York on Saturday afternoon. And it is safe to say whatever good feelings and mojo they had going in D.C. went out the door when they were in a 3-0 hole after six minutes.
Thompson was appropriately blunt after the game in dissecting the team's plight.
"It's not good enough to just get in. Other teams are doing that every year, so it's not that special," he said. "We want to do something special, and if we're playing like that, we're not going to. It's very cool, obviously, because it hasn't been done in a while. But once you reach that goal, the standards change for us. And that's just no longer the standard."
The Sabres qualified in such a weird way that it felt there was a higher power at play as Lindy Ruff and I were joking pregame about a hat trick by G. Perreault (Rangers rookie Gabe Perreault), helping Buffalo to finally get its clincher. (It's no relation, by the way).
"I don't know if there's a hockey god," Ruff said. "But the fact that we went out this year and played the way we did and climbed the ladder that far, I think we had a lot of gods that were taking care of us."
You couldn't help but think of Rick Jeanneret in that great radio booth in the sky. And what in the world would R.J. have said about that Tampa Bay game last month?
His 1998 classic could easily have gone from "Brashear mugged Mike Peca" to "Hagel mugged Rasmus Dahlin."
When the clinch finally happened Saturday afternoon, the Sabres' content and social media teams rolled out an updated 2026 version of their iconic "Dare Greatly" hype video, first narrated by R.J.'s remarkable voice in 2021.
Can't imagine there were too many dry eyes online, in a manner of speaking, when people first caught wind of that one. It has been impossible not to think of R.J. on this run. He told me multiple times his last two seasons, that he thought this team was close, largely because of the impact of names such as Dahlin, Thompson, Tuch, and Owen Power. It took until 2026, more than 2½ years after we lost him, but they finally got there, and R.J.'s narration from the video still fits.
"Dare greatly, young men. This thing of ours is in your hands now.
Many have worn that crest before you.
They fought for it, bled for it.
Around here, that symbol is a way of life.
People fly it from their homes, pin it on their walls, etch it on their skin.
"It passes from one generation to the next, to be worn on ponds and driveways.
The men in this arena play for more than glory.
They play for those who wait for winter."
Many have worn that crest before you.
They fought for it, bled for it.
Around here, that symbol is a way of life.
People fly it from their homes, pin it on their walls, etch it on their skin.
"It passes from one generation to the next, to be worn on ponds and driveways.
The men in this arena play for more than glory.
They play for those who wait for winter."
Man alive, that's beautiful. Stop that, Sabres social domos.
As for the players, they've got something to stop, too. There is no time for a serious losing streak. Too much has been accomplished, and the dreams are too high. Monday is probably going to be the most important regular-season game most of them have ever played.
If they're doing it right, they won't look one iota like the team we saw in Ottawa and Washington.
"It's a good thing," Dahlin said of meeting the Lightning again. "We're going to be ready for that game. It's going to be a fun match."