10 Reasons Why the Buffalo Sabres Will End Their Playoff Drought

You know what? I'm optimistic about the Buffalo Sabres this year. And I have to admit, it's the first time in a long time I've truly felt this way. It would be easy to be negative after 14 years of not making the playoffs. Some hilariously, embarrassingly bad teams along the way, even when they were supposed to be good. The Jack Eichel saga. Taylor Hall not producing. Ryan O'Reilly, Sam Reinhardt, Ville Leino, and there are so many more failures that have happened along the way. It's been awful. And so, it would be very easy for anyone to be very negative about this team. After all, they have a general manager who's talked about things like palm trees, that's really infuriated people, and an owner who doesn't seem to want to speak ever again.

But this is all the negative stuff. What about the positive stuff? Because there's a lot of it. Whatever you think of Kevyn Adams, put that aside for a second and just look at the roster he's built. It looks very strong on paper, and these 10 players are why the drought will end this season.

Some other notes and observations:

Zack Benson has the skill and the nastiness to do way more things in this league. If he can become a 20-goal scorer or more, that's a deadly top line.

The blue line overall looks intimidating. Rasmus Dalene, Bowen Byum, Owen Power, Connor Timonss. There have been plenty of complaints about guys like Mattias Samuelsson and Jacob Bryson, but when you pair them with much better players, they will also be better defenders. You also get Ryan Johnson in his first season with the Sabres after doing really well in Rochester.

Main Concern About the Buffalo Sabres

The only major question we have is in goal. Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen did not have a good season last year. He didn't even have an average season, by NHL goaltender standards. It's my opinion that this is ultimately what cost the Sabres a playoff spot. If the Sabres had average goaltending for the majority of the season last year, they are likely in, or much closer to being in, the playoffs. Goalender James Reimer proved that was the case when he came in at the end of the season and posted truly average numbers, but the Sabres won a lot more games. Luukkonen has posted above-average numbers before, but the question is whether he is healthy and can he rebound from a poor season? We won't be able to find out because he starts the year on the injury list.

With the Sabres committed to developing Devon Levi for the long term and leaving him in Rochester, that leaves the Sabres with two goalies we've never seen in a regular-season game in Buffalo before. Alex Lyon, and just claimed off waivers, Colton Ellis. Ellis is only 25 and had a really great run in the AHL last season, posting a .922 goals save percentage for the Springfield Thunderbirds while playing in 42 games. Ellis is ascending and could be ready for the NHL, but we really don't know that, which takes us to Alex Lyon.

He has shown flashes throughout his career of being able to be a number one, or at least a 1B, goaltender, especially when he played for the Florida Panthers back in the 2022-23 season. The last two seasons in Detroit were a bit of a mixed bag, where he didn't play poorly but didn't play great either. He played average by NHL goaltender standards, and that's the key to the entire Buffalo Sabres season. Once again, in my opinion, if Alex Lyon can give them average to slightly better than average goalending, and provided, of course, no major injuries happen to the Sabres, they should make the playoffs. All Lyon (and the rest of the goaltenders) has to do is play the way he's played. Though there are reasons to believe he could play better. He's got a great blue line in front of him, a team that can score goals, and quite frankly, sometimes goalkeepers take a long time to peak. Lyon doesn't seem to have peaked yet, and at 32, this is his last chance to do so. There is a lot on the line for Alex Lyon, and if he's ready for it the Sabres could have a really good goaltender.

If nothing else, if Lyon can simply play average until UPL is ready to play or Devon Levi is ready to come up, and assuming both of those goalies are able to play average to above average, the Sabres will be in good shape. To be clear, this is a hope. It's very possible the pendulum swings the other way, and they do not get good goaltending. We'll just have to wait and see.

Again, though, I am optimistic about not only their goaltending but their team. I think they've built a really good roster that should be competitive every night, and that's mostly because their bottom six is the best we've seen in a very long time. Ryan McLoud was an excellent trade for the Sabres. He came in and had a career season.  It looks like he'll be paired with Jack Quinn and Josh Doan. And if he can produce similar numbers, if not slightly better, that's an incredible third line. The fourth line is where I get really excited. Peyton Krebs, while not a huge point getter, is a nasty and smart player. Beck Malenstyn sticks up for his teammates, forechecks, and does all the nasty things that no one wants to do. And Justin Danforth, while not a big body, is not afraid to hit anything. That line will have speed and nastiness and keep teams honest because they have the skill to play both ways and stabilize a game.

On paper, the Sabres look like a playoff team, at least in my opinion. They don't need a lot of things to go their way to make the playoffs and end the drought. They just need to play to their potential. Do you think they will? Let me know on our app.

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