The Buffalo Sabres had not made the playoffs since 2011. Fourteen consecutive seasons - the longest active drought in NHL history. They entered 2025-26 with 100-to-1 Cup odds, a new general manager in December, and a captain navigating a family health crisis in October. They finished with 109 points and the Atlantic Division title. They lost Game 7 to the Montreal Canadiens in the second round on an Alex Newhook overtime goal. This is the most Buffalo Sabres sentence ever written. It is also a season that deserved much more than that sentence suggests.
By Mike Holloway · June 2026 · 2025-26 Season Review Series · #5 of 32 · Playoff Teams · Atlantic Division Champions
Phase 1 · Oct-Nov: Dahlin's Hardest Month
Fiancée's health crisis. Personal adversity nobody else in the league was navigating. He missed only five games. The team rallied around him and the captain rewarded them with the most resilient stretch of his career.
Phase 2 · December: Last Place to Contention
Ten consecutive wins - tied the franchise record. Jarmo Kekäläinen arrived December 15 as the new GM, replacing Kevyn Adams. The streak began in Edmonton against Connor McDavid. Twenty points in the stretch that decided the Atlantic.
Phase 3 · Apr 2: Clinched · Atlantic Champs
First playoff appearance since 2011. First Atlantic Division title in decades. 109 points. 50 wins. The drought that defined the franchise for fourteen years was over in a season the market had priced at 100-to-1.
Phase 4 · R2 G7 OT: Newhook Ends It
Alex Newhook overtime winner for Montreal. Alex Lyon had surrendered 9 goals on 63 shots across the two games that tied the series. Season over - in the most Buffalo way available in a sport that provides many.
The last time the Buffalo Sabres played a playoff game, the iPhone 4S had just been released. Ryan Miller was the starting goaltender. Jason Pominville was the captain. The franchise had missed the postseason for fourteen consecutive seasons - the longest active drought in the National Hockey League, an organisational record that had become, for Buffalo fans, the specific texture of hope that gets replaced annually with the specific texture of disappointment. They entered 2025-26 with 100-to-1 Cup odds and a preseason over-under of 85.5 points, a captain whose fiancée was dealing with a serious health situation in October that the franchise handled with privacy and support, and a new general manager who arrived in December when the team was briefly in last place before the ten-game winning streak that tied the franchise record and changed the season entirely. They won fifty games. They won 109 points. They won the Atlantic Division title. And then they lost Game 7 of the second round to the Montreal Canadiens on an Alex Newhook overtime goal, in the most Buffalo way that a Buffalo Sabres season has ever ended - which is saying something, given the competition.
Rasmus Dahlin began the season managing a family health crisis. His fiancée's serious medical situation in October required the organisation's full support and his own extraordinary personal resilience. He missed only five games. He posted career highs in goals (19), assists (55), points (74), plus-minus (+18), and shooting percentage (9.8%). He led all Buffalo defencemen in every major scoring category in both the regular season and the playoffs. He was nominated for the Norris Trophy as the NHL's best defenceman. He was nominated for the Bill Masterton Trophy, given to the player who best exemplifies perseverance, sportsmanship, and dedication - the award that best captures what the 2025-26 season actually asked of him. He finished third in Norris voting. He deserved every vote he received. If there was anyone who was going to lead the Buffalo Sabres when they finally broke the record-long drought, it was deservedly him.
Mattias Samuelsson: +41 Team Leader. The NHL's Second-Ranked Penalty Kill. 83 Blocked Shots. "The Team's Best Defenceman" - Per Every Coach, Player, and Analyst Who Watched the Sabres Daily.
The Norris Trophy conversation around Buffalo centred on Dahlin - correctly, given the career-high production and the personal context. But the player who the Sabres' coaches, staff, and opponents consistently identified as the most important defensive piece on the roster was Mattias Samuelsson. His +41 led the team. His 83 blocked shots led the team and ranked among the highest in the Eastern Conference. His PK time - leading all Buffalo defenders - anchored the league's second-best penalty kill. "The team's best defenseman," every internal voice said throughout the season, quietly, because Dahlin's name attracted the external attention and Samuelsson's game attracted the respect of the people who mattered.
