An Open Letter to Buffalo Sabres Fans: Don’t Panic

On Saturday night, thanks to some incredible, near-magic glove work from goalie James Reimer, the Buffalo Sabres completed their West Coast road trip with a third win in a row, defeating the San Jose Sharks 4-2. 

Seriously, how’d he do that?! The look on Macklin Celebrini’s face says it all. 

This marks the third time the Sabres have had a three-game winning streak this season. That’s pretty great! 

Remember that in the 2023-2024 season, it took until early 2024 for the team to win TWO games in a row. 

The NHL season is long. It’s 82 games. That’s half the length of Major League Baseball’s marathon season. It’s several times longer than the NFL’s. 

With both football and hockey, we want our team to win every game. Of course. It’s a much better mood at work when the team wins. It’s a little sunshine during what is typically a cold and gloomy time of year (despite our current lack of snow—it’ll come). 

But when the Sabres lose, there’s this tendency for people to lose their minds as well. The ranting and raving, the calls to fire the general manager, the doom and gloom of another lost season, the lamenting of “Why didn’t they sign this guy?” or “Why didn’t we spend all that cap space and bring that guy in?” is deafening. 

Calm down, friends. It’s going to be ok. 

Look at the progress that’s been made so far. A year ago? The Sabres were limping along. They didn’t string together more than two wins in a row for months. They weren’t terrible, but they weren’t great. They sometimes played really well together as a team… and then there was that absolute embarrassment against Columbus, the 9-4 obliteration that had people openly booing and calling for then-coach Don Granato to be fired immediately. 

Do you remember the game after that, two days later? They soundly defeated our neighbo(u)rs to the north, the Toronto Maple Leafs, 9-3. It was a glorious game and one that Sabres fans took as an early Christmas present. 

This team is better. The new players acquired in the off-season, including Jason Zucker, who won the game against the Kings on Wednesday night, have brought much-needed leadership, depth, and scoring for the Sabres. Three of the top 10 goal scorers on the team right now weren’t even here a calendar year ago: Zucker (5), Ryan McLeod (6), and Bo Byram (3). The “loss” of Jeff Skinner hasn’t been felt all that much—nor has he been the bright light for the Oilers they were probably hoping for, but that’s a whole different story. 

And yes, the Sabres have millions in cap space they could spend to add another big name—but look at Nashville, who spent a ton of money in the off-season and have a record of 7-11-3 as of this writing. Big names and big contracts don’t always guarantee big wins. 

As of this writing, the Sabres are third in the Atlantic, with a record of 11-9-1, good for 23 points and a winning percentage above 0.500 for the first time this season. They have more points than perennial Stanley Cup contenders the Boston Bruins and Tampa Bay Lightning. 

Coach Lindy Ruff began hanging the current standings in the locker room last week after a really sad showing in a 5-2 loss to the Philadelphia Flyers. But even a week ago, the team had failed to get above 0.500 in all four instances where they could start to have a winning record. 

They have that record now. They’re a quarter of the way into the season. There will be losses, yes, but this is not a time for doom and gloom. It’s a time for taking a big, deep breath and being more stressed about the football team because their season is shorter. (And remember, not too long ago, they too had a losing record and a playoff drought.)