After wrapping up the regular season, their 14th straight year without a playoff berth, with a win over the Philadelphia Flyers, Buffalo Sabres players began cleaning out their lockers Friday.
As they packed their bags for the offseason, with many unknowns on the horizon, players say they desperately want to win in Buffalo.
"I think we made great strides in our game the last 20 games or so," Alex Tuch said. "It's still not good enough, I think. We can still be better. We are gonna be focusing on it. There are gonna be talks about it. But words only mean so much, though. You have to put words into action."
"The last 20 games we got better. It hasn't been good enough," said captain and defenseman Rasmus Dahlin. "We're sitting here this year again with no playoffs. It's not good enough."
Veteran forward Jason Zucker, who recently signed a two-year contract extension to stay in Buffalo, stressed players need to raise their standard in the future.
“We weren’t good enough, and I think I’m going to take that as, being one of the old guys, the oldest guy, that it’s not good enough,” said Zucker. “We need to raise our standard individually and bring that into the summer, have a better summer training and ultimately come back better next year.”
"Honestly the end goal is winning the Stanley Cup, it’s not just making the playoffs," said Tuch. "You have to make the playoffs to do that, obviously. So that’s a stepping stone, but sitting here and knowing you have a long summer ahead, it flat-out sucks."
In the win over the Flyers, Lindy Ruff became the fifth coach in NHL history to reach 900 wins.
The Sabres currently hold the longest active playoff drought in the NHL, tied for the longest drought in North American pro sports with the NFL's New York Jets.
