Buffalo, N.Y. (WGR Sports Radio 550) - It has been 5,420 days, and counting, since the Buffalo Sabres were last in a playoff game. That came back in 2011 when the team fell short in the Eastern Conference Quarterfinal Round to the Philadelphia Flyers in seven games.
Since then, there's only one fitting word to describe the 14-season playoff drought: Suffering.
- Five general managers.
- Seven head coaches (eight if you want to count both of Lindy Ruff's tenures).
- Six captains.
- A league-worst 456-544-132 record (.461 points percentage).
- Four last-place finishes.
- 11 top-10 draft picks, including a pair of first overall picks and pair of second overall picks.
- 120 drafted players, with only 41 of those players playing, at least, one game with the organization.
Among the other happenings since the last time the Sabres made the playoffs:
- Four presidential elections have taken place.
- Pope Leo XIV is the third pope at The Vatican since 2011.
- A global pandemic started and finished.
- Eight Olympic Games (summer and winter) have taken place, with the NHL leaving and then returning to the Winter Olympics in that span.
And, of course, the Buffalo Bills ended their 17-year playoff drought and managed to land Josh Allen as their franchise quarterback.
There's only been one other sports franchise in the four major North American sports that has a worse playoff drought than the Sabres, and that is the New York Jets, who extended their drought to a 15th-consecutive season in 2025.
But finally, a light at the end of the tunnel appears for the Sabres. It wasn't pretty how they got to this point, but an end to the misery is almost in sight.
After a miserable 0-3-0 start to the season, that had many fans and pundits already punching a 15th-straight season of no playoff hockey, the Sabres managed to rebound slightly to finish October with a 4-4-3 record. November saw the Sabres stumble again with some more inconsistent play, and the team was sitting dead-last in the Eastern Conference to end the month with a 10-11-4 record.
On Dec. 15, the Sabres were sitting second-to-last in the conference standings with a 14-14-4 record, but riding a three-game winning streak. That was the day, though, the organization made a decision that was, what felt like, years overdue in firing general manager Kevyn Adams.
In comes Jarmo Kekalainen, who had entered the organization over the offseason as a senior advisor to Adams in the front office. At the time, it was widely seen as a safety net move for Adams, where he could fall back on an experienced general manager when needed.
As most people knew, Adams was serving a role he was never fit for, but given every chance to succeed until it was no longer sustainable to keep him atop the hockey operations department.
Kekalainen takes over the general manager's role and immediately implements something the team had clamored for after they fired Don Granato as head coach: Accountability.
Everyone was being evaluated. No one felt safe. The on-ice play and compete levels were unacceptable. The team needs to step up and perform, and find a level of consistency.
However, Kekalainen instilled the belief within the group that the playoffs were still attainable with 50 games remaining on the schedule. If the team was able to put up a decent run and show some life in its overall game, a chance at a Stanley Cup could be in reach for the first time in years.
How did Buffalo respond? By winning the first seven games of Kekalainen's tenure as general manager, matching a franchise record 10-game winning streak and surging the Sabres into a playoff spot just before the halfway point of the season.
Unlike years before when the team immediately took a nose-dive after a stretch of winning hockey, the Sabres managed to not only stay afloat in the Eastern Conference, but thrive. From the end of the winning streak to the Olympic break, the Sabres managed to string together an 11-4-2 record, which equates to a .706 points percentage, which was the seventh-best rate in the NHL.
In the 25 games under Kekalainen as general manager, the Sabres have gone 18-5-2, a points percentage of .760. That's the second-best rate in the NHL since Dec. 15, only trailing the Tampa Bay Lightning.
The only hiccup in that stretch of hockey came just before the Olympic break when the Sabres showed some weakness in their game with a pair of missed opportunities to hold a third-period lead against the Montreal Canadiens and Tampa Bay Lightning, and then a dud of a performance against the Pittsburgh Penguins in the final game before the nearly three-week long break from game action.
Now the final 25-game stretch of the season lies before the Sabres, with Buffalo still holding onto a playoff spot in the first Wild Card spot in the Eastern Conference. However, now is not the time to get comfortable, knowing the conference has been the tightest anyone has seen in recent years.
The Boston Bruins have played very well, and currently sit one point back of the Sabres in the conference standings. The Columbus Blue Jackets were, arguably, the hottest team entering the Olympic break, riding a seven-game winning streak and sitting five points back of Buffalo.
Meanwhile, teams like the Ottawa Senators, Toronto Maple Leafs, Washington Capitals and Florida Panthers - who all made the Stanley Cup Playoffs last year - remain within striking distance in the Eastern Conference.
Over the last 14 seasons, the Sabres have had two memorable instances where after 57 games played, they sat within reach of a playoff spot and failed to get there.
