Last year, the Buffalo Sabres went on a dismal 13-game losing streak, finishing second to last in their division, and missing the playoffs for the 14th consecutive year. This year, they have become one of the more exciting teams to watch, and as of the Olympic break, they are actively competing for a wild-card spot in the Eastern Conference. How did this turnaround happen, and so quickly after many wrote off the 2025-2026 campaign?
To understand how the Sabres became successful this year, it is important to understand why they came up short yet again during the 2024-2025 season. This begins with analyzing why the 13-game losing streak happened, which started in November 2024. The most likely culprit for this was the abysmal road record the team had during their campaign. Over 41 road games, the Sabres went 13-24-4 (wins, losses, overtime losses), which was fourth worst in the league that season. The defense was especially bad on the road, allowing 154 goals over the season (with a goals against average of 3.76 per game), tied for 30th in the league. Starting goaltender Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen also struggled, with his save percentage dropping to a career low of .887.
Along with defensive struggles, the team was hampered by former general manager Kevyn Adams’s stubborn refusal to make drastic changes to a roster struggling to win, even following an “emergency meeting” ahead of a Dec. 17 away game in Montreal. According to ESPN, when confronted on why no major roster moves had been made to assist the young core, Adams made the controversial statement that Buffalo did not “have palm trees. We have taxes in New York.” It is no wonder that the Sabres’ greatest success in years came following Adams’s dismissal as general manager.
Prior to the firing of Kevyn Adams, the Sabres started the season 14-14-4, and were near the bottom of the Eastern Conference. However, they had started what eventually became a franchise record-tying 10-game win streak. The Sabres’ new general manager, Jarmo Kekäläinen, stressed the importance of consistency within his first few days in the position. According to the Associated Press, Kekäläinen observed that there had “been games this year where we looked like it was going to be easy, and then we lost because we got outworked. That’s unacceptable.” Consistency is what the Sabres provided the fans with over the 10-game win streak.
During the win streak that lasted throughout December 2025, the Sabres’ defense was efficient at protecting the goal, only allowing 17 goals over a nine-game period, and only allowing more than two goals in two of those nine games. The offense, led by center Tage Thompson, has also been effective at attacking the goal with an average of 3.37 goals per game, 8th in the league. Thompson, especially, has been explosive this season, leading the team in points, and currently sits at ninth overall in the league for goals scored with 30.
Furthermore, defensemen Rasmus Dahlin, with 48 points scored, is currently seventh in the league for the position. Goaltending has also remained strong this season, with Alex Lyon leading the team with a save percentage of .913. This also places him 13th in the league for save percentage, with all three starting goalies having a save percentage equal to or greater than .896. However, the team is not perfect, with a middling power play percentage of .201, despite boasting an exceptional penalty kill percentage of .825.
The Buffalo Sabres currently hold the first wild card spot in the Eastern Conference and sit at fourth in an extremely competitive Atlantic Division. To remain in playoff contention and bring a Stanley Cup Playoff series to Buffalo, the Sabres need to maintain consistency on offense and defense, especially in the waning moments of games against high-caliber teams. With the return of the National Hockey League on Feb. 25, the Sabres only have a couple of months to put it all together and secure their first playoff berth in over a decade.