In the first two months of the season, the Buffalo Sabres looked to had finally turned the corner with a playoff position in sight.
Led by Jeff Skinner's goal-scoring prowess, the Sabres rode a 10-game winning streak and catapulted to first place overall in the NHL standings.
Fast forward to March, and the Sabres are on the verge of joining the Philadelphia Flyers as the only team in NHL history to miss the playoffs in the same season that they won 10-games in a row.
One of the reasons as to why the Sabres have fallen down the standings in the second half of the season is their inability to string together wins. The last time Buffalo won two straight was on December 13th after beating the Coyotes. Since then, they've gone 11-18-4.
No team has allowed more goals (85) than Buffalo dating back to a 4-3 loss to the Carolina Hurricanes on January 11th.
The Sabres are still scoring at a respectable rate, but if they really want to take the next step, cleaning up their defensive zone mistakes in front of Carter Hutton and Linus Ullmark will be the keys to playing good hockey again.
Nine points separate the Sabres and the Canadiens for the final wild card spot in the Eastern Conference.
(h/t WGR’s Howard Simon)
