Reliving the Buffalo Sabres infamous playoff drought
By Sion Fawkes
The Buffalo Sabres missed the playoffs each season since 2010-11. Today, we will discover what caused the longest drought in NHL history.
The Buffalo Sabres could finally end their playoff drought in 2022-23. Last season, they proved they could win hockey games against just about any team when healthy, and that was with a young, inexperienced team and spotty goaltending.
This season, the Sabres are one year older, one season more experienced, and their goaltending is better than many believe, led this season by Eric Comrie. And while the Sabres probably won’t finish any higher than fourth in the Atlantic Division, wild card contention is not out of the question.
Today, I wanted to talk more not about the likelihood of the Sabres making the playoffs, but instead about their long playoff drought. What happened, exactly? How can Kevyn Adams and company avoid a similar fate as previous regimes? And what can Adams learn from the past? Let’s dive in.
The Buffalo Sabres have the longest playoff drought in NHL history, but it was not always this way.
Before their 11-season drought, John Fischer from All About the Jersey shared that the Sabres had never gone over three seasons without a playoff appearance. So what caused this franchise to miss the playoffs 11 years in a row?
From 2011-12 until the present day, there is one answer: Sheer franchise instability. Not a single coach lasted over two seasons with the club, and current head coach Don Granato can easily break that record now that stability finally looks as though it arrived through Kevyn Adams.
During this period, the Sabres have literally been the 2003-2019 Cleveland Browns of the NHL. Blown draft picks, constant turnover at coaching, bad signings, trades, you name it. And even worse – when you thought things had gotten bad enough, the Sabres found a new way to “impress” us.