Sabres finish with winning record for very first time during 12-year playoff dry spell

BUFFALO, N.Y. (WIVB)-- The Sabres will miss the Stanley Cup playoffs for an NHL record 12th consecutive year, but all was not lost in the first winning campaign of the postseason drought.

Closing out the season with a 5-2 success Friday night at Columbus, the Sabres completed with 91 points (42-33-7), their most since the 2011 team that qualified for the playoffs with 96 points (43-29-10).

With more wins than losses for the 27th time in 52 seasons, the Sabres' 42 triumphes rank 14th in franchise history. That's more than 16 Sabres groups that made the playoffs, consisting of the 1999 Stanley Cup finalists who had a 37-28-17 record, the Eastern Conference semifinalists from the season prior to who went 36-29-17, and the high-scoring 1993 Sabres who won a first-round playoff series on "May Day" after going 38-36-10. Even without counting three shootout victories, this year's Sabres had more wins than any of those teams

In the end, the Sabres came up one win except ending what is now tied for the longest playoff drought in North American professional sports, putting behind the Florida Panthers (92 points) and New York Islanders (93 points) in the race for 2 wild-card spots in the East.

Buffalo finished with a 9-2-1 thrive, the very best 12-game stretch of the season for the NHL's youngest lineup.

The late-season optimism was increased by novice goaltender Devon Levi starting seven of the last 9 games. He made 29 conserves versus the Blue Jackets to end with a 5-2-0 record,.901 save percentage, and 2.94 goals-against average in his age-21 season.

With the win at Columbus, the Sabres completed with a 25-13-3 roadway record, connected for the second-best in team history and one point except the franchise record (25-12-4) the Sabres set on their way to winning the President's Trophy in 2007. Buffalo's 17-20-4 record at home, however, was the eight-worst in history.

The Sabres were at their best in retrograde on home ice, going 10-1-1 in games using their throwback "goat head" jerseys.

With the Sabres averaging 3.61 objectives per video game, their many in 16 seasons, several skaters had career years.

Tage Thompson, who did not play in the finale due to an upper-body injury he had actually been fighting over the last couple of weeks, became the fourth player in franchise history to score 47 goals. He likewise tallied 47 helps. Only Pat LaFonatine and Alexander Mogiliny in 1993 have actually gone beyond both of those criteria in the same season.

Jeff Skinner had a goal and 2 assists versus heaven Jackets to record a career-best 81 points (35 objectives, 46 assists).

Linemate Alex Tuch tallied his 36th objective and 79th indicate improve a career-high overalls.

Dylan Cozens had a breakout season at age 22, scoring 31 objectives and taping his 37th help against Columbus.

Casey Mittelstadt, who took over as the top-line center at the end of the season with Thompson injured, scored his 15th objective and recorded his 54th help, both career-highs. Mittelstadt had 15 points over the final 10 games.

All-Star defenseman Rasmus Dahlin had 15 goals and 58 assists, the most blue-line production the Sabres have actually gotten considering that Phil Housley was building his Hall of Fame resume.

The Sabres likewise had 3 of the top 10 rookie scorers in the NHL this season: Jack Quinn (37 points), defenseman Owen Power (35 points), and JJ Peterka (32 points).

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Jonah Bronstein joined the News 4 roster in 2022 as a digital sports press reporter. Learn more of his work here.