Sabres End 19 Years of Playoff Misery

The Buffalo Sabres are moving on.

Not just to the second round — to something this franchise hasn't touched since Ryan Miller was in goal, since Daniel Briere was dropping jaws, since Zach Benson was still in diapers. Buffaloclinched their first playoff series win since May 6, 2007, disposing of the Boston Bruins 4-1 in Game 6 at TD Garden. Nineteen years. Think about that. An entire generation of Sabres fans grew up watching nothing but disappointment.

Tage Thompson and Rasmus Dahlin's moment finally arrived

These two guys have been through the worst of it. The dark years. The tanking seasons. The "maybe next year" speeches that never led anywhere. Thompson and Dahlin each had two assists in the clincher, and you could see what it meant to them out there. Dahlin was barking at the Boston crowd early. Thompson was finishing checks like he had something to prove. Because he did.

Buffalo didn't just back into this series win. They earned it. Alex Tuch opened the scoring 3:25 into the first period. Mattias Samuelsson doubled it before the period was out. Zach Benson made it 3-0 in the third and you could feel the Garden going quiet. Josh Norris buried the empty netter to finish it off.

Lindy Ruff's incredible full-circle return

Here's the part that gets me.

Lindy Ruff was behind the bench in 2007. That team had 113 points, won the Presidents' Trophy, and lost to Ottawa in the Eastern Conference Final. He got let go. He coached the Rangers, the Stars. He waited. And now he's back, nearly two decades later, telling his team "we're going to win the game" before Game 6 — and they went out and did exactly that.

Full circle doesn't cover it. That's a documentary. Ruff watched this organization bottom out, rebuild, stumble, and now he's the guy standing behind the bench when it finally matters again. He kept his cool all series. The players fed off it.

Boston's home playoff nightmare isn't over

The Bruins went 0-3 at home in this series. Zero. Three consecutive losses at TD Garden in a elimination games. That's not a bad bounce. That's a pattern. Boston has now lost six straight home playoff games dating back to prior postseasons. Marco Sturm's first year as head coach ends with a thud.

David Pastrnak scored Boston's lone goal, a nice play off a turnover in the second period. Jeremy Swayman made 22 saves and finished with a .906 save percentage across six games. He wasn't the problem. The problem was the offense drying up at home, the power play going cold, and a team that looked tight when it mattered most.

Andrei Vasilevskiy was brilliant in Tampa's 1-0 OT win over Montreal in Game 6. Gage Goncalves scored the winner at 9:03 of overtime. Vasilevskiy made 30 saves for his eighth career playoff shutout. The Lightning forced a Game 7 on Sunday.

What to watch tonight

Buffalo will face either Tampa Bay or Montreal in Round 2. That series comes down to Game 7 — Tampa Bay is 7-3 all-time in winner-take-all games, including 4-1 at home. Montreal has won five of its last six Game 7s on the road. That's a coin flip.

But right now, who cares? The Sabres won. Lindy Ruff is smiling. Buffalo fans can finally breathe.

What a time to be alive in western New York.

Sources: NHL Game Recap | Sportsnet | AP News | Newsweek