Back in 2006/07 when the Buffalo Sabres were the surprise of the National Hockey League with a team that embodied "the new NHL," Buffalo captain Chris Drury said their goal was to not lose two games in a row. The team came out on fire winning their first 10 games of the season before dropping one in the shootout and would go 11-0-1 before their first regulation loss. That Sabres team wouldn't lose two games in a row until mid-December and went on to win the President's Trophy with a 53-22-7 record. They finished the season with consecutive losses a total of five times (thrice in January.)
Although it's still a very young 2019-20 season, this edition of the Buffalo Sabres has yet to suffer back-to-back losses. Of the 12 games they've played thus far, three of them have not gone well but they managed to follow those up with some solid performances. The Sabres lost in overtime at Columbus but followed it up with a 5-4 overtime win at home against the Montreal Canadiens, they got manhandled for the final 40 minutes in 5-2 a loss at Anaheim then shut out the Los Angeles Kings 3-0 the following night, and last night they shut out the Detroit Red Wings 2-0 after losing 5-2 the previous night at New York against the Rangers.
A quick qualifier: Montreal, Los Angeles and Detroit are a combined 11-18-2 thus far on the season.
The Sabres are playing out a compact schedule through October as they'll be headed overseas for games November 8 and 9 in Stockholm, Sweden as part of the NHL's Global series. They have a game this Monday night followed by a stretch of three days between games before they play a back-to-back at Washington against the Capitals on Friday night and a Saturday night contest at home versus the NY Islanders. From thence it's five days for travel and acclimation for their two games in Sweden and four days to head home and get ready for a visit from the Carolina Hurricanes on November 14.
You've got to hand it to the club so far in this young season. Many looked at the Sabres as a team still sorting through their roster under new head coach Ralph Krueger and significant improvement wasn't expected as they had a team very similar to last year's 79-point club. Playoffs were a dream except for the most optimistic in Sabreland but with the way they've been pocketing points, an end to their NHL-long eight-year playoff drought might be a little closer than expected.
Many have last year's death spiral embedded deep in their psyche as the Sabres followed up a rollicking (and rather lucky) 10-game winning streak in November with a 16-33-7 record that had them watching the playoffs once again. Any fears from those memories are well-founded but there's reason to believe that this team is different. Krueger has them playing the up-tempo style that the previous two head coaches tried but failed to get from their charges and it's working. They have a pack mentality with support all over the ice with Krueger stressing a strong defensive mentality as a means to produce offense and that support in their own end has led to three shutouts so far this season for the goalie tandem of Carter Hutton (2) and Linus Ullmark (1,) which already tops last year. And offensivley, their transition game has helped them to an NHL seventh-best 3.42 goals/game.
With each well-played game for the Sabres and with each win, that light at the end of the tunnel is looking less like a train and more like the end of a long, sad period in Buffalo hockey history. We're not going to plan the parade just yet, but as my brother said in the bar last night, this team is playing some pretty good hockey that's actually fun to watch. And they're winning.
Not a bad combination.
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