{"id":536706,"date":"2026-04-02T15:01:16","date_gmt":"2026-04-02T15:01:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/536706\/"},"modified":"2026-04-02T15:01:16","modified_gmt":"2026-04-02T15:01:16","slug":"sabres-look-to-clinch-playoff-berth-end-historic-drought-on-thursday","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/536706\/","title":{"rendered":"Sabres look to clinch playoff berth, end historic drought on Thursday"},"content":{"rendered":"

A number of teams across the NHL have a chance to punch their ticket to the Stanley Cup Playoffs on Thursday night, with several scenarios in play depending on results around the league.<\/p>\n

The Buffalo Sabres<\/a> enter Thursday with a clear opportunity to control their own destiny. A win of any kind over the Ottawa Senators would be enough to secure their place in the post-season. <\/p>\n

Even without a victory, Buffalo can still punch its ticket by earning at least a point against Ottawa, provided out-of-town results go their way \u2014 namely, a Philadelphia Flyers win over the Detroit Red Wings and a Carolina Hurricanes<\/a> victory against the Columbus Blue Jackets.<\/p>\n

This would end a historic drought for Buffalo, which has missed the playoffs for 14 consecutive seasons, and is currently tied with the New York Jets of the NFL for the longest absence in North American sports.<\/p>\n

The Sabres have been through a big turnaround this season after firing general manager Kevyn Adams back in December and replacing him with Jarmo Kekalainen. At the time, they had a 14\u201314\u20134 record and have gone 32-7-4 since.<\/p>\n

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Carolina, meanwhile, has a similar straightforward path. The Hurricanes can clinch a playoff berth outright with a win over Columbus.<\/p>\n

Should they fall short of a win, a single point would still be enough \u2014 but only if the Philadelphia Flyers beat the Detroit Red Wings and Buffalo earns a regulation victory over Ottawa. <\/p>\n

The Tampa Bay Lightning<\/a> face a more complicated scenario as they take on the Pittsburgh Penguins. Tampa Bay must first secure a victory in regulation; combined with regulation victories by both the Flyers and Hurricanes, along with any Sabres win over the Senators, to earn a playoff spot.<\/p>\n

If the Lightning require overtime or a shootout to get past Pittsburgh, they would then need regulation wins from Philadelphia and Carolina, as well as a regulation win from Buffalo. <\/p>\n

In the Western Conference, the Minnesota Wild<\/a> are still looking to secure their playoff spot. Their simplest route comes against the Vancouver Canucks, where a single point \u2014 either through a win or overtime loss \u2014 would be enough to clinch.<\/p>\n

If they fail to get that point, Minnesota still has multiple fallback scenarios. A combination of a regulation win by the Chicago Blackhawks over the Edmonton Oilers, a Toronto Maple Leafs victory over the San Jose Sharks, and a regulation win by the Calgary Flames against the Vegas Golden Knights would also secure their place.<\/p>\n

There are even more paths available for the Wild. A regulation win by Toronto alone would be sufficient, regardless of other results. Alternatively, Minnesota can clinch if the outcome between the Los Angeles Kings and Nashville Predators is anything other than a regulation victory for the Kings.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A number of teams across the NHL have a chance to punch their ticket to the Stanley Cup…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":377557,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[463,464],"tags":[5,4,60,14,104,718],"class_list":{"0":"post-536706","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nhl-playoffs","8":"category-stanley-cup-playoffs","9":"tag-hockey","10":"tag-nhl","11":"tag-nhl-playoffs","12":"tag-stanley-cup","13":"tag-stanley-cup-playoffs","14":"tag-stanley-cup-playoffs-nhl"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nhl\/116335719262594307","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/536706","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=536706"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/536706\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/377557"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=536706"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=536706"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=536706"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}