He is the shutdown partner who makes Dahlin's offensive activation possible. A team with only a Dahlin - brilliant, point-producing, mobile - is a team whose captain is exposed in his own zone by opponents who attack the defensive deficiencies of a pure offensive blue liner. A team with Dahlin and Samuelsson has the balance that allows Dahlin to produce 74 points because he knows Samuelsson is behind him to absorb the defensive consequences. The combination is the reason the Sabres could be an Atlantic Division champion rather than a creative offensive team that gave up too many goals to compete.
Samuelsson's summer is the most important contract conversation after Tage Thompson, whose deal determines the franchise's cap structure. Samuelsson earned a significant raise from whatever he was earning before. The organisation knows it. The question is whether the market reflects what the internal evaluation consistently said he was.
In December, the Buffalo Sabres were in last place. Three weeks later, they weren't. A ten-game winning streak - beginning with a victory in Edmonton against Connor McDavid and the Oilers, continuing through New Year's Eve against Dallas, featuring victories over Vancouver, Seattle, Philadelphia, the Islanders, New Jersey, Ottawa, Boston, and St. Louis - tied the franchise record and transformed the season from a familiar rebuild story into something different. Jarmo Kekäläinen arrived on December 15 as the new general manager, replacing Kevyn Adams. The winning streak started around the same time. Whether correlation became causation is the kind of question that organisations prefer to believe has a satisfying answer. What is factual: the ten-game streak produced 20 points in a crucial stretch of the schedule when the Atlantic Division standings were being decided, and by the time it was over, the Buffalo Sabres were a playoff team that believed in what they were doing.
Tage Thompson scored 40 goals and 81 points - his third season with 35-plus goals. Zach Benson emerged as the rising-star forward the rebuild had projected him to be. Josh Doan, acquired from Arizona through the Utah transition, produced strong depth-forward numbers in the first half. The team that had scored 269 goals in 2024-25 (fifth in the Eastern Conference) scored 288 in 2025-26 (third in the Eastern Conference). The goals-against improved from 289 to 241 - a 48-goal defensive improvement that was the product of Samuelsson's structure, the penalty kill's excellence, and the consistent goaltending of Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen in the starts that counted most.
“"I think everyone in here is tired of saying we played a good game and didn't get a win."=Tage Thompson, in Calgary, before the ten-game win streak - the sentence that preceded the streak that changed the season.”
[game-card:R1 G1-G2 · Buffalo wins both in Boston=BUF=BOS=W=Took control on the road immediately. Luukkonen sharp. Benson rolling. The series the franchise had waited fourteen years for began with the road sweep no Buffalo team had managed against Boston before.||R1 G6 · Buffalo 4-1 at Boston=BUF=BOS=W=Close it out in Boston. First playoff series win since 2007. The KeyBank Centre celebrated a result that arrived in TD Garden. The drought - 14 years, an NHL record - officially over.||R2 G4 · Buffalo wins=BUF=MTL=W=Dahlin two points in the game. 3-1 series lead. One win from the Conference Final. The high-water mark of the season - and the moment the Game 7 heartbreak was being set up by the goaltending decision yet to come.||R2 G7 OT · Montreal wins · Newhook OT=BUF=MTL=L=Competitive sixty minutes. Overtime. Alex Newhook scores. Season ends. The most Buffalo possible ending to the most Buffalo possible season.]
The goaltending split: Luukkonen was excellent in Round 1 and Games 1-2 of Round 2. When Alex Lyon entered in Games 3, 5, and 6 of the Montreal series, he allowed 9 goals on 63 shots in Games 5 and 6 combined - the specific failure that gave Montreal the momentum for a Game 7 that Buffalo led through regulation before losing in overtime. The series was 3-1 Buffalo with Luukkonen starting. The coaching decision to start Lyon in the late-series games when the season was on the line is the specific tactical question that Lindy Ruff and Kekäläinen must answer honestly this summer. The goaltending tandem produced a playoff appearance and a 3-1 series lead. Then it produced a 3-3 tie and a Game 7 loss. Both are the same tandem.
