The Buffalo Sabres knocked off the Montreal Canadiens 5-3 on Thursday to make it 15 wins in their past 17 games, and this recent hot streak has the team setting lofty aspirations.

That victory over Montreal came in front of a home crowd at KeyBank Center, where the team held a ceremony for the 2005-06 Sabres team in a pregame reunion on the ice. That team shocked the hockey world with a 25-point improvement over their total from the previous season and made a run to the Eastern Conference Finals.

This year’s version of the Sabres is currently on pace for 99 points, which would mark a 20-point improvement over last year’s disappointing finish that extended their playoff appearance drought to 14 seasons – the longest of any team in the four major North American sports leagues.

Lindy Ruff coached that team 20 years ago to the Eastern Conference Finals, and it is almost fitting that 20 years and six coaches later, it’s again Ruff leading the team on a special run.

“It’s reminding me of ’05-’06,” former Sabres forward J.P. Dumont said earlier this week, per The Athletic. “That’s not something you bring up, but I’m pretty sure [coach Lindy Ruff’s] looking at it like, ‘Hey, what if?’”

“I thought our game tonight looked a lot like one of those ’05 games,” Ruff said to reporters after the win on Thursday.

The teams’ seasons have taken similar shapes – the ‘05 Sabres were just two years removed from filing for bankruptcy protection and entered that campaign with no expectations coming off three consecutive last-place finishes. This year’s Sabres team is mired in a long playoff drought and in such dire straits that general manager Kevyn Adams was dismissed in December and replaced with Jarmo Kekalainen.

“Those were the guys I watched growing up. I was nine, 10 years old during that season,” said Syracuse-area native and current Sabres forward Alex Tuch to reporters after the game. “It brings back a lot of memories, a lot of good times sitting on the couch with my dad watching a lot of games, hoping he’d let me stay up until the third period.”

Alumni from that ‘05-‘06 team spoke to The Athletic about how the team came together off the ice and used that to play above their capabilities on it. Ruff said he has seen the same thing start to happen with this year’s Sabres squad.

“I really think our team has come together like that,” Ruff said to reporters on Thursday. “We’ve become a real tight group. Everybody is all in, and everybody is [there] for each other.”

There is one player though who has arguably been putting the Sabres on his back in this ongoing hot streak: Tage Thompson. The ninth-year centre scored a hat trick and finished with five points in the victory over Montreal, and has 25 goals (fifth in the NHL) and 49 points in 46 games this season.

“Tommer, when he gets rolling, he doesn’t miss his mark very often,” Ruff said. “He gets it off so quick that I don’t think the goalie can adjust … It was a night that it looked like anything he was gonna shoot was probably gonna go in.”

“There’s a reason why he’s on [the American] Olympic team,” Tuch said. “He’s a game changer every single night, and when he turns it on like that, when he’s feeling it like that, he’s unstoppable.”

Thompson, who is in the middle of a seven-year deal worth $50 million, has notched games of three points or more three times in the current hot streak – all against team in playoff positions in the Edmonton Oilers (Dec. 9), Dallas Stars (Dec. 31) and the Canadiens on Thursday.

“We’re all competitors, we want to be the best all the time, and when the stakes get raised, I think everyone wants to be the guy that leads the team,” Thompson said. “I think that’s what makes you a good player. If you fold in those circumstances, maybe it’s not for you.

“There’s nothing that beats winning,” Thompson said. “This is the most fun I think I’ve had here my entire career. We’ve got something really good going, and it doesn’t feel fabricated. It feels real, and I think everyone in the room believes it as well.”