How Buffalo's epic turnaround began at a dinner table in Calgary

The Buffalo Sabres are about to make their first Stanley Cup Playoffs appearance since 2011, snapping a 14-year drought. Over the last four months, they’ve proven themselves as one of the NHL’s best teams, riding a deep, tight-knit roster and the support of the city to an Atlantic Division title.

To start the season, however, it looked like more of the same in Buffalo. Injuries and other health issues tore through the lineup, big wins set up ugly losses, and the Sabres were nothing more than a .500 team through November.

This is the story of an epic turnaround, as told by the Sabres themselves. It starts in early December in Calgary, where they were down, but not quite out. They’d begun a six-game trip with lopsided losses in Philadelphia and Winnipeg and were 11-13-4 on the season, last in the Eastern Conference.

(Follow the links to revisit Sabres.com's coverage of the major moments as they happened).

'Looking yourself in the mirror'

Lindy Ruff, head coach: It would’ve been easy to lose hope in December, and we had dealt with plenty of adversity.

• Feature | One game at a time, Ruff brought playoff hockey back to Buffalo

Tage Thompson, alternate captain: As the season’s going, you’re riding the ups and downs, and for us, it was quite a bit of down.

Rasmus Dahlin, captain: We were in the race, but we were in the bottom of it, so we needed to make an extra push to have more of a chance to get in the playoffs.

Alex Tuch, alternate captain: We went to dinner the night before the Calgary game, some of us in the leadership group, and had a good chat and just said, “Where we’re at in the season, we can either mail it in and say it’s over, or we can buckle down, go out there and have fun and try to win some hockey games.”

Mattias Samuelsson, alternate captain: I think there was like six of us, seven of us there. It was nice for some guys just to get some stuff off their chest, too, and get it out there, get other guys’ opinions, say what everyone’s thinking.

Thompson: We’re a really tight group. I think it’s because of our vulnerability to each other and the love that we have for each other as teammates that we can open up and talk about what we feel.

Dahlin: That meeting was all about looking yourself in the mirror. As leaders, we had to change our mindset a little bit. We had to realize that if stuff is gonna get good here, we are the ones to have to drive the bus.

Tuch: And then we ended up having a tough one in Calgary right afterwards.

The Sabres lost 7-4 to the Flames on Dec. 8. They trailed 2-0 early and pushed hard for a comeback, but Calgary answered every goal within a couple minutes. Time to turn the season around seemed to be running out.

‘The game that brought the group real tight’

In Edmonton the next night, goalie Colten Ellis was concussed by a first-period hit and forced to exit. Thompson had a goal called back for the second straight game, this time by a questionable hand-pass ruling on Tuch. Still, Buffalo led 3-0 through 40 minutes against the two-time defending Western Conference champions.

Things changed quickly. A missed icing call to open the third period allowed Connor McDavid to score, sparking an Oilers comeback. McDavid then tied it off a lucky bounce with one second remaining, and the officials declined to review that play for goaltender interference.

When a loss might have been crippling, Tuch and Ryan McLeod drew up a faceoff play to win it in overtime.

Ruff: We played one hell of a game, and we fought every element out there.

Tuch: We went into overtime just saying, “Hey, job’s not done, we can still win this game. And just make sure you don’t give those guys an odd-man rush or a breakaway.” And then I saw Clouder had the puck in the corner, eyes up, and I knew if I snuck in behind the defenseman, he was gonna find me. Yeah, scoring that goal was a big sense of relief.

Ruff: I really felt that game was the game that brought the group real tight.

Dahlin: I think that just started our confidence that we could win against good teams in this league.

Josh Doan, forward: That was the thought process: If we can get to .500 on this road trip, we’re fine.

Sure enough, the Sabres went on to beat Vancouver and Seattle – their first regulation road wins of the season – to finish the trip 3-3. They landed in Buffalo at 4:30 a.m. on Dec. 15; by lunchtime, the rumors were confirmed and Jarmo Kekäläinen replaced Kevyn Adams as general manager.

In his introductory press conference, Kekäläinen gave his still-last-place team the ultimate vote of confidence: “I firmly believe we can make the playoffs this year.”

