With the American Thanksgiving holiday rapidly approaching, many teams in the NHL will be looking at the standings to see where they stack up against the rest of their division, and the Buffalo Sabres are finding themselves in a positive trend for once. Typically during this time of year, the discussion is usually around how they need to turn things around if they want a chance at sniffing the playoffs, or what drastic changes they need to make to leapfrog other teams to sneak into the last wildcard spot, but not this season.
Right now, they are right in the mix with the rest of the contending teams battling it out for a few different playoff spots. If they continue to play well, they will have every chance to clinch one in the coming months. With the team on a track that leads them to the prize they need to reach so badly, their need for moral victories, and “focusing on the little things” is coming to an end.
What Was Holding the Sabres Back?
The short answer to this question is simply themselves. For years, this team has been sabotaging their own success with lazy gameplay, poor mechanics, bad game-finishing ability, and poor confidence. The team never could string together wins well, and they never really looked like a cohesive group that had something to play for beyond themselves. The past few seasons were all about development, and fans knew that, but they were still hopeful that in those development years, one of those teams could be good enough to squeak into a playoff spot. Some of them came close but to no avail.
That’s why this team and much of the fanbase became obsessed with the term “moral victories”. It was all about seeing the silver lining in every game and noticing the positives that could be found in every loss for the sake of developing towards the future. The team was young and inexperienced, and that excuse carried a lot of weight as the moral victories piled up every loss. Sometimes, things were so bad and games were so terrible, that the “moral victory” for the night was simply that next season would be better. If that phrase alone isn’t the Buffalo sports motto, I don’t know what is, but it reared its ugly head constantly for years with this Sabres team, and it has held them back up until now.
What Changed for the Sabres?
Structure changed for the Sabres. Head coach Lindy Ruff came in and started to give these players accountability and structure and is finally beginning to break a lot of the bad habits that have been running rampant on this team for the past few seasons. From the physical improvements of Tage Thompson and Connor Clifton to the positional corrections of Bowen Byram and Owen Power this season, Ruff has given some great improvements to some of the Sabres’ key players.
Ruff still has a lot of work to do in order to get players like Dylan Cozens and Jack Quinn properly going, but his methods and systems have continued to benefit many other top Sabres. On top of that, he has improved their power play from the abysmal start that it had this season, and it has made a substantial difference in the outcomes of their games. Combining improved systems with improved players is exactly what the Sabres needed, and it is looking like Ruff was the right man for the job.
A massive part of where this team is different from seasons passed is in their ability to get over a loss. So far this season, the Sabres’ longest losing streak is only three games, and that has allowed them to continue bouncing back from tough losses as they climb the standings. Rather than stacking losses in a row, they have a much better ability of leaving the loss in the past and getting on to the next game and playing it like it is brand new.
Last season, and a few seasons before that, one loss would easily turn into five or more. With how this team has been approaching games, I do not foresee that happening multiple times this season. The real question is, now that they have figured out how to get themselves into the mix of teams fighting for a playoff spot, what do they do next to stay in that position for the remainder of the season?
Sabres’ Next Steps
The biggest key is consistency. Preventing themselves from stacking losses is one thing, but being consistent in how they win their games and stacking up some win streaks is equally as important. Would it be awesome to watch them go on a massive 10-game win streak? Of course! But as long as they can stay consistent enough with their play, win at least three games in a row before they lose one, and then focus on getting back to winning two to three in a row again, they will have an easy recipe for making it into the postseason.
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American Thanksgiving is not a guaranteed determination of which teams make the playoffs, but typically, the standings around this time of year reflect what the playoff picture looks like when April rolls around when the year turns. The Sabres have the talent, the goaltending, and finally the head coach that is showing his players the right way to play and win hockey games. The “moral victories” have been left in the past with the softer development coaches. The focus now is spent on winning.
The Sabres of today are no longer about finding the small victories to smile about after losses. This team is about finding wins as they work towards their goal of making the playoffs for the first time since 2011, and it is about time that it has felt that way.
