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Sabres' Lost Season Sets Historic NHL Record

Originally posted on Athlon Sports | By Sean Treppedi | Last updated Apr 9, 2025 6:15 PM ET

With the Montreal Canadiens 4-1 win over the Detroit Red Wings on Tuesday, the Buffalo Sabres were mathematically eliminated from the Stanley Cup Playoffs.

They have now missed the playoffs for a 14th consecutive season, which extends an all-time NHL record and ties the New York Jets for the longest active drought in all of major North American professional sports.

The Sabres stuck around in the mix to open the season, but plummeted after a 13-game winless streak in December anchored them to the bottom of the Eastern Conference.

“We have work to do. We have work to do as a team, establishing the way we need to play, the way we need to manage the puck night in, night out, shift after shift,” coach Lindy Ruff said per The Athletic. “To become a better team, you have to take every period, every game you’re playing right now and use it as a stepping stone.”

The last time the Sabres played in a playoff game was April 2011. In that span, every other franchise has played at least 14 playoff games, including the Seattle Kraken, who have existed for four seasons.

Buffalo has struggled in goal as Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen is 24-23-4 with a 3.23 goals-against average and a .885 save percentage.

Its special teams is disastrous; the Sabres rank 26th on the power play (18.2 percent) and 23rd on the penalty kill (76.6 percent).

“It’s mixed emotions for sure. Pissed that we started to play good now. It’s too late. But also, it’s good that we can see we can play good hockey and we can beat any team in this league. I guess we have to build for next year and this is how you do it. This is the right way to do it,” captain Rasmus Dahlin said.

This article first appeared on Athlon Sports and was syndicated with permission.

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