The Buffalo Sabres have seen two Jack Adams Award winners in their 50-plus-year history. And they have a contender this season.
To win the Jack Adams Award, a team must be successful. And the Buffalo Sabres have not been successful in quite some time. But in March and April 2022, the Sabres saw a foreshadowing of what this young team with spotty goaltending was capable of: Winning hockey games against (almost) anyone.
And head coach Don Granato deserves a lot of that success. Let’s face it: Granato was dealt about the worst hand you could ask for when he took over for Ralph Krueger during a disastrous 2020-21 campaign that saw the Sabres finish with the worst points total in the league – 37.
When you average that out to an 82-game season, the Sabres would have totaled 54 points. Then, when things looked like they were headed further south in 2021-22, players, young and old, bought into Granato’s system and he turned around several careers in the process.
The Buffalo Sabres situation in 2022-23 is similar to that of Ted Nolan’s in 1996-97 and Lindy Ruff’s in 2005-06.
Just about everyone in NHL spheres would have laughed out loud had someone suggested Nolan and Ruff would have a remote chance at winning the Adams Award prior to the 1996-97 season (Nolan) and 2005-06 season (Ruff). Both times, the Sabres were listed as one of the worst teams in the league.
Before the 1996-97 season, the Sabres sat at +4,000 odds to win the Stanley Cup, ahead of just six teams. The previous season, they were one of the worst teams in hockey, finishing fifth out of six in their division and compiling just 73 points. If Dominik Hasek wasn’t in the net to somewhat diffuse the situation, who knows how bad this team would have been.
Understandably, no one had a high opinion of the Sabres heading into 1996-97 when they shocked the league with 92 points, plus a division title. But nothing was more satisfying than that legendary 2005-06 season.