Mike Harrington: It remains hard to believe same Sabres team that faced Habs will meet Leafs
This franchise is in utter crisis, and not remotely close to normal day-to-day times.
The one thing about the Sabres that’s impossible to comprehend is how they can take the ice Friday night against the Toronto Maple Leafs with the same group that disgraced the logo Tuesday in Montreal, one night after owner Terry Pegula’s bizarre kumbaya session in the Bell Centre dressing room.
Pegula reportedly gave the troops the we’re-with-you-boys talk, and didn’t threaten anyone’s livelihood or place of residence. He got rewarded with one of the worst performances any of us has ever seen from a Lindy Ruff team.
The Sabres played small, stupid and scared in a 6-1 defeat that sent them careening into last place in the Eastern Conference and should have meant three or four new guys were joining the club Wednesday. And if that didn’t happen, the game was so egregious that in many organizations, it would have meant general manager Kevyn Adams was looking for a new line of work.
Sabres goaltender Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen makes a save against the Rangers on Dec. 11. Harry Scull Jr., Buffalo News
But in this bizarre version of Pegulaville, Adams seems to have a Svengali effect on the owner. Stay the course is OK. Asked after practice Thursday where the clearly needed changes were, Ruff initially toed a company line.
“Kevyn and myself are in constant communication about trying to make this team better,” Ruff said. “I think everybody in this league is kind of in that same category, whether you’re a good team or whether you’re in the middle of pack. You’re exploring ways that can make your team better, and that is just a constant communication that we go on from day to day.”
That answer bothered me. Far too generic. This franchise is in utter crisis, and not remotely close to normal day-to-day times. It sounded like