The Buffalo Sabres surprising storybook season has reached the end. The Sabres fell 3-2 to the Montreal Canadiens in a Game 7 overtime thriller on Monday night at Key Bank Center.
After falling behind 2-0 in the first period, Buffalo rallied with goals from Jordan Greenway and Rasmus Dahlin to force overtime. The hero of the extra session was Montreal’s Alex Newhook, who now has seven postseason goals in the 2026 Stanley Cup Playoffs.
The 2025-26 campaign will go down as one of the most remarkable seasons in Buffalo Sabres history. The sting of being eliminated from the Stanley Cup Playoffs is fresh. The pain of not coming out on top in such a tightly contested seven-game series will no doubt stay with this group for a long time to come.
The Sabres certainly had several opportunities in Game 7 to secure a victory.
“It’s tough, it stings,” said Sabres forward Tage Thompson. “I thought we played hard all year to get to this point. I don’t think anyone in this room thought we were done yet. Just disappointed, it sucks.”
“I thought we played a really good game, which makes it even tougher to taste. Had a lot of chances, (goaltender Ukko-Pekka-Luukkonen) played great, keeps it tight for us, we claw our way back into it. Felt like we had all the momentum, just couldn’t score. I really thought that was gonna end different.”
There are many offseason questions to be answered in the coming weeks, but those discussions are for another day. The 25-26 campaign will go down as one of the most remarkable seasons in Buffalo Sabres history
In the long-term view, the future is bright for a team that rescued its season after a disastrous start last fall.
The Sabres went on to capture an Atlantic Division title, break a 14-year playoff drought, and win the club’s first playoff series since 2007.
The strong performances of young forwards Zach Benson, Josh Doan, and rookie Konsta Helenius are bright spots heading into next season. However, the work that went into this remarkable run now feels unfinished.
The end of this Sabres season is unlike so many that have gone before. Having a season end because the team is not competitive contains an altogether different set of emotions than being one shot away from reaching the Eastern Conference Finals.
The pain of the loss in an overtime game seven is raw. The feeling of what could have been will linger for a team that accomplished so much and yet failed to achieve their ultimate goal.
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