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The Train Wreck That Is Sabres Hockey

We tried to believe this year would be different. We really did.

I can't argue that it was a bad idea for Darcy Regier to add grit to the Sabres lineup in the form of Steve Ott and John Scott. I mean, who wouldn't take Steve Ott?

I wrote just the other day that Regier should try to trade Tyler Myers for Ryan Getzlaf. I'm officially backing off that position. I don't want Getzlaf on this team.

Because Getzlaf isn't a great player? No.

Because Regier could trade for Evgeni Malkin and after a month we'd be complaining about how shitty Evgeni Malkin is.

Buffalo doesn't have bad players. Hell, they have a lot of really good players and one from Austria who's playing out of his friggin' mind to no avail.

For the umpteenth year in a row, we've eagerly anticipated the start of a season with a roster that could've been a helluva lot worse, only to watch the team show all sorts of signs that they have no interest in playing for their coach.

Rinse. Fucking. Repeat.

I don't think Regier is a bad GM. I don't think Lindy Ruff necessarily is a bad coach, either. And if they weren't best men in each other's goddammed weddings, I think things would've turned around by now.

But they're best friends, and because Regier has made it clear he won't fire Ruff, and because Regier was just handed a contract extension, we are shackled with this duo for who knows how many more years. That is, shit ain't gonna change any time soon.

So it's pointless to bitch about this team any longer. I have resolved to enjoy this train wreck until Sabres ownership realizes what a legion of fans already knows.

Last year ownership could hide conveniently behind the injury excuse, so when the Sabres rattle off another six losses in seven games, I simply hope they do it while relatively healthy. I honestly think a 15 game losing streak with a starting lineup is the only thing that even has a chance to get through to Terry Pegula and Ted Black.

I realize that finding the right GM/coach combo isn't as easy for a hockey club to do as it might seem to the average fan. After all, Brian Burke worked wonders for Toronto, right? But in the time that GMDR has held onto Ruff, he's also allowed guys like John Tortorella and Kevin Dineen to hone their skills in the organization and leave for greener pastures.

I've finally come to the realization that I want to see the Sabres either win every game or lose every game. All this in between where we pine for them to show up and at least pretend to give a shit and maybe make a run at the end of the year to sneak into the playoffs comes up short for me now. I have a two-year-old; I don't have the energy to give a crap about this team any longer if it insists that delusion is the key to success.

So I was going to come up with a list of players that I would either trade or cut immediately. But then I realized the list would be a lot shorter if I just named the ones I'd keep. This, of course, is only relevant to any discussion about organizational success if Ruff is fired, so bear in mind this is merely an exercise in futility.

But here we go:

KEEP
Thomas Vanek
Jason Pominville
Steve Ott
Marcus Foligno
Cody Hodgson
Brayden McNabb
Mike Weber
Mikhail Grigorenko

There are several players who I'd like to see stick around (and let's face it, probably will), like Tyler Ennis and Christian Ehrhoff. And I put a couple on the list to keep that I could probably part with but who are there because they're important to the success of others (Pominville because of his chemistry with Vanek) or because of their potential (Grigorenko, especially with Joel Armia coming to town next year).

But then there's just the dead weight like Drew Stafford, Tyler Myers, and Ville Leino (who wins the award for Best Contract Signing Ever) and the otherwise irrelevant, like Ryan "The Kneeler" Miller, Nathan Gerbe, Cody McCormick, and Andrej Sekera.

As I said at the outset, all of these players are good, even for the NHL. But they're either not the right fit for this team as it's built or they've already just mailed it in.

Tyler Ennis checked a guy in the closing minutes of the Panthers game, so you know these guys can hit if they want to. Even though I have the Center Ice package, I admit I haven't studied every other team closely enough to see if there are any other defensemen in the league who flat-out refuse to hit guys behind the net five-on-five. But I'd be surprised if there were. I mean, it's like Ruff has a rule against it.

