Dec 20, 2024
In this Dec. 11 file photo, Buffalo Sabres defenseman Owen Power (25) and New York Rangers goaltender Igor Shesterkin (31) collide during the third period of an NHL game in Buffalo. AP photo
BUFFALO — Coach Lindy Ruff and the Buffalo Sabres have tried everything from benching players to providing extra days off, shuffling lines to even a pep talk from owner Terry Pegula, and nothing has worked to lift the team from its latest double-digit skid.
The one solution forward Dylan Cozens knows won’t work is the Sabres talking their way out of it.
“Looking at every guy in here, we have the team to win and the players to do it,” Cozens said following practice Thursday.
“But we’ve been saying that for awhile now,” he added before punctuating his final comment with a profanity. “It’s about time we go … do it.”
Frustration is growing as the Sabres continue spiraling. They’re in the midst of an 0-8-3 slump, the NHL’s longest of the season, and fifth-worst for a franchise accustomed to losing over a league-record 13-season playoff drought.
“There’s not much really to say. It sucks,” Cozens said. “Just got to try and put it behind you as much as you can and go out and win the next game.”
The Sabres, who host Toronto on Friday, have gone nearly a month since their last victory — a 4-2 win at San Jose on Nov. 23, which capped three-game west coast sweep. The win pushed Buffalo into third place in the Atlantic Division standings and seventh in the Eastern Conference.
What’s followed is an ugly string of losses that’s dropped Buffalo (11-17-4) to last in the East, with the Sabres having as many wins as the Pegula-owned and playoff-bound Buffalo Bills (11-3).
It’s a skid in which the Sabres have lost six one-goal games, been blown out and blown leads in being outscored 44-24. The low point was a 5-4 loss to Colorado on Dec. 3 in which Buffalo became the 90th team in NHL history to squander a four-or-more goal lead.
Ruff, back for a second stint in Buffalo, vowed after the loss to Colorado that it was on him to not let it snowball. And yet, following a 5-3 loss at Toronto on Sunday, Ruff acknowledged: “I’m almost lost for words.”
Two days later in Montreal, and a day after Pegula addressed the team to assure players the answers lies within the room, the Sabres responded with a 6-1 dud. It was an outing the Canadiens opened the scoring 19 seconds in when a shot wide of the net caromed back into the middle after hitting an official’s skate.
“That was really a tough one,” Ruff said Thursday. “You would have liked to have seen a lot bigger response.”
Ruff is but the latest in a line of six Sabres coaches who followed his firing 11 years ago to be dealing with a lengthy skid.
Nine of Buffalo’s 20 longest streaks in which the Sabres failed to register a point have occurred since 2013-14. And five of the team’s 15 longest winless streaks have happened over the same time, including a franchise-worst 0-15-3 skid during the 2021 season.
And the only help currently on the horizon is captain Rasmus Dahlin set to return after missing seven games with a back injury.
“What I saw was little momentum swings. One goal turned into a couple of goals against,” Dahlin said.
“We have to start on a new page and build,” he added. “You’ve seen a lot of games this year. We are a good team. This is not who we are.”
Meantime, Ruff announced power forward Jordan Greenway will be out indefinitely after having surgery to repair a mid-body injury.
The question is if any more changes are on the way, especially after general manager Kevyn Adams suggested he was more intent on standing pat during what became a sometimes heated news conference two weeks ago.
Adams pushed back on a question about the Sabres having one of the NHL’s youngest rosters, by saying he should have perhaps re-signed 43-year-old goalie Craig Anderson to increase Buffalo’s average.
It was the same news conference in which Adams said Buffalo was not “a destination city” for free agents and players with no-trade clauses.
“We don’t have palm trees. We have taxes in New York,” Adams said, leading to Sabres fans bringing blow-up palm trees to games and throwing them on the ice.
It won’t get much easier for the Sabres on Friday, when they’re expected to play a home game in front of a large and loud crowd of Maple Leafs fans making the short trip across the border. It’s not been uncommon in recent years for Toronto fans to make up as much as a third of the crowd in Buffalo.
“Deal with it,” Dahlin said, looking ahead to hearing, “Go, Leafs Go,” chants in Buffalo. “We know what it’s going to be. We just have to win.”
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