Dallas, Texas (WGR 550) – On the night the Buffalo Sabres got eliminated from playoff contention for a 13th-straight season, I think it was appropriate they played the Dallas Stars.
The Stars have the second-best points percentage in the NHL, and they put on a clinic in this game as to why. There's also a huge reason why they’re second in the league when it comes to goal scoring.
This Dallas team constantly has been in front of the opponents net. They made Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen’s life extremely difficult, as he had to fight for every inch of ice he could get. I have never seen a team that is as good as this team is at tipping pucks in front of the net.
That’s the No. 1 reason the Sabres don’t score goals. I can count on one hand how many players on the Sabres will go to the net on a regular basis.
Alex Tuch will do it, and he scored in this game because he totally screened Dallas goalie Jake Oettinger, and a Henri Jokiharju shot went in off of him.
Yes, this team did take the playoff race until the fourth-to-last game of the season, but in my mind, they were never in it. Every time they got close, they would come up with their worst games.
The Stars are a huge Stanley Cup contender, and we saw on Tuesday how far off the Sabres are. They aren’t tough to play against, and general manager Kevyn Adams needs to find ways to get players that aren’t 5-foot-10 and weigh 175 pounds.
As good as the Stars are, the Sabres lost to them twice by one goal. Buffalo got five loser points this season, because there were so many games they couldn’t get to overtime. That alone could’ve cost them a playoff spot.
Tuch also took 100% responsibility for his part in this season’s failure. He talked about how he can’t wait 10-to-15 games to get his season going. He added how he’s taking missing the playoffs very personally. I think this is going to eat at him a lot.
It actually only took six games for Tuch to get going, as he had no goals and one assist in the first six games. In his next eight games, he had five goals and five assists for 10 points. In the six games he did struggle in, Buffalo was 2-4-0.
Tuch, Rasmus Dahlin and Tage Thompson were very honest in their assessments of the 2023-24 season on Tuesday after the loss.
Sabres head coach Don Granato, on the other hand, chose to take a pass for right now.
"No thoughts on that. Let's just talk about the game right now. We'll talk about that plenty, I'm sure," said Granato when I asked him about being officially eliminated from playoff contention after not meeting expectations this season.
In an elimination game, Buffalo took a 1-0 lead and 2-1 lead on the Stars, but couldn’t hold on. The Sabres didn’t play hard on the power play in this game, and were pathetic, going 0-for-3.
Dahlin felt if had they had a better power play this season, they probably would’ve made the playoffs.
The 13th-straight year of not making the playoffs extends the NHL record another season, and is tied with the New York Jets as the longest playoff drought in North American sports.
It’s unbelievable that Buffalo's two most prominent sports teams have put their fans through extensive playoff droughts in this millennium. Before Sean McDermott and Brandon Beane showed up in 2017, the Buffalo Bills had been out of the playoffs for 17 seasons.
Both streaks are inexcusable.
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