Just when Sabres fans thought their season was turning around, the Sabres have lost six in a row, and are now a bottom-three team in the league.
The Sabres went winless in their Florida road trip and continue to look worse as the games go on. The question that lies is who is to blame for the Sabres' recent struggles and how they can turn things around.
Lindy Ruff
Buffalo brought in legendary coach Lindy Ruff for the 2024 season after his departure with the New Jersey Devils. Ruff coached the Sabres for 15+ years and led them to the Stanley Cup Final in 1999. However, this year has been the farthest thing from successful for the Sabres. They are 30th in the league and had one of their worst losing streaks in recent memory.
There hasn’t been much of a change in Ruff’s gameplan as this team is one of the worst defensively in the league. As well as on the powerplay, and in the top 10 for penalties taken this season.
I understand this Sabres team is young, but Ruff was brought in to discipline this team and have them tighten up on both sides of the puck. Whatever Ruff’s message has been to these guys, it hasn’t been working as this team is just waiting for the season to end.
Team Chemistry
As of late team chemistry hasn’t been clicking like it was in the middle of the season. After the Trade Deadline, former Sabres Dylan Cozens and Henri Jokiharju were pleased to be out of Buffalo it seemed with their most recent comments with their new teams. Dylan Cozens mentioned, “Fighting for the playoffs is obviously a change from where I just was.”
Then Henri Jokiharju chimed in about requesting a trade from Buffalo saying “It’s been a long time coming.” So quite a few players are displeased with their current position on the Sabres. Tage Thompson also didn’t hold back after their second loss to the Canadiens saying “The effort needs to be better, from all of us, but the captains especially, they need to be better.”
As he was addressing one of Rasmus Dahlin’s mistakes on the powerplay. It seems like since that game the effort just hasn’t been there. They get blown out by the Sharks and Panthers, and then surrender six goals to the Lighting. With about 20 games left in the season, as I said before these guys are ready for next year and are giving up on the season.
Kevyn Adams
I don’t want to blame Kevyn Adams that much, but sadly this is the team that he put together. Adams had to make moves by the deadline to get rid of hefty contracts that he put together. Sadly he brought in an even bigger contract with Josh Norris and signed Jordan Greenway to a larger extension which means the Sabres lost cap space.
With more players to sign in the offseason and the hefty contracts of his defenseman Mattias Samuelsson, Owen Power, and Ramus Dahlin, there is minimal room for error on the defensive end of things for a team that ranks in the bottom for goals against average.
I think if Adams can make some solid trades like he did last offseason, then this team could be in a solid position for next season. As it stands right now, however, this team is gonna struggle for a while as this is an all-around mess that will take time to fix.