DANTE LASTING
Special to The Leader
The Buffalo Sabres are attempting to make a final playoff push with less than 20 games remaining in the regular season.
The Sabres have not been to the playoffs since the 2010 season. That is the second active playoff drought (7 seasons) currently in the NHL.
This season might be the year that streak is broken. Second-year Head Coach Phil Housley has already topped his win total from last season. Housleys’ Sabres are currently fifth in the Atlantic Division, and they are behind three other teams for the last playoff spot.
So far this season, the Sabres have been very up and down. The team started out hot, winning 10 games in a row in November. That has been the only month so far that the Sabres finished with a winning record. Since then, Buffalo has been on a downward trend but has done enough to stay in the hunt for the playoffs. The Sabres have a record of 30-27-8 and a total of 68 points as of March 2.
With the trade deadline on Feb. 25 officially passing, the Sabres traded for a defenseman that should make the team better. The Anaheim Ducks shipped defenseman Brandon Montour to Buffalo in exchange for defenseman Brendan Guhle and a first-round pick.
The first-round pick that Anaheim received won’t be Buffalo’s pick. The Sabres had three picks to give away after getting one from San Jose and the other from St. Louis.
They had acquired those picks from earlier trades that were made. One pick from the Evander Kane deal with the Sharks, and the other from the St. Louis Ryan O’Reilly deal. The pick that Anaheim gets will be announced when the final order of the 2019 NHL Draft is released.
Brandon Montour is 24 years old, and he’s a blue liner with a right-handed shot and offensive upside. He has been in the NHL since 2016 and has played in 193 games, including playoffs. In that time the defenseman has a total of 73 points, with eight of them coming from playoff games.
Montour has playoff experience with the Ducks, making it to the Western Conference Finals in 2016. Hopefully, he can bring that mentality to Buffalo and try to get them over the hump and into the playoffs.
“This is the time guys should be excited about,” Montour said. “A young team, haven’t really been in the playoffs the last little bit here, so it’s new. But I’ve had some experience now in the playoffs and I know we’ve had some races coming down to it, trying to get in last year. Everybody should be pretty amped up. Hopefully, I can bring a positive boost to the dressing room, being vocal as much as I can.”
The Sabres currently sit about four wins outside of the wildcard position. They must make huge strides at this ending stretch to secure a playoff matchup.
If the Sabres can find ways to win games in the last month of the season, they have a shot in the playoffs. A playoff berth would mean a lot to the city of Buffalo. It would break an almost 10 year old drought, and bring hope for the future to fans around western New York.