There are flashes of brilliance with this Sabres team, but overall they can best be described as a team that doesn't put in the effort until it's too late. In my experience this is the result of coaching.

Ruff said he wouldn't be able to bench Myers or even limit his ice time once he found out Sekera was out for the Panthers game. Bullshit. He has Brayden McNabb rotting in the AHL while Myers's candy ass flits around the ice turning the puck over like it's a Russian hooker.

Here's what you do: You scratch Myers, call up McNabb to give him a well-earned shot, and trade a motherfucker to make room for him on the roster if you're too afraid he'd get nabbed off waivers (which he would) when you sent him back.

That's how you run a team. Instead, Ruff and Regier are like two parents who give their kids everything, then go to work and complain to their friends that their spoiled brats act like assholes who take them for granted and refuse to work for anything.

There's a reason they say it's a lot easier to fire a coach than to replace an entire roster. It's because it is. And in a watered down league like the NHL, success and failure is almost single-handedly more the result of coaching than it is the players on the ice.

Memo to Ted Black: Start there and work your way out.

Sabres Should Trade Myers before It's Too Late

After starting the season 2-0, in large part due to finding themselves the beneficiary of some calls that usually tend to go against them, the Buffalo Sabres find themselves at 2-3 after five games.

I'm digging a season where every game matters, by the way.

By no means are the Sabres in panic mode after dropping three straight. But given this abbreviated campaign, wins and losses at least seem to carry more weight than usual -- even though I keep telling myself it's still all relative.

That said, this type of situation certainly makes me feel like I'm much more justified when overreacting to what's going on on the ice. So maybe you think I'm crazy when I suggest that the Sabres trade Tyler Myers as soon as possible.

There are three main reasons I say this: 1) The Sabres are in need of an elite center, 2) they desperately need more offensensive weapons than merely Thomas Vanek, and 3) Tyler Myers apparently is a 6-8 pussy.

Despite adding some much-needed grit to the lineup with the additions of Steve Ott, John Scott, and Marcus Foligno, I'm still convinced the Sabres are two bold moves away from being taken seriously. Assuming one of these bold moves isn't going to be a change behind the bench, the next best thing is to go after Ryan Getzlaf (which I wrote about last season and would link to right now if I weren't using a work computer with a Windows 1927 browser).

It seemed to be conventional wisdom last year that a trade for Getzlaf started and ended with Tyler Myers. Assuming this were even possible this year, I doubt Darcy Regier would move him (which is another issue unto itself, but I digress), but I think you at least offer him up.

Maybe this is what you should expect from a 22-year-old who throws a $10 million signing bonus in the bank, but if all you're going to get out of a 6-8 defenseman is a guy who can skate the puck out of the zone (when he's not putting the puck right on an opponent's tape), well, we've already got four other ones who can do that.

Put simply, if you're not going to use a 6-8 frame to bruise the opposition, you're not worth very much (and certainly not $5 million a year). Now that Grigorenko is up for the year, I can't off the top of my head think of any center in the league who'd be better than Getzlaf at showing the new kid the ropes on the job. To say nothing about the instant firepower you'd add to both regular shifts and the power play. And Getzlaf's also 6-4.

I'm not arguing the Myers can't or won't improve. After all, you'd have to count on the Ducks valuing him as highly as they value Getzlaf (maybe even a little less given that Getzlaf's in a contract year). This move would be risky because Getzlaf is a free agent at the end of the season, but I'd think Regier would be able to offer him several million good reasons to stick around in Buffalo, especially with Myers's salary off the books.

I was happy to read today that Robyn Regehr and Alex Sulzer are going to be scratched in favor of Mike Weber and T.J. Brennan tonight. It shows that perhaps nothing is set in stone on the back end. But with eight NHL defenseman on the roster, you have to think there are some moves in the works.

