Better luck next year: This really seemed like the year the Buffalo Sabres would break the streak

The vibes were so good at the start.

Welcome back to Better Luck Next Year, a series that will focus on each team as they get eliminated from Stanley Cup Playoff contention and the Stanley Cup Playoffs. What went wrong, why it went wrong, what (if anything) went right, and what is next. We continue today with the next team to be officially eliminated from Stanley Cup Playoff contention: The Buffalo Sabres.

Not only was I convinced that the Buffalo Sabres were going to finally return to the Stanley Cup Playoffs this season, I legitimately thought they had a real chance to finish in the top-three in the Atlantic Division. I was that high on them. The vibes were immaculate at the start. They only missed the playoffs by one point a year ago, they had a really young, talented lineup that was already scoring goals like a contender, their defense is loaded with young talent (including two No. 1 overall picks in Rasmus Dahlin and Owen Power), and I had high hopes that Devon Levi might take a leap forward and help secure the goalie spot.

Maybe it was all expecting too much.

It just seemed like a team whose arrow was pointing up. Rapidly. Their fans certainly deserved it.

Yet, here we are in the home stretch of the regular season and the Sabres find themselves officially eliminated from playoff contention for an NHL record 13th consecutive season while they are set to finish with less points than they did a year ago.

Even worse, the team that was so fun and exciting to watch a year ago seemed to lose a lot of that this season and went from being the third-highest scoring team in the league (3.57 goals per game) all the way down to 22nd in the NHL (2.98 goals per game), losing more than a half-goal per game. They were not even all that fun to watch this season.

There has definitely been some significant progress here from a big picture perspective, and they actually have a chance to finish with a points percentage over .500 in back-to-back years for the first time since the 2011-12 and 2012-13 seasons. Considering where they were three or four years ago, that is definitely a step forward.

The problem is the Sabres are now finding out that it is a lot easier to go from bad to mediocre than it is to go from mediocre to good.

Everything that went wrong