Are the Sabres out of the running for the playoffs?

[Norcal]

2 hours ago, Pimlach said:

And the Blues were a veteran team with a deep roster  lots of playoff experience.  They also found Binington who played the best hockey of his life that season.  

Hang in there man.

The Sabres may yet get a spark from their goaltending this season.

[Norcal]

On 12/12/2022 at 7:12 PM, Crusader1969 said:

2 points Canadians , 2 points Penguins, 2 points Rangers, not to mention 2 points Senators.  
unless the Sabres have a run of winning 9 or 10 games in 12, I wouldn’t even bother looking at the standings  

getting 0 points in 8 games, likely did the season in 

 

 

The Leafs were sitting way down in the standings until they went 14-1-4 thru Monday night, I don't know the results yesterday for them. 

I'm not comparing teams only the streak, hockey is a game of streaks.

The team who is streaking last, come playoff time, could be the one that gets in.

 

 

The sabres have points in 8 of 11 or some ***** like that too. 

Lets GO Boys!!!!

[Crusader1969]

1 hour ago, Norcal said:

The Leafs were sitting way down in the standings until they went 14-1-4 thru Monday night, I don't know the results yesterday for them. 

I'm not comparing teams only the streak, hockey is a game of streaks.

The team who is streaking last, come playoff time, could be the one that gets in.

 

 

The sabres have points in 8 of 11 or some ***** like that too. 

Lets GO Boys!!!!

I’m with you, they need a streak of 10 wins in 12 or something similar.   Hopefully they can put one together soon.  Just not holding my breath that it will happen 

[Thorny]

6 hours ago, dudacek said:

10-4-2, 75 goals for, 48 goals against.

Sure makes you wonder how the Mattias Samuelsson effect continues to play out this season.

How about Jost? 

[Thorny]

1 hour ago, Norcal said:

Hang in there man.

The Sabres may yet get a spark from their goaltending this season.

“Do I look nervous?”

[Doohickie]

At this point in the season the Sabres are done.  The odds are against them and to overcome such odds just doesn't happen in sports.  They should just give up and start polishing their golf clubs because long odds like the Sabres face can't be overcome in sports.

 

 

[Thorny]

The Sabres are 5 points out with a better goal differential than each team they’d need to leap to get to 8th, with 52 games remaining. 

I say the Sabres make the playoffs, sticking with my preseason prediction. 

(Ignore earlier in thread where I said they certainly were not eliminated but that it appeared unlikely - I was high)

[Refuting]

50 minutes ago, Thorny said:

The Sabres are 5 points out with a better goal differential than each team they’d need to leap to get to 8th, with 52 games remaining. 

I say the Sabres make the playoffs, sticking with my preseason prediction. 

(Ignore earlier in thread where I said they certainly were not eliminated but that it appeared unlikely - I was high)

High on what 

[Mango]

9 hours ago, Thorny said:

The Sabres are 5 points out with a better goal differential than each team they’d need to leap to get to 8th, with 52 games remaining. 

I say the Sabres make the playoffs, sticking with my preseason prediction. 

(Ignore earlier in thread where I said they certainly were not eliminated but that it appeared unlikely - I was high)

 

This is where I am at. November really sucked. We have lost a bit of the safety net to fall into any ruts going forward. But our scoring and goal differential are way too high to talk about missing the playoffs before the new year.

I am with you on this, I think the Sabres chip away at the hole they dug for themselves in November and find themselves in it come April. 

If we can split Detroit, Vegas, Boston, and Tampa, that would be a big way to end the calendar year. 

[nfreeman]

After a nice 3-game winning streak, including their first win vs a good team in forever, the Sabres are currently 1 game under DeLuca .500.  The next 5 games:

at Vegas

Tampa

at Columbus

Detroit

at Boston

If they split the Vegas and Tampa games (and you-know-who has missed Vegas' last 4 games and 6 of their last 7) and beat Columbus and Detroit, they will be 1 over DeLuca .500 when they venture into the lion's den on 12/31.

Kill the beast in its lair that day, preferably dropping 7 or 8 goals on them, and the Sabres will start 2023 2 games over DeLuca .500 and in the playoffs or right on the bubble.  Then we can, and will, start charting playoff matchups.

 

[Hank]

Nice to see them over .500 this late in the year. Jost has been an excellent bottom six pick up, Krebs has been playing better lately and Clague seems to be improving, he may stick in the top six if the D ever gets fully healthy. Five points back with a game in hand and over fifty games left, they are definitely not out of it. 

[matter2003]

Not if they continue playing at this point pace they aren't.

