Buffalo Sabres<\/a> are one win away from ending a long playoff drought.<\/p>\nBuffalo can clinch a spot in the Stanley Cup Playoffs for the first time since the 2010-11 season with a victory Thursday night against the Ottawa Senators.<\/p>\n
The Sabres enter the matchup at 46-21-8 with 100 points, sitting atop the Atlantic Division and coming off a 4-3 win over the New York Islanders. That victory also marked a milestone, as Buffalo earned its 2,000th win in franchise history and became the 11th team in NHL history to reach that mark.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s been a dominant stretch for the Sabres, who have picked up at least one point in 23 of their last 27 games (20-4-3). Since Dec. 9, Buffalo leads the league in both wins (35) and points (74), including a league-best 30 regulation victories over that span.<\/p>\n
Offensively, Tage Thompson continues to lead the way with 78 points (38 goals, 40 assists) in 75 games. He\u2019s riding a four-game point streak and has totaled 55 points in 46 games since Dec. 9. Thompson has also found success against Ottawa, recording 14 points in his last 13 matchups, including three game-winning goals.<\/p>\n
Rasmus Dahlin has also been a key contributor with 67 points this season and leads the team in assists. Meanwhile, Alex Tuch has 60 points and enters the game on a three-game point streak against the Senators.<\/p>\n
Buffalo has seen strong production against Ottawa across the lineup. Ryan McLeod is on a six-game point streak against the Senators, recording at least one point in every game he has played against them as a Sabre.<\/p>\n
The Senators come in at 38-26-10 and sit fifth in the Atlantic Division. Ottawa is led by Tim St\u00fctzle, who has 76 points this season.<\/p>\n
Puck drop is set for 7 p.m. Thursday in Ottawa, where the Sabres will look to secure their first playoff berth in 15 years.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Buffalo Sabres are on the brink of breaking a 15-year playoff drought, needing just a win against…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":536848,"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-536847","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\/116336076027707739","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/536847","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=536847"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/536847\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/536848"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=536847"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=536847"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=536847"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}