Is The Sabres Season Over After Ten Games?

In the past few years, the Sabres have started the season well to make the playoffs. In 2005, the Sabres were 6-4, in 2006 they were 10-0 and in 2009, 8-1-1. This makes a 3-6-1 start that much more troubling. Can a team that starts 3-6-1 make the playoffs. Going back to 2005, here are the teams that started 3-6-1 and worse and made the playoffs:

A total of 9 teams out of 44 have started the season with a losing record after 10 games and still made the playoffs. Most of those teams were 4-6 or 4-5-1 which means they earned as many more points while still losing.

What does this mean for the Sabres this season. Right now, it doesn't look good, but we as fans already knew that. Bad starts do not beget bad teams but they do beget bad seasons. This team came off a division winning season with most of the roster intact and now the defense can't seem to stop stumbling over themselves. Myers isn't playing to the level he was last season and Steve Montador is the Sabres best defenseman at this point, which is a problem.

Change is needed with this team but looking at how the front office reacts, that change is going to come slow. This is the same organization that has had a coach and GM duo for the past 13 seasons.  If this team does not fair well on the weekend against Atlanta and Dallas, the team is staring at a possible record of 3-8-1 after 12 games and falling farther and faster into the basement of the Eastern Conference. This organization is notoriously slow to react and also slow to panic but Sabres fans have been hitting the panic button five games ago.