Mike Harrington: A mentally soft team with no answers is all that's in Sabres' dressing room
In a season full of mind-numbing defeats, a 6-2 loss to the Seattle Kraken takes the cake on the absurdity scale, writes Mike Harrington.
The answer is not in the room. No matter how many times Terry Pegula and Kevyn Adams might try to convince themselves. We've known that for a good long while. Why do they refuse to see it? Why don't they get some different players in that room?
Only because his football team had a playoff game here Sunday did the owner grace us with his presence at KeyBank Center on Saturday. At least it was a well-timed appearance: He got the full effect of the sinking SS Sabre, circa 2025.
What exactly is inside the Sabres' dressing room? The most mentally soft team we have ever had the misfortune to watch.
As the Sabres were tanking a decade ago − when Pegula and management wanted them to lose − they had a group of players with little talent, but a lot of gumption to push through games when no one thought they could.
Kraken right winger Eeli Tolvanen, left, congratulates Oliver Bjorkstrand on his goal Saturday as Sabres players including Connor Clifton, third from left,
and Dylan Cozens skate away during the third period. Harry Scull Jr., Buffalo News
Now, the Sabres are desperate to make the playoffs and have a bunch of multimillionaires on the ice who are supposed to take them there. But like the billionaire in the owner's suite, it seems as though the only thing they're good at is counting the change in their bank accounts.
In a season full of mind-numbing defeats, a 6-2 loss to the Seattle Kraken takes the cake on the absurdity scale.
No, I didn't forget about that pair of comical collapses against Colorado. The Avalanche have a lineup that includes three pure superstars, are 2½ years removed from winning the Stanley Cup and would surprise no one by competing for another one in a few months. They had a lot to do with those games.
The Kraken stink. We're talking the scent of spoiled fish from the Emerald City's famous Pike Place Market.
They hit town 2-8-1 in their last 11 games and with just six goals in their previous three. And the Sabres skated circles around them in the first period Saturday, too. At one point, the shot attempts were 24-2.
The Sabres led 2-0 after the first period and still had that advantage more than 12½ minutes into the second. And then it happened.
St. Joe's product Dennis Gilbert made a bad turnover up the middle, and Seattle's Ryker Evans took a Chandler Stephenson pass and leaked a shot through Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen to get the Kraken on the board.
So the other team scores. So what? It's hockey. Goals happen. Why does this team collapse at the first sign of the other team pushing back? Where's the response?
The Sabres had gone 102 minutes over three games without giving up a goal, and Luukkonen was more than halfway to his second straight shutout.
Then they gave up three goals in a span of 2:18, and five goals − yes, five − in a span of 12:38.
"We've seen it too many times this year. We give up one, and then it's just a disaster," Dylan Cozens said. "They get another and then another. I don't know why it keeps happening but we've got to figure it out."
Something tells me this group won't figure out.
The Sabres score first all the time, with Saturday marking 26 of 43 games where they took the 1-0 lead. Most teams win 75% to 80% of the time when they do that. This club? Just 12 wins in those 26 games.
This is six losses when taking a multiple-goal lead. And get this one: The Sabres are 2-5-3 when tied through two periods. They've gotten only seven out of 20 points in those spots, when the game is up for grabs and the mentally tougher team can grind out notches in the standings.
The Sabres are mentally scarred by all the comebacks against them. There's no fixing that. They could have been five points out of a playoff spot with this win, but who's kidding whom here?
"I think once we get up, we start thinking about how we can blow this game," Cozens said in a stark admission. "If they get one, we start getting nervous about giving up another one and giving the game away."
So how do you get a group of guys to be mentally tougher?
"That's a great question," said a disgusted coach Lindy Ruff, who properly used the word "embarrassing" to describe this one. "It's believing in how you got there. You've got to continue to play the same way. There's a discipline in that."
The Sabres are 1-6 against the Kraken since they entered the NHL in 2021. Seattle is 4-0 in its history in Buffalo − outscoring the Sabres 22-11. Mind blowing.
The Sabres worked hard and looked great in the first period. And then it all went away. Too many passes, not enough net drive, not enough strong wall play. Lots of perimeter offense. And they played an entire game with one blocked shot! That tells you something about their engagement level.
"It's nice to be on the outside. It's calm, relaxing, but you get nothing from it," captain Rasmus Dahlin said. "You can't be comfortable. It's that simple."
The Sabres' next game is here Wednesday night against Carolina − and the Hurricanes have won 16 of the last 19 meetings against Buffalo. It's a TNT game, as the Sabres get the national television call so frequently that it's just a notch down from the networks' love of the woeful Chicago Blackhawks.
There's some warped civic duty involved for us in watching these games. Why would anyone in any other city want to watch this team play?