Thompson: Anytime you cost someone their job, you feel responsible, because ultimately, you’re the ones playing the game, you’re the ones going on the ice and competing. So, there was an extra sense of debt that we felt as a group.

Dahlin: Jarmo came in and said, “I believe in you guys, I believe in this group. But it’s up to you guys. You are the ones that have to do the hard work every day.”

‘A taste of winning’

The winning streak kept growing, and on New Year’s Eve in Dallas, against the NHL’s second-place team, Buffalo tied the franchise record with a 10th straight win. Three of the wins during the streak required extra time, and the Sabres never trailed by more than one goal. Twelve different guys scored. The goaltending trio, led by Alex Lyon, combined for a .933 save percentage.

So, as the calendar turned to 2026, the Sabres occupied a playoff spot.

Dahlin: I think we played a more mature game. We took care of the puck more. We didn’t play this run-and-gun hockey that we used to.

Tuch: Just the team-first mentality that everyone had playing in those games. Everyone was willing to sacrifice and do the right thing, and it was on a more consistent basis, not just a couple shifts during the game or a couple guys. It was everybody, it was every shift, it was every game.

Samuelsson: If I had a tough night and we won, it didn’t really matter.

Doan: There’s a realization: We might be that team that teams are coming into like, “Oh boy, this is gonna be a long night.”

Tuch: Maybe Games 5 or 6, we were looking at it like, “Okay, we’re rolling.” And the guys started making jokes like, “We’re never gonna lose again.”

Dahlin: When you get a taste of winning, you know how nice that feeling is, so just automatically, you do everything you can to win. And that’s by blocking shots, backchecking, boxing out. Do all those hard things, just naturally, because you really, really, really want that winning feeling.

Thompson: Me and Dahls, we’ve been here in the past when we’ve done that and had a long win streak, and then we’d go and lose. That was something we talked about: Is this one of those? How do we establish that this is now our standard?

Though the streak ended at 10, the winning didn’t, as Buffalo went 11-5-2 from the beginning of January until the Olympic break. But in the last game before Thompson and Dahlin headed to Milan, the Sabres lost 5-2 to the Penguins on home ice. That three-week February hiatus left people wondering: Could Buffalo recapture its momentum when games resumed?

The Sabres hit the ice for a week of practices, then rattled off another eight-game winning streak.

Doan: You go into it and everyone’s talking about (how) the Sabres are in a good spot. But those same people are also saying, “Well, yeah, we’ve seen this organization crumble when things are going right.”

Tuch: We had a little bit of a sour taste in our mouth, so I think guys going into the break worked really hard. We had some extra skates. We came in, we worked during practice and we were ready to go.

Doan: Credit to the coaching staff and the leadership group for getting us ready and preparing us. Even the strength guys, medical guys, equipment guys. Everyone was on page for what we were gonna get into, and I think we saw the outcome of that post-break.

Thompson: That was the span where I was like, “Okay, this is real. We’re legit now, and we can actually do this, make playoffs and make a run.”

‘I’ll remember that game forever’

No matter how this season ends, the seventh win after the break will be a memorable one. The Lightning rolled into KeyBank Center on March 8 with first place in the Atlantic Division on the line. Eight days prior, the Sabres had won a 6-2 blowout in Tampa, and the Lightning began taking cheap shots in that one.

With such fresh history and high stakes, bad blood was expected, and the rematch delivered.

Brandon Hagel and Anthony Cirelli boarded Thompson; Dahlin charged in and fought Darren Raddysh. Hagel attacked Dahlin behind the play, punching him repeatedly in the back of the head, and Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen left his crease ready to defend the captain. Sam Carrick, Michael Kesselring and Beck Malenstyn also dropped the gloves.

Together, the teams accumulated 102 penalty minutes.

Beck Malenstyn, forward: I think we could tell right away what kind of game we’d gotten ourselves into. They were gonna be all over us. It was gonna be a scrappy night. There was the first scrum, Tage got hit in the offensive zone, maybe we felt it was a little late after the whistle. And you just saw everybody hands on, standing up for each other.

Dahlin: That’s what we do in this locker room.

Ruff: They’re there for each other on every moment. We’ve answered every call, and we’ve grown up as a team. We’ve suffered a little bit of pain through that process.

Samuelsson: The first period took like an hour, just because of the amount of goals and fights and everything.

