Buffalo Sabres Should Be Learning That Patience Is A Virtue In The Quest For Lord Stanley’s Cup

The Stanley Cup Playoffs should be teaching the Buffalo Sabres that the road to Lord Stanley’s Cup is a long and winding one.

2778 regular season games.

That is the combined regular season total for how many games Patrick Marleau and Joe Thornton, two of the best offensive weapons in the modern NHL era, have played without making it to the Stanley Cup Final.

All of that is about to change, and if the Buffalo Sabres are smart, they are taking notes as they plan for the future.

What that Tweet from the NHL does not tell you is that Marleau and Thornton have combined for another 315 playoff games, and that the San Jose Sharks as a franchise have waited 25 excruciating years before finally being able to break through and have a chance to play for the most coveted object in all of sports, Lord Stanley’s Cup.

Two great players.  (Obviously the Sharks have more great players, but we’re focusing on these two veterans.) Years of high hopes dashed by playoff defeat.  One golden ticket and a chance for the promised land.

Buffalo Sabres front office, coaching staff and players, I hope you’re paying attention.

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In Jack Eichel and Sam Reinhart, the Sabres have a core of players around which the team can build a legitimate contender for the Cup.   If the team is blessed with an incredible lucky streak, it could ride a wave of momentum into the Stanley Cup Final just like the young Tampa Bay Lightning did in the 2014-15 playoffs.  More likely, however, is the scenario that this team is going to have to continue to tweak its system and gradually shape the roster into one that can push all the right buttons during a magical postseason romp.

So far, the Buffalo Sabres and general manager Tim Murray have played the patience game, and it is paying off.  Drafting Rasmus Ristolainen, Reinhart and Eichel have built the foundation on which playoff success will be built, and GM TM has made some timely trades in order to bring in Ryan O’Reilly and Evander Kane.  I get the feeling, though, that Murray is on the verge of trying to pull off a blockbuster trade or make a splash in free agency by shelling out way too much for someone such as Steven Stamkos, all of which will have the intended purpose of slamming the rebuild into fourth gear.

I understand that the NHL is a business, and making headlines and grabbing a superstar player will do a lot for the team and the 716 area code in general – I get that.  Besides, it’s not like the Sabres don’t need help – their weaknesses on the left side of the ice, both offensively and defensively, have been well-documented, both here and at other Sabres fan sites.  There are roster additions that must be made, either this offseason or in the near future, if this team wishes to begin a stretch of playoff relevance.

These roster additions must be made shrewdly, however.  While bringing in Stamkos might be enough to push the Buffalo Sabres into phase two of the rebuild – qualifying for the playoffs – it could actually stunt the growth of some of Buffalo’s younger players and handcuff the team financially, forcing the team to make sacrifices elsewhere.   Watching the San Jose Sharks need 25 years to finally advance to the Stanley Cup Final might not be desirable, and no one is hoping that it takes the Sabres another 25 years to get there, but the patience the Sharks have shown by resisting the urge to blow up the roster in spectacular fashion and opting instead to pick up smaller, valuable pieces here and there is worth emulating.

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And it’s not like the Eastern Conference Finals are not dishing out some lessons, as well.  Sidney Crosby, long considered to be the best player in the sport during his lifetime, enjoyed consecutive trips to the Stanley Cup Final during his second and third years in the league, and has not been back since.   As fearsome as the two-headed dragon of Crosby and Evgeni Malkin has been in Pittsburgh, playoff success just has not been there the past six years.  Some will point to the off-season acquisition of Phil Kessel as exactly the sort of splashy move the Buffalo Sabres should avoid, but Kessel was more of a reclamation project than an elite superstar seeking record money from the highest bidder.  In other words, getting Kessel was a shrewd move based on timing and need, not a desperate gamble by a team that was trying to go straight from A to Z.

The Buffalo Sabres have drafted wisely and made a few smart trades in the past three years, and are moving slowly but surely in the right direction.  Fans may cross their fingers, perform some voodoo magic, and pray to whatever god they believe in that the team swings for the fences during free agency, but for those of us who prefer a more gradual and patient approach, we could do worse than hope that the Sabres follow the San Jose Sharks’ approach.