In honor of a very snowy Wednesday here in beautiful Buffalo, NY, I thought I'd dust off one of Dave's "What If Wednesday" posts for a bit of hypothetical fun.

In today's Daily Links post, we linked to an article from NHL.com saying that since January 1, the Sabres have the fourth-best points percentage in the Eastern Conference at .643, trailing only New Jersey (.714), Philadelphia (.682) and Washington (.662). But what if the team had avoided their abysmal start and had played at that clip since opening night? 

Before we dive into those calculations, here's a quick summary of what "points percentage" is for those who aren't in the know -- points percentage is simply the number of points a team has earned divided by the number of possible points they could have earned had they won every game. For example, the Sabres currently have earned 81 points this year in 73 games played. If we divide 81 by 146 (the total number of possible points) you get .555, the team's current points percentage. By the way, .555 is good for 18th in the NHL.

So, using basic 7th grade math (don't worry, we won't get too complicated here) if we multiply their points percentage since Jan. 1 (.643) by the total number of possible points so far (146) then we get a grand total of.....94 points!

If the Sabres had 94 points they'd be leading the division for the second year in a row, and would be in third place in the Eastern Conference, only four points behind Philly for the number one seed. The blue and gold would theoretically finish the season with about 105 points and to celebrate, Terry Pegula would personally mail each fan a game-used deodorant stick.

So what does that mean for this year? Well, if the team keeps playing at that .643 points percentage over the last 9 games then they'll earn 12 points, putting them at 93 for the season, which should be enough to make the playoffs as the eighth seed. Though I don't think we'd complain if they played just a little better.

The Buffalo Sabres are celebrating their 40th anniversary next season and Die by the Blade will take a look back through the history of the franchise throughout the summer. One of the features will be a weekly feature entitled What If Wednesday. A couple of months ago I read a book entitled "What If the Babe Had Kept His Red Sox?" by Bill Gutman. It inspired me to do this feature with a Buffalo Sabres flavor. 

This is the sixth week in the What If Wednesday's feature. After a week off we are back with the story that first came to mind when I decided to do this feature. This is the story of the Alexander Mogilny and his defection from the Soviet Union in 1989.

The defection of Alexander Mogilny will forever be known as one of the most important moments in Buffalo Sabres and probably NHL history. We will probably never know the entire story of his defection but the details have become more clear throughout the years.

Imagine being Don Luce when the call comes to tell you that Alexander Mogilny wants to defect to the United States. Luce thought it was a joke and who could blame him?

Luce received the call from Sergei Fomitchev, who claimed to be Mogilny's agent. Thinking it was a ruse, Luce told Mogilny, through Fomitchev, to repeat the English phrase Mogilny said to him during their conversation in Anchorage. Luce pointed out to Mogilny that he hadn't played particularly well and in broken English, Mogilny said, "I show you next game." The next game was against Canada and the Soviets clinched the gold medal on the strength of a Mogilny hat trick.

When Mogilny repeated the phrase, Luce called Meehan and they were on a plane to Stockholm three hours later.     

Don Luce and Gerry Meehan deserve a lot of credit for helping Mogilny in his voyage to the United States but it was the persistence and bravery of Mogilny himself that made the whole thing possible. Sabres history would be altered forever if not for the bravery of everyone involved.

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The Buffalo Sabres are celebrating their 40th anniversary next season and Die by the Blade will take a look back through the history of the franchise throughout the summer. One of the features will be a weekly feature entitled What If Wednesday. A couple of months ago I read a book entitled "What If the Babe Had Kept His Red Sox?" by Bill Gutman. It inspired me to do this feature with a Buffalo Sabres flavor. 

This is the fifth week in the What If Wednesday's feature. This is another very short post and it's a stretch to add it to what if Wednesday. Earlier today I came across a story of the tragic life of ex-Buffalo Sabre Brian "Spinner" Spencer. 

Brian "Spinner" Spencer played parts of 10 seasons in the NHL and had his best years as a member of the Buffalo Sabres from 1974-1977. As someone who was born in the mid 70's, I never had an opportunity to watch Spinner Spencer play as a member of the Sabres, or at least I don't remember watching him play. I do know he had to be a special player because if you ask someone who watched him play, they will talk your ear off for hours.

While I knew very little about Spencer as a player, I knew even less about his off-ice tragedy. I came across a story from the L.A. Times via Kuklas Korner and immediately I knew this story needed to shared. It is a tragic story that would normally be seen in the movies as opposed to real life. 

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The Buffalo Sabres are celebrating their 40th anniversary next season and Die by the Blade will take a look back through the history of the franchise throughout the summer. One of the features will be a weekly feature entitled What If Wednesday. A couple of months ago I read a book entitled "What If the Babe Had Kept His Red Sox?" by Bill Gutman. It inspired me to do this feature with a Buffalo Sabres flavor. 

This is the fourth week in the What If Wednesday's feature. This is a short post that was inspired by a moment in Sabres history. Instead of boring you with all the details, I want your opinion. Feel free to leave comments and call me names if you would like.

The Buffalo News blog Sports Ink does a feature called "Today in Buffalo Sports History". On Monday they talked about the Sabres 4-3 victory over the Carolina Hurricanes in game three of the 2006 Eastern Conference Finals. The victory gave the Sabres a two games to one lead in the series but Henrik Tallinder broke his arm and joined Teppo Numminen and Dmitri Kalinin on the injured list for the Sabres. Jay McKee joined them on the injured list before game seven and the Sabres played that game without four of their regular defensemen.

