The Buffalo Sabres were practically pronounced dead before the NHL season had officially begun.
Buffalo went out of the gate early for the league's latest Global Series showcase in Prague, Czechia. That put the Sabres some 4,000 miles from home, getting beat up by the New Jersey Devils in a pair of consecutive losses by a combined 7-2 score.
It would be days before another NHL team opened its schedule -- leaving ample airtime devoted to debating how the suddenly 0-2 Sabres had already blown their chances of being a playoff team.
Because wasn't that the only acceptable outcome for Buffalo anyway?