WASHINGTON \u2014 Buffalo Sabres coach Lindy Ruff wasn\u2019t watching the Detroit Red Wings\u2019 game against the New York Rangers on Saturday afternoon. Of course, he knew a regulation loss from the Red Wings would clinch a playoff spot for the Sabres, so he was checking the score periodically. But the Sabres had a game Saturday night, so he had more pressing matters. He was breaking down video and then, because it was an 80-degree day in D.C., he decided to take a walk.<\/p>\n
\u201cBusiness as usual,\u201d Ruff said with a smile while speaking just outside the visitor\u2019s locker room at Capital One Arena.<\/p>\n
Ruff only found out the Sabres had clinched when someone he declined to name sent him a simple text.<\/p>\n
\u201cX.\u201d<\/p>\n
That \u201cX\u201d is now sitting next to the Sabres on the league\u2019s standings page to represent the fact that they have clinched a spot in the Stanley Cup playoffs and ended a 14-year postseason drought that was the longest in NHL history. When Ruff came back for a second stint as the Sabres\u2019 coach before the 2024-25 season, he did so because he wanted to be part of bringing playoff hockey back to Buffalo. The 2024-25 season was one of the toughest of Ruff\u2019s career, with the team struggling to get to 79 points. This season, the Sabres were in last place in the Eastern Conference in mid-December before putting together the best 40-game stretch the NHL has seen since the 1995-96 season.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe guys have worked so hard to get to this point,\u201d Ruff said. \u201cI mentioned yesterday, four months, every month has been pretty darn consistent. We play a good brand of hockey and we got rewarded for how hard we played. First and foremost, I\u2019m so happy for Terry and Kim and the whole Pegula family, our fans, all the people who work in the building. I\u2019m stoked.\u201d<\/p>\n
But then the game started.<\/p>\n
A healthy crowd of Sabres fans in D.C. got an audible, \u201cLet\u2019s go, Buffalo!\u201d chant started early in the game, but the buzz of the playoff clinch wore off quickly. In the first six minutes of the game, the Sabres were down 3-0 due to some lackadaisical coverage in the defensive zone.<\/p>\n
First, Jakob Chychrun was wide open to blast home a rebound. Then Dylan Strome was left uncovered in front of the net for a tap-in. And then Connor McMichael was by himself at the side of the net to tap in a puck that banked off the end wall. With 14:08 left in the first period, Ruff pulled Alex Lyon and called a timeout to try to snap his team out of it.<\/p>\n
The Sabres did claw back, scoring a pair of goals to make it 3-2 at the end of the first period. But the Capitals widened the gap again in the second period. After Josh Doan and Ryan McLeod failed to connect on a two-on-one, Aliaksei Protas went the other way and scored on the rush. In the third, the Sabres allowed two more goals, including a short-handed goal from Tom Wilson. The game ended 6-2 and marked Buffalo\u2019s second straight loss and fifth loss in the last seven games.<\/p>\n
The postgame locker room could have been a celebration scene. When the Sabres clinched a playoff spot this afternoon, some of them were probably still waking up from their pregame naps. A win would have allowed them to soak in the accomplishment and enjoy it for a night.<\/p>\n
Instead, the postgame scene around Buffalo\u2019s locker room was a quiet, frustrated one. Rasmus Dahlin said it was difficult to answer questions about clinching, but he made a point to say how happy he was for the people of Buffalo. But he wasn\u2019t in much of a mood for reflecting on what the Sabres have done, given the way the last few games have gone. With a chance to clinch against the Senators on Thursday night, the Sabres lost 4-1. Now, after clinching while still in street clothes, the Sabres laid another egg.<\/p>\n
\u201c(Clinching) is not something you look over by any means,\u201d Sabres forward Tage Thompson said. \u201cIt\u2019s obviously a huge accomplishment. That\u2019s a goal we\u2019ve had for a long time and especially where we were at the beginning of the season, what we\u2019ve done to get ourselves into this spot is great. But also at the end of the day, that\u2019s not the end goal. You can\u2019t be comfortable with that and happy with that. It\u2019s not good enough to just get in. There\u2019s other teams that are doing that every year. It\u2019s not that special. We want to do something special. And if we\u2019re playing like that, we\u2019re not going to.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Sabres haven\u2019t been the same team in the last seven games, going 2-3-2 during that stretch. After allowing one goal in three games prior to this stretch, the Sabres have now allowed 30 goals in the last seven games. On Saturday, the defensive shortcomings weren\u2019t isolated to one or two players. Thompson, Bowen Byram, Jack Quinn, Josh Doan, Ryan McLeod and Zach Metsa were all on the ice for three goals against in this game. Logan Stanley, Jason Zucker, Owen Power and Zach Benson were out there for two goals against each.<\/p>\n
