Mike Harrington
Sports Columnist
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One may be the loneliest number in the music world, but I’ll venture to guess 14 is the figure that’s going to be driving the Buffalo Sabres crazy the next few months.
Try as they might to ignore the obvious, this organization is just going to keep hearing about it from all corners of the hockey globe. There will be no escape.
And don’t go blaming the big, bad Buffalo media either. I can only imagine the kind of questions the Sabres might have to deal with on an October road schedule that includes trips to Toronto, Montreal and Boston.
It’s 14 years since the Sabres last made the Stanley Cup Playoffs, a string of futility that’s four years longer than any team in NHL history has had to endure and one that exceeds every current team in the four major North American sports leagues except for the poor New York Jets (based on what we saw of Gang Green on Sunday against the Bills, they’re only getting in the NFL playoffs this year if they buy a ticket).
Sabres general manager Kevyn Adams and coach Lindy Ruff met the media Wednesday in LECOM Harborcenter on the eve of training camp and did a good job of putting on a happy face. And this wasn’t putting lipstick on a pig either.
Go ask other teams what they would think about having Rasmus Dahlin on their roster. Or Tage Thompson. Or Alex Tuch. Or Bowen Byram and Owen Power. Or plenty of others on this team, be they fresh-faced or experienced.
Buffalo Sabres general manager Kevyn Adams and coach Lindy Ruff discuss the goaltending situation, coaching staff continuity and Alex Tuch’s contract discussions prior to training camp.
This edition of the Sabres has depth. It will score goals again. It probably has the best defense corps we’ve seen in the entirety of the drought. It just lacks a shred of belief in the bottom line from anyone outside the walls of its locker room. At this point, it doesn’t deserve any until we see a reason to believe.
“We’ve got to win hockey games,” Adams said pointedly. “I could stand up here all day and I can explain exactly why we’ve made moves and what I’m excited about with the roster. And it really doesn’t matter. You guys are going to write what you’re going to write or say what you’re going to say on the radio or TV. That’s fine. We need to win. And I’m fully aware of that, and I’m excited about that, because I believe in this group.”
Of course, that belief takes a dent with the news the team doesn’t really know what’s up with banged-up No. 1 goalie Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen. Or that winger Jordan Greenway, one of the lineup’s top physical presences and penalty killers, had another core surgery in July and probably won’t make opening night.
Buffalo Sabres goaltender Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen has not shied away for admitting when his game drops off. But let’s not forget he was at 2.57/.910 in the 2023-24 season, so there is some positive history to go on, too. Bottom line: The Sabres’ goaltending, wherever it comes from, has to be better.
It’s hard to imagine a team needing to get off to a good start more than this one, but the schedule is set up for the Sabres to do exactly that. They went 14-3 in their last 17 home games last season and 10 of their first 14 games this year are in KeyBank Center.
Do what good teams do by keeping the pedal to the metal at home and the Sabres will be fine. And they won’t hear daily drought dissertations. But if they don’t? It will get ugly around here fast.
“We have to just focus on one game at a time. We can’t spend any time on it,” insisted Ruff. “The best teams in this league are going to lose 30 games. … Winning games will force other people to talk about, ‘Boy you guys are winning a lot of games.’ Just win games. Play good hockey and win games. Talk is cheap.”
That said, Adams and Ruff revealed the team is going to hunker down for a retreat at an undetermined location at the end of training camp. And there will be a lot of straightforward talk about culture, expectations and belief. No Oktoberfest and lederhosen this year, unlike the weird start to last season in Germany and Czechia.
You have to play winning hockey. How many Florida Panthers games do we need to watch? Keep the puck out of your net. Stop making stupid plays with it.
Adams again got the tiresome question about how the Sabres are possibly going to replace the 28 goals of the departed JJ Peterka and you could tell he had a response ready. Michael Kesselring was an excellent right-shot defenseman acquired in return and Josh Doan joins Ruff’s harder-to-play against crew.
But the bottom line is this: Between Jack Quinn, Jiri Kulich and Josh Norris – who it’s easy to forget is probably the No. 1 center on this team because he only played three games last year – there will be plenty of scoring. And the Sabres are going to give up less, too. They’ll be better defensively and Peterka won’t be skating circles on Delaware Park lake in his defensive zone anymore.
Said Adams: “How are we going to manage the puck better? How are we going to just play a more mature game? And you’re up a goal in the third period, and maybe you’re not extending your shift, or maybe you’re not trying that extra play, that behind the back pass, those type of things.”
Somewhere by the Great Salt Lake in Utah, Peterka might need to take the tire tracks off his back after that dose of reality.
Of course, if injuries pile up and individuals flounder and Peterka scores, say, 33 goals with the Mammoth, we know what everyone will say. And the Sabres will deserve it. They get no benefit of the doubt.
It’s super-duper last-chance time for the GM. Ruff, who admitted Wednesday he just didn’t have a good enough handle on the players at the start of last year, will unfortunately be on the clock, too.
Ruff, remember, is responsible for Years 1 and 2 out of these 14 seasons. He has to make it stop.
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Mike Harrington
Sports Columnist
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