One Little, Two Little Three Little Losses…..

The Buffalo Sabres organization is not happy with the current losing streak, or the teams inability to recover from injury after injury; but they do seem content on leaning against that crutch and waiting for the offseason before making any sudden moves. 

It appears as if though the management team and coaching staff are safe from the chopping block because there is no way to make grades against a team decimated by injury.  Darcy Regier has been MIA as of late, cancelling his normal appearance on WGR.  Terry Pegula has a team of body guards protecting him from the media.  Ted Black continues his vocal protection of a team rife with injuries, underperformers, and over paid role players. 

Four Little, Five Little, Six Little Losses…..

Head into the locker room after a game on this losing streak, and guys like Ryan Miller, Jason Pominville, and Paul Gausted will tell you that they don’t have the answers as to why this team can’t win – nor can they tell you what the problem is.  Ownership. 

Of course, not everyone in the lockerroom thinks it is someone else’s fault.  Thomas Vanek seems to be the only one in the locker room with integrity. 

That is what this club is missing, ownership, someone to stand up and say, “yeah I screwed the pooch and we lost, this one is on my shoulders.  No excuse, I sucked the bullet dry, and left my team hanging.  Sorry guys, won’t happen again.”

Seven Little, Eight Little, Nine Little Losses….

Jason Pominville was made Captian of the Buffalo Sabres in Europe when the team started the season overseas.  While Jason might be a nice guy, the corporate PC boardroom tactics of not getting into someone’s face are no way to win in the NHL.  You need to grab a guy, set his ass down in his locker, and make him own his mistakes and overcome them.  Talking softly to guys just doesn’t work.  I know, we get it, what happens in the room stays in the room, and we don’t get access to the actual players locker room to find out how they deal with each other in a matter of adversity, but something tells me from the communication on the bench and the ice between these guys, the locker room is as quiet as a church.  Lindy Ruff taking the blame for the losing streak is nothing more than protecting the players further. 

Ten Little, Eleven Little, Twelve Road Losses…..

The Buffalo Sabres play once more before the much needed All Star break which should help this team get healthy.  New Jersey is just as formidable a foe as anyone else in the league at this point, and the Sabres are going to need nothing short of a miracle to pull off avictory, as the road losing streak stretched to a dozen looks to continue.  Fans are getting closer and closer to not caring what happens on most nights.  The start of the MSG/TWC fued had people clamoring for televisions hooked to DirectTV and Verizon Fios, and internet websites that pirate the MSG signal to millions of homes probably saw a major spike in activity during Sabres games.  Fans aren’t eager to see a poor performance, and are probably not willing to glue themselves to a television set for three hours when they know what the outcome of the game will be.  The team comes home on February 1st, and we will probably also start to see the number of blue seats visible increasing, as people decide that braving the Buffalo weather (when it is bad this year) and paying for parking, concessions, etc.  as a way to continue supporting a product that they can’t understand, or even stand to want to support. 

The bottom is not fun, and Buffalo has not been there in awhile.  Unfortunately, it seems to be a comfortable place for the team right now.  So long as the tumble continues, the Buffalo Bandits might be seeing larger crowds than the Buffalo Sabres.