{"id":483097,"date":"2026-03-03T17:21:23","date_gmt":"2026-03-03T17:21:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/483097\/"},"modified":"2026-03-03T17:21:23","modified_gmt":"2026-03-03T17:21:23","slug":"early-season-turnaround-has-buffalo-sabres-primed-for-playoff-run","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/483097\/","title":{"rendered":"Early-season turnaround has Buffalo Sabres primed for playoff run"},"content":{"rendered":"

For the first quarter of the 2025-26 NHL season, it looked to be more of the same for the Buffalo Sabres<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Having missed the playoffs in a league-high 14 consecutive seasons, the Sabres fell 7-4 to the Flames in Calgary on Dec. 8 to drop their record to 11-14-4.<\/p>\n

\u201cHorrible game, that\u2019s all I can say,\u201d defenceman Rasmus Dahlin said via NHL.com<\/a> of his team\u2019s performance.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe result, how the game ended, a lot of errors. [We have to] regroup. [We have a] game tomorrow [at the Edmonton Oilers<\/a>].\u201d<\/p>\n

Buffalo did regroup the night after in Edmonton, picking up a 4-3 overtime victory on a winner from Alex Tuch<\/a>. And that win turned out to the start of a major turnaround.<\/p>\n

The Sabres went on to win 10 in a row to get back over the .500 mark. Since losing in Calgary on Dec. 8, Buffalo has gone an NHL-best 24-5-2, accumulating 50 points over that span to pull into a postseason spot.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve gone on a run,\u201d head coach Lindy Ruff said via Bill Hoppe of Buffalo Hockey Beat in a story posted Monday<\/a>. \u201cBut we\u2019ve taken this approach that the game we\u2019ve just played is over, and we\u2019ve got to just continue to get better.\u201d<\/p>\n

Part of the Sabres\u2019 resurgence has been due to getting their full group back together. Forward Zach Benson<\/a> returned from injury in late November and forward Josh Norris and defenceman Rasmus Dahlin<\/a> rejoined the group in early December.<\/p>\n

They\u2019ve also been more consistent as a group according to Ruff, something he said was driven by the play of Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen<\/a> and Alex Lyon<\/a> in net.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou\u2019re not consistent unless you get great goaltending, which we were getting,\u201d Ruff said.<\/p>\n

Luukkonen and Lyon are each enjoying one of the best seasons of their careers. Luukkonen is in his sixth season with the Sabres and has a .908 save percentage with a 2.62 goals-against average. Lyon, playing for his fifth NHL team in nine seasons, has a .913 stop rate and a 2.69 GAA. As a team, the Sabres are tied for fourth in the league in save percentage (.908).<\/p>\n

Fresh off winning a gold medal at Milano Cortina 2026, centre Tage Thompson<\/a> is in the midst of yet another strong offensive season with a team-high 32 goals and 63 points. He said the Sabres are no longer thinking about just simply making the playoffs, but making a deep run come the spring.<\/p>\n

\u201cObviously, from where we were at the start of the year to now, I think there\u2019s, as we started to get hot, talks about maybe making playoffs,\u201d he said via Buffalo Hockey Beat.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd now, I think we\u2019ve proven that not only can we make playoffs, but we can be a real team. \u2026 We have that self-belief that we can do something real special this year.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Sabres haven\u2019t let up since the season resumed last week, winning each of their three games coming out of the Olympic break. They sit 35-19-6 on the season for 76 points, good for second place in the Atlantic Division, just four points back of the Tampa Bay Lightning<\/a> for the Atlantic lead.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"For the first quarter of the 2025-26 NHL season, it looked to be more of the same for…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":483098,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[4759,32571,5,4],"class_list":{"0":"post-483097","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nhl","8":"tag-apple-news","9":"tag-buffalo-sabres-sports-hockey-team-team-nhl-api-7","10":"tag-hockey","11":"tag-nhl"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nhl\/116166399336023700","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/483097","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=483097"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/483097\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/483098"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=483097"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=483097"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=483097"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}