The National Hockey League announced the Columbus Blue Jackets and Buffalo Sabres will play in Nationwide Arena on April 14. The two teams were originally slated to meet on Dec. 27, but the game was postponed due to a severe snow storm in Buffalo.
The game was to be played in Columbus, but the Buffalo Sabres were unable to fly out of Buffalo because the airport was closed.
The makeup game in April likely won’t have too many ramifications for the Blue Jackets but could prove to be an important matchup for the Sabres and their playoff hopes. Following a 6-3 loss to the Tampa Bay Lightning, the Blue Jackets currently sit at last place in the Eastern Conference. They are so far out of the playoff picture that they are nine points behind the Montreal Canadiens, who are second last in the conference.
Only the Chicago Blackhawks have a worse record than Columbus right now in the race to win the Connor Bedard sweepstakes come draft day. As the second worst team in the NHL, Columbus would have a 13.5% chance of winning the draft lottery, and Chicago would have an 25.5% chance with the new NHL lottery rules.
After a very strong start to the season, the Sabres have dropped the last two games. They lost to the Philadelphia Flyers and Seattle Kraken, respectively. They currently rank fourth in the wild-card race, six points behind Pittsburgh for the final playoff spot, with a game in hand.
An unexpected April matchup between the Sabres and Blue Jackets could come to both of their advantages. The Sabres hope to still be in the playoff race by then, and a game against a rebuilding team late in the season bodes well for them. Likewise, the Blue Jackets won’t have much of an appetite for winning when they’re just a few games away from securing the best odds to draft Bedard. What better team to lose to than the surging Sabres?
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