Brennan, especially, needs to be playing every night now that he appears to have proven he's ready for a full time gig in the bigs. He can't be sent to Rochester because he'd almost certainly be claimed immediately. And if his AHL fight two weeks ago against Syracuse Crunch winger Richard Panik is any indication (Panik gave rookie Zemgus Girgensons a concussion with a cheap hit), he's already proven he's tougher than Myers too.

The biggest disappointment for me so far this year is the absence of Brayden McNabb, who last year looked like he was poised to give this team a much-needed physical upgrade on defense for years to come. At 6-4 himself and now a 2013 AHL all-star, he belongs with the parent club as well.

The Buffalo Sabres are stacked at D. It's time to utilize Myers's greatest asset -- his trade value -- to simultaneously add some more size and spark down the middle while making room for defensemen who are willing to clear the front of the net and make their opponents pay the price in the corners.

Good Lookin' Out, Detroit

Well I suppose it should figure. The Sabres finally thump an opponent and can't move up in the standings. Going into last night's games Buffalo was only two points out of eighth behind the Caps, who were playing the otherwise reliable Red Wings. But as luck would have it, Washington breezed past Detroit 5-3 while the Sabres smacked the Lightning 7-3.

This is why it's so hard to close even a two-point gap down the stretch. It's hard enough to compel the hockey gods to smile on you while you pray for teams to lose after you flop in OT; it's even harder to expect them to come through when you win and stand to gain ground.

I figured Buffalo's season was pretty much over after they coughed up two big points during back-to-back overtime losses against Colorado and Florida, so you have to give them credit for a big win that at least allowed them to keep pace with the Caps. However, there is almost no room for error in a homestretch that features games against the Rangers, Caps, Penguins, Flyers, and Bruins.

Yikes.

Given the remainder of Buffalo's schedule, I'm not sure it would've even mattered if Buffalo had been able to move into a tie for eighth last night. In a perverse sort of way, I think this makes the rest of the games easier to watch since I'm not expecting them to make the playoffs. Less stressful and all that.

Oh, don't get me wrong. I'm not rooting for the Sabres to win; I'd actually like to see them make the postseason.

Come to think of it, you know what? I'm not sure I actually want them to make it. I love watching hockey and I prefer to watch my team whenever possible, but I think failing to make the playoffs will be better for the team in the long run.

I think we've concluded that Darcy is going nowhere, so I'm wondering if a failed season wouldn't encourage Regier to be even more aggressive in the offseason than he's already planning to be. After all, squeaking into the playoffs would seem to lend even more validation to the idea that the big prize was ours for the taking if not for all the injuries. As I've said in the past, injuries obviously contributed to plenty of losses, but any good, hardworking team with leadership and depth shouldn't fall into the abyss because of them, either.

Regardless of how things shake out the rest of the way, there have been some very nice developments this season for the Sabres:

- I think Tyler Ennis's games lost to high ankle sprains were a lot more detrimental than most people originally thought, and it's pretty clear he needs to play center.

- Paul Gaustad's loss was really not much of a loss at all, and I can't wait to see how Regier parlays the first round pick he got from Nashville in return.

- After at least three seasons of keeping us wondering, Andrej Sekera has finally turned into the reliable defensemen most were expecting. He logs a lot of minutes, has started to limit turnovers, runs the power play and, most importantly, has gained enough confidence to realize he belongs. Instead of demonstrating bursts of potential, he's started to play consistently well on a nightly basis. That's all you can really ask.

- Brayden McNabb is already a stud. His addition to the regular roster will immediately improve the D next season and likely make another top six defenseman expendable for use as trade bait in order to bolster other areas of the roster or add more depth to the organization. 

- Holy Marcus Foligno. Where did this guy come from? This could all just be beginner's luck, but at only 20 years of age Foligno has been among the most dominant players on the ice for the Sabres the past week or so. I think we're starting to see why Regier was so comfortable trading Zack Kassian for Cody Hodgson.

