The Buffalo Sabres have been officially eliminated from playoff contention after the Montreal Canadiens beat the Detroit Red Wings, and that’s extended their playoff drought to 14-years, the longest in professional sports. It’s another disappointing year for the Sabres, and yet it doesn’t look like it’s going to be fixed any time soon.
Tyler Yaremchuk and Carter Hutton talked about the Sabres and how drastic their offseason needs to be on Daily Faceoff Live.
Tyler Yaremchuk: Sure, they went 8-2 in their last 10 games. My point is this little run of 8-2 better not give this front office any hope that this group and this core can turn it around. I think they need to make big changes this summer.
Carter Hutton: I do too and the April run, at this point, who cares. It’s one of those ones where you’re still playing for pride, and these guys are prideful, but it’s irrelevant to what this team needed this year. They needed to have a good start, a good run before Christmas, and they fell so far behind they could never catch up.
Tage Thompson’s had an unbelievable year. 44 goals, it looks like he’s trying to catch Leon, or at least get to 50. But that being said, just the inconsistency of this team and some of these younger players that they’ve given big contracts, it hasn’t worked out. Dylan Cozens being moved, we’ll see how that handles out with Josh Norris, if he can stay healthy.
There’s so many storylines, and I guess it’s the same song and dance. I’ve been through it. I played three seasons there, and I was part of the problem as well. It’s not like I went in there and solidified what we could do and who we could be, but they need a new structure or culture. I’m not sure what it is, but at the end of the day, you have to find a way to win games.
Obviously JJ Peterka will be interesting, I know Frank’s spotlighted him as a player that could get an offer sheet. Guys like that just don’t grow in trees here. And going 8-2, now you’re hurting your draft lottery chances. At this point, when you’re eliminated, you almost wanted to go 2-8 in those last 10. It’s disappointing, and there’s nowhere else that I want to see a team win than Buffalo, but it just seems that nothing seems to be working.
Tyler Yaremchuk: Yeah, there was a point, I think it would have been four or five weeks ago where they would have had an 18% chance of picking in the top two. That’s now cratered down to a 10.2% chance of picking in the top two. There’s an 87.9% chance that they pick 9th or 10th overall now. It’s dumb.
And part of the problem here, and it goes back to management a little bit, is at the deadline, they had Jordan Greenway and Jason Zucker. You look at the prices that Trent Frederic and Justin Brazeau with the Boston Bruins, those bottom-six, middle-six guys got good prices at the deadline, and instead of trading them off, and then going back to them in the summer when they’re free agents, the Sabres signed the two of them to contracts that’ll be on their books for a combined $8.875 million next season.
To me, this front office is just totally lost the plot. If I’m a Sabres fan, I don’t see how you could have hope that Kevyn Adams is going to pull a couple of rabbits out of his hat and get this thing straightened out in one summer.
Carter Hutton: Yeah, they have a lot of work to do. Again, there are some positives to go off. I think some of the players have played well. There’s been times, like when Rasmus Dahlin came out, and I think he got taken out of context a bit about wanting to leave. He wants to win. He’s a competitive guy. He was that way when he was 18 years old in the league. And I think they’re wasting a lot of talent without playing a complete game.
But for me, the fact of matter is, you go back to the well and hire Lindy Ruff, which doesn’t make any sense to me. We look at teams that are taking a step forward into the future. You look at the Washington Capitals. They go out on the limb and they hire Spencer Carbery. He has a really high percentage to win the Jack Adams, and he was a first-time head coach. He’s done so well.
I think you need to evolve. And you need to have guys that have communication with their players. And we see it all the time. You look at Peter Laviolette with the New York Rangers. I feel like he’s lost the room with what’s going on. I know there’s a little mix there with Chris Drury how that was handled, but all that being said, you need to be on the pulse and you need to know what’s going to move a younger player. And I feel like Buffalo has really dropped the ball on this one again.
You can watch the full episode here…
