Do we really believe they are?? Can they make a deep run?
buffalonews.com
We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all ends to long playoff droughts are not created equal.
All the way back to that 10-game winning streak in December, if you were waiting for the other shoe to drop on the Buffalo Sabres like it did in 2018, I can report that it's not going to happen.
This is real. It's happening. It's no fluke.
The 10-gamer that suddenly emerged seven years ago was built on overtime and shootout wins and sneaking out victories a team may not have deserved. It was fool's gold. The analytics hounds warned it was eventually going to be pay-the-piper time and, strike me down for ever giving them credit, they were right. And then, general manager Jason Botterill did nothing at the trade deadline to help his club derail its slump.
What we're seeing this season is a good team that has become great.
Buffalo Sabres left wing Zach Benson is all smiles as teammates greet him at the bench after his goal Sunday in Anaheim gave the Sabres a 5-4 lead in the third period.
Associated Press
Out of nowhere, out of the depths of last place in the Eastern Conference in December, the Sabres are in the NHL's elite in March.
They are one of six teams best positioned to win the Stanley Cup this season. Yes, this season.
There's the Central Division's three-headed monster of Colorado, Dallas and Minnesota. There are the beasts of the East in Tampa Bay and Carolina.
And, lo and behold, there is Buffalo.
One of those six is going to hoist the Cup. And the Sabres are in the club. If anyone else wins it, it would be a massive upset.
You don't have to stack your video game to get a visual of that celebration. Dare to dream it for real: Gary Bettman handing that silver chalice to Rasmus Dahlin some night in June could actually happen.
Whoever imagined in January when the Bills were kicking off in Denver that the Sabres are now closer to winning a Cup than the Bills are to winning a Super Bowl?
The Sabres have what it takes. Probably the best goalie tandem in the league in Alex Lyon and Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen. What might be the best top-4 on defense (Dahlin, Mattias Samuelsson, Owen Power and Bowen Byram). A deep, talented four-line attack up front where every line can score and defend. A veteran coach in Lindy Ruff thirsting to finally win the big one. And a new general manager in Jarmo Kekalainen who has the full faith of the locker room and gave it some added oomph at the trade deadline, too.
We haven't seen a team this talented in Buffalo since the Presidents' Trophy squad of 2007, haven't had a group catch the fancy of the fans this way since the beloved Class of 2006.
And how ironic is it that we had that wonderful reunion of the '06ers in January and we may be getting ready to live that magical spring all over again?
The drought is over, all gone except for the official clinch that is likely to come at some point in the next week to 10 days. We probably should have figured it was going to be like this, that there was no way these 14 years of misery were going to end by sneaking into the last wild-card spot by a point with a win in Game 81 of the season.
It's going to end with a monstrous splash, with the 33-6-2 run that is one of the five greatest half-season outbursts in NHL history. Even Sunday night's 6-5 overtime loss in Anaheim, which initially comes off as a bummer because the Sabres couldn't hold a 5-4 lead in the final two minutes, is a plus. This club was down, 4-2, in the third period and could have just gotten ready for the plane trip home. Instead, it refused to lose and snuck out another point to finish the journey with seven out of a possible eight.
Alex Tuch snapped me into place in January when he said this team wasn't just trying to sneak into the postseason. Forget about eighth in the East, the final wild card and a five-game loss in the first round of the playoffs. He was talking a Cup. And look where it's all gone now.
This edition of the Sabres is going to open the playoffs at home.
This team is a good bet to win the Atlantic Division. And what a rematch/showdown with Tampa Bay we're going to get on April 6 in KeyBank Center.
This team is more than good enough to win the East and get to the Cup final for the first time in 27 years.
And if you want to exorcise every demon of Buffalo hockey history, how about beating Carolina in the East final and then dispatching Dallas to win the Cup?
Imagine that delicious scenario − with Ruff in charge behind the bench to make amends for 1999 and 2006.
I'm not predicting it will happen. Truth be told, even with a 2-0-1 record against Tampa Bay this season, it's going to take some convincing for me to see the Sabres beat the playoff-tested Lightning in a seven-game second-rounder if that matchup happens. But it's not crazy to think it's possible.
Ruff, of course, is so even-keeled it's absurd. He's not big-picturing anything at this point, and good for him. He doesn't have the Bill Belichick "we're on to Cincinnati" routine down, but he's not far off.
KeyBank Center is going to be wild when this club returns to host the Boston Bruins in a nationally televised affair Wednesday night. But the coach in Ruff knows the pitfall that awaits his team coming back from a long trip.
"Just take it one game at a time," Ruff said Sunday. "Every game means so much to every team you're playing. Stay within our game. Coming back home after a long trip, you always fear that first game to get settled in."
The Sabres have bought in to Ruff's next-day approach. Lyon talked Sunday about not even realizing the way the wins were "stacking up" for both the team and himself because of the way the team prepared every day.
"We think every team is good in the NHL and you've got to bring it every night," said Power, like Dahlin a former No. 1 overall pick who is going to make his playoff debut. "You're not going to win every game, but luckily, we've been playing some really good hockey, and we've gotten a lot of wins."
The Sabres are 12-1-1 since the Olympic break. After the Boston game, Detroit is here Friday night and Seattle is here Saturday. It's a busy week at home and it should be a boisterous one in the home barn. Dare to dream what's ahead.
