Maybe by late Thursday night, Matt Hackett will have quieted the snickers and pitched a shutout for his Buffalo Sabres, a win that catapults his meandering NHL career back on track.

Maybe.

Maybe by late Thursday night, the Sabres and the Arizona Coyotes will have completed their morbid dance in the netherworld of the standings and what little integrity remains for two teams vying for a pair of franchise players that await, only the worst of the worst will be intact.

Maybe.

But the announcement Thursday morning by Sabres coach Ted Nolan that Hackett, a 25-year-old goalie who has not won an NHL game in more than a calendar year, including all three of his NHL starts this season while allowing 11 goals, would get the start against the Coyotes Thursday certainly did little to reassure anyone that winning this game was of paramount importance to the Sabres.

In fact, the decision to start Hackett, who lost seven straight games at the end of last season after being called up by the Sabres, did little to dissuade anyone that the long view in Buffalo is that the more losses down the stretch, especially against the Coyotes, the better for the Sabres.

Hackett, originally a Minnesota Wild prospect, can go from a restricted free agent to an unrestricted free agent if he doesn't play in five more games this season (he needs at least 30 minutes in at least five more games to remain an RFA with the Sabres), which Nolan noted to reporters on Thursday.

But if the Sabres were really concerned about their goaltending picture long term, they might not have traded Michal Neuvirth or Jhonas Enroth, no? Does Hackett, who is still experiencing pain after offseason knee surgery, really fit into this team's long-term goaltending plans, regardless of whether he's an RFA or UFA?

As for the idea that Hackett starting is about giving a younger guy a chance, he is just one year younger than new No. 1 Anders Lindback. And if the idea is to map out the future, wouldn't the Sabres want to see as much as they could from Lindback, who is set to become an unrestricted free agent and has a .926 save percentage in nine games since coming to the Sabres, to see if he can continue his strong play and might be a viable option moving forward?

Let's imagine for a minute that these were two teams vying for a playoff berth -- yeah, we know, talk about suspension of disbelief -- what would Nolan's play be?

Lindback's numbers might not be all that much better -- 1-3-2 in his past six games -- but relatively speaking, he's been positively Vezina-like for the Sabres. He took the Washington Capitals to a shootout, stopping 35 of 38 shots, and the next night denied the Boston Bruins, stopping 44 of 45 shots en route to a shootout win. Sure, Lindback gave up seven goals in losses to the Dallas Stars and New Jersey Devils in his past two games, but by almost any imaginable measuring stick, Lindback is the go-to guy if this is a must-win game for the Sabres.

And there's the rub, no?

It's so far from a must-win game, it's not even in the same time zone, with the Sabres having five fewer points than the Coyotes in the race to 30th overall, a position that guarantees, at the very worst, the second pick in June's draft and at least one of the franchise prospects, Connor McDavid or Jack Eichel. The two teams play again in Glendale on Monday, meaning these two games have the real potential to determine the future direction of at least one of these franchises.

Kudos to Coyotes coach Dave Tippett, who announced that regular starter Mike Smith would get the nod Thursday, even though in the big picture, his team could use a loss even more than the Sabres.

Smith is coming off a win over the Detroit Red Wings and even though he'd lost his six previous decisions, he has been the Smith of old, allowing just 12 goals in those six losses.

At this stage, you could hardly have blamed Tippett for going with Louis Domingue, a prospect taken in the 2010 draft who will back up Smith on Thursday, but that's not how he's playing it -- and somewhere in the league offices in New York, commissioner Gary Bettman gives silent thanks to the Coyotes' coach as this season dominated by talk of tanking winds its way to a close.

Based on the current level of play, it's hard to argue that apart from the Toronto Maple Leafs, the Coyotes aren't the worst team in the NHL. The win in Detroit was just their second in their past 20 games. Here's hoping the decision by the Sabres to start a goaltender who hasn't won a game in a year isn't a not-so-subtle way of evening the playing field.

One way or another, we'll know by late Thursday night what, if any, integrity is left in the nether regions of the NHL standings.