Sabres' Stewart on club's recent fecklessness: 'The past is the past'

Nothing is expected of the 2014-15 Buffalo Sabres, besides the likelihood that the moribund club will be firmly in the running for the first overall pick at the 2015 NHL Entry Draft. 

Thin and inexperienced along the blue-line, untested in net, and lacking skill upfront - if the Sabres finish higher than 15th in the Eastern Conference, it'll be a significant surprise. 

Buffalo's players aren't giving up so easily though, despite the popular perception of their team. 

"Look at the Colorado Avalanche two years ago," former Avalanche forward and current Sabre Chris Stewart recently told Matt Larkin of the Hockey News. "They were a last-place team, and they were arguably one of the best teams in the league last year.

"So the past is the past. You look at our team now and there are 13 or 14 new faces. So we come in and think of last year as an anomaly. There’s nothing we can do now. We can worry about the future. I hear everybody talking about tanking for Connor McDavid. That’s not in my DNA, personally."

While the 'tanking' approach isn't to Stewart's taste, it's clear that the Sabres organization sees themselves as a team of the future, not of the present.

Admittedly the club brought in a handful of useful veteran pieces like Matt Moulson, Brian Gionta and Josh Gorges this summer, but this is still a team hosting an OHL game featuring McDavid at their home arena in October and selling discounted tickets to season tickets holders. This is a still a team hosting the Draft Combine in 2015 and 2016.

While the Sabres appear to be positioning themselves to pitch hope for the foreseeable future, the players on the club aren't about to give up on the 2014-15 season before the first puck has dropped.

Or as Stewart characterized the team's posture heading into this season: "It's playoffs or bust." 

[H/T Kukla's Korner]