Before the Buffalo Sabres left for another three-game road trip, Lindy Ruff spoke about the sobering reality of the team’s winning streak. The team’s slow start and the congested nature of the Eastern Conference playoff picture didn’t give them any room to breathe. The streak merely put them back in the fight.

“We’ve got that understanding and we know how tight the standings are, so you feel like, ‘Boy we have to win another one,’” Ruff said. “You have to keep winning because it’s packed in there tight and a win takes you up four places. A loss with other teams playing could take you down.”

The Sabres kept winning in St. Louis. After falling behind 2-1 in the first period Monday night, they clawed back to get a 4-2 win and extend the streak to nine games. Again, they did it without their top players carrying them. Tage Thompson and Rasmus Dahlin didn’t have a point, but the Sabres’ next layer of scoring stepped up. Noah Ostlund, Alex Tuch and Zach Benson all chipped in goals, while Peyton Krebs got the empty-netter to seal the game. And the winning streak has reached the point where only five teams in franchise history can match it.

“It’s a pretty good vibe around here, eh?” Benson said with a smile after the game.

That’s an understatement. The Sabres are now one win away from matching the franchise-record of 10 straight wins, which the 2018-19, 2006-07 and 1983-84 teams all hit. Of the six Sabres teams to have a nine-game winning streak in a season, only the 2018-19 team failed to reach the postseason.

The playoffs aren’t a given for this year’s Sabres, but they’ve now made it a real possibility. Coming into this game, The Athletic’s model had the Sabres’ playoff chances at around 37 percent, while MoneyPuck had them at 39 percent. They are two points behind the Montreal Canadiens for third place in the Atlantic Division, tied with the Florida Panthers for the final wild-card spot in the Eastern Conference and are in the top eight in points percentage.

The win over the Blues was emblematic of the Sabres’ winning streak. They handled adversity, got contributions from all over the lineup and played a sound defensive game once they got the lead.

Results like these can change the entire conversation about a team, but veteran forward Jason Zucker views them as an ongoing progression that dates back to last season.

“It’s great to see,” Zucker said Saturday. “It’s funny how these things turn from conversations we had last year and the way you guys felt about certain things last year. Honestly, not much has changed. We’re just winning games. It’s funny how the whole rhetoric changes when you win a game rather than lose a game and you really did the same exact thing.

“We’re playing well. We’re playing, I think, better hockey. It’s been fun to watch, but ultimately it’s a work in progress. We’re not where we need to be and we’re going to continue getting better.”

The signs of maturity are there. Strong goaltending has carried the Sabres at times, while the careless turnovers and defensive zone gaffes have been significantly reduced. The depth of scoring has been on display nightly.