Buffalo Sabres: Rasmus Dahlin guarantees team will make playoffs

Buffalo Sabres star defenseman Rasmus Dahlin believes his team will make the Stanley Cup Playoffs. Will they help him back up his words?

There are some things you just get accustomed to in today’s NHL. For example, you always know that Sidney Crosby will be a top scorer, that Bettman will be booed wherever he goes, and that the Buffalo Sabres will miss the playoffs. Well, that last one might not hold true if Rasmus Dahlin has his way.

Dahlin returned to Buffalo this past week to begin preparing for his sophomore season with the NHL’s most marred franchise. After the Carolina Hurricanes ended their playoff drought at ten years this past season, the Sabres have the longest active drought at eight years.

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While their shortcomings lack the fanfare the Edmonton Oilers got in their decade of darkness from 2005-06 to 2016-17, NHL futility is something the Sabres hope to avoid. Dahlin, the first overall pick in the 2018 draft, has something to say about that.

“I’m putting more pressure on myself. We’re going to be a winning team and be in the playoffs,” Dahlin said. “I think everyone is putting more pressure on ourselves now, and we’re ready to go.”

Dahlin might have channeled a little bit of Mark Messier with his guarantee, but that’s still a rather bold proposition. He was right in saying the pressure is beginning to mount, but then again it has every year since the rebuild was supposed to turn a corner after the franchise drafted Jack Eichel second overall in 2015. Instead, they’ve been marred in a rebuild slump since then that seemingly had no end in sight.

It might not be too crazy to believe that the Sabres could be invited to the dance that is the NHL playoffs this season. After all, the team was firmly in a playoff position for most of the first half last year until an absolutely horrific second half derailed any playoff hopes. For a while at least, they were doing something right.

The Sabres enter this season with a major question mark in the form of new head coach Ralph Krueger. Krueger comes with more than his fair share of expectations, and he and Dahlin only met for the first time this past week. The hiring of Krueger might be a step in the right direction for the team, but don’t be fooled. There’s still a lot of work to be done.

So will the Sabres make the playoffs? I’d probably bet against it. It seems the top three in their division is once again going to be some mix of The Tampa Bay Lightning, Boston Bruins and Toronto Maple Leafs.

When it comes to the Wild card, you have to throw the heavily improved Florida Panthers to the mix, and account for whatever surprises might come from the Metropolitan Division. Still, I’ve seen weirder things happen in the NHL. This year marks the franchise’s 50th anniversary, so it’d be the perfect time to do so.