Buffalo Sabres alternate captain Tage Thompson grew frustrated Monday as the media peppered him with questions about the team's unacceptable 0-3-0 start to the season. He didn't appear interested in discussing the injury-riddled roster's lackluster performance.
"So I'm tired of talking about the past and tired of talking about, well, we're in three games," Thompson told reporters following a 3-1 loss to the Colorado Avalanche. "So I'll take some questions on Wednesday if you got them."
Refusing to raise the level of accountability is one of the main reasons the Sabres are riding a 14-year playoff drought, which is the longest such streak in NHL history. Losing has become acceptable, and players always point to the long season ahead as a way to avoid that reality.
"We have a long season to go," Thompson said. "You guys are acting like the world's ending right now. We've just got to find a way to claw ourselves out of this. We're obviously in a hole that we don't want to be in, and just got to find a way out of it."
Those type of cookie-cutter responses grew stale long ago for Sabres fans. The "it's just one game" mentality has failed at every turn.
It's time for a more active, aggressive leader to establish a new standard. One where any loss is met with real conversations about the problems facing the team so they can actually get solved instead of pretending they'll magically work themselves out in the next game.
The question is whether Thompson is ready for that responsibility.
Tage Thompson must become a more vocal leader for the Buffalo Sabres both on and off the ice
Sabres captain Rasmus Dahlin isn't afraid to voice his frustrations about the team's play, a trend that continued after the Avs' star power made Buffalo pay for a series of costly mistakes.
"It's not good enough," Dahlin said Monday.
The 25-year-old Swede is right, but he's a more measured leader when it comes to dealing with his teammates.
Buffalo desperately needs a player who's willing to confront others in the locker room when their play, or more pressingly their effort, isn't living up to the right standard.
You can't blame Thompson for not stepping into that role naturally. The Sabres regularly ice one of the NHL's youngest rosters, which means the 27-year-old superstar didn't have a mentor to teach him how to handle those difficult discussions since arriving to Buffalo in 2018.
It's the next evolution of the Arizona native's career, though. You want to show Team USA leadership you deserve a spot on the plane to Italy for the 2026 Winter Olympics in February? Lead the Sabres out of this early misery and get the season back on track.
Instead, Tage has endured a turnover-filled start to the campaign and has shown little interest in addressing Buffalo's problems head-on.
"I'm a big believer that negativity breeds negativity, and that's kind of how we've snowballed things in the past," Thompson told reporters. "Can't keep looking back — last three games, last four seasons, last 14 seasons, whatever you want to do. We've just got to keep our sights set on what's next."
The Sabres have scored two goals in three games, including one by the two-time 40-goal scorer in Monday's loss to Colorado. Their power play is 0 for 11 and has struggled mightily to gain the zone to establish an offensive zone presence for the third straight year.
Those type of problems don't fix themselves. It requires a concerted effort with leaders willing to tell teammates when they're not carrying their fair share of the weight, and looking hard in the mirror to realize when they're part of the problem, too.
Thompson is capable of filling that void for the Sabres. He's got a booming voice that commands attention, and his NHL track record warrants respect, but a lot of players prefer to hang in the background rather than being the "bad guy" who establishes a higher team-wide standard.
It's one thing to hear criticism from head coach Lindy Ruff, whose coaching staff has also failed to make a positive impact so far this season, but hearing it from a fellow player has a more profound impact.
Until somebody is willing to take on that role, however, Buffalo's inconsistent play is going to persist, which will make it incredibly challenging to make a sustained playoff push.