Suddenly, one of the strengths of the Sabres\u2019 game has turned into a weakness. And after four months of getting the best goaltending in the NHL, the Sabres haven\u2019t been bailed out by their goalies quite as often.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou can\u2019t defend as poorly as we did those first couple of goals,\u201d Ruff said. \u201cWe left two guys wide open. Coverage wasn\u2019t good and it ends up in the back of the net. We\u2019ve taken a lot of pride. Our defensive play has been a big reason why we got to where we got. We can\u2019t take that for granted.\u201d<\/p>\n
Sabres fans have spent many years wondering and imagining what it would be like when the playoff drought finally ended. It could have happened with a win at home and turned into an arena-wide celebration, but that wasn\u2019t in the cards. It could have happened on Thursday night with a win in a rival building. Dan Dunleavy could have had the perfect call to meet the moment and give fans watching a lifetime memory.<\/p>\n
What actually happened felt anticlimactic by comparison. The Sabres clinched, but did so thanks to another team. And then fans only got to revel in it for a few hours before the Capitals put a damper on things.<\/p>\n
\u201cA lot of the noise right now with us making playoffs and clinching is maybe, I don\u2019t want to say getting to our heads a little bit, but we definitely aren\u2019t as intense as we need to be right now,\u201d Thompson said.<\/p>\n
If it\u2019s intensity the Sabres need more of, they shouldn\u2019t have any trouble finding it on Monday. They\u2019ll return home to get in front of the home crowd for the first time since ending the drought. And they\u2019ll be playing the Tampa Bay Lightning, a team they beat 8-7 in an epic, fight-filled slugfest a few weeks ago.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey\u2019re a hell of a team,\u201d Alex Tuch said. \u201cIf we play like that tonight, they\u2019re going to run us over and run us out of our own building. Hopefully, getting back to the KeyBank Center gives us a little bit of a jolt that we need. We\u2019re going to come out with a lot of passion and a lot of energy and try to take it to them.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Sabres have five games left in the regular season before the playoffs begin. That\u2019s time for them to shake this late-season funk. But the consequences of the last two weeks are already setting in. The Lightning have a two-point lead on the Sabres in the division with a game in hand. And the Canadiens are now tied with the Sabres at 100 points and also have a game in hand. After holding first place in the Atlantic for a few weeks, the Sabres are now in third, which would mean losing home-ice advantage in the first round of the playoffs.<\/p>\n
Back when the Sabres were struggling early in the season, making it to the playoffs would have been cause for celebration on its own. Along the way, though, the Sabres became a team capable of doing more than just getting in. The Eastern Conference looks wide open, and the Sabres have five games to get themselves ready to take advantage of that.<\/p>\n
\u201cOnce you reach that goal, the standard has changed for us,\u201d Thompson said. \u201cThat\u2019s no longer the standard, just making it. We\u2019ve got to move on from this trip and get our game back.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"WASHINGTON \u2014 Buffalo Sabres coach Lindy Ruff wasn\u2019t watching the Detroit Red Wings\u2019 game against the New York…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":541570,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[463,464],"tags":[229,5,4,60,14,104,718],"class_list":{"0":"post-541569","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-buffalo-sabres","10":"tag-hockey","11":"tag-nhl","12":"tag-nhl-playoffs","13":"tag-stanley-cup","14":"tag-stanley-cup-playoffs","15":"tag-stanley-cup-playoffs-nhl"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nhl\/116350479454887795","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/541569","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=541569"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/541569\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/541570"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=541569"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=541569"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=541569"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}