Buffalo, N.Y. (WGR 550) - The Buffalo Sabres have two games remaining in the 2024-25 NHL season, the first of the two on Tuesday night against the Toronto Maple Leafs. The team will close out the season on Thursday against the Philadelphia Flyers.
With another disappointing season wrapping up, the Sabres are in need of any sort of promise for next season once again. Following the Four Nations Faceoff and the NHL Trade Deadline, the Sabres had a few moments of promise with a meager playoff push despite some key injuries.
"We are in a better place. I talked a lot earlier about dealing with adversity, and we didn't deal with it very well. I think if you look at where we're at now, we've been dealing with a couple big injuries this last three, four weeks, with Norris and Greenway out of the lineup, and how young our centers are, and we've dealt with that adversity a lot better. We look at some of the teams we've beat, and you've gotta to give some of our young players credit. You got to give our veteran players that have kind of settled into a pretty good game. We have found ways to win hockey games without some of what would be our players that we're really counting on, and we've dealt with some adversity in those games that we've been able to come back and win games."
Much of this season for the Sabres has been summed up in a 13-game losing steak and what those games could've meant for a late season playoff push. The one overarching lesson the Sabres seemed to have learned from that streak is that the team needs to hold on to big leads and the need to break out of streaks quickly.
"You look at the long losing streak, and inside of that, the moments, inside that stretch that we had the game in our hand. From the Detroit game, the Colorado game, there was games I thought, we let the other teams goalie off the hook. We had grade-a chances that could have won us a game, a couple overtime games that could have, should have, you can say whatever you want, but, we didn't. The grind it is to come out of that and try to recover and be a good team. Those are hard moments that you go through during the year. It's the ups and downs, those long moments of when you're losing, you can't stay in that place very long, or your season is gone."
One major move late in the season at the NHL Trade Deadline for the Sabres was trading Dylan Cozens, Dennis Gilbert and a 2026 2nd round pick to the Ottawa Senators for Josh Norris and Jacob Bernard-Docker. While Bernard-Docker has been a welcomed addition on the blue line, Norris has only appeared in three games so far for the Sabres before succumbing to injury.
"We know what he can bring. He has high profile, great speed, hockey IQ is really good, really good inside the face off dots. Unfortunate part is, I don't think we got to see the real Norris, got hampered right away with the same type of problem that he was dealing with in Ottawa. So the exciting part is, we're getting that player back, and he's feeling better now, but he will not play for the rest of the year. I feel you've got a sentiment there that a guy that can make all the people around him better, and he's got tremendous speed, and I think the speed in the game is one thing that you need, and it's evident every night. So he's a player that obviously we've missed through the stretch."
Puck drop against the Maple Leafs on Tuesday is slated for 7 p.m., with pregame starting at 6 p.m. with Schopp and the Bulldog on the radio home of the Sabres - WGR Sports Radio 550.