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The Buffalo Sabres kick off a two-games-in-two-nights showdown against the Toronto Maple Leafs, an Atlantic Division rival that, like the Sabres, has gotten out to a mediocre start to the 2025-26 season. Some would even say that the Maple Leafs are a vulnerable team right now — an assessment that puts pressure on Buffalo to not only get at least one win in the two games, but also salvage a standings point in the second game.

If that sounds like a tall order for a Sabres team that’s only won two games this season, that’s because it is a tall order. The Leafs are looking at these two games as four-potential points, and that, of course, would be a disaster for Buffalo.

Indeed, if the Sabres lose both these next two games, they’d essentially be right back in the same position — a position fast-approaching a full-on panic — they were in prior to their two-game win streak. Because believe it or not, Friday’s game essentially marks the ten percent portion of the season. Before you know it, it’s going to be the e nd of November, and by that point, you’re only a handful of weeks away from the midway point of the season.

This is why it’s imperative for Buffalo to seize the moment and send a message to the Leafs and the rest of the Atlantic, for that matter. You’re going to send a message one way or the other no matter what you do, and if you send a message that you can’t get the job done, you’d better believe teams will sense your weakness and prey upon you.

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The natural rivalry between Buffalo and Toronto should be all the motivation Sabres players need to take it to the Maple Leafs. And if they come up flat against Toronto, the Sabres’ very makeup will rightfully be called into question.

The Sabres have to demonstrate they can have sustained success, and there’s no time like the present to do so.  The Leafs have been the far-superior team for years now, so they don’t really have anything to prove to Buffalo.

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The Sabres, on the other hand, have everything to prove. Buffalo can’t afford anymore failure, and the way they respond to the challenge the Maple Leafs pose will signal what we should expect from the Sabres the rest of the way this year.

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