Sabres Trending in the Right Direction

The 2022 - 23 Sabres team had some serious concerns at the commencement of the season. Starting 2-5 with a young team is fine if you're intending to grow, but this was a young team intending to compete. They weren't competing. A few lineup changes though and viola! a 5 game winning streak, a 7-5 record and a spot in the middle of a very good Atlantic division. The biggest piece of optimisim is Sam Reinhart, the right winger is leading the team and league with 20 points in 12 GP. Captain and vet presence Chris Kreider is also potting his fair share of goals and current new first line center Nick Suzuki is showing us what his playmaking skills are all about. 

The early disappointing start with meteoric rise of the last 5 games also comes down to Jake Oettinger finding his game. A sub 890 save percentage has crept up into the 900 range and will continue to need to be good if the Sabres have any shot of coming out of the Atlantic with a playoff berth.

Aside from how the Sabres are at present, they are a team also looking to the future. This young team has Suzkui-Barzal-Granlund as their three centers with Wyatt Johnston expected to make an apperance next season. This is a team with Boqvist yet to hit his stride and Lundkvist and Luke Hughes expected to be in Sabres jerseys sooner rather than later.

Keep an eye out for the Sabres potentially acquiring further defensive help. Gm Stu mentioned he wanted to acquire a top 4 dman and did so this summer, getting the elite Aaron Ekblad. But it gets more complicated than that as Ryan Ellis is now hurt and the defensive core looks like a mish mash of 5-6 guys fighting for a top spot. Ryan Graves is great but maybe playing top pair is a little much without an equal talent also manning the second pair.