| Player | Pos | Line | Grade | Note |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Rasmus Dahlin | D (Captain) | 74pts (19G-55A) · career high in every category · Norris finalist · Masterton nominee · 5 games missed | A | The grade accounts for both dimensions of the season. Career highs in goals, assists, points, plus-minus, and shooting percentage. Norris Trophy nomination as one of the three best defencemen in the NHL. Bill Masterton Trophy nomination for perseverance and dedication - the award that most honestly captures what the season asked of him personally. He led all Buffalo defencemen in every major scoring category in both the regular season and the playoffs, while managing the most difficult personal circumstances any franchise captain navigated in 2025-26. The A is for all of it. |
| Mattias Samuelsson | D | +41 (team leader) · "team's best defenceman" · 83 blocked shots · led PK · 2nd-ranked NHL PK | A- | The revelation of the 2025-26 Buffalo Sabres season. The player every internal voice identified as the team's best defensive piece. The +41 team leader on an Atlantic Division champion. The PK anchor on the league's second-best penalty kill. He is not Dahlin - he does not produce the offensive numbers that attract external attention. He is the specific defensive piece that makes Dahlin's offensive production possible and the team's goals-against defensible. |
| Tage Thompson | C (A) | 40G · 81pts (team leader both) · third consecutive 35+ goal season · franchise cornerstone | B+ | His third consecutive season with 35-plus goals - the rare individual consistency that separates genuine stars from career-high contributors. Forty goals and 81 points on a 109-point Atlantic Division champion team is the production of a first-line centre who defines what his franchise's offence looks like. His B-plus reflects the playoffs, where his contributions were solid but not the decisive factor that Dahlin's were. He is 27. The summer's most important contract. |
| Zach Benson | F | Rising star · "rolling" in playoffs (3G-3A in final 5 playoff games) · development on schedule | B | The forward development piece that the rebuild identified as a key future contributor and that the 2025-26 season confirmed as already contributing. His playoff production - particularly in the final five games - was the forward depth output that the team needed when the higher-profile names were limited. Young. Improving. The most encouraging individual development story in Buffalo since Dahlin's own emergence three seasons ago. |
| Luukkonen / Lyon | G | Luukkonen: 22W · excellent in R1 and R2 G1-G2 · Lyon: 9 GA on 63 shots in R2 G5-G6 | C+ | The split grade reflects the split performance. Luukkonen was the team's most reliable individual in R1 and in the first two games of R2 when the series was at 2-0 Buffalo. Lyon's insertion for the critical late games of the Montreal series produced the goaltending collapse that gave Montreal the momentum for a Game 7 the Sabres had been 3-1 up in the series to avoid. The decision to start Lyon in those games is the specific tactical question the organisation must answer. |
| Lindy Ruff | HC | 109 points · Atlantic Division title · ended 14-year drought · R2 G7 loss | B | He coached this team from 100-to-1 Cup longshots to Atlantic Division champions. The regular-season result is genuinely excellent - 50 wins, 109 points, first division title in decades. The R2 series management question - specifically why Lyon was in net for Games 5 and 6 after Luukkonen was excellent throughout - is the legitimate critique the grade must acknowledge. |
The Newhook overtime goal is the specific image that ends the 2025-26 Buffalo Sabres season. It arrived in the most Buffalo way possible - Game 7, at home, in overtime, after the team led the series 3-1, after the goaltending collapsed in the two games that tied it, after a regulation sixty minutes that kept the season alive long enough for the cruelest possible outcome. It is not the only image of the season. The ten-game winning streak is an image. Dahlin playing through October while managing the hardest personal circumstances of his career is an image. The Atlantic Division banner going up is an image. The franchise's first playoff series win since 2007 - in Boston, in Game 6 - is an image.
The 14-year drought ended. The second round was reached. Game 7 was played. It was not won. The specific frustration of a franchise that lost the most consecutive seasons without a playoff appearance in NHL history, then made the playoffs and the second round in their return year, and then lost in the most painful way available in a sport that provides many - that frustration is real and earned and belongs to everyone who watched all fourteen years. The season that produced it is also the foundation for what comes next. Kekäläinen's summer must answer the goaltending question. Ruff's team must answer the question of what it takes to convert a 3-1 series lead into a Conference Final appearance. Both are answerable. The 109 points and the Atlantic Division title are the proof that this organisation is now capable of asking them.