We’ve heard this song again and again … nine times to be exact.

And, by the end of the first week of May, the count will be 10 … as in a decade of seasons the Buffalo Sabres have missed the NHL playoffs, tying a league record.

Oh, there are still 35 games to be played in this coronavirus-shortened season and at 6-12-3 with over 60 percent of the campaign remaining, management’s go-to mantra assuredly will be “there’s still plenty of time.”

But with a paltry 15 points, the Sabres rank last in the 31-team standings and even using the games-in-hand factor, Buffalo is no better than the fourth-worst team in the NHL.

The Sabres, who have lost five straight and have won only twice in the past 12 games, are hardly playoff-bound.

Indeed, the media covering this beleaguered franchise have assessed it as “flawed to the core” and joke that when KeyBank Center permits 10 percent of capacity into the building starting with the March 20 game against Boston “are there really 1,900 people willing to pay to watch this terrible team in-person?”

The question is apt.

IN FAIRNESS, this was a franchise shut down for two weeks at the beginning of February by Covid-19. And, the Sabres are coming off a costly week when they lost their No. 1 goalie (Linus Ullmark for a month) and No. 1 center (Jack Eichel, two games, supposedly to an ankle injury) and are in a tough stretch with their top defensive pair (Rasmus Ristolainen and Jake McCabe) having missed seven games each.

Unfortunately, the Sabres’ performance over the past 10 years has forfeited their benefit of the doubt.

All you need know is that other than the 2010-11 playoff team owners Terry and Kim Pegula purchased in February of that campaign, Buffalo has been absent from the postseason ever since … nine agonizing seasons with No. 10 in progress.

Sabres fans, using the “even a blind squirrel sometimes finds an acorn” theory, can’t imagine their team didn’t make the playoffs at least once over that span … even by accident.

But a look at the people in charge speaks eloquently of the dysfunction.

In a desperation bid to find a management team that could make the Sabres relevant again, the Pegulas have had four general managers – Darcy Regier, Tim Murray, Jason Botterill and now Kevyn Adams – and six coaches: Lindy Ruff, Ron Rolston, Ted Nolan, Dan Bylsma, Phil Housley and currently Ralph Krueger.

BUFFALO’S 48 goals scored are the second fewest in the league, when factoring in games in hand.

A point of emphasis is that Buffalo is pathetic scoring in 5-on-5 situations, last in the league with only 25 such goals in 21 games. Its scoring numbers would be decidedly worse were it not for the fact that, inexplicably, the Sabres are No. 3 in power-play goal efficiency and fifth in goals with a man advantage.

Still, as the bad losses pile up, Krueger hardly helps with his lame postgame droning on about systemic failures which are keeping the team from scoring.

His press conferences are a waste as he’s sometimes off-message on injuries and lineups and, no matter how much lipstick he puts on this pig, Buffalo is hardly a mistake or two per game from being a playoff contender.

THEN there’s this.

Fans of both the Bills and Sabres are vexed by the fact that the Pegulas, despite their best efforts, own a hockey team whose front office is still in disarray, while after only two years, got it right with the football squad.

The perception is that Terry, an admitted fan, felt he could turn the Sabres around with a willingness to spend money. Unfortunately, the history of pro sports is littered with failed owners who had the same attitude, but never got the right people in place at the top.

So what happened with the Bills?

The Pegulas made their mistakes.

Falling for coach Rex Ryan’s cocky, in-your-face schtick to succeed Doug Marrone, who bailed after the 2014 season, was one.

The other was keeping then-general manager Doug Whaley two years longer than he deserved the job.

But, in 2017, they hired Sean McDermott as coach and he convinced them to add his pal from Carolina, Brandon Beane, as general manager.

Four years later, the Bills have made the playoffs three times and are coming off a season in which they advanced to the AFC Championship Game … one win from the Super Bowl.

Whether the hiring of McDermott and Beane was the product of decidedly careful research or mere dumb luck is moot.

Sabres fans just wish they could work a little of that magic again for the hockey franchise.

(Chuck Pollock, a Times Herald senior sports columnist, can be reached at cpollock@oleantimesherald.com)