Sabres have earned the right to be Trade Deadline buyers
“I’m a dog chasing cars…I wouldn’t know what to do with one if I caught it!”
Remember that line? It’s one of the late Heath Ledger’s less-quoted quips in his legendary, Oscar-winning turn as the Joker in The Dark Knight.
The iconic film came out in 2008. It turns 18 years old this summer. It came out one year after the Buffalo Sabres last won a playoff series. That drought turns 19 years old this spring.
But the 2025-26 Sabres, whose 15-year playoff drought is the longest in NHL history, are the dog in the Joker’s metaphor today. They’ve been chasing the chance to play meaningful April NHL games for a decade and a half, they’re finally in a position to be the hunted rather than the hunter in the NHL standings, and almost every member of their core has never experienced the feeling before.
It’s been a fascinating franchise transformation over the past 23 games, during which the Sabres have gone 19-3-1, pacing the NHL. Before their glorious streak started in early December, they appeared destined for another sad-sack season. Kevyn Adams’ rebuild had stalled so badly that ownership fired him, a rarity in-season for a GM. Head coach Lindy Ruff was the aging franchise hero and fan favorite, seemingly a desperate hire and a man unable to motivate his troops. Right winger Alex Tuch was an obvious trade candidate as a pending UFA. And to say all those narrative have 180’d since that juncture, when Jarmo Kekalainen was named GM, would be an understatement. The identity change feels absolute.
The 10-game winning streak propelled the Sabres form Draft Lottery contender in a relevant bubble playoff threat, but the momentum didn’t stop there. Since that first winning binge ended, they’ve gone 9-3-1. And they simply outclassed the Toronto Maple Leafs visiting them at Scotiabank Arena Tuesday night. On top of pummelling the Leafs 7-4 on the scoreboard, the Sabres outshot them 25-13 and outchanced them 21-15 at 5-on-5 across the first two periods when the game was still close. The Leafs got booed out of their own building, and the role reversal felt complete. The Sabres are the now alpha dog, the Leafs the also-ran.
“They move the puck really well,” said Leafs captain Auston Matthews following the defeat. “They’ve got a really dynamic defense, forwards as well. They have a very good rush game and skilled forwards up top. They get a lot of movement in the O-zone which can make it tough.”
With that victory, the Sabres ascended to third in the Atlantic Division through Tuesday’s action but had two games in hand on the Detroit Red Wings, who sat just four points ahead of them. Forget making the playoffs for the first time since 2010-11; the Sabres might be hosting a home playoff game at KeyBank Center. And they look like a team that could win a series for the first time since 2006-07.
And how are Sabres carrying this sweet, scary, unfamiliar success? They’re still processing it. It’s a balance between the euphoria of finally seeing the playoffs on the horizon but not getting too excited given they still have 30 games remaining on their schedule.
“It’s new, but I love it,” said defenseman Rasmus Dahlin, Buffalo’s captain. “That’s why I play hockey. Competitive games, playing big nights like this, that’s what I live for.”
“We are a younger group, I would say, with little to no playoff experience for a lot of guys, so obviously we get excited to put ourselves in this position,” defenseman Mattias Samuelsson told Daily Faceoff. “But I think everyone knows, especially in the East this year, you lose a couple in a row and you can drop pretty far. Every game means so much, especially division games like this. There’s confidence and belief in the group, but everyone is understanding there’s a long way to go and a lot of games to be played. And you’ve got to keep the foot on the gas for sure.”
Just listening to their leaders speak: the Sabres’ room seems to have achieved real harmony and levelheaded swagger right now. Dahlin spoke Tuesday night about loving “going to war with these guys.” They care about each other. After Tuesday’s game, his teammates expressed such love for him and such empathy for the struggles he’s endured this season after his fiancé Carolina Matovac’s heart transplant and the loss of their unborn baby. Dahlin expressed he “could not have done it without” his teammates’ support.
“It’s amazing,” said center Tage Thompson. “What he’s going through, personally, I can’t even imagine. The fact that he’s here playing hockey and competing for us means the world to us. That speaks to his character, how much he loves the team, how much he wants to win. He’s not just playing. He leads by example. I can’t say enough good things about him, and the mental strength you have to have to be able to do what he’s doing is impressive.”
The strong interpersonal relationships on the team seem to be spilling onto the ice, too. The Sabres have started seasons strongly plenty of times during their postseason drought and haven’t been able to sustain their play, but they’re much mentally tougher this season, Samuelsson explains.
“Since I’ve been here the last four or five years, I think one of our problems is riding the highs maybe a little too high and the lows a little too low,” he told Daily Faceoff. “It’s a long year. Yeah, we’ve been waiting a lot, so it’s easy to be confident – I think just staying confident in our group has been a big thing for us. And you can sense that, if [our opponents] score the first goal, we are down in games, there’s no panic. That’s maybe a little bit different from years in the past. The maturity.”
The emotional transformation of the team is visible, and it shows on the scoreboard. During their 19-3-1 run, they’re second in the NHL in goals per game and allow the second-fewest goals per game. The results are the results.
But there’s a case to be made for Kekalainen, not just the players, to stomp on the gas pedal, because this team isn’t yet perfect under the hood, based on data from Natural Stat Trick. During Buffalo’s 19-3-1 run, it has the highest shooting percentage and save percentage in the NHL. We can credit those stats to strong finishing and goaltending – a fair consideration on a team with Thompson firing howitzers on the power play and Alex Lyon and Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen playing well in goal – but the Sabres actually rank near the bottom of the league in expected goals and expected goals against at 5-on-5 over that span.
In other words: this team is on fire but is still allowing more chances than it generates – quite a bit more. Puck luck has been Buffalo’s friend. The work is not done. The Sabres are a sneaky-deep team as is, but they could use a steady, shutdown veteran defenseman to play on their third pair and maybe one more top-nine forward who mixes sandpaper into his game.
They’re still just six points north of the playoff cutline through Tuesday night, so maybe for now the “move” is simply to hold Tuch. But if the Sabres create more daylight in the standings between now and the March 6 NHL Trade Deadline and inch closer to the top of the Atlantic, they’ve earned some help from their GM. And don’t bet against it happening, either; Kekalainen has a history of taking swings at the deadline even when his team isn’t in a secure playoff position.
The players can’t control what their GM does. But they can control staying centered and understanding that they’re not invincible despite their amazing run over the past month and a half.
“We’ve only got back to the race,” Dahlin said. “We still have lots of hockey left, and we have a lot of things we have to get better at, too. That’s the exciting part. And if you want to win in this league, it’s not going to be easy, so this is just the beginning.”
The Sabres look the part of rising powerhouse, at least on the surface. To complete their makeover, it’s time to add a piece or two.
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With files from Scott Maxwell
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POST SPONSORED BY bet365
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