{"id":564803,"date":"2026-04-04T21:02:12","date_gmt":"2026-04-04T21:02:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/564803\/"},"modified":"2026-04-04T21:02:12","modified_gmt":"2026-04-04T21:02:12","slug":"sabres-clinch-playoff-spot-end-longest-drought-in-nhl-history","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/564803\/","title":{"rendered":"Sabres clinch playoff spot, end longest drought in NHL history"},"content":{"rendered":"

Bring on postseason hockey in Buffalo. The Sabres<\/a>‘ playoff drought is finally over.<\/p>\n

Following an NHL-record 14 seasons of futility, during which the team finished no better than 19th in the league standings, the Sabres clinched a berth on Saturday when the New York Rangers<\/a> defeated the Detroit Red Wings<\/a> in regulation. Buffalo’s playoff drought was among the four North American major sports’ longest active streaks, ranking second behind the NFL’s New York Jets<\/a>, who last qualified in 2010.<\/p>\n

The Sabres clinched with six games left in their season, before playing at Washington on Saturday night, and are in contention to earn the Eastern Conference’s top seed. At 46-22-8, Buffalo is riding a 35-8-4 surge that has vaulted the team after sitting last in the East in early December.<\/p>\n

Editor’s Picks<\/a><\/a><\/p>\n

1 Related<\/p>\n

The turnaround has been remarkable for a franchise that through Saturday has gone 5,458 days since the Lindy Ruff-coached team lost Game 7 of a first-round series to Philadelphia<\/a> on April 26, 2011.<\/p>\n

In the ensuing years, the Sabres have finished last overall four times and are on their seventh coach, with Ruff back for a second stint, and their fourth general manager, Jarmo Kekalainen.<\/p>\n

Buffalo’s run up the standings coincided with Kekalainen being promoted from his position as senior adviser on Dec. 15, replacing Kevyn Adams, who was fired after five-plus seasons.<\/p>\n

The Sabres already had won three straight when the change occurred and proceeded to go on a franchise record-matching 10-0 run. They’ve not looked back since. Buffalo is 14-3-2 since returning from the Olympic break, and the team’s worst stretch since December has been a 0-1-2 skid.<\/p>\n

Though Adams’ firing played a role in spurring the team, so did Buffalo getting healthier.<\/p>\n

The Sabres’ top two lines were replenished with the return of Josh Norris<\/a> and Jason Zucker<\/a>, and their goaltending got a boost with Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen<\/a> shaking off an early season injury to resume sharing the starting duties with Alex Lyon<\/a>. After opening the season 4-5-1, Luukkonen has gone 15-4-2 since Dec. 21.<\/p>\n

Kekalainen also added depth at the trade deadline last month by acquiring center Sam Carrick<\/a>, forward Tanner Pearson<\/a> and defensemen Logan Stanley<\/a> and Luke Schenn<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The team is led by two of its longest-tenured players: captain Rasmus Dahlin<\/a>, the No. 1 pick in the 2018 draft, and forward Tage Thompson<\/a>, who was acquired in a trade that sent Ryan O’Reilly<\/a> to St. Louis in the summer of 2018.<\/p>\n

Dahlin entered Saturday ranking sixth among NHL defensemen with 67 points, while Thompson was tied for 11th among all skaters with 38 goals.<\/p>\n

The next test for Buffalo is winning a playoff series, something the team hasn’t done since beating the Rangers in six games in the second round in 2007.<\/p>\n

The turnaround has revived a fan base that had grown weary with losing, various rebuilding plans that failed to generate a winner and a revolving door of talent being shuffled in and out of Buffalo — from O’Reilly’s departure to Jack Eichel<\/a> being dealt to Vegas in November 2021 following a lengthy standoff over how to repair a neck injury. Each went on to win the Stanley Cup with his new team.<\/p>\n

The Sabres have not hoisted the Cup through their first 54 seasons of existence.<\/p>\n

Buffalo has had 21 home sellouts this season, including 15 in a row, a year after selling out just five games.<\/p>\n

This season, the Sabres have shown resolve in rallying back from deficits. Buffalo entered Saturday with 19 come-from-behind wins, tied for seventh in the NHL. That included defeating Tampa Bay<\/a> 8-7 last month after trailing 7-5 with nine minutes left in regulation.<\/p>\n

The Lightning also clinched Saturday before playing.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Bring on postseason hockey in Buffalo. The Sabres‘ playoff drought is finally over. Following an NHL-record 14 seasons…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":564804,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[66],"tags":[385,99],"class_list":["post-564803","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nhl","tag-nhl","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/564803","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=564803"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/564803\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/564804"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=564803"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=564803"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=564803"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}