This is no fluke. Sabres are Stanley Cup contenders right now
Out of nowhere, out of the depths of last place in the Eastern Conference in December, the Sabres are in the NHL's elite in March. They are one of six teams best positioned to win the Stanley Cup this season. Yes, this season, Mike Harrington writes.
We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all ends to long playoff droughts are not created equal.
All the way back to that 10-game winning streak in December, if you were waiting for the other shoe to drop on the Buffalo Sabres like it did in 2018, I can report that it's not going to happen.
This is real. It's happening. It's no fluke.
The 10-gamer that suddenly emerged seven years ago was built on overtime and shootout wins and sneaking out victories a team may not have deserved. It was fool's gold. The analytics hounds warned it was eventually going to be pay-the-piper time and, strike me down for ever giving them credit, they were right. And then, general manager Jason Botterill did nothing at the trade deadline to help his club derail its slump.
What we're seeing this season is a good team that has become great.
Buffalo Sabres left wing Zach Benson is all smiles as teammates greet him at the bench after his goal Sunday in Anaheim gave the Sabres a 5-4 lead in the third period.
Associated Press
Out of nowhere, out of the depths of last place in the Eastern Conference in December, the Sabres are in the NHL's elite in March.
They are one of six teams best positioned to win the Stanley Cup this season. Yes, this season.
There's the Central Division's three-headed monster of Colorado, Dallas and Minnesota. There are the beasts of the East in Tampa Bay and Carolina.
And, lo and behold, there is Buffalo.
One of those six is going to hoist the Cup. And the Sabres are in the club. If anyone else wins it, it would be a massive upset.
You don't have to stack your video game to get a visual of that celebration. Dare to dream it for real: Gary Bettman handing that silver chalice to Rasmus Dahlin some night in June could actually happen.
Whoever imagined in January when the Bills were kicking off in Denver that the Sabres are now closer to winning a Cup than the Bills are to winning a Super Bowl?
The Sabres have what it takes. Probably the best goalie tandem in the league in Alex Lyon and Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen. What might be the best top-4 on defense (Dahlin, Mattias Samuelsson, Owen Power and Bowen Byram). A deep, talented four-line attack up front where every line can score and defend. A veteran coach in Lindy Ruff thirsting to finally win the big one. And a new general manager in Jarmo Kekalainen who has the full faith of the locker room and gave it some added oomph at the trade deadline, too.
We haven't seen a team this talented in Buffalo since the Presidents' Trophy squad of 2007, haven't had a group catch the fancy of the fans this way since the beloved Class of 2006.
And how ironic is it that we had that wonderful reunion of the '06ers in January and we may be getting ready to live that magical spring all over again?
The drought is over, all gone except for the official clinch that is likely to come at some point in the next week to 10 days. We probably should have figured it was going to be like this, that there was no way these 14 years of misery were going to end by sneaking into the last wild-card spot by a point with a win in Game 81 of the season.
It's going to end with a monstrous splash, with the 33-6-2 run that is one of the five greatest half-season outbursts in NHL history. Even Sunday night's 6-5 overtime loss in Anaheim, which initially comes off as a bummer because the Sabres couldn't hold a 5-4 lead in the final two minutes, is a plus. This club was down, 4-2, in the third period and could have just gotten ready for the plane trip home. Instead, it refused to lose and snuck out another point to finish the journey with seven out of a possible eight.
Alex Tuch snapped me into place in January when he said this team wasn't just trying to sneak into the postseason. Forget about eighth in the East, the final wild card and a five-game loss in the first round of the playoffs. He was talking a Cup. And look where it's all gone now.
This edition of the Sabres is going to open the playoffs at home.
This team is a good bet to win the Atlantic Division. And what a rematch/showdown with Tampa Bay we're going to get on April 6 in KeyBank Center.
This team is more than good enough to win the East and get to the Cup final for the first time in 27 years.
And if you want to exorcise every demon of Buffalo hockey history, how about beating Carolina in the East final and then dispatching Dallas to win the Cup?
Imagine that delicious scenario − with Ruff in charge behind the bench to make amends for 1999 and 2006.
I'm not predicting it will happen. Truth be told, even with a 2-0-1 record against Tampa Bay this season, it's going to take some convincing for me to see the Sabres beat the playoff-tested Lightning in a seven-game second-rounder if that matchup happens. But it's not crazy to think it's possible.
Ruff, of course, is so even-keeled it's absurd. He's not big-picturing anything at this point, and good for him. He doesn't have the Bill Belichick "we're on to Cincinnati" routine down, but he's not far off.
KeyBank Center is going to be wild when this club returns to host the Boston Bruins in a nationally televised affair Wednesday night. But the coach in Ruff knows the pitfall that awaits his team coming back from a long trip.
"Just take it one game at a time," Ruff said Sunday. "Every game means so much to every team you're playing. Stay within our game. Coming back home after a long trip, you always fear that first game to get settled in."
The Sabres have bought in to Ruff's next-day approach. Lyon talked Sunday about not even realizing the way the wins were "stacking up" for both the team and himself because of the way the team prepared every day.
"We think every team is good in the NHL and you've got to bring it every night," said Power, like Dahlin a former No. 1 overall pick who is going to make his playoff debut. "You're not going to win every game, but luckily, we've been playing some really good hockey, and we've gotten a lot of wins."
The Sabres are 12-1-1 since the Olympic break. After the Boston game, Detroit is here Friday night and Seattle is here Saturday. It's a busy week at home and it should be a boisterous one in the home barn. Dare to dream what's ahead.