- Speaking of Hodgson, who just turned 22, he should become a pivotal piece to the Sabres puzzle in the near future. Fundamentally sound and possessing what appears to be a good work ethic, he kind of resembles a young Chris Drury. He's probably not going to put up 30 goals a year, but it can't be easy getting traded to a new team with only a quarter of the season remaining, yet he already appears to be very comfortable at center and communicating with his new teammates. I don't know if this trade will end up being Briere for Gratton, but it could honestly be close.

- But back to Foligno. This kid deserves a little more elaboration. At 6-3 and over 220 pounds, Foligno is a force. He's just as strong on the puck as Kassian is and appears to have an even better knack for the net. Now here's something I've always wondered if I'd ever write on a Sabres blog. Back when Kassian was first brought up I googled some of his hockey fights. I can't remember who he was fighting, but I recall that it was a guy who was older and who'd spent considerable time in the NHL. Kassian mostly wrestled him to a draw, but in the background of the video was Marcus Foligno pummeling another player pretty handily. It's funny now to recall that, at that time, I thought the person who posted the video might have been focusing on the wrong guy.

This sounds a little pretentious to say now that Kassian's been traded, but I wondered more than a few times since training camp -- Erik can corroborate this -- whether he was a little overhyped. I also wondered if the Sabres organization was always a little concerned about his reputation, given that he's been arrested for a bar fight and suspended a couple different times for borderline dirty hits before he got to the NHL. Granted, this is all speculation, but I guess I'm just saying that if the Sabres were at all concerned about any of this stuff over the past couple years, Marcus Foligno probably made their decision about Kassian pretty easy.

I can't believe I'm going to say this because it's probably way too early and I'll end up looking like a moron, but if I had to pick one player that Marcus Foligno resembles, I'd have to say Jordan Staal. Foligno isn't a center, of course, but he (by all accounts at present, at least) is strong on the puck, very responsible defensively, and unafraid to get his nose dirty in front of the net (which, as we've already seen, tends to result in goals).

At the start of the year, I don't think the Sabres figured that Foligno would be playing such a big role down the stretch. But at the same time, I don't think they figured they'd be fighting just to make the playoffs, either. I doubt as well that they thought Ville Leino would struggle so much and that Derek Roy, Drew Stafford, and Ryan Miller would have off-years.

However, if this season has revealed anything, it's that this team right at this moment has a very nice mixture of veteran leadership and reliable young talent, both of which are imperative to success and eventual championships. It's also interesting to note that Tyler Myers and Tyler Ennis, two cornerstones to the Sabres' future who are closer to being veteran leaders than rookies, are still only 22.

If Regier can pick up Ryan Getzlaf during the offseason and this team can learn to play with some emotion and grit from the first game to the last, the future is now.

Injury Bugs and Underlying Diseases

Fifteen years ago I would be freaking out about the Sabres recent spate of injuries. But I guess there's just something about pushing 40 that makes you realize there's more important things in life than worrying about the respective fates of charmed 20-somethings.

Or maybe it's just that I can barely bring myself to care much about sports these days after realizing that I'm now too old to play pro hockey even if I were once good enough (which I wasn't).

Whatever the case, there's a certain amount of satisfaction that comes with my newfound sobriety towards the Buffalo Sabres (however depressing its genesis may be). Whereas I was unable to approach my Sabres analysis with little more than unbridled emotion back in the day, I now find myself capable of applying the same type of rationality that I bring to virtually any other situation. (Okay, most of the time.. fuck off.)

Like every other Sabres fan, I've had a long time to assess and digest the abilities of Lindy Ruff and Darcy Regier. A looooong time. These guys are clearly two of the best in their field at what they do. They're both Grade A talents with A-Class character. I don't think that's ever really been in question. One thing that is in question, however, is whether these guys are the right men for the job in Buffalo.

After all these years together, Ruff and Regier might as well literally be joined at the hip. Regier is not going to fire Ruff. If Ruff ever goes, Regier will be going with him. Regier will never fire his best friend. Never. You just don't do that sort of thing, and as a man I can at least respect that.

