Beware the Four-Game Winning Streak

The Sabres and their fans are feeling good right now.  Four straight wins against solid opponents that included some road games have everyone tearing up their preseason predictions and looking to erase blog posts and comments.  But if history is any indication, the next game may well end up in the “L” column.

The Sabres are currently on their fourth four-game winning streak of the year, and they have yet to hit five.  Their other runs ended thusly:

• 10/17 had the Sabres playing Atlanta at home after beating the Islanders 6-3 at home to get their winning streak to four games.  It never got to five as Buffalo played uninspired and lost 4-2.
• 10/31 was a Halloween game against the Islanders on the Island following a 3-2 Sabres OT win against Toronto.  Buffalo followed with an awful and disinterested performance, the win streak was stopped at four,  and lost 5-0.
• 12/5 saw the Sabres take on the Rangers following a fun 6-2 Sabres win against Montreal that ran their win streak to four games.  No five for you!  The Sabres were shut out for about 58 minutes and eventually lost at home 2-1.

So what’s it going to be tomorrow?  As I have written before, this team continues to shake the stink of the previous couple years off of itself by going out and working hard most nights.  I fully expected last night to be the “tank” game, and when Montreal tied it in the third at three I figured Buffalo would turtle.  But once again they did the opposite of what they would have done last year, and came out with another win in a game I didn’t expect them to get.

So tomorrow night brings two opportunities:  the opportunity to take down a team that has had their number for years and the opportunity to finally get to five straight.

Playing Ottawa without Jason Spezza in the lineup may help as well.