BUFFALO – The Sabres boast one of the NHL’s deepest, most talented and youngest rosters.
On paper at least, they look poised to enjoy success in the coming years following a breakout season in which they ended their NHL-record 14-year playoff drought, won the Atlantic Division and came within one goal of reaching the Eastern Conference final.
“Just because you have success one year doesn’t mean that it guarantees that it translates to the next year,” Sabres goalie Alex Lyon said Tuesday during his end-of-season media availability in KeyBank Center.
Lyon, whose Sabres on Monday lost 3-2 in overtime in Game 7 to the Montreal Canadiens, compared an entire season to a game or a series in the Stanley Cup Playoffs.
“We were always talking about how crazy it was that the momentum doesn’t flow from game to game, period to period sometimes,” he said. “And it’s the same principle as a hockey team from season to season. Just because things really clicked and worked really well this year, doesn’t mean that it’s automatically just gonna happen again next year.”
Lyon believes the best players and organizations have a “healthy fear” that past success hardly means it will materialize the next season. Players will inevitably face adversity, so they better get ready for it.
“My brain is just trained to think like there’s always adversity on the way, and if you’re prepared for it, it just makes it that much easier to get over and move past,” he said. “So I think that we have to understand that it’s just gonna be really difficult. Not that it’s not achievable, by any means. It’s certainly achievable.”
In winning 50 games, earning 109 points defeating the Boston Bruins in the first round of the postseason, the Sabres established a strong identity and a high standard while developing loads confidence.
From Dec. 9, when they started their 10-game win streak and unlikely climb out of last place, until the end of the regular season, they compiled a stunning 39-9-5 record, good for a league-best 83 points. Now one else had more than 77 points during that stretch.
This offseason will be different than any of the last 14. Eight months ago, winger Josh Doan said, the Sabres did not know who they were as a team.
“Now we know what we are and who we are and what we can be, so there’s just a different element heading into the offseason,” he said.
Now, Doan said, the Sabres have a culture that demands they’re more than just a playoff team.
“(We want) to be a team that no one wants to play and a team that if we’re coming into your building, you’re coming to Buffalo, you’re in for a tough night,” he said.
For winger Beck Malenstyn, the Sabres’ ability to make life miserable for opponents many nights by holding leads or erasing them illustrates the biggest change in the team.
“There was just a confidence, a maturity, I think, just through experience that grew within the room, and a belief that we could win hockey games from any position coming down the stretch,” he said. “It just shows that when you go through hard times together, when you come out on the right side of it, you can really grow from it.”
The bond the Sabres forged this season means something. They clearly like and play for each other. That’s not always the case.
Players often talk about how much they enjoy spending time together away from the rink. On the ice, they stick up for each other.
“I love every guy in that room,” Sabres winger Zach Benson said. “It’s truly a brotherhood. It’s the tightest team I’ve ever been on. It was cool to see the city kind of rally around us. It was super cool and a season I’ll never forget.”
Chances are most of the Sabres will return next season. Still, changes will be made, and a different group will convene for training camp in September.
“You got lot of people that you’ve gotten close to that there’s a chance that not everyone’s back, obviously,” Doan said. “… There’s a lot of what-ifs heading now into the offseason that as a group you can kind of push away when you’re playing.”
With the season over, Doan said “those questions are glaring in your face.”
“You got a lot of friends and people that you’ve grown with this year,” he said. “No team is ever the exact same the next year, so that’s the harsh reality of sports.”