I'd be willing to bet it's Ruff and Regier's relationship over the past dozen years that's been the primary cause of most of the good that's come to the Sabres organization during that span, nearly all of which probably goes unseen by the fans and in some cases even ownership. Building trust between employer and employee is crucial to performance; treating subordinates as peers often breeds respect. However, too much trust can lead to complacency. And if you're not careful, being too friendly with your players can extinguish respect for authority. You get the idea. Every benefit has a cost.

And so it is with the injury bug.

As I think we've all written a couple times, I don't like the team's reliance on all the injuries as the reason for its poor record the past few weeks. If anything, it's primarily the roster players who have made untimely decisions that have cost the Sabres wins. That said, Ruff has done a good job managing the lineup and lines during a stretch that no coach would ever want to endure. Although hardly tough decisions, he has rewarded Kassian for his outstanding play with increased ice time, and he's also made the right call in keeping Brayden McNabb in Buffalo despite Mike Weber's return to the lineup. Similarly, the fantastic play of guys like Kassian, McNabb, Tropp, and Brennan -- especially given their NHL inexperience -- is a testament to Regier's ability to draft and develop top talent. These two guys will have jobs in the NHL as long as they want them.

Ironically, however, we're nevertheless left to wonder why the Sabres play so inconsistently night in and night out. (This is not unique to the Sabres, but not every coach enjoys a 13-year tenure with one club either.) Why they refuse to finish checks unless they feel like it. Why Thomas Vanek, Cody McCormick, and Pat Kaleta have trouble finding teammates who will actually bust their asses every goddamned shift like they do. Why a system that has lost effectiveness after taking teams by surprise six years ago seemingly hasn't adapted even though the rest of the league has caught on to the secret. Why a power play has, on balance, buh-lown! for years. These are the responsibilities of the coach. Ruff has undeniably done very good things with subpar NHL talent over the years -- if we're to believe Regier's hands were tied under Golisano and Quinn, that is -- so I don't question his ability to coach; I question why he has not gotten better results considering he's had the luxury of knowing his team better than anyone save perhaps for Barry Trotz.

That said, even more interesting amid all these injuries is the Darcy Regier situation. Will GMDR finally move assets before they've overstayed their welcome now that we almost unquestionably know that the kids on the farm can play and perform? The silver lining to the injury bug is that Regier now knows (or should know) he has the luxury of dumping salary to gain cap space while simultaneously improving the team. (I know, right!!) Does anyone even remember Brad Boyes? Zack Kassian not only outperforms him right now, he costs over three million a year less. (Oh, and he kind of resembles that nasty Milan Lucic guy, who I would love to have on my team.) Corey Tropp is going to be awesome, so Regier could likely shop Kaleta right now before his propensity for injuries renders him damaged goods. Finally, even though Jochen Hecht brings intangibles and leadership, you can't tell me Szczechura isn't an even swap offensively if Hecht and his four million could be packaged to land one more big gun up front. By the way, we've still got Marcus Foligno in Rochester.

And I know Buffalo can never seem to have enough defensemen, but right now we have Ehrhoff, Myers, Leopold, Sekera, Gragnani, Regehr, Weber, and McNabb with Brennan, Finley, and Schiestel in the immediate pipeline. Seriously, there is no reason teams even score on us, much less any reason our D can't put the puck in the net every effing game. We have an imbalance of offensive defensemen already with more ready for promotion, so there's at least two that can be moved tomorrow. Myers-McNabb can be Niedermayer-Pronger in a few years, but anyone else is fair game. I think Sekera would look good in Ranger blue.

