Buffalo Sabres: Kevyn Adams seeks to claim victory over Steve Yzerman

Nearly a year ago, the Buffalo Sabres stuck to the long-term plan while the Detroit Red Wings made some blockbuster moves. It hasn’t gone well for Detroit. 

With substantial cap space, Buffalo Sabres general manager Kevyn Adams resisted the temptation to sign big-name free agents and to pull off blockbuster trades. Instead, he added a goaltender in Eric Comrie – who’s been so-so, at best, and Ilya Lyubushkin, who played well when healthy.

We also saw Adams add a prominent puzzle piece in Tyson Jost off of waivers earlier this season, but at the time, the scrappy forward was nothing more than a flier. Adams, however, did use that money to extend the likes of Tage Thompson and Mattias Samuelsson. As the regular season went on, he also signed Dylan Cozens to an extension.

The result? An improved hockey team that at least made things interesting, despite reaching mountain peaks and bottomless pits throughout the first 76 games of the season. But hey, they exceeded the 81-point mark and are one of the league’s top-scoring teams, so there’s progress.

Oh, and they beat the Steve Yzerman-led Detroit Red Wings in all three matchups heading into their season finale against the squad tomorrow evening. In fact, next to a late-game surge from Detroit that ended in the Sabres winning the shootout in Game 2 of the four-game regular season series, Buffalo dominated Detroit.

Buffalo Sabres general manager preparing the brooms vs. Red Wings

Meanwhile, the Red Wings thought a few trades and a plethora of signings would catapult them to new levels as many notable outlets predicted your Buffalo Sabres to finish 15th in the 16-team Eastern Conference. Yeah, that one didn’t age too well. So what did Steve Yzerman do, exactly?

Between July 13th and July 27th, he signed about nine players, including notable names like Andrew Copp, Ben Chiarot, David Perron, Dominik Kubalik, Olli Maata. He also shipped a third-round pick to the St. Louis Blues for Ville Husso. Husso hasn’t been bad, but he’s definitely regressed from his 2.56 GAA and 0.919 save percentage.

To be fair, few outside Detroit circles had them making the playoffs. I mean, when you make THAT MANY moves in free agency and trades, you’re going to need at least a year to mesh.

Maybe there is still hope for the Red Wings. But as it stands, it’s safe to say, even if Buffalo loses tomorrow, that the Sabres have the inside track on the Red Wings. Perhaps Detroit will win the season series next year when the Blue and Gold get even younger….or maybe the Sabres will exceed expectations once again.