The Buffalo Sabres lost to the Calgary Flames, 6-2, on Wednesday night. That loss keeps Buffalo in the basement of the Eastern Conference at 7-9-4. With a 14-year playoff drought looming over Buffalo, they are not in a great position to finally make the postseason this year. Sabres forward Tage Thompson spoke with NHL.com's Heather Engel about why the team lost to Calgary.
“I think we get a little too high on ourselves after a couple of wins,” Thompson said, per Engel. “We think we’re better than we are instead of remembering what got us those wins. I thought looking back at the other game against Edmonton (a 5-1 win against the Oilers on Monday), I thought we were really hard to play against, and I thought tonight we were really easy, really light on the puck. Anytime you’re doing that, you’re going to lose games.”
The Sabres won two consecutive games, beating the Detroit Red Wings and the Oilers, heading into the Calgary matchup. That broke a five-game losing streak and a 1-4-4 slide. But Thompson says those two wins made the team feel like everything was fixed when it clearly was not.
The Sabres have gotten off to poor starts plenty of times during the playoff drought. Sometimes, they are able to turn it around and push for the final spot in the Eastern Conference. That happened in 2022-23, when they were 7-11-0 on November 19 and finished with 91 points. But sometimes it plays out like last year, when they went from 11-15-4 to finish with 79 points.
The Sabres need to turn it around soon and get blistering hot. They need to pass a lot of teams in the Eastern Conference to break the drought, and that is not looking possible right now. Can they beat the Chicago Blackhawks on Friday to get back on track? Or will this season go the way of so many others?
