It’s pretty normal to hear a player praising his club and offering up optimistic remarks heading into a new season. Regardless of the team’s previous campaign, you’ll hear proclamations of playoff glory. It doesn’t matter if your team was bad or even beyond bad, the time before training camp suddenly puts every squad on level footing.
The sentiment above has been especially true of the Buffalo Sabres as several players have claimed they firmly believe the club is playoff bound. Chris Stewart was one of the first to claim a playoff berth is a likely possibility and now Brian Gionta has joined the ranks of the possibly crazy.
Here’s what Gionta told ESPN:
“My expectation is to make the playoffs. I didn’t go there to sit around and watch the playoffs on TV. The expectation is to make the playoffs and continue to grow and build. I think that’s the first step. I think it’s a realistic step to try to get in there in the playoffs.”
Gionta’s take isn’t quite as certain as Stewart’s, but he states he wouldn’t have come to a team which doesn’t have a hope of making the playoffs. We’re not so sure we believe that (a paycheck is a paycheck and Gionta didn’t exactly have that many teams interested in him), but it’s a nice story to tell the press.
In terms of early optimism, the Sabres might be leading the way. Honestly, it’s not that unexpected. There’s the obvious fact that the organization needs its players to try and give fan’s some faith in the team for financial reasons. There’s also the fact that the Sabres statistically really can’t get much worse and 2014-15 is almost guaranteed to be an improvement over 2013-14.
Will Buffalo really surprise that many people? Maybe, assuming those people are expecting the squad to repeat last season, but a playoff berth may be a bit too hopeful.