Doan: To be nine minutes into a game and having eight or nine guys on your bench, and then the crowd’s booing back and forth and cheering when [the cameras] go from visitor to home penalty box, you’re like, alright, this is what the people here have been waiting for, and this is what we’ve hoped to be all season.

Tuch: Our team has always had a lot of really good camaraderie. I think the part where we’ve taken the extra step is that if one guy’s in the fight, we’re all gonna be in the fight.

Dahlin: I just got so proud of the boys, because it was organic. It wasn’t pre-planned. We didn’t try to have a game like that. Just happened, and everybody just stood up for each other without even a question.

Malenstyn: Early in the second period, the emotions of the physicality kind of wore off, and then goals started going in on both sides.

It was 4-1 Sabres midway through the second, a 4-4 tie at the intermission and 7-5 Lightning midway through the third. Ultimately, the Sabres prevailed, 8-7.

Samuelsson: I got scored on a couple times in the third, so I was pretty pissed. But [Jason Zucker] tied it, and Doaner scored on the power play to take the lead. Those were some moments where you’re on the bench going, “Holy crap, we’re gonna do this. We’re gonna pull this one out.”

Malenstyn: We were able to turn a page there, find a way to come back in a hockey game that was already an emotional high, which just shows the maturity of our group that we’ve created.

Tuch: I thought that crowd was gonna blow the roof off. There was some, pardon my French, “Holy ...” moments from guys on the bench. You’re looking around, and you’ve definitely got a big smile on your face. There’s 19,000 people all cheering for us.

Samuelsson: I’ll remember that game forever.

‘Booing and cheering and chugging beers’

That thriller versus Tampa was the eighth of 18 consecutive sellouts at KeyBank Center. In total, the Sabres had a full house for 24 of 41 home games as the city rallied around its upstart hockey team.

Dahlin: It just felt like we were united again, that we’re on this run together. I mean, when I saw that video, I got so fired up. I think I reposted it. It just made me so happy.

Thompson: Just the buzz. You can sense the energy everywhere you go. People are talking about the Sabres. They’re excited for games.

Samuelsson: The building’s obviously crazy, but just the atmosphere around town, how much they love hockey and love coming to games and booing and cheering and chugging beers.

Malenstyn: When you hit someone in the arena and it just erupts, it’s a great feeling for me.

Dahlin: Usually, I drive home and see a bunch of Bills stuff in the yard, but now it’s changed to Sabres stuff. You see it, you can feel it; it’s an amazing feeling.

Doan: A group that’s proud to represent their team’s colors is always something that I think is unique about sports. It brings people together. To be able to be part of a group that’s brought a city’s fanbase together is pretty exciting.

‘We all know the end goal’

Buffalo clinched its postseason berth on April 4. When the team returned from Washington at 1 a.m. the next morning, fans waited outside the airport to welcome them home. Fittingly, it was pouring rain. The drought was over.

With the Stanley Cup Playoffs officially back in town, the Sabres considered the opportunity ahead of them.

Ruff: I’m stoked.

Samuelsson: The anticipation leading up to puck drop. When we come out before the national anthem, that whole scene. The nerves before.

Doan: The music’s a little bit louder because it’s a playoff game. The fans are all ready to go because they’ve been having a good time tailgating or partying in the plaza.

Thompson: I’ve seen all the videos from back when they were in the playoffs. The Party in the Plaza and just the people flooding the area down here. That’s what I would imagine. The playoff atmosphere: sold out, standing the whole time, waving towels.

• Playoffs in Buffalo | Party in the Plaza, rally towels and more

Dahlin: Honestly, I don’t know if I can imagine. I can’t wait to see it, though.

Doan: It’s a kid’s dream to play for the Stanley Cup.

Tuch: We all know the end goal. Every team has it when they start off in training camp; only one team can hoist it at the end of the year. And we want to be that one team.

Samuelsson: My dad won one. I grew up in a hockey family. It’s something I think about probably every day of my life.

Doan: I’ve seen a lot of careers go by without winning it. In my family, my old man played 21 years to get a chance and never did.

Thompson: The journey is what makes the destination feel so good, and there wouldn’t be a better feeling in the world than winning a Stanley Cup and bringing it here to Buffalo.