4 days Ago
Sports Columnist {{description}} Email notifications are only sent once a day, and only if there are new matching items. The standings are what they are. We've known the ultimate outcome for months.
But the Buffalo Sabres have produced plenty of feel-good moments over these last five weeks, and an 11-4-0 burst got them within one game of .500. They had you wondering what might have been this year, and even what could be possible next year.
When you beat Edmonton, Vegas, Winnipeg, Washington, Carolina and take two games from Ottawa, you're getting results. There's nothing fake there. But going into the summer with good feelings is a tougher ask now.
The Sabres are down to one more night on the ice. It's Game 82 here Thursday against Philadelphia. Fan Appreciation Night in KeyBank Center and, oh, how they should appreciate the paying customers for all they've endured this year and every year since they last made the playoffs in 2011.
Buffalo Sabres center Tage Thompson (72) skates with the puck against the Toronto Maple Leafs during the third period at the KeyBank Center on Tuesday, April 15, 2025. (Harry Scull Jr./Buffalo News) The Sabres enter it on a four-game winless streak, and how depressing would it be to close this out by going 0 for 5 while trying to get Lindy Ruff win No.
900? There's been three regulation losses, the latest being Tuesday's 4-0 defeat at the hands of the Toronto Maple Leafs, and Saturday's shootout defeat at Florida. Of all the mistakes made by the Sabres throughout the 4-0 loss, none angered Lindy Ruff more than failing to help Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen on the fourth goal. Three games where they led but couldn't maintain that lead, and Tuesday's chess match that was a 1-0 game through 55 minutes before it blew up under an avalanche of history-making from the visitors that was fully celebrated by their invading fans.
The season's penultimate gameday started badly with the expected news that Owen Power's knee injury suffered Saturday in Florida looks to be serious. Ruff was still unsure how bad it was, other than to say the big blueliner would be out week to week if this was a normal part of the schedule. During his regular appearance on WGR Radio later in the day, general manager Kevyn Adams clarified things further by saying Power is going to be seeking a second opinion Thursday in New York City to determine if he can avoid surgery.
The one silver lining was Adams' prognosis that the injury is mild enough to likely not impact Power's status for training camp in the fall. As for the game itself, it was an oddly sedate crowd. The paid ticket count of 17,160 was nearly 2,000 short of a sellout.
The fact it was a Tuesday might have had a little to do with that, but this view was that the current political climate proved to be a big factor. Can't ever recall so many empty seats for a Toronto game, particularly on the 100 level. It's clear some folks said we're not going over that border, even if our heroes are playing with cheap tickets there for the taking and a division title to be clinched.
(Aside here: That's a sobering thought when you consider what Canadian fans of the Sabres are thinking as they decide whether to renew their season tickets for next season). The Sabres (35-39-7) have dropped four games in a row and saw their seven-game home streak end. They have not won eight straight since the club had a 9-0 run at Memorial Auditorium in 1991-92.
The Leafs clinched a division title in a full season for the first time since 2000, and they did it by playing a taut playoff style. Just like first-year coach Craig Berube instilled in the St. Louis Blues as they won the Stanley Cup under him in 2019.
The game should be instructive for the Sabres. Especially in the first two periods, there wasn't a lot of open ice and no real exchange of great scoring chances. "Both teams were staying above (the puck) in good defensive posture waiting for a breakdown," Ruff said.
"The bulk of the chances weren't great plays going up ice because a lot of people were back. And I think the good teams play like that. You look at the top teams, the play away from the puck has to be strong.
" In the end, the Sabres were the team that cracked. It hasn't happened a lot lately but it went down like that far too much in December and January for the Sabres to keep their season afloat. The last goalies to win the Hart Trophy as MVP were Dominik Hasek with the Sabres in 1997 and 1998 and the Montreal duo of Jose Theodore (2001) and Carey Price (2015).
Mike Harrington wonders how close Winnipeg's Connor Hellebuyck can come this year. "It's only a couple games until playoffs so they're obviously gearing up for that," veteran Sabres forward Jason Zucker said of the Leafs. "They're playing good hockey.
We can't be happy with 50 minutes and that's really all I can say to that." "You're always trying to work on your identity. That hasn't stopped throughout the season," Berube said prior to the game.
"It's always something we focused on: How we want to play the game. Our guys have done a good job with it. Yeah, there's times you get off track for sure and you've got to them refocused and dialed back in.
" In the final analysis, the Sabres allowed Mitch Marner's goal that was his 100th point of the season, Auston Matthews' empty netter that was the 400th goal of his career, a shutout by the white-hot Anthony Stolarz and three goals in the final 4:21 to turn a tight game into a blowout. The Sabres have five winless streaks this season that total 29 games. It's ghastly to see a bunch of stretches that total 0-24-5, but that's what they have with a pair of three-game losing streaks and a trio of winless streaks that lasted 13, 6 and now four games, respectively.
The Sabres just haven't stopped the bleeding enough. One more chance to do it on Thursday, if they have any energy left. "That's kind of the story of our year," Zucker said.
"So we've got to figure that out. We've got to be better. We have to challenge ourselves individually and as a team and make sure that we're fixing this come next year.
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