"It's been a complete collapse.

Bad goaltending. Bad offense. Injuries. Questionable offseason moves. Questionable coaching. You name it, there's a reason why one of the more anticipated seasons in Buffalo Sabres history already appears flushed down the drain with 33 games still left on the schedule.

The players will say otherwise because they have to, but it's clear the playoffs should not even be in the thoughts of a club that's 14th in the Eastern Conference and actually tied for last. The eye test shows a 10-point deficit and five teams to climb over, an arduous task. The numbers show an equally dark tale.

According to sportclubstats.com, the Sabres stand just an 0.6 percent chance of making the postseason party this season — but an 80 percent chance of finishing in the bottom three of the East. That includes a 36 percent likelihood of finishing dead last.

This is not what Terry Pegula had in mind when he spent $189 million to buy the franchise last February, nor what he intended when he pushed the team's cap payroll to the max at roughly $65 million for this season.

The Sabres finished the regular season last year 16-4-4 and probably should have beaten goaltending-challenged Philadelphia in the playoffs. So who would have thought swapping Tim Connolly, Steve Montador, Chris Butler, Mike Grier, Rob Niedermayer and Patrick Lalime for Christian Ehrhoff, Ville Leino, Robyn Regehr, Jhonas Enroth and full years from Derek Roy, Luke Adam and Marc-Andre Gragnani would have been such a bad deal?"