The tragic irony here is whether you actually want Darcy Regier at the controls when it comes to making decisions that will impact the team for years ahead. Ted Black should have his hands full right now, but if there's one thing that has to change for Regier to keep his job, he has to learn to cut his homegrown players loose. He won't fire Ruff, but if he refuses to acknowledge the opportunities before him and act now, we will have substantive proof that our addiction to untimely injuries is nothing compared to our deep-seated disease that is a complacent GM.

Zack Kassian Must Not Like Rochester

I went to college a half-hour south of Rochester so I'm pretty well-acquainted with the place. Granted, the majority of our trips into the city were drunken late-night runs to Nick Tahou's for a garbage plate, but still ... there's not much not to like about Roch.

Apparently Zack Kassian doesn't see it the same way, however, because he sure seems to be doing everything he can to avoid going back home.

The energy Kassian brings to the Sabres' lineup is a welcome addition in its own right, but if he keeps making plays like he did last night against Philly he's in Buffalo to stay. Kassian's no-look touch pass to Ville Leino for an empty net tap-in and a wrister through traffic that he later put past Ilya Bryzgalov demonstrated poise that belies the fact that he's only played half a dozen NHL games.

Admittedly, six games is hardly a statistically significant sample size, but at almost a point per game (3 goals, 2 assists in that span) and respectable ice time (average of 11-12 minutes TOI), all indications so far point to the kid being able to handle the responsibilities he's given.

In fact, as I mentioned to Erik last night during the game, Kassian basically makes Brad Boyes irrelevant, and I don't expect Boyes to make it through the entire season on this roster. Incidentally, the same can be said of Corey Tropp in comparison to Patrick Kaleta.

Interestingly, there's very little about the Sabres' recent skid that can be attributed to the play of the injury call-ups. I get the feeling that Lindy and the team are comfortable hanging their recent woes on their dearth of regulars, but it's been sloppy play and bad decision-making by roster players that's contributed most to the losses.

Put it this way: Matt Ellis is never gonna cost you a Cup. This certainly isn't the time of year to be gutting out injuries that could worsen to the point of costing players even more games, but if Darcy Regier is worth his salt, the play of guys like Kassian, Tropp, and Brayden McNabb has to be causing some of the regulars to think about just how much pain they're willing to play through.

Brayden McNabb Wants to Stay in Buffalo

If Brayden McNabb keeps laying out players in the middle of the ice, Lindy Ruff's going to have a hard time returning him to Rochester once Tyler Myers and Mike Weber are healthy.

This would be a great place to insert the youtube video of McNabb's clean yet devastating jolt on the Islanders' Frans Nielsen Tuesday night. Too bad no one's put it up yet. So I guess a link to the Sabres' website of video footage from the team's 2-1 loss will have to suffice.

In the wake of an upper-body injury to Jordan Leopold -- which, by the way, further reinforces my claim that only Sabres players can get hurt without anything tangible happening -- that saw Buffalo call up 6-8 defenseman Joe Finley, I'm pretty interested to see what these guys both bring to the table Friday night against Detroit. Finley's quick ascent in the minors seems to support the idea that his early career woes are much more attributable to a rash of untimely injuries than they are to a lack of NHL talent.

At 6-4, McNabb isn't the fleetest afoot and looked at times to be a little slow in keeping up with the NHL pace. But this kid looks like he's the real deal and could quite possibly be the heir apparent to Robyn Regehr.

In the meantime, however, the prospect of having the luxury of injecting some more muscle into the D seems intruguing, especially since the Sabres are still a little disproportionally structured in their ratio of offensive defensemen to stay-at-home bruisers. You really only need two good lock-down defensemen, but right now Buffalo really only has Regehr -- even 6-8 Myers is relied upon much more heavily to skate the puck than to make a good first pass out of the zone.

Being able to move a McNabb or Finley into the lineup in the near term to provide an even more intimidating defensive presence to balance out the offensive attack that guys like Myers, Ehrhoff, Leopold, and Gragnani already provide would bolster the D corps even further while making guys like Sekera and Weber available as attractive trade bait in the quest to acquire some more firepower up front.