Sabres to continue ice-cold streak this season
As the NHL preseason continues, there is speculation as to how the season will go—will the Avalanche defend their title? Will Auston Matthews have another historic year? And perhaps the most rhetorical question: Will the Sabres have another disappointing season? While it is never good to assume, expecting the Sabres to have a bad season is a pretty safe bet.
If you can remember back to the 2010-2011 season, you would be remembering the Buffalo Sabres last playoff appearance. With the longest active playoff drought in the NHL, the Sabres have consistently been considered a laughingstock among hockey fans. As a team that has not had a 40-win season in over ten years, expectations could not be much lower. With all due respect, Buffalo is coming off of their best finish in nine years, but a fifth of eight finish is in no way admirable.
The issue may be a lack of stability in the coaching staff, with seven different head coaches in just ten seasons. The current coach, Don Granato, is going into his third season in the NHL, all with the Sabres. At 55-years-old, Granato seems slightly old to begin an NHL coaching career; but this is the Sabres after all. Or perhaps it was the trading of Jack Eichel, a top player who was sent to Vegas in exchange for two players and two draft picks. While the real winner of that trade remains to be seen, trading a top player away during a rough patch is rarely a great choice.
While it seems that Buffalo has loads of local fans to support them, the numbers say otherwise. This past season, the Sabres were dead last in average attendance, with just shy of 10,000 fans per game. In comparison, the Tampa Bay Lightning average roughly double the abysmal numbers that show up in Buffalo. Clearly, it’s hard to fill a stadium when a loss is inevitable and the fans will be sent home depressed and short of the $10 they were gouged for beer and a hot dog.
For years, the failure of this team was blamed on the area, saying that western New York can’t support a professional team. However, the Bills have quickly risen to be one of the top teams and have a fanbase like no other. Even during an extremely long rough patch, the Bills Mafia showed up to every game, yet the Sabres struggle to find the support due to their atrocious play.
To everyone’s surprise, Buffalo’s preseason has not been as difficult to watch as their last ten seasons; however, the preseason is not always a fair assessment as to what the regular season is going to look like. When asked if they have high hopes for this season, fellow sportswriter and junior communications major Dylan Dariano simply replied, “no, they’re not going anywhere.” Unfortunately, his attitude is the same as many others, aside from a few die-hard fans. Given their recent history, any Sabres fan should gladly accept 30 wins this year and consider any extra to be a blessing.