Two weeks ago, the Buffalo Sabres sat in the top three in the Atlantic Division and in the playoffs right before Thanksgiving. Since then, the Sabres have lost six in a row. The Sabres played five of those six games at KeyBank Center, in front of their eager fans.
Those fans paying for seats inside the home barn saw this group score two or fewer goals in three of the five games played on home ice. Same sloppy mistakes leading to goals on the other end raising the stakes on the security of jobs of general manger Kevyn Adams and head coach Lindy Ruff and going as far as calling for Terry Pegula to sell the team. It’s only December and the Sabres have fallen to rock bottom once again.
Kevyn Adams’ job hangs by a thread with every loss
With money to spend all offseason, the biggest moves the Sabres made were signing Jason Zucker and trading away Matthew Savoie for Ryan McLeod to sharpen the bottom six. To only leave Tage Thompson and top six hanging as the Sabres made the right choice to part ways with Jeff Skinner.
Fans called for the Sabres to add another elite goal scorer knowing the results of what may happen before the season begins. Adams leaned on Dylan Cozens, who was coming off a 31-goal season in ’22 but dipped to 18 last season and has fallen off the face of the earth. This season only scoring six goals in 27 games played. Jack Quinn who’s coming off two major injuries last season, which has set him back on all levels of his game. Kevyn Adams had a chance to turned Buffalo into a “Destination city” Adams detailed he had a trade in place in the offseason, but backed out for reasons that leave fans speechless Adams saying “There was trade we worked on hard in the summer, you probably would’ve roasted me for overpaying…”
Kevyn Adams is a general manager of a failing hockey club, and the one deal he had ready to go, he and backed out in a sense of fear and overthinking. If Adams wants players to see outside the “palm trees” and come to Buffalo, he has to bring in top guys who don’t have a no-trade clause and he failed.
Is ownership impeding top hockey decisions?
The final decision isn’t always up to the general manager; sometimes the owner, Terry Pegula, might tell Kevyn Adams to be patient with young players and build the team gradually, because past general managers have failed with a more aggressive approach. In the last 14 years with Pegula at helm the Sabres have shipped: 4 GM’s, 8 Head Coaches while picking up two first-overall picks and two second-overall picks.
Those top picks alone should boost the Sabres to contend. Adams did detail that he and owner Terry Pegula are talking all the time “I talk to him every day. He wants this as bad as any of us, trust me. He wants to be part of the solution with me to talk about where do we need to find success or what do we need to do to help this team.” Having the owner involved is great to an extent, as we see organizational disfunctions like the New York Jets and Dallas Cowboys who the owner makes all the decisions, and are failing face first into disaster.
The feeling here is that Pegula is making some decisions for Kevyn Adams hard and needs to ease off a little to allow the hockey decisions to play out.
Lindy Ruff can’t save the Sabres
Lindy Ruff two seasons ago led the Devils from disfunction to playoffs, and now a season after his firing the Devils sit top two in the Metro with guys like Jack Hughes paired up with Jesper Bratt and Nico Hischier with Timo Meier. The Devils team, the Sabres, try a mirror for eventual success.
New Jersey went out and spent on Timo Meier and Dougie Hamiliton to shore up scoring and defense throughout the lineup. Although the Devils’ style of play was unsuccessful last year, it is proving effective this season. Lindy Ruff’s style of play still hasn’t jelled into this group of Sabres.
Scoring is not fluid and defense just isn’t on point. The bottom six given to Ruff in the offseason has performed, but to the same standards as the top six, which looked like one of the best groups entering the season. Adams and ownership dealt a poor set of cards to Lindy in his first season back, and now it seems both of his bosses have placed the weight of 13 seasons on him to make this team move.
Lindy after the 5-2 loss called his team out saying, “This is mentally one of the weakest games I’ve seen.” Only time will tell if that will spark anyone from the front office or the 15 skaters on the ice playing to help change what a disaster that is being played on the ice.