BUFFALO, N.Y. (AP)-- In Buffalo, where futility has been the standard since the Sabres last reached the playoffs in 2011, success is being determined on a moving scale with the team dealing with yet another prolonged summer break.

For a team that's ended up last in the overall standings 4 times given that 2013-14, and too often been suspended of contention in February, if not quicker, captain Kyle Okposo saw distinct indications of guarantee even as the Sabres extended a currently NHL-worst playoff drought to a 12th season.

" I'm incredibly proud to be a part of this group and to see how far we've come. We've become a group," Okposo stated after the Sabres were eliminated with 2 games left in their season, following a 6-2 loss in New Jersey on Tuesday.

" And that's the very first time in a long time that I think we can say that about our team here," he added. "It was extremely satisfying in a way, but at the same time very disappointing with how it ended."

For Tage Thompson, who became the Sabres very first player to score 47 goals considering that the Alexander Mogilny-Pat LaFontaine period of the early 1990s, the positives far outweighed the negatives. That's even as Buffalo's playoff dry spell now ranks as the second-longest active streak-- ahead of just the NFL's New York Jets, who last gotten approved for the postseason in 2010-- in North America's 4 major pro sports.

" The strides that this team in particular has made is definitely an action in the ideal instructions," Thompson said. "This group's just been together a couple of years now. I believe everyone in here is growing as a group, which is something that we have not had the ability to say for a while."

Buffalo's 42 wins and 91 points were the most considering that last making the playoffs in 2011.

Many encouraging for a group that opened the season with the league's youngest roster, Buffalo returns a number of the same players who delighted in career-best seasons, and experienced their very first taste of the strength of remaining in the midst of a playoff race.

As much as Buffalo at first collapsed under the pressure of remaining in contention by spiraling into a 2-8-2 stretch over a three-week period in March, what satisfied coach Don Granato is how the Sabres reeled off a 7-1-1 run before being gotten rid of at New Jersey.

" There were great deals of people that thought this season was done 3 or 4 weeks ago," Granato stated. "We had a great deal of people in this space questioning whether they were good enough, and they fought through the insecurity, bound together and went through those difficulties and were successful. Lots of good things."

PERMANENTLY IN BLUE JEANS?

The Sabres think they have their goalie of the future-- and maybe, present-- in novice Devon Levi, who went 5-2 after foregoing his senior season at Northeastern to sign with Buffalo last month. Levi, who won consecutive Mike Richter awards as college hockey's top goalie, has the inside track to take over as the starter next season.

Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen ended up 17-11-4, however failed by going 2-6-3 over a six-week stretch covering Jan. 28 and March 19.

LOWS and highs

Aside from their 2-8-2 downturn, which instantly followed the Sabres moving into eighth in the East, Buffalo was undone by an eight-game losing streak in November to balance out a 7-3 start to the season. Buffalo's six-game winning streak in December was the group's longest in the very same season because a six-game run in 2010-11.

HOME-ROAD DISPARITY

Buffalo ended up connected for 27th in the NHL with 17 home wins, while completing connected for seventh with a single-season franchise record-matching 25 roadway wins.

FREE-AGENT FRONT

Okposo is a prime candidate to return after finishing his seven-year, $42 million contract. Free-agency eligible is forward Zemgus Girgensons, who completed his ninth season and is Buffalo's longest active tenured gamer. Goalie Craig Anderson is retiring after finishing his 20th NHL season and second in Buffalo.

The Sabres other notable players qualified for unlimited complimentary firm are forwards Tyson Jost and Vinnie Hinostroza.