It has been a while since the last time the Buffalo Sabres played in the Stanley Cup Playoffs. That was over a decade ago, in 2011, when the franchise won 43 games under Lindy Ruff. At that time, Sabres forward
JJ Peterka was just nine years old. Several years later, Peterka has become part of the Sabres, with one of his main missions as a pro being to help Buffalo end its lengthy playoff drought.
In the eyes of Peterka, the Sabres shouldn’t be missing the playoffs anymore just because they’re a relatively young team in the NHL. The Sabres entered the 2023-24 NHL season as the league’s youngest squad, with an average age of 26 years old. As comparison, the oldest team at the start of last season were the Pittsburgh Steelers with an average age of 30.6 years.
“It’s not an excuse anymore,” Peterka said, per Nicholas J. Cotsonika of NHL.com.
“We’re all a year older than we were last year, so I think for us it’s just time to take the next step right now.”
Buffalo goaltender Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen reiterated his teammate’s point.
“You’re a young team, you’re an old team,” Luukkonen said. “In the end it doesn’t matter. You’re in the League to win. You’re in the League to make the playoffs. You can’t hide behind it forever. It’s an easy way out from it.
“Even though we’re a young team, there’s a lot of players who have a lot of NHL games already, so it’s kind of now our time to prove everybody wrong and just make the playoffs.”
Can Peterka and Luukkonen keep it up?
If the Sabres are to make the playoffs in the coming 2024-25 NHL season, Peterka and Luukkonen likely would have played big roles in that kind of Buffalo achievement.
Peterka is coming off a breakout season in the NHL. During the 2023-24 campaign, he racked up 50 points on the strength of 28 goals and 22 assists — both career-highs. He had a big jump in goals and assists in his third season. Before his huge 2023-24 season, Peterka had 12 goals and 20 assists for 32 points in 2022-23.
Luukkonen, on the other hand, handled the majority of the load in front of the net for the Sabres last season, posting a 27-22-4 record to go with a .910 saves percentage and 2.57 goals against average across 54 games (51 starts) between the pipes.
Overall in the 2023-24 season, the Sabres posted a 39-37-6 record (84 points) to finish just sixth in the Atlantic division and seven points outside of the second and last wild-card ticket in the Eastern Conference.
