Division clinched
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‘We’re not finished’: Sabres set playoff sights high, with Atlantic Division title firmly in hand
‘We’re not finished’: Sabres set playoff sights high, with Atlantic Division title firmly in hand
The Buffalo Sabres beat the Chicago Blackhawks to win their first Atlantic Division championship and earn home ice in the first two rounds of the Stanley Cup Playoffs.
The Buffalo Sabres considered where they were at, a little more than six months ago, at the start of the 2025-26 season. Making the playoffs seemed a pipe dream. The idea of earning home ice? A faint glimmer on the horizon. Winning an Atlantic Division championship? About as likely as a snowstorm in Erie County in August.
None of it was impossible for the Sabres, who held onto all those thoughts and ideas of making the playoffs. Those turned into goals as the season progressed. Then, the goals turned into a reality Monday night, at the conclusion of a 5-1 win against the Chicago Blackhawks at United Center.
Buffalo Sabres goalie Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen, left, celebrates with teammate Tage Thompson after
defeating the Chicago Blackhawks in an NHL hockey game in Chicago, Monday, April 13, 2026. (AP Photo/Paul Beaty)
The newly crowned Atlantic Division champions enjoyed their 50th win of the season and fully looked forward to something no Sabres team has had a chance to relish since 2011: The Stanley Cup Playoffs.
The cheers of “Let’s go Buffalo!” and exclamations of “It’s been 15 years!” echoed through the upper tiers of United Center as the Sabres raised their sticks and hugged one another as they headed off the ice.
The shouts above the blast of country music being played in the locker were raucous. A few beers flowed. The smiles were wide – probably as wide as when Thomas Vanek and Jason Pominville helped the Sabres win the Northeast Division title in the spring of 2010, the last time the Sabres won a division title.
“We’ve been through a lot,” said Tage Thompson, who scored two goals against the Blackhawks. “It’s my eighth year (with the Sabres). A lot of years of adversity. A lot of challenges. And I think that journey makes the destination feel that much better. The exciting part is that’s not the final destination for us. It’s, in a sense, just a start.”
The Stanley Cup Playoffs begin Saturday, and the Sabres will open their first-round series either Saturday or Sunday. The Sabres earned home ice at KeyBank Center in the first two rounds of the playoffs and locked up their first Atlantic Division title. The Sabres also won their fourth game in a row and handed the Blackhawks their ninth loss in the last 10 games.
To get to that division title, the Sabres needed to beat the Blackhawks in regulation Monday night. Tied 1-1 in the second period, the Sabres outshot the Blackhawks 5-0 in the first five minutes of the second, and Thompson gave the Sabres a 2-1 lead on the Sabres’ 10th shot on goal of the period, beating goalie Spencer Knight at 13:00.
Less than five minutes into the third, the Sabres killed off a 5-on-3 opportunity for the Blackhawks penalties, after Jason Zucker was called for crosschecking at 2:02 and the Sabres were called for a bench minor at 2:49 for too many men on the ice, served by Jack Quinn.
Forty-nine seconds after the second penalty, Alex Tuch made it 3-1 at 5:38 of the third, the first of three third-period goals for the Sabres.
One would think the Sabres would sleep a little better these next few nights, knowing they have a banner to hang, a first-round playoff series to open at home, and the Sabres’ first playoff berth in 15 years.
Not Tuch, the Baldwinsville native who can still recall watching the Sabres’ playoff runs in the early 2000s. The right wing, who scored a goal and had an assist Monday against the Blackhawks, beamed as he described what it was like to look forward to the playoffs.
“I’m just going to be so excited to play that first game in KeyBank,” Tuch said. “I’m just so excited for that.”
About that sleep? He doesn’t expect much in the next few days.
“I’ll probably still be waking up early with the kids in the morning,” Tuch said. “It’s nice. I’m really proud of this group. We worked really hard to obtain that goal. But the work’s not over. We’re not done. We’re not finished. We’re striving for more here. We want more, and we’re hungry. That’s all that matters to us, is what’s next.”
The Sabres will open the Stanley Cup Playoffs with an Atlantic Division crown firmly in hand, and a first-round opponent yet to be determined, likely either Ottawa or Boston.
The Sabres already sported division champion hats Monday night on the ground floor of United Center, as they cleared out of the visitors’ locker room. They might even have a bullseye on their collective backs, as one of the top teams in the Eastern Conference.
About that hat.
Sabres coach Lindy Ruff already had an idea for how to wear it: Wear it once, then look ahead to the playoffs.
“It’s been a long time coming,” said Ruff, who coached the Sabres in their last playoff appearance in the spring of 2011. “It’s been too long. To secure home ice, we talked a lot about being a playoff team. We didn’t talk much about winning our division or winning our conference, but to be Atlantic Division champions, and now we get to start at home? Great for our guys, great for our team. Great for the fans and awesome for the city.”
Ruff has had 15 years to contemplate this, a stretch that included stops as head coach in Dallas from 2013-17, in New Jersey from 2020-24, and as an assistant with the New York Rangers from 2017-20, before he returned to coach the Sabres for a second stint in April 2024.
Ruff brought the season into focus, and how it culminated in the moments Monday night in Chicago: A 10-game winning streak in December that evoked a collective confidence in the Sabres. Their resiliency after the losses – and there were only nine in regulation and four in overtime – after Jan. 1. The cultivated expectation that losing leads was unacceptable.
