BUFFALO, NY. (WKBW) — If you're reading this, it's likely you just watched the Buffalo Sabres pull out a 5-1 win on the road Thursday night against the Pittsburgh Penguins for their fifth victory in a row.
And to top it all off, they get some sweet revenge on the team that gave them their last loss one month ago.
But Friday brings a new opportunity for the Sabres with the NHL Trade deadline coming up at 4 p.m. EST.
So, the question I present to you all is: Does Buffalo need to make a move at the deadline?
Not should they make a move, but need to make a move.
It seems pretty clear the team should, and judging by how close they were on the Colton Parayko deal with St. Louis earlier on Thursday, they're likely going to take a swing or two until they land something.
And I agree, it's the right thing to do. You've got a really solid team, and as Alex Tuch said, they're not looking to just end the playoff drought.
I am not here all the time so I won't pretend to know everything the team has been saying.But in my time covering Buffalo sports, I don't know if I've ever heard this type of answer come from the Sabres locker room. Hell of an answer to a great question from @ByMHarrington. pic.twitter.com/aVZuEKd6Ee
— Matthew Bové (@Matt_Bove) January 30, 2026
But after watching this team surge from an 11-14-4 record from early December to now being a 100-plus projected points squad, something about this group of guys just clicks almost every time they step on the ice.
Tage Thompson shared a little insight on that earlier this week.
"Regardless of if we make a move or not. I think the team has belief we could go get someone, or we can make no moves, and I don't think it would change the belief in the room. Obviously, the decisions that are going to get made at the deadline are out of our control," Thompson told reporters. "That's what those guys get paid to do, and we get paid to go out on the ice and perform. But I love the chemistry we have in the room and the belief we have in the room. With that being said, I don't know if there's much that would affect that moving forward."
Belief is a word you have not found much of inside the locker room at the KeyBank Center over the last 14 seasons. But it certainly has found its way into every single locker and every corner of the dressing room now.
This team, however, plays in the best division in the league, arguably the best conference top to bottom, and stares at a three-headed monster at the top of the Western Conference.
So yeah, they're probably going to need to make a move or two to get them "over the top" in these future best-of-seven series that Sabres fans have been craving for more than a decade.
But then again, this team has turned "belief" into results over the better part of three months. So it does make you wonder...
What else are they missing then?
