The news over the weekend that former Sabres defenseman Tyler Myers was skating in his 1,000th career NHL game brought up another milestone, this time for the Buffalo organization: the Buffalo Sabres have played 1,000 games since their last playoff game.
As of writing, it has been 4,927 days since the Sabres last skated in a playoff game, back on April 26, 2011. The team has gone 390-490-120 since then, garnering 900 points. Myers is the lone active skater still in the NHL from either team’s roster from that game back in 2011, though Jhonas Enroth is still playing overseas, too.
That 13-year stretch has seen the Sabres go through several head coaches, starting and ending with Lindy Ruff. Let’s not reminisce about the days of Ron Rolston, Ted Nolan, Dan Bylsma, Phil Housley, Ralph Krueger or Don Granato. Sigh.
To put it into perspective, Zach Benson was five years old the last time the Sabres had a playoff game.
Twenty-five different goaltenders have played in at least one game for the Sabres since then: Craig Anderson, Eric Comrie, Aaron Dell, Jhonas Enroth, Matt Hackett, Michael Houser, Carter Hutton, Jonas Johansson, Chad Johnson, Jason Kasdorf, Connor Knapp, Robin Lehner, Devon Levi, Nathan Lieuwen, Anders Lindback,Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen, Drew Macintyre, Andrey Makarov, Ryan Miller, Michal Neuvirth, Anders Nilsson, Malcolm Subban, Dustin Tokarski, Linus Ullmark & Adam Wilcox.
The Sabres have drafted 111 players, 42 of whom have played in a combined 9,603 NHL games (not all for Buffalo).
What’s happened in the world since the Sabres’ last playoff game?
In the hockey world…
- Las Vegas was awarded an expansion franchise (2016). An expansion draft was held (2017) and the team began play (2017). The Golden Knights won their first Stanley Cup (2023).
- Seattle was awarded an expansion franchise (2018). An expansion draft was held (2021) and the team began play (2021).
- The Arizona Coyotes were deactivated.
- Utah received players & personnel from Arizona and began play (2024).
- Ten (10) different teams have won the Stanley Cup.
320 NHL players have retired, including notable names like Teemu Selanne, Todd Marchant, Andrew Ference, Jay Pandolfo, Wade Redden, Mark Recchi, Brad Richards, Braydon Coburn, Brian Boyle, Miikka Kiprusoff, Carl Hagelin, Milan Hejduk, Daniel Alfredsson, the Sedin brothers, David Krejci, Derek Stepan, Chris Osgood, Mike Modano, Ryan Smyth, Evgeni Nabokov, George Parros, Henrik Lundqvist, Jason Spezza, Marian Gaborik, Martin Brodeur, Marty Turco, Mike Fisher, Ilya Kovalchuk, Nicklas Lidstrom, Patrice Bergeron, Rick Nash, Roberto Luongo, Saku Koivu, Paul Kariya & Vincent Lecavalier,
And Sabres alums: Alex Biega, Toni Lydman, Anders Nilsson, Andrej Sekera, Brian Campbell, Brian Gionta, Rostislav Klesla, Patrick Lalime, Mike Grier, Carter Hutton, Casey Nelson, Steve Montador (RIP), Chris Butler, Chris Stewart, Chris Thorburn, Cody Hodgson, Cody McCormick, Craig Anderson, Daniel Briere, Drew Bagnall, Eric Boulton, Jaroslav Spacek, Jochen Hecht, John Scott, Josh Gorges, Mark Parrish, Mike Weber, Nathan Gerbe, Martin Biron, Chris Drury, Paul Byron, Paul Gaustad, Raffi Torres, Robyn Regehr, Ryan Miller, Scott Nichol, Steve Ott, Wayne Simmonds and Zack Kassian.
And in the world…
- Osama bin Laden was killed. (May 2, 2011)
- The Iraq War ended. (2011)
- Nelson Mandela died. (December 5, 2013)
- Same-sex marriage was legalized in the US. (June 26, 2015)
- Brexit. (2016)
- The first photo of a black hole was captured. (April 10, 2019)
- Hurricanes hitting the U.S. include Sandy, Harvey, Irma, Maria and Michael.
…. and a whole lot of other things.
The fact of the matter is, it’s been a long time – too long – since the Sabres’ last playoff appearance. It’s honestly wild to think about how much has happened since April 2011, both in the hockey world and outside of it, personally and in a wider scope. It’s a shame that the drought has lasted this long, and fans are only going to grow more impatient as the days, and hopefully not years, go on.
Will this year’s iteration of the Buffalo Sabres be the one to end the drought?