Sabres 'instilled a lot of confidence' by ending playoff drought this season

BUFFALO -- The Buffalo Sabres got a taste of success this season. Now they want more.

The Sabres shocked the NHL by moving up from the bottom of the Eastern Conference, where they resided in early December, and winning the Atlantic Division. By doing so, they qualified for the Stanley Cup Playoffs for the first time since 2011, finally ending an NHL-record 14-season drought that had hung over the team.

And though the heartbreak of their 3-2 overtime loss to the Montreal Canadiens in Game 7 of the Eastern Conference Second Round on Monday was still fresh, the Sabres were able to reflect on and appreciate their growth a mere 14 hours later.

“I think we accomplished a lot of amazing things this season, and I think we've instilled a lot of confidence in our fans and within ourselves," forward Beck Malenstyn said. "... Now getting that taste (of success), understanding what it takes to get there, I think it's just going to make everybody hungrier.”

Buffalo had only come close to qualifying for the postseason twice during its drought. In 2022-23, it finished one point behind the Florida Panthers for the second wild card from the Eastern Conference. In 2011-12, it finished three points out of a playoff spot.

By comparison, the Sabres finished last in the League standings four times during that stretch.

But as forward Josh Doan said on Tuesday, all of that is simply history.

“We want to be a team that’s in the playoffs every year,” he said. “There's the element of confidence in our room now heading into next year. ... Now we know what we are and who we are and what we can be, so there's just a different element heading into the offseason and heading into next year than obviously there was this year. I think that in itself is part of the culture that you need to build, that we have that expectation to not only be a playoff team but to be a team that no one wants to play.”

Doan is right that there weren't expectations heading into this season, and after just two months, it looked like the Sabres were on their way toward another long offseason.

They were 11-14-4 following a 7-4 loss to the Calgary Flames on Dec. 8, their third straight loss to open a six-game road trip. They were in last place in the Eastern Conference and 30th in the NHL standings.

The next night, they overcame blowing a 3-0 lead in the third period to defeat the Edmonton Oilers 4-3 in overtime. That began a 10-game winning streak, which tied the longest run in the franchise's history, and culminated in a 39-9-5 record in their final 53 games, the best in the NHL.

The Sabres continued to showcase their skill in the first round, eliminating the Boston Bruins in six games, before falling one goal shy of their first Eastern Conference Final appearance since 2007.

“I think we've really started to build something special here, and the job’s not finished either,” said Malenstyn, who can become an unrestricted free agent on July 1. “I think that's the biggest thing. We’ve put ourselves in a spot now of understanding what we can accomplish, creating a culture that way and creating an expectation within ourselves of -- it's not coming in next year and we broke the curse, whatever you want to say, broke the streak. It's over. It's, we want this and we want more and we're going to continue to push for that.”

Like many teams, injuries played a factor for the Sabres this season, with players such as forwards Josh Norris and Zach Benson and goalie Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen missing extended time.

There was also captain Rasmus Dahlin dealing with the weight of his fiancée’s health after major heart failure in the offseason led to her having an emergency heart transplant. He took a week-long leave in November to be with her in Sweden for medical appointments before returning to the team.

Once he was back and the lineup was, for the most part, healthy, the Sabres showed what they were: a team that plays with speed and skill and has an active defense. They ended the season fifth in goals per game (3.45) and tied for 10th in goals against per game (2.93).

Everything seemed to fall into place as the season went on, though they are well aware that that success isn’t guaranteed to carry over to 2026-27.

“Just because things really clicked and worked really well this year doesn’t mean that it’s automatically just going to happen again next year,” goalie Alex Lyon said. “There’s always adversity on the way, and if you’re prepared for it, it just makes it that much easier to get over and move past.

“I think that we have to understand that it’s just going to be really difficult. Not that it’s not achievable, by any means. It’s certainly achievable and it’s there, but making it to the final eight is an extremely difficult thing to do. ... It’s the same thing with next season. Just getting to the playoffs is a huge accomplishment and a huge hill to climb. I don’t think that anybody in the room will take it for granted. I think that everybody understands that, but that’s always in the back of your mind.”