Sabres’ slump puts latest phase of seemingly interminable rebuild in question
After a meeting with owner Terry Pegula on Monday, the Buffalo Sabres know their job is to get out of their slump together. If that doesn’t happen, it’s hard to pinpoint where it goes from here.
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MONTREAL — They were the words you couldn’t ignore, uttered by an exasperated coach after his team dropped a 3-1 lead to lose its 10th straight game.
And it wasn’t just because these words had shock value, it was also because they were coming from Lindy Ruff.
This is his 24th season behind the bench of an NHL team, Sunday night’s 5-3 loss for his Buffalo Sabres to the Toronto Maple Leafs was suffered in his 1,805th game, so to hear him refer to the team’s situation as “the toughest” one he’s ever been faced with as a coach is something that can’t be downplayed.
Ruff was asked: “How shocking is this team with some of the guys you have?”
His response started with: “I’m almost lost for words, obviously.”
“It’s on me to solve this,” Ruff continued. “This is the toughest solve I’ve been around, but it is on me to get these guys in the right place to win a hockey game. Nobody else, just me.”
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That last part was admirable.
The Sabres have been in purgatory for 13 years, mired in a seemingly interminable rebuild since last making the playoffs in 2011, and, as they’re spiraling further into the abyss, their coach is trying to stabilize things by deflecting the pressure from his players and putting it on himself.
As noble as that is, though, we know Ruff can’t do it on his own.
Clearly, so do the Sabres, who held a full-team meeting — with owner Terry Pegula present, according to our Elliotte Friedman, and injured captain Rasmus Dahlin there as well — instead of a practice at the Bell Centre Monday.
Sources indicated the message was to stick together and solve the issue as a group. We’re inclined to believe them based on the players emerging from that meeting light and loose before beginning preparations for an off-ice workout.
But you just can’t help but wonder if the Sabres have what it takes to figure it out internally.
Not that they can’t snap this current skid on Tuesday by beating a Montreal Canadiens team that’s a point behind them in the standings. That seems achievable.
But can the Sabres reverse this tailspin and suddenly start soaring to where their roster suggests they should be able to go? That seems seriously debatable, despite how many premium pieces they have at every position.
Even with Dahlin out, the Sabres have former first-overall pick Owen Power and former fourth-overall pick Bowen Byram to hold the defence together. Behind them Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen and Devon Levi are a more-than-capable goaltending duo, and in front of them the roster is oozing with offensive talent, from Tage Thompson to Alex Tuch to JJ Peterka to Dylan Cozens to Zach Benson, Peyton Krebs and Jack Quinn.
Why are so many of them — particularly those last four — floundering?
Why have so many who came before them suffered with the Sabres before immediately killing it wherever they’ve gone next?
Ryan O’Reilly, Jack Eichel, Sam Reinhart, Evan Rodrigues, Brandon Montour all sipped from the Stanley Cup after leaving Buffalo. Former Sabres goaltender Linus Ullmark immediately found another level elsewhere, first winning the Vezina Trophy with the Boston Bruins and now performing like a Vezina contender with the Ottawa Senators.
It’s made it feel like the well is poisoned beneath KeyBank Center.
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Rightly or wrongly, that’s how it’s perceived once again, with the team losing religiously after starting 11-9-1 and seemingly trending towards a different outcome this season.
You try to divorce this current stretch from all the ugliness that preceded it by reminding yourself this is still the youngest team in the NHL.
But it’s just not possible.
The familiar pattern the Sabres have once again fallen into slaps you as hard as Ruff’s words did Sunday night, making you feel the team is damned no matter what it chooses to do next.
Firing Ruff would be absurd after re-hiring him to replace Don Granato just eight months ago.
Would firing general manager Kevyn Adams less than four years after he replaced Jason Botterill (who replaced Tim Murray, who replaced Darcy Regier, who last managed to get the Sabres into the playoffs) change any of this? We don’t believe Pegula thinks it would.
Is the problem above Adams? It’s hard to believe that, considering the Buffalo Bills are thriving under Pegula’s ownership.
As for the players, Adams will have to be cautious about selling some off — like Cozens, who’s regressed over the last two seasons but showed great promise scoring 31 goals and 68 points in the 2022-23 season and he’ll have to think about buying some.
Byram and Nicolas Aube-Kubel have Cup-winning experience, but this team could probably benefit from adding some more established veteran presence around its young nucleus.
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If the Sabres are going to avoid mistakes buying or selling, they’re going to have to first dig themselves out of this current hole, from which they hold no leverage.
Ruff can’t do it for them, which is part of what makes this situation harder than any he’s faced in all his time as an NHL head coach.
And if the team can’t find a way to completely reverse this together, it’s hard to pinpoint where it goes from here.
To think the direction could be further down after everything the Sabres have been through over the last decade-plus is harrowing. To think that might be the direction they need to go in before finally resurging has to be downright depressing for their long-suffering — and notoriously very supportive — fans.
They were probably not all that surprised by the outcome of Sunday’s game, but Ruff’s post-game presser and news of Pegula’s impromptu trip north Monday had to be jarring to them.
It was to us because we didn’t think at the start of the season that things could be as dire for the Sabres as they appeared on Sunday.
