AIDAN POLLARD
Staff Writer
All I want for Christmas is a good team. Is that too much to ask?
This is supposed to be a joyful time of year and all that’s happening is the Sabres are making people sad and disappointed.
Buffalo is currently still last in the Atlantic Division and they have begun another losing streak with two shutouts and one blowout loss this week.
Buffalo was shut out by both the Lightning and the Penguins this week, and then the Penguins crushed them in at home in a 5-1 game.
People would be happy watching the Sabres play at least some competitive games where they’re not completely destroyed every time they step on the ice.
It’s honestly boring and hard to watch. It’s like watching a professional team play their farm team. It’s almost unfair.
At the very least, the Sabres beat the Coyotes when they faced off earlier this year, but even that is like putting a minor league team against a college team.
I’m fresh out of ideas for how the Sabres can fix this hole they’re in. I used to think it was hard watching the Islanders every season, but then I started paying attention to Buffalo.
They took Matt Moulson and Kyle Okposo, two of my favorite players, from the Islanders in 2013 and 2016, respectively, and then ruined them.
Maybe right now the Sabres should just focus on not getting shut out, and then maybe they can start looking towards actually winning a meaningful number of games.
At this point, all they can do is hope to rebuild in the upcoming years, because I don’t think they have much of a shot at reaching a respectable position in the Atlantic Division, let alone the Eastern Conference.
There’s hope that they can still battle it out in points with the Coyotes, but even they are beating the Sabres by two points and they didn’t have a regulation time win until a month into their season. Beyond that, it’s petty at best to pit the two worst teams in the league against each other when neither have any real shot at becoming relevant this season.
Hopefully, the Sabres will be able to draft or trade a decent goaltender at some point, because the way this season is going, they might as well play with an empty net. Even then, their offense needs to be able to actually score at least a couple times per game so the Sabres aren’t losing by four or five points consistently.
This week, the Sabres are playing the Colorado Avalanche, the Chicago Blackhawks and the St. Louis Blues, all of which are sporting wildly stronger records than the Sabres. The Avalanche are last in their division and they are still ahead of Buffalo by ten points.
With any luck, the Sabres will be able to scrape together a win this week and end the losing streak they’re on. I don’t think I can handle another seven-game losing streak, so here’s hoping they can at least give the Avalanche a run for their money.