The Buffalo Sabres and Philadelphia Flyers share many things in common ahead of their regular-season finale Thursday night in Western New York.
Let’s start with the obvious: Both teams were eliminated from postseason contention long ago.
Taken a step further, the Sabres and Flyers were both shut out in their last game on Tuesday. Buffalo saw its losing skid extend to four games (0-3-1) with a 4-0 setback against the Toronto Maple Leafs, while Philadelphia was blanked for the eighth time this season following its 3-0 decision to the Columbus Blue Jackets.
And let’s address the elephant in the room. The Flyers (33-38-10, 76 points) are tied with the Boston Bruins and Seattle Kraken for the fourth-fewest points in the NHL, one more than the Sabres (35-39-7, 77 points). So, the result of Thursday’s game will have an impact on the 2025 NHL Draft lottery.
Just don’t tell that to Philadelphia goaltender Samuel Ersson, who made 31 saves against the Blue Jackets on Tuesday.
“Obviously it’s very disappointing for us, we want to be in the playoffs, that’s the situation we want to be in,” Ersson said, per NBC Sports Philadelphia. “That’s why you work so hard in the summer and why you put in all the work during the year, you want to be in the playoffs.
“It stings not being there, I think we have some lessons to learn from this year, myself included in that. I think you have to remember how much this (stinks) and use that as fuel and let it motivate you to work even harder to get to the playoffs.”
Buffalo knows that mantra all too well considering the franchise last qualified for the postseason following the 2010-11 campaign.
“We left a lot of good chances out there,” Sabres head coach Lindy Ruff said following Tuesday’s clash versus the rival Maple Leafs. “Tight game. It was a hard-fought game. We were doing a lot of good stuff against those two top lines and we were generating enough to win it. … Second period, we left too many chances there.”
Buffalo will look to avoid a season sweep at the hands of visiting Philadelphia on Thursday. The Flyers skated to three-goal home victories on both Nov. 16 and March 29.
Rookie Matvei Michkov had two assists in the Flyers’ 5-2 November win over the Sabres and scored two goals in the 7-4 triumph last month. Michkov is tied with Travis Konecny and Tyson Foerster for the team lead with 24 goals.
Unfortunately for Michkov and his teammates, they all came up empty against the Blue Jackets — resulting in the club falling to 5-2-1 under interim head coach Brad Shaw.
“I thought we were a little easier to play against than what we have been recently,” Shaw said. “It’s too bad because the first eight, 10 minutes, I thought we were going to be in a real good hockey game. It just didn’t sort of finish that way for us.”
–Field Level Media
