Sabres Must Get Out Of Losing Spiral, Or Deal With The Consequences

The Buffalo Sabres are back to their losing ways, falling Saturday to the Carolina Hurricanes by a 6-3 score. Two days earlier. They were shut out by the lowly St. Louis Blue Jackets. So they’ve now put together a trio of three-game losing streaks this season and sit dead-last in the Atlantic Division and Eastern Conference.

And if Buffalo loses its next two games – a distinct possibility, given that they’ll be taking on the Utah Mammoth and Colorado Avalanche – the Sabres will have lost eight of their past 10 games. 

If you’re a new Sabres fan, you have to be shuddering at those nuggets of info. If you’re a long-time, long-suffering Sabres fan, you have to be sighing in exasperation at them. It’s a familiar feeling in Buffalo – excuses, letdowns, anything but consistently above-average performances.  

And it isn’t just *that* the Sabres are losing it’s *how* they’re losing. Indeed, their last two defeats have come in regulation time, robbing them of the so-called “loser point”. If they did get one or two more loser’s points, Buffalo would be right there in the thick of things. Instead, they’re on the periphery.

We’ve been saying it frequently because it bears repeating: the Sabres have to win far more series than not, and when Buffalo does lose – they need to earn as many loser’s points as possible. It’s going to take somewhere in the area of 40-45 wins to make the Stanley Cup playoffs this season, and that means the Sabres will need to improve on the 36 wins they posted last season.

Sabres Entering Stretch That Could Spell End Of The Line For GM, Coach
The Sabres once again are in a difficult stretch. And if they can’t win more consistently, the jobs of GM Kevyn Adams and coach Lindy Ruff are in serious jeopardy.

After the Mammoth and Avalanche games, the Sabres will take on the Detroit Red Wings, Edmonton Oilers ,Calgary Flames and Chicago Blackhawks. The Wings and Oilers present a serious challenge for Buffalo, but the games against the sad-sack Flames and Blackhawks are games the Sabres absolutely need to win in if they’re going to be a playoff team this season.

The Sabres can’t keep meandering along and expect to be a playoff team. Buffalo has been bitten hard by the injury bug this year, but the time for excuses has come and gone. We’re more or less at the 20 percent mark of the season, and that sound you hear is the tick-tick-ticking of the clock that’s counting down this iteration of the Sabres. 

Sabres And Mammoth Clash Twice In Next Week — Which Team Would You Rather Have?
The Buffalo Sabres and Utah Mammoth face off twice in the next eight days, but which team has the superior roster?

We’re nearly at the point of no return with this group of Sabres talent, and Buffalo’s players know it. It’s time for this Sabres team to either put up or shut up. And the time for the Sabres to do so is right now.

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