The Sabres went to the Cup Finals in 1999 and yet many Sabres fans, myself included, feel 2005 was the Sabres legitimate chance at hoisting the Stanley Cup. They finished fourth in the Eastern Conference that season with 110 points and after they beat the Ottawa Senators in the Conference Semi-Finals there was a feeling of invincibility and the unthinkable happened as defensemen dropped one after another. 

I expect Hurricanes fans to take exception to this but the Sabres were the better team and would have went on to win the Stanley Cup if they had a less injuries. What do you think would have happened if the Sabres didn't suffer so many injuries? Would Carolina have won the series? Would the Sabres have been able to beat the Canes? Would the Sabres have matched up well with the Cinderella Edmonton Oilers? 

The Buffalo Sabres are celebrating their 40th anniversary next season and Die by the Blade will take a look back through the history of the franchise throughout the summer. One of the features will be a weekly feature entitled What If Wednesday. A couple of months ago I read a book entitled "What If the Babe Had Kept His Red Sox?" by Bill Gutman. It inspired me to do this feature with a Buffalo Sabres flavor. 

This is the third installment in the What If Wednesday's feature. The first two weeks we focused on positive aspects of the Sabres history but there aren't many of those left. This is truly a what if that should make you wonder what could have been.

In the summer of 2005 the NHL was in a very unique position. They had just missed an entire season because of a lockout, they had a brand new financial system in place that would allow all teams to play with a level playing field, they had incorporated new rules to open up the game and create more offense and they had a player named Sidney Crosby, who was labeled the "Next One", that was ready to become the number one pick in the Entry Draft.

The NHL decided they would have a lottery to determine the entire draft order and they would weight towards the teams that had suffered the most for the longest time. The Buffalo Sabres were one of four teams that had the best chance to be awarded the first overall pick and the opportunity to select Sidney Crosby. 

The Draft Drawing, a weighted lottery system, was used to determine the order of selection for all seven rounds of the Entry Draft. Under the weighted lottery system, the clubs that neither qualified for the Stanley Cup Playoffs in each of the 2001-02, 2002-03 and 2003-04 seasons, nor were awarded the first overall selection in each of the 2001, 2002, 2003 and 2004 Entry Drafts, had the greatest chance of receiving the first overall selection, 6.3 per cent. These clubs were the Penguins, Buffalo Sabres, Columbus Blue Jackets and New York Rangers.

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The Buffalo Sabres are celebrating their 40th anniversary next season and Die by the Blade will take a look back through the history of the franchise throughout the summer. One of the features will be a weekly feature entitled What If Wednesday. A couple of months ago I read a book entitled "What If the Babe Had Kept His Red Sox?" by Bill Gutman. It inspired me to do this feature with a Buffalo Sabres flavor. 

This is the second installment in the What If Wednesday's feature. It is a feature that is dedicated to the persistence of the Knox brothers in their pursuit of NHL hockey in Buffalo.

It's almost impossible to imagine life without the Buffalo Sabres. They have been a staple in Buffalo for my entire lifetime and I'm guessing that holds true for many of you. We have some readers that might be able to imagine Buffalo without the Sabres, back when the Buffalo Bisons played in the American Hockey League and called The Aud home.

Most of us know life with the Buffalo Sabres but we don't know what Seymour and Norty Knox had to go through to get a team in Buffalo. The Knox brothers first applied for an NHL expansion team in 1965 but they were denied and six other cities were awarded franchises. Los Angeles, Minnesota, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, St. Louis and Oakland (yep that's right Oakland) were awarded franchises instead of Buffalo.

It was widely speculated that James Norris, then owner of the Toronto Maple Leafs, was the reason Buffalo was not awarded a franchise. The reasons why Norris would not want a team in Buffalo were widely speculated but his ties to the arena in St. Louis were likely the biggest cause for the failure to secure a franchise. Norris owned the franchise in St. Louis and they were awarded a franchise although they never actually applied according to this old SI article. Imagine that, the city of Buffalo thinks they are getting a team but are denied while people in St. Louis were surprised to find out the NHL was coming to town.

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The Buffalo Sabres are celebrating their 40th anniversary next season and Die by the Blade will take a look back through the history of the franchise throughout the summer. One of the features will be a weekly feature entitled What If Wednesday. A couple of months ago I read a book entitled "What If the Babe Had Kept His Red Sox?" by Bill Gutman. It inspired me to do this feature with a Buffalo Sabres flavor. 

The first story in this weekly series will take us all the way back to before the Sabres had ever played a game. Buffalo and Vancouver were both issued expansion teams in the same season and therefore were afforded the opportunity to have the first selection in the amateur draft. Because there were two teams there was a spin of the wheel to decide the draft order and Sabres coach and general manager Punch Imlach won the first pick for the Sabres.

Everyone in the league knew that Gilbert Perreault was the obvious first pick and now they knew the Sabres would be the team to make the selection. Perreault wasted no time making his mark in a Sabres uniform. He scored his first NHL game in the Sabres very first game, a 2-1 win against the Pittsburgh Penguins. He went on to dazzle the fans throughout his rookie campaign and won the Calder Trophy, given to the best rookie in the NHL.

Perreault, "Gil" as many fans referred to him, went on to have a remarkable career that spanned 17 seasons with the Buffalo Sabres before he retired in 1986. He is the franchise leader in almost every category imaginable, including goals (512), assists (814) and points (1326).

Career Stats at Hockey Reference

The Sabres knew that Gil couldn't do it alone and they brought in help in the form of line mates Rick Martin and Rene Robert. The three would go on to form one of the most famous lines in NHL history, the French Connection. The three are still referred to as the French Connection and their numbers hang from the rafters at the HSBC Arena with a tribute to the aforementioned French Connection. 

That brings us to our question, What if the Sabres did not win the spin of the wheel and did not have an opportunity to draft Gilbert Perreault?

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