BUFFALO, NY - APRIL 01: Fans cheer as Tyler Ennis #63 of the Buffalo Sabres heads to the ice for a game against the Toronto Maple Leafs on April 1, 2015 at the First Niagara Center in Buffalo, New York. (Photo by Bill Wippert/NHLI via Getty Images)

(Ed. Note: The Buffalo Sabres have completed one of the most disappointing yet hopeful, logical yet controversial seasons in NHL history. Throughout the week, we’ll publish different perspectives on the Tank That Was. Today, it’s NHL.com correspondent and long-time blogger Joe Yerdon on covering the Sabres beat this season.)

By Joe Yerdon, Special for Puck Daddy

BUFFALO – When the rest of the hockey-loving world looks back on the 2014-2015 Buffalo Sabres season, the appreciation for just how historically bizarre it was should live on forever.

It should live forever because we’re never going to see another like it by any team, anywhere, at any time ever again. I’m not saying that because I had a front row seat for it; but when you step away from the smoldering wreckage of the second straight season as the NHL’s worst team, there are the individual stories and happenings that made it happen.

The goal for the season was to secure 30th place and they did that with flying colors, just like they did last season when it wasn't exactly a tank job.

Unlike last season, they had other teams attempting to get that low. Think about this for a second: The Sabres were two points better than they were last season. They scored more goals than last season, and yet were still only two points worse than the Arizona Coyotes.

Yeah, the Coyotes, where their assistant general manager, Darcy Regier, is the guy who got all the losing started in Buffalo. Imagine the twist that could’ve played out had the Coyotes snaked out the Sabres for the best odds at Connor McDavid. A team with Regier landing McDavid, only it’s not for the team where he reminded fans that “there’s going to be some suffering” as they traded away every big star to rebuild.

Instead, the Sabres were one of the worst teams in NHL history when it came to just about everything. They were outshot by opponents to a historic level. They gave up 116 more goals than they scored and they only scored 153.

Tyler Ennis was the Sabres leading scorer and he had 46 points. That would’ve been enough to make him seventh on the Tampa Bay Lightning in points just ahead of Anton Stralman and two behind Valtteri Filppula.

Ennis was also the only player on the Sabres to score 20 goals. Talk about persevering through madness, Ennis has proven in the past two seasons that if/when the Sabres rise from the muck of the tank years that he’s the guy that will lead Sam Reinhart and either McDavid or Jack Eichel to glory. Enough can’t be said for how well Ennis has played during his peak years with what’s been a truly terrible team. If there was an award for being the MVP of the worst team, Ennis would win in a runaway.

But the most insane part about this season was that it was all by design.

View photos Tim Murray, center, the new Buffalo Sabres hockey team general manager, takes questions from the media at the First Niagara Center in Buffalo, N.Y. , Thursday, Jan. 9, 2014. (AP Photo/Nick LoVerde) More

Sabres GM Tim Murray padded his roster in the offseason with high-character veterans like Brian Gionta, Josh Gorges, and Matt Moulson. How those guys helped keep a room together that had incredible amounts of turnover through the season and set the example for the host of younger players won’t be seen for a year or two at least, but when you’re building a house you need a foundation and these guys are framework to hold the building blocks in place.

Of course, most of those building blocks didn’t arrive in full until after the trade deadline when Chris Stewart, Torrey Mitchell, Brian Flynn and Michal Neuvirth were all sent out of town. Perhaps not coincidentally they were some of the hardest working players on the roster and there wasn’t much return for all of them aside from goalie Chad Johnson who got injured shortly after joining the team and didn’t play a game for the Sabres this season.

Story continues