During the 2018-19 season, in which Buffalo also managed to string together a 10-game winning streak in November, the Sabres sat with a 28-22-7 record and four points back of the second Wild Card spot in the Eastern Conference with 25 games left in the campaign.
That season saw one of the biggest collapses of the franchise, with the team losing 21 of the team's last 26 games. That saw Buffalo put up two separate stretches of 0-6-1 and 0-7-1, resulting in a 33-39-10 record and finishing 22 points out of a playoff spot.
That also ended with head coach Phil Housley losing his job at season's end.
Then in the 2022-23 season, the closest the Sabres have come to ending this playoff drought, Buffalo sat with a 30-23-4 record and just one point back of the final Wild Card spot in the Eastern Conference with 25 games left on the schedule.
Buffalo started off that final stretch with 10 losses in 13 games played, including a trio of losses by six-or-more goals. Even though the Sabres showed they could score plenty that season, the team couldn't afford to get any consistent goaltending until it was too little, too late.
Despite a stretch of nine wins in the final 12 games of the schedule, the damage was done, and the Sabres missed out on the playoffs by a single point to the Panthers.
That Florida team ended up then going on a run to the first of three-straight Stanley Cup Final appearances.
The objective for the Sabres in this final 25 games in the 2025-26 season is simple: Finish the mission.
Before the season started, Ruff noted how he breaks down the schedule into five-game segments. The goal he set for the team is get six points in every five-game segment, and the team should make the playoffs. In 11 segments, to this point of the season, Ruff was shooting for 66 points.
He got 69 points. The team currently sits at 70 points.
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If the Sabres manage to win 13 games, just more than half of the 25 games remaining on the schedule, that would give them, at minimum, 96 points in the standings. In most circumstances, that should be good enough to get the Sabres into the playoffs and competing for a Stanley Cup for the first time since Barack Obama was in office as president.
However, given the tight nature of the Eastern Conference standings, it'll be important for the Sabres to obtain as many wins and loser points as possible in this stretch. It would not be surprising, at this point, if the final team in the Eastern Conference to clinch a playoff spot is pushing 100 points in the standings this season.
Perhaps the most important key for the Sabres will be to start this stretch of games on a high note. The team will begin their return from the Olympic break on the road, with a game in New Jersey against the Devils, followed by another Florida swing with matchups against the Panthers and Lightning.
Certainly not an easy task, but don't find yourself losers of three-straight games and unable to add any points to your total and maintain seeding in the chase.
The good news is the Sabres have been one of the better home teams this season with a 17-8-3 record in front of the hometown faithful at KeyBank Center. After their road trip, the team returns to Buffalo for 6-of-7 games on home ice, including a five-game homestand against four teams currently out of the playoff picture.
While a four-game West Coast road trip follows that, Buffalo then returns home for another four-game homestand against to close out March, and then has seven games remaining on the schedule to punch its ticket back to the playoffs. Of the final seven teams the Sabres face in April, five of them are currently on the outside looking in with the standings.
Take advantage of the winnable games whenever you possibly can.
Then, of course, there's the NHL Trade Deadline on March 6. What is Kekalainen's approach to this year's deadline? Can he strike some massive deal to help the team not just this season, but for years to come? Will he look to buy in the short-term and bank on the "anything goes" mentality that is the playoffs?
Or will Kekalainen stand pat and rely on what has worked over this stretch of successful hockey for the Sabres? Can it be sustainable enough to get Buffalo finally over the hump?
Where the team could use some help down the stretch is on the power play, which ranks 16th currently in the NHL. Is it possible for Kekalainen to add a piece that can provide a boost in production and make that unit more lethal?
The Sabres could also use an additional depth piece on the blue line, especially if Conor Timmins is unable to return from a broken leg in the near future.
And then there's the Alex Tuch question: Will he get a new contract extension done at any point in the coming days and weeks?
At this point, stand down on any talks of trading Tuch before the deadline. For what he means to the locker room and his two-way presence on the ice, the 29-year-old is too valuable right now to let go of, and can be possibly seen as that "rental" piece for the final stretch.
The minimum goal the Sabres should strive for in the standings is 95 points when the season is all said and done. It gives the team, at least, a fighting chance at making the playoffs in a tight Eastern Conference.
However, the Sabres should ultimately be shooting for the 100-point mark by season's end. Something like a 13-8-4 record should get the job done for Buffalo, and it seems more than attainable, given the remaining schedule and some of the teams the Sabres face.
For those curious, some of the current playoff odds for the Sabres are as follows:
- MoneyPuck.com: 68%
- Hockey Reference: 80.5%
- HockeyStats.com: 86%
- ESPN: 70.1%
Don't let the past failures in recent years overshadow what has been accomplished already this year. Silence the critics once and for all. Get the job done.
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