It is beyond embarrassing what the Buffalo Sabres have become at this point. Constantly being the laughingstock of the league should be a line that any owner or general manager would draw and make necessary changes to their team to get that tag removed, but not this one. Everyone who was employed at the start of this season still has their job, and there is little to no faith in the owner to remove general manager (GM) Kevyn Adams from his position, and there is just as little faith in Adams to fire any of the coaching staff and have them be accountable for how terrible things have gone. Admitting they are bad and need to adjust is one thing, actually making changes and working towards gaining some modicum of respect back is a whole different beast that they will have to conquer.
Where Did It All Go Wrong for the Sabres?
Going back years, the answer can get very complicated and long-winded, so to focus purely on this season, the answer really lies in three incidents all tied to the same event: the 13-game losing streak itself, Kevyn Adams’ “Palm Trees and Taxes” press conference, and Terry Pegula’s “the answer is in the room” speech. Each one of these events highlights the failures of every facet of this organization and it shows them all at their lowest points.
The 13-game losing streak was a culmination of the team not being able to string anything constructive together, while the coaching staff was unable to get that same team ready for game day. There were no big adjustments, no big-time player performances, and certainly no real accountability. The only possible exception was maybe Jason Zucker at the time, who was playing fairly well, but beyond him, there was not much reason to watch the Sabres play. The power play looked as abysmal as it has all season long, and there were no answers. Not on the ice, and certainly not in the locker room.
This leads us to the speech that owner Terry Pegula reportedly gave to the Sabres amidst that losing streak. In an attempt to rally the troops, Pegula made a trip to Montreal with the team back in December and gave them a speech about how he believes in them and how he noted that he thinks that “the solution is in the room” to get them out of their slump and back in the playoff race. Since that speech, they are in no better of a position and have even fallen further in the standings while other teams (like the Montreal Canadiens) that were below them at the time have catapulted up the standings into playoff positions, or close to them. Hollow words lead to hollow actions, and they were backed up by a GM who lacked any capacity to make change while his team sunk.
Kevyn Adams made a ridiculous comment back in early December right at the start of the losing streak (when it was only at five games) that the reason he was not able to get high-profile free agents to sign in Buffalo, or get players to waive their no-trade clauses to be moved to Buffalo, were because they play in New York, and because “we don’t have palm trees, we have taxes.” Ever since he made that statement, he showed his hand and revealed how weak he was as a general manager, and how weak the organization was as a whole. Showing the hockey world that no player wants to come play for your team with a simple statement, and the next day he still had his job. It is still one of the greatest magic acts I have seen to this day.
How to Clean Up the Sabres’ Mess
The easy answer is dangling there like the lowest hanging fruit waiting to be picked, and that is to finally remove Kevyn Adams from the general manager’s chair. That would be the first place to start. After that, a long look would need to be taken at this coaching staff. Duds like Marty Wilford, who runs the atrocity of a defense and penalty kill, Matt Ellis, who is the assistant coach in the press box, and Seth Appert, who is the power play coach and “head coach in waiting” behind Lindy Ruff, all need to be shown the door as soon as possible.
The collective incompetency of these three has been a pain point all season long, and while Lindy Ruff may be the head coach, he was never given a chance to hire his own coaching staff when he was brought in. He inherited every assistant coach on this team, and then Appert was promoted from being the Rochester Americans’ head coach in order to keep him in the organization. Ruff had his hands tied with a losing setup of staff from the start, and it really shows. Every single one of them needs to be shown the door, and Ruff needs to have a season to pick his own coaches, and really try to get his system in place the way he envisions it.
Sabres Players Bear Some Responsibility
At the end of the day, no matter what the owner or GM says, or what the coaches draw up, it is the players on the ice that are the ones generating a win or a loss. Ultimately, this team just has not been good enough, and they have been an embarrassment to themselves so regularly, that it is almost comical when they find new ways to outdo their previous low. For instance, when they recently were down a single goal against the Utah Hockey Club late in the third period, and right as they had the goalie pulled and were being awarded a delayed penalty, Tage Thompson threw an errant pass past his teammate Rasmus Dahlin, all the way down the ice, and into the empty net and scored on his own goal. It was a pique moment of failure to watch, as they could have been on a 6-on-4 power play to try and tie the game. All they had to do was give away the puck (something they already do so well) but this time, they fumbled doing even that and scored on their own net to seal the loss.
Related: Sabres Need to Hit Rock Bottom One Last Time
The players have no awareness, and they all have so many bad habits that they have not broken from being in bad systems and on such a bad team for so long. It is clearly time to move on from some of them and start over a little bit. As long as Kevyn Adams is no longer at the helm, this should not be an issue, but if he still manages to pull another magician’s act for owner Terry Pegula and keeps his job, I fear for the lack of positive change this team is in for.
