Top five Buffalo Sabres’ greatest team wins of the 2023-24 season

Sabres fans are understandably frustrated that their team is suffering through the NHL’s longest playoff drought. However, the team still showed some glimpses of greatness this past season. Here are five of the franchise’s best wins from the 2023-24 season.

Sabres shut out the Avs in Buffalo, Oct. 29, 2023

The Buffalo Sabres had an up-and-down, disappointing start to 2023-24. The Blue and Gold only won three of their last five games. On Oct. 29, Buffalo headed home after losing to Lindy Ruff’s New Jersey Devils to face a Colorado Avalanche team that clinched the Stanley Cup just a little over a year before. Any observer would have predicted that the Sabres didn’t stand a chance.

To everyone’s surprise, the hosts took charge, netting four unanswered goals and closing down a normally dominant Avs’ roster. After Luukkonen staved off an early onslaught of Colorado scoring chances, JJ Peterka scored first, beating Avs goalie Alexandar Georgiev with a wrist shot midway through the first period.

That was just the start. I:39 into the second, Casey Mittelstadt got his own wrister to widen Buffalo’s lead to two. Tyson Jost followed up with a goal some seven minutes later, making it 3-0 Sabres. The Avs couldn’t come back and Rasmus Dahlin capped off Buffalo’s rout with an empty netter to seal the deal at 4-0. UPL enjoyed his first season shutout, making 26 saves and boosting his confidence in front of the net.

Buffalo beats the Blueshirts at the Garden, Nov. 27, 2023

The New York Rangers were on a three-game winning streak in late November, defeating the Pittsburgh Penguins on Thanksgiving Eve, followed by back-to-back wins against the Philadelphia Flyers and Boston Bruins that weekend. Rangers fans and New York sports pundits no doubt believed the Blueshirts would put the Sabres away without much effort.

However, the opposite happened. Once again, Peterka put Buffalo on the board first, beating Rangers netminder Igor Shesterkin with a wrist shot that stunned the normally boisterous crowd at Madison Square Garden. Alex Tuch added to Buffalo’s goal total late in the second period, but New York forward Mika Zibanejad answered with a PP goal midway through the third to cut the Sabres’ lead to one.

Tuch replied back near the end of the final 20 minutes, while Mittelstadt scored an empty netter and Kyle Okposo added to Buffalo’s goal total to end the night 5-1 Sabres. Luukkonen didn’t shut out New York but did block 25 of 26 shots.

Sabres blow out the Leafs at home, Dec. 21, 2023

The Toronto Maple Leafs have been Buffalo’s foes ever since the Sabres entered the NHL in 1970. During that time, the wins have been one-sided in Buffalo’s advantage and the Blue and Gold enjoy a 123-88-18 record versus the Leafs. The Sabres beat the Leafs 6-4 in Toronto on Nov. 4, but the rematch in Buffalo was even more lopsided.

Legions of Leafs fans invaded KeyBank Center in downtown Buffalo, making a home contest seem like an away game. It didn’t matter. The Blue and Gold proved they could beat the Leafs no matter where the matchup took place. Jordan Greenway opened the scoring for the home team 2:27 into the first, but Auston Matthews and Max Domi answered back to tie things up and take a 2-1 lead. Owen Power evened the score again and Jeff Skinner took a 3-2 lead before the horn sounded on the first 20 minutes.

In the second period, Dahlin widened Buffalo’s lead to four, but Calle Jarnkrok scored a shorthander to narrow the score to 4-3 Sabres. That was the last goal the visitors would get, as Tage Thompson and Kyle Okposo netted one each and Jack Quinn, Skinner and Okposo finished Buffalo’s trounce during the third period. Angry and disappointed Leafs fans began leaving well before the final horn sounded, leaving the remaining home ice supporters to cheer on the victors.

Blue and Gold checkmate the Kings, Feb. 13, 2024

The Sabres enjoyed dominating wins and heartbreaking losses during 2023-24. Buffalo’s victory versus the L.A. Kings, who came to town on Feb. 13, 2024, was one of those one-sided beat-downs. UPL had his fourth shutout of the year, blocking all 33 shots he faced.

Peterka, as he often did to in that season’s solid wins, put Buffalo up 1-0 with a backhanded shot less than five minutes into the action. Toward the end of the period, Greenway made an unassisted wrister and Okposo tipped-in a power play goal that put the hosts up 3-0.

It only got worse for L.A. from there. Dahlin and Zach Benson both scored a wrister to give the Blue and Gold a 5-0 lead going into the third period. During the final 20 minutes, Tuch and Greenway made the Kings’ humiliation complete by adding two more goals to make the final score Sabres 7, Kings 0. Rarely does any hockey team control a game from start to finish that way and keep piling on the goals while shutting down any comeback.

Sabres end disappointing season on a high note, Apr. 15, 2024

The Buffalo Sabres enjoyed some great wins in 2023-24, but unfortunately those victories were too few and far between. Hockey fans, even when they’re following a struggling franchise, don’t want to go into the offseason watching their team lose one final time. Thankfully, that didn’t happen for Sabres supporters in the season’s last contest.

Buffalo faced the solid Tampa Bay Lightning on the road at Amalie Arena. Dylan Cozens started things off for the visitors, netting a goal 1:26 in. The Bolts failed to respond until early in the second period, when captain Steve Stamkos finally tied things up at one. Cozens beat Bolts goaltender Andrei Vasilevskiy to get the lead once more and Greenway added to it to put the Sabres up by a pair.

Midway through the third, Erik Cernak made a slap shot that got past Buffalo goalie Eric Comrie, but Benson’s tip-in goal 15 seconds later put the game away. Comrie, playing his last game as a Sabre, left the ice after making 31 saves. Overall, it was a solid effort by the roster and left fans feeling hopeful about next year.