The Buffalo Sabres did the hard part already.
After 14 years of futility following their appearance in the 2011 Stanley Cup Playoffs, the Sabres ended their postseason drought with a 50-23-9 record, good enough for first place in the Atlantic Division. The 2025-26 season also marked the Sabres' third winning record in four seasons and their first 50-plus win total since the 2006-07 campaign.
But now comes the harder part.
While fans should see this Sabres team as one that, at its best, can contend for the Stanley Cup, the path to the Final itself is rocky. Not only will the Sabres have to play two of the four Atlantic Division rivals that secured postseason berths at minimum, but simply escaping the first two rounds will more than likely land them a Conference Final against the Eastern Conference-leading Carolina Hurricanes or Sidney Crosby and his Pittsburgh Penguins.
But first, the Sabres must survive a first-round series against the Boston Bruins, who are easily seen by half the conference (and the Vancouver Canucks) as a playoff rival. Despite missing the playoffs last season, the Bruins do have a storied playoff history, especially in recent years. To recap: the Bruins made a trip to the Stanley Cup Final in 2019, they won the Presidents' Trophy in 2023 and then flopped against the Florida Panthers (more emphasis on the first part than the last), and they've owned the Toronto Maple Leafs over the past 13 years of postseason hockey.
Sabres fans need to be cautious about this Bruins team
Say what you will about the Bruins being overrated heading into this series, but this is still a very similar roster to the one that won the Presidents' Trophy just three years ago. Names like David Pastrnak and Charlie McAvoy, both of whom were among the Bruins' top scorers this season, were part of that same roster. In addition, both players were also a part of the Bruins team that made it to the Stanley Cup Final back in 2019.
Despite not being a part of that 2019 Bruins team, goaltender Jeremy Swayman does have some playoff experience. Like Pastrnak and McAvoy, Swayman was a part of the Bruins team that won the Presidents' Trophy and that advanced to the second round during the 2024 Stanley Cup Playoffs. He also earned five starts during the Bruins' seven-game series against the Carolina Hurricanes in 2022.
The Bruins also have a lot of role players capable of making a difference when it matters. Not only was Viktor Arvidsson a part of a Nashville Predators team that went to the Stanley Cup Final in 2017, scoring 13 points during his team's postseason run, but he most recently helped the Oilers to their second consecutive Cup Final. Ex-Sabre Nikita Zadorov is also capable of filling a depth role on the offensive side of the ice; he filled similar roles during the Calgary Flames' postseason run in 2022 and the Vancouver Canucks' playoff campaign two years later.
Combine all five players together, and that's almost 350 postseason games played alone.
As for the Sabres, the experience department doesn't exactly match that of the Bruins. From my meticulous calculations, the entire Sabres roster combined has just around the same amount of playoff experience as those five Bruins players. And that's when considering that players like Tage Thompson and Josh Doan have not yet played in a postseason game.
If this matchup were to become a closely-contested series where Boston takes one of the first three games and/or forces the series the distance, the experience factor could play a massive role in deciding the outcome. And that might not necessarily go Buffalo's way.
How can Buffalo counter? Rely on the veterans
The Rasmus Dahlins and the Zach Bensons of the world might have helped push Buffalo to this point, but it remains to be seen how they respond when the games get tighter and the physicality gets upped.
As a result, this is the perfect opportunity for the Sabres to justify the additions of Logan Stanley and Luke Schenn, for Bowen Byram to put together another strong postseason campaign, and for Alex Tuch to reinforce his role on the team heading into free agency.
Both Tuch and Byram have been to the Stanley Cup Final before, with the latter winning a Stanley Cup with the Colorado Avalanche in 2022. As for Tuch, he's followed up his one Cup Final berth in 2018 with the Vegas Golden Knights with another two deep postseason runs with the team before heading to Buffalo through the Jack Eichel trade.
Meanwhile, both Stanley and Schenn were part of last season's Winnipeg Jets team, which won the Presidents' Trophy while also advancing to the second round. That said, Stanley recorded a minus-two rating through the five games he played in the postseason, while Schenn recorded one assist and a minus-eight rating.
Both ex-Jets defensemen have room to redeem themselves from the 2025 postseason by serving as mentors for both Dahlin and Mattias Samuelsson, both of whom have never played postseason hockey before; the same role can be filled to an extent by Byram.
As for Tuch? This is the perfect opportunity for the Syracuse native to live up to the fandom he had for the team growing up and to thrust it into a brand new era. Even if he doesn't end up staying with the team next year, a strong series against Boston (and a strong postseason as a whole) will give the organization's up-and-coming stars the tools required to bring the Sabres from simply being a playoff contender towards the status of a bona fide championship threat.
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