{"id":556104,"date":"2026-04-19T15:51:21","date_gmt":"2026-04-19T15:51:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/556104\/"},"modified":"2026-04-19T15:51:21","modified_gmt":"2026-04-19T15:51:21","slug":"sabres-last-playoff-team-revisited-who-played-for-buffalo-15-years-ago-before-postseason-drought","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/556104\/","title":{"rendered":"Sabres’ last playoff team, revisited: Who played for Buffalo 15 years ago before postseason drought?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Sabres’ last playoff team, revisited: Who played for Buffalo 15 years ago before postseason drought?<\/a> originally appeared on The Sporting News<\/a>. Add The Sporting News as a Preferred Source by clicking here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

It has been 5,471 days since the Buffalo Sabres<\/a> last played a playoff hockey game.<\/p>\n

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The drought is over. The Sabres are back in the postseason.<\/p>\n

From April 26, 2011 to the return on April 19, 2026. Nearly 15 years on the dot, one week shy.<\/p>\n

The improbability is everywhere. The Sabres just missed multiple No. 1 picks of generational talents and had to settle for No. 2. They had years when it seemed they’d finally make it in but didn’t.<\/p>\n

They made trades, and they opted not to make trades. They beat good teams and lost to bad teams. They went on a historic losing streak.<\/p>\n

It’s all happened in this decade-and-a-half. But now, they’re back.<\/p>\n

And that’s as good an excuse as any to look back at that 2010-11 Sabres team, which was fittingly also coached by this year’s coach Lindy Ruff<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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MORE:\u00a0How Lindy Ruff made it back to Sabres for another playoff run<\/a><\/p>\n

When did the Sabres last play in the playoffs?<\/p>\n

The Sabres’ last playoff game before 2026 was on April 26, 2011.<\/p>\n

They lost in Game 7 of the Eastern Conference first round to the Philadelphia Flyers<\/a>, 5-2.<\/p>\n

MORE:\u00a0This Connor Hellebuyck trade rumor should scare the rest of the NHL<\/a><\/p>\n

Who played on the Sabres’ last playoff team?<\/p>\n

The Sabres’ last playoff team featured four players who scored at least 20 goals.<\/p>\n

Thomas Vanek<\/a> led the way with 32 goals and 41 assists.<\/p>\n

Drew Stafford<\/a> had 31 goals and 21 assists.<\/p>\n

Jason Pominville<\/a> had 22 goals and 30 assists.<\/p>\n

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Tyler Ennis<\/a> had 20 goals and 29 assists.<\/p>\n

They also had the likes of Tim Connolly, Tyler Myers<\/a>, Derek Roy<\/a>, Jordan Leopold<\/a>, Nathen Gerbe, Jochen Hecht, Andrej Sekera<\/a> and Mike Grier.<\/p>\n

In goal was the reliable Ryan Miller<\/a>, who that season had a 2.59 goals against average and a 91.6 save percentage.<\/p>\n

MORE:\u00a0Porter Martone makes the most of hockey’s unique timeline<\/a><\/p>\n

Are any players still active from Sabres’ last playoff team?<\/p>\n

Just one: Tyler Myers.<\/p>\n

Myers most recently played for the Dallas Stars<\/a> after being traded at this season’s deadline from the Vancouver Canucks<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The 6-foot-8 defenseman hasn’t played for Buffalo since 2015, more than a decade.<\/p>\n

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It’s been so long that Mike Grier has since ascended to the role of general manager of the San Jose Sharks<\/a> after playing for that season’s Sabres team.<\/p>\n

It’s been a long, long wait.<\/p>\n

More NHL news:<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Sabres’ last playoff team, revisited: Who played for Buffalo 15 years ago before postseason drought? originally appeared on…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":556105,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5100],"tags":[25320,1107,229,5133,1171,147,62803,26798,5,28292,28876,6422,747,4,56,62801,28506,2278,1108,168,18088,62802,19654,27],"class_list":{"0":"post-556104","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-buffalo-sabres","8":"tag-andrej-sekera","9":"tag-buffalo","10":"tag-buffalo-sabres","11":"tag-buffalosabres","12":"tag-connor-hellebuyck","13":"tag-dallas-stars","14":"tag-derek-roy","15":"tag-drew-stafford","16":"tag-hockey","17":"tag-jason-pominville","18":"tag-jordan-leopold","19":"tag-lindy-ruff","20":"tag-mike-grier","21":"tag-nhl","22":"tag-philadelphia-flyers","23":"tag-playoff-hockey-game","24":"tag-playoff-team","25":"tag-ryan-miller","26":"tag-sabres","27":"tag-san-jose-sharks","28":"tag-thomas-vanek","29":"tag-tyler-ennis","30":"tag-tyler-myers","31":"tag-vancouver-canucks"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nhl\/116432174037975113","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/556104","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=556104"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/556104\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/556105"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=556104"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=556104"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=556104"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}