With the Buffalo Sabres’ struggles throughout the last few years and the success of the Buffalo Bills, it is no secret that there is a subset of the overlapping fan bases that do not start tuning into hockey until the latter part of the NFL season.

This year, fans might want to adjust that annual plan. Out of the gate, the team felt like it has been shot out of a cannon. Buffalo has themselves at 4-2-0 through six games, good enough for eight points and a tie for third in the Atlantic Division.

When you consider the Sabres are the youngest team in the NHL, coupled with them starting the season with a four-game Western Conference road trip, things are certainly looking up.

You certainly can’t make the playoffs in October but you can miss the playoffs with a slow start. That first box can be checked off.

How about Rasmus Dahlin? You can comfortably check that box off as well. Dahlin has begun the season with nine points in six games.

Even more impressive than that?

Dahlin became the first Sabres defenseman to record a five-game goal streak at any point in a season and the third defenseman in the past 13 years to record a five-game goal streak (joining Cale Makar in 2021-22 and Roman Josi in 2019-20).

Furthermore, arguably more impressively, Dahlin is the only defenseman in NHL history to record a season-opening goal streak of five games or more.

All this led to Dahlin being named the NHL’s First Star last week, the first time a Sabre has been given this honor since goaltender Dustin Tokarski in April 2021.

Dahlin leads all National Hockey League defensemen in points (nine), goals (six), points-per-game (1.50), and even-strength points (seven). Dahlin also is tied for the league lead in power play goals by defensemen with two.

As if the normal statistics did not tell the story, the analytics tell the story on Dahlin.

Offensively, Dahlin makes the Sabres a lot better on offense. Defensively, Dahlin makes the Sabres a lot better on defense.

Dahlin continues to be the real deal. Simple enough.

Alex Tuch is another Sabre who has come out of the gate white-hot, tallying seven points in six games. Six of those points have been goals, including Tuch’s first career hat trick against the Calgary Flames on October 20. Since he arrived in Buffalo, Tuch has taken the lead offensively and continues to help push this team in the right direction on the ice.

Offensively, Buffalo surprisingly has been a better team with Tuch on the ice early on this season, as many could have surmised.

In goal, Eric Comrie, the new man in town, has also had a nice little start to his season and Buffalo Sabres career. In his first road start for the Sabres, Comrie set a franchise record for most saves for a Sabres goaltender in their road debut, with 46 saves. Comrie followed that up by recording another 40+ save performance, becoming the first goaltender in Sabres history to record 40-save wins in consecutive games.

Despite finishing off their road trip with a deflating loss in Seattle, Buffalo swept the three Western Canadian teams (Flames, Oilers, and Canucks) for the time since January 2018.

That three-game stretch pushed Buffalo to wins in their first three road games to start the season for the first time since the team won its first four road games to start the 2011-12 season.

While the Sabres might not be at the Bills’ levels of excitement, a strong start to the season can certainly help drum up some more excitement in anticipation for the stretch run coming this winter.

Data via: Hockeyviz

Photo Credit: Bruce Bennett/Getty Images