Should Sabres fans get excited about this recent stretch enough to get our hopes up?

Buffalo Sabres fans have been through this movie before. A team left for dead just past the midway point of the season makes a valiant run for the playoffs only to fall just short. It's nothing new. In fact this trend dates back to at least the Lindy Ruff years from 2007-2013. Ruff's Sabres generally struggled through the first half of the year only to make that run save for the 2009-10 season when they took the Northeast Division crown after being at near the top of the division the entire season. In the other years during that span Buffalo was in the middle to back of the pack and ended up finishing third in the division three times and fourth on one occasion. They closed out that span with a pre-tank fifth-place finish in 2012-13. In those six years they made the playoffs twice getting bounced in the first round both times.

We're now well into the 2020 portion of the season and once again the Sabres are in a position where they'll need to make a near miraculous run to get into the playoffs. Coming into the new year Buffalo found themselves in a tough position being five points out of third place in the Atlantic Division, eight points out of the second wild card spot in the Eastern Conference. A 5-3-0 record prior to their "bye-week" and the All-Star break gave fans hope for the team as they would be coming out of the break with nine of 10 games at home.