Doesn't matter with other teams really...very few will play at this pace and the Sabres will comfortably be in the playoffs by April. That's a BIG if tho. 

Gotta be encouraging they aren't falling apart again on D with a bunch of starters out tho(Mule clearly a huge difference). 

Also encouraging they have allowed 0,2 and 2 goals in their last 3 games. They will win a LOT of games that way.

[nfreeman]

I'd really like to see some more wins against quality opponents.  2 wins in the 3 games vs Vegas, TB and Boston would be great.

[DarthEbriate]

If they continue to score 3.97 goals per game, they'll be hard-pressed to be kept out of the playoffs even with a semi-porous defense/goaltending. 52 games to go is a ton of games. (Unless every three games the win one 12-0 and lose two going scoreless.) They do have to ensure that if they lose they get some loser points and also be able to keep Tage hot against the Bergerons, Crosbys, Cirellis, and other solid defensive centers in the conference/division who are going to get matched against him.

[mjd1001]

3 hours ago, nfreeman said:

I'd really like to see some more wins against quality opponents.  2 wins in the 3 games vs Vegas, TB and Boston would be great.

I posted this last week, but I listed who I thought were the top 10 or 12 teams in the league. Then AFTER I did that I looked at the Sabres record vs that list.  2 wins, 11 losses.   

[Pimlach]

6 hours ago, nfreeman said:

After a nice 3-game winning streak, including their first win vs a good team in forever, the Sabres are currently 1 game under DeLuca .500.  The next 5 games:

at Vegas

Tampa

at Columbus

Detroit

at Boston

If they split the Vegas and Tampa games (and you-know-who has missed Vegas' last 4 games and 6 of their last 7) and beat Columbus and Detroit, they will be 1 over DeLuca .500 when they venture into the lion's den on 12/31.

Kill the beast in its lair that day, preferably dropping 7 or 8 goals on them, and the Sabres will start 2023 2 games over DeLuca .500 and in the playoffs or right on the bubble.  Then we can, and will, start charting playoff matchups.

 

All tough games, you can all laugh but the Columbus game might be a tough one after way we blasted them in their rink.  

[Doohickie]

10 hours ago, Hank said:

Five points back with a game in hand and over fifty games left

Hit it!

[PASabreFan]

The mistake people make is focusing on one team to overcome. The Sabres have in effect won a first round series. They need to make it to the final. (Eight teams are in the running for two spots.)

[Doohickie]

20 minutes ago, PASabreFan said:

The mistake people make is focusing on one team to overcome. The Sabres have in effect won a first round series. They need to make it to the final. (Eight teams are in the running for two spots.)

I just want the team to win.  If they win more than all the teams between them and the playoffs to a great enough extent, they're in.  I'm not going to worry (as much) about the other teams; I just want the Sabres to win.  If they do enough of that, the rest of the league will take care of itself.

[WhenWillItEnd66]

If we can pop off a 6 or 7 game win streak and play above .500 we will be back in the race. Our offense should get us there and once (If ever) our defense can get healthy and stay that way.......

[Doohickie]

4 minutes ago, NJhopelessSabresfan66 said:

once (If ever) our defense can get healthy and stay that way.......

The modest 3-game win streak they are currently on has been with a hodge-podge defense.  The team may be maturing to the point that as long as they have a couple Top D to work with, they're learning how to win even with some depth level replacements.  That may be more important than getting everyone healthy.

[Marvin]

42 minutes ago, Doohickie said:

The modest 3-game win streak they are currently on has been with a hodge-podge defense.  The team may be maturing to the point that as long as they have a couple Top D to work with, they're learning how to win even with some depth level replacements.  That may be more important than getting everyone healthy.

Good point.  We have seen more ensemble defence the last few games.

[pi2000]

3 of their next 5 against the Knights, Lightning,  and Bruins...   uhmmmm yeah.   

They're gonna need at least 3 points out of those if they just want to keep pace.

[JustOneParade]

3 hours ago, Doohickie said:

The modest 3-game win streak they are currently on has been with a hodge-podge defense.  The team may be maturing to the point that as long as they have a couple Top D to work with, they're learning how to win even with some depth level replacements.  That may be more important than getting everyone healthy.

I worry about Power's effectiveness later in this season if he has to play the kind of minutes he has been of late for much longer. (Bad sentence structure?). I realize he's young but its also his first full NHL season. Is 'the Rookie Wall' real? Need guys to get back in the lineup soon.

[Doohickie]

I would also say this:  If they manage to catch up to the second WC team by, say, the end of January, I don't think they'll be done:  They will set their sites on Atlantic 3rd place and keep climbing.