Buffalo, N.Y. (WGR 550) - With a loss to the Dallas Stars on Tuesday night, the Buffalo Sabres were officially eliminated from playoff contention with three games remaining in the regular season. This now marks the 13th year in-a-row that the Sabres will not qualify for the Stanley Cup Playoffs.
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The Sabres kept things relatively close in the Eastern Conference standings over the last two months, making somewhat of a push for the final playoff spot in the Wild Card chase throughout March. However, the team couldn't string together enough wins to get past other teams ahead of them in the race.
This also marks the second-straight season of the Sabres hanging in the playoff picture into the final week of the NHL season, but head coach Don Granato's group not being able to get over the hump when it matters most.
"You certainly don't want to think about not being in the playoffs, at any point during the season, especially down the stretch the last two weeks when you're fighting for a spot," said Granato on Wednesday when he joined the "Jeremy and Joe Show" on WGR. "After the fact, it takes a while, and it will take a while to sink in. And there'll be a lot of different type of reflection on it from this point, that's for sure."
During his postgame comments on Tuesday night, Sabres forward Tage Thompson spoke about the "outside noise", and how that may have interfered with the team's focus over the course of the season. Granato says the idea of outside noise is always expected in these types of situations.
"I don't see that as a problem. There's outside noise anytime expectations rise, and you have to learn to deal with it or block it out," Granato said with Jeremy White and Joe DiBiase. "You have to learn to not allow it to interfere. So I don't see that that was the problem for us or the challenge from playing. But in my sense, I think there's always noise with elevated expectation."
Hear more from Granato during his appearance on the "Jeremy and Joe Show" available in the player below:
