Buffalo Sabres: Fans should not feel discouraged by playoff drought

Well, the Buffalo Sabres just set an NHL record in futility by going an eleventh straight season without a playoff appearance. 

However, the Buffalo Sabres faithful should not feel too discouraged over the long playoff drought. Now is not the time to focus on a new low for the franchise, but instead its recent success against the NHL’s best teams.

In all technicality, the Sabres are tied with the Florida Panthers for the longest drought at 11 seasons. However, the Panthers got a reprieve because of the 2004-05 NHL Lockout, a season in which no one made the playoffs for obvious reasons.

But let’s stop worrying about playoff droughts and instead focus on the goods that 2021-22 have brought. What did it bring? A team building its chemistry and setting the stage for a brilliant future.

Fans of the Buffalo Sabres should not feel discouraged by infamous NHL record

As I write this, the Sabres are embarking on another trip against playoff-caliber teams. And as they have shown in March and April 2022 thus far, they have a team that is good enough to hang with and defeat anyone.

They proved it Tuesday night against the Carolina Hurricanes. The Hurricanes clearly outplayed the Sabres and still, the blue and gold found a way to win by two goals.

The Sabres have evolved as an NHL team. So  yeah, they set a record for futility. They will spend an eleventh-straight May watching the playoffs. But the Sabres also got it together even if they did so too little, too late.

This is no longer a bad hockey team. And this is also a hockey team that should give fans a lot of good reasons to tune in when October 2022 rolls around. The Sabres were the surprise team post-All Star break, and they put the NHL on notice.

They’ve also shown that come October 2022, it would be a mistake to write them off. And they are a hockey team that just might contend for an Atlantic Division championship next season.