Buffalo Sabres owner Terry Pegula flew to Montreal on Monday to meet with the team ahead of its game against the Canadiens. With the Sabres struggling through a 10-game winless streak, Pegula wanted to calm the group down and express his support for the players and management.
“Any time the owner cares that much to come in, it sends a message that resonates throughout the locker room,” Ruff told reporters in Montreal on Tuesday morning.
Instead of an inspired response to Pegula’s meeting, the Sabres played their worst game of this streak, losing to the Canadiens 6-1 and extending the winless streak to 11.
Just 19 seconds into the game, a puck bounced off the end boards, hopped over Owen Power’s stick and went right to an uncovered Joel Armia, who scored to make the game 1-0. Ruff felt the Sabres let that goal impact them too much. They fell behind 2-0 later in the first when Patrik Laine scored his first of three power play goals in this game. The Sabres did not have a shot on goal until more than 10 minutes of game time had gone by. They were outshot 11-4 in the first period. Their puck play was sloppy, their penalty kill was awful and they got consistently outworked by the Canadiens.
The Sabres ended the night in last place in the Eastern Conference.
The Sabres were in a playoff spot before this streak started. Now they’re staring at a 14th straight season without the playoffs, which would extend their league-record postseason drought. During that drought, the Sabres have had two winless streaks longer than this one. There was an 18-game streak in 2021. Ralph Krueger was fired 12 games into that streak. The other was a 12-game winless streak during the 2014-15 season. The Sabres finished with the worst point total in the NHL during both of those seasons.
This wasn’t supposed to be one of those Sabres teams. Ruff agreed to coach this group after some initial hesitation because he thought it was a team set up to win now. That’s how general manager Kevyn Adams described Buffalo’s situation this summer, too. When Adams spoke five games into this winless streak, his tone had changed a bit as he talked about the need for young players to go through growing pains.
“I believe our roster is talented and should be a team that is competing and in the playoffs,” Adams said then. “I’ve said that since the summer. I truly believe that. In saying that, when you have a young roster there’s going to be mistakes. You have a new coach who is putting in certain types of intricacies into the system.”
The Sabres are now 32 games into the season, and Ruff’s system change hasn’t resulted in any progress. The Sabres have the third worst points percentage in the NHL. They’re 22nd in the league in goals per game and 27th in the league in goals against per game. Their power play, a sore spot a season ago, is even worse so far this season. Even the team physicality, which was a point of emphasis in bringing in Ruff and adding five new players to the bottom six, hasn’t changed much. The Sabres averaged 21.61 hits per 60 last season. This season, the Sabres are averaging 21.62 hits per 60.
As of Tuesday morning, the Sabres were 22nd in the NHL in expected goal differential, according to The Athletic’s playoff prediction model. They had a 5 percent chance at the playoffs and a 5 percent chance at landing the No. 1 pick. The last team that made the playoffs in the same season in which they had an 11-game winless streak was the 1998-99 Philadelphia Flyers.
That the Sabres find themselves back in this helpless position is maddening for a fan base that has endured more losing than any fan base in the league over the last 13 seasons. The frustrating part about this particular stalled rebuild is the lack of a clear way out of this. The Sabres changed their coach at the end of last season and that hasn’t changed much. Adams is in his fifth season as general manager, so a switch there would be warranted. But Pegula didn’t seem to be in that frame of mind this week when he met the team.
From a roster standpoint, the Sabres have some pieces that would be attractive in trade talks, but the next steps need to be taken delicately. Nothing should be off the table, but the Sabres also can’t just make moves for the sake of it. Rasmus Dahlin, Tage Thompson, Dylan Cozens, Mattias Samuelsson, Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen and Owen Power all have long-term contracts already. Young players like JJ Peterka and Jack Quinn are underperforming, so the Sabres wouldn’t be selling high. The sting of watching a long list of players win the Stanley Cup after leaving Buffalo is still fresh and should be cause for caution.
But something has to change eventually. When the Sabres were 12 games into their 18-game winless streak in 2021, Adams fired Krueger. How much patience will Pegula have with Adams if this streak continues?
(Photo: David Kirouac / Imagn Images)
