The Buffalo Sabres have to treat the Detroit Red Wings like a team they should beat.
That’s the reality heading into the 2026-27 season, especially with Buffalo coming off a year that gave the franchise plenty to build on. The Sabres won the Atlantic Division, knocked off the Boston Bruins in the first round of the Stanley Cup playoffs and then lost to the Montreal Canadiens in the second round. After that kind of season, there’s real reason for optimism in Western New York.
Detroit, meanwhile, is a different kind of opponent now. The Red Wings have spent years on the outside of the playoff picture, and Buffalo can’t afford to let those games slip away. In this schedule, the meetings with the Wings could end up carrying major weight, whether that’s for home-ice advantage or, in a worse-case scenario, for simply getting into the playoffs.
The final regular-season matchup between the teams comes in Buffalo, and if the preseason projections hold, Detroit may already be out of the race by then. That would leave the Wings in spoiler mode, which only raises the pressure on the Sabres to stay locked in from the opening night of the season all the way through Game No. 84.
There’s also a good chance Buffalo sees a very different Red Wings team by December. The article points to the possibility that Detroit will have a new GM by then as Steve Yzermans’ successor - or at least, that’s what you’d hope. It also notes that Dylan Larkin’s trade request will almost certainly lead to him moving on, and that the new front office will likely start moving out more veterans while trying to steer the franchise in a new direction.
That’s a long way from the days when Detroit set the standard around the league. Those days are gone, and Buffalo needs to act like it knows that.
If the Sabres don’t take care of business against the Red Wings, it could come back to haunt them when the season ends.
In Other News...
Sabres Just Raised A Bigger Goalie Question Than Fans Expected
The Sabres goaltending picture changed quickly when they added Colten Ellis off waivers from St. Louis and sent Devon Levi to the AHL for the 2025-26 season. Ellis, a 2019 fifth-round pick, had just established himself as a full-time AHL starter in 2024-25 and also saw NHL time with the Blues, making 16 appearances and putting together an 8-4-2 record.
Buffalos net has been a moving target for a while because of injuries and roster needs, and this move points right back to that reality. The expectation around the team is that it will again carry three goalies, which means Ellis could be more than a simple depth addition and may wind up in position for more NHL work as a backup if the Sabres need it. [Read more 🡒]
Jiri Kulich Could Decide Buffalos Biggest Camp Battle
Jiri Kulichs status is becoming one of the more important subplots as Sabres training camp approaches, and for good reason. The young center missed most of last season because of a blood clot, but coach Lindy Ruff offered an encouraging update, saying Kulich is in town, has been skating and looks good. For Buffalo, that matters beyond just the health check. Kulich had flashed real upside before the setback, and his play alongside Tage Thompson and Zach Benson gave the Sabres a look at a different kind of lineup balance when he was on.
Now the bigger question is whether Kulich can put himself back in the mix for the top center job, where Buffalo has options and no clear answer yet. Josh Norris is part of that conversation, along with other candidates, which turns camp into more than a routine reset. If Kulich looks like the player the Sabres saw before the injury, he could force the issue quickly and make the competition much more interesting than it already is. [Read more 🡒]
Rasmus Dahlin Just Gave Sabres Fans A Reason To Dream Bigger
Rasmus Dahlins rise has become the kind of development Buffalo has waited years to see from its franchise cornerstone. As the Sabres captain, he backed up the leadership label with a career-high 74 points and helped push the club into the playoffs for the first time since 2011, a season that also brought recognition beyond the box score with nominations for both the Bill Masterton and Norris trophies.
The respect around the league is starting to match what Sabres fans have watched on the ice, and The Athletics annual player rankings reflected that by putting Dahlin among the NHLs elite while other Buffalo names showed up across different tiers. For a team trying to move from promising to dangerous, the bigger question now is whether this is the start of a sustained climb or just the first taste of what Dahlin can make possible. [Read more 🡒]