Changing of the Guard?

It’s been a long time since the Buffalo Sabres have been this exciting and relevant to the playoff picture. So many years suffering at the bottom of the Atlantic and constantly being ridiculed by the media. Now, fans have a team they can be excited about and look towards the playoffs. This is especially poignant as they played the Bruins today, who have been one of the most consistent teams in the NHL. Firstly, the Sabres have 17 players with a positive +/-, which is a flawed stat, but at least shows that they are sustaining excellence across the lineup. The Sabres have not had a team with at least 17 players with a positive +/- since the 2006-07 season. That team featured many great players like Thomas Vanek, Derek Roy, Brian Campbell, and Ryan Miller in net. The last time they even had 15 such players was in the 2009-10 season, which segways us nicely to talking about the Bruins’ relationship to the Sabres. The 2009-10 season was 16 years ago. That is also the last time that the Buffalo Sabres finished ahead of the Boston Bruins in the standings. That was Tyler Myers’s rookie season, where he won the Calder with Buffalo. That was also the season when Ryan Miller won the Vezina. It did not matter come playoff time, as they would lose in 6 against the Boston Bruins in the Conference Quarter-Finals. Miller did his part by having a GSAx/60 of 0.313, while Tukka Rask had a 0.128. Every game in Boston was a one-goal game, and the Bruins won every game. Ever since that series, the Bruins would go on to win 716 games(most among all franchises), make the playoffs 12 times, make the finals 3 times, and win a Stanley Cup. The Sabres would make one more appearance the next year and then miss for the next 14 years, winning only 511 games(worst among teams that played since 2011). Not only that, the Bruins would beat up on the Sabres during the regular season to the tune of a 48-15-9 head-to-head record while the Sabres went 24-36-12. Strangely enough, before this game, they had the same number of overtime/shootout losses at 143. Even though they lost, they are still in a great position to end this prolonged era of suffering. Even if they somehow match up with Boston in the first round, they can slay their demons and finally usher in a new era for the Atlantic.