And as for Rasmus Dahlin, the Sabres captain, who endured heartache in the first few weeks of the season as his fiancée recovered from a heart transplant last summer, then emerged as a bona fide Norris Trophy candidate?
He sees the playoffs – his first trip to the Stanley Cup Playoffs in his eight-season career, all with the Sabres – as an opportunity for his team to accomplish new goals.
“We have one goal in mind, now,” the defenseman said. “It’s kind of hard to celebrate now, knowing we have unbelievable challenges in front of us here. Now, we’re going to switch focus to the playoffs. We have to get ready, that’s for sure.”
The Athletic: Sabres win Atlantic Division, lock up home-ice while awaiting playoff opponent
Sabres win Atlantic Division, lock up home-ice while awaiting playoff opponent
Monday marked first time the Sabres have won the division in its current setup. Their last division title was the Northeast in 2009-10.
www.nytimes.com
Josh Doan and Ryan McLeod fist-bump after a Sabres goal, with another teammate in the distance.
Geoff Stellfox / Getty Images
First, the Buffalo Sabres ended their league-record 14-year playoff drought. Now they have won their division for the first time in 16 years.
With a 5-1 win at the Chicago Blackhawks on Monday night, the Sabres clinched first place in the Atlantic Division for the first time in its current iteration after having never finished a season higher than fifth. This is the Sabres’ first division title since they won the Northeast Division in the 2009-10 season.
“I’m really proud of this group,” Sabres forward Alex Tuch told reporters after the game. “We worked really hard to attain this goal. But the work is not over. We’re not done. We’re not finished. We’re striving for more here. We want more and we’re hungry. That’s all that matters to us is what’s next.”
The Sabres were in last place in the Eastern Conference on Dec. 9, but have the best record in the NHL since that day. Coming out of the Olympic break, the Sabres were eight points behind the Tampa Bay Lightning for the division lead, then won 12 of their next 13 games. They played the Lightning three times after the break and won all three matchups in regulation, including a thrilling 8-7 slugfest in Buffalo on March 8.
Monday’s win allows the Sabres to avoid watching the scores of Lightning and Montreal Canadiens games this week. They will enter the playoffs with home-ice advantage for at least the first two rounds if they make it that far, while also ensuring that the Lightning and Canadiens will play each other in the first round.
The Sabres are still waiting to find out who their first-round opponent will be. The Carolina Hurricanes clinched first place in the Eastern Conference on Monday night, so the Sabres will play the higher of the two wild-card seeds. The Boston Bruins and Ottawa Senators are locked into the two wild-card spots in the Eastern Conference, but each team still has one game to play. If the Boston Bruins, who are one point ahead of the Ottawa Senators, beat the New Jersey Devils on Tuesday night, they will lock up the first wild-card spot. If the Bruins lose in regulation, the Senators only need one point in their game against the Toronto Maple Leafs on Wednesday to finish as the higher wild-card seed. If the Bruins lose in overtime, the Senators would need to beat the Leafs to finish as the higher seed.
Regardless of the opponent, the Sabres will now play their first playoff game in 15 years in Buffalo. A small supply of tickets went on sale to the general public on Monday and sold out in under an hour.
The Sabres’ final game of the regular season is Wednesday against the Dallas Stars. Coach Lindy Ruff will now have the luxury of resting some players for that game as they get themselves ready for the playoffs. The Stars will likely also be resting some key players since they are already locked into second place in the Central Division.
For now, though, the Sabres have a night to enjoy their accomplishment before their attention turns to preparing for the playoffs. Ruff made that clear while wearing a “2026 Division Champions” hat when speaking to reporters after the game.
“I’m going to enjoy this hat for one night, and then I’m going to work on the next hat,” Ruff said.
Tage Thompson scored twice, including the game-winner, to hit 40 for the season.
Kamil Krzaczynski / Imagn Images
Quick hits
1. Tage Thompson scored two goals against the Blackhawks to get to 40 for the season. He now has 40 goals and 41 assists in 81 games played. He’s one game away from playing 82 games for the first time in his career, but Thompson also has earned a night off given the way he’s played this season. He’s been one of Buffalo’s most valuable players, and it’s fitting that he had the game-winning goal that clinched the division title.2. The line of Josh Norris, Zach Benson, and Josh Doan continues to give the Sabres results. On Monday, it was Norris who got the goal on a perfect shot. But this line has consistently tilted the ice in Buffalo’s favor since Ruff put it together. In 79 minutes of five-on-five ice time together this season, the Sabres are outscoring teams 7-2, and have earned 56.8 percent of scoring chances and 63 percent of the high-danger chances. Noah Östlund’s absence has been a big one, but Benson’s play has helped keep that line productive.
3. While the Sabres’ power play has been inconsistent all season, the penalty kill has been a strength, and that continued with a 5-for-5 effort against the Blackhawks, including a late five-on-three on which the Blackhawks didn’t get a single shot on net. The Sabres now have the fourth-ranked penalty kill in the NHL.
4. The Sabres have enough defensemen that they can probably give a few of their top guys Wednesday night off. Rasmus Dahlin had another two-point night, and the Blackhawks couldn’t get anything going when Buffalo’s top four defensemen were out there. Dahlin was on the ice for two five-on-five shots against, Mattias Samuelsson and Bowen Byram were each on for one shot against, and Owen Power wasn’t out there for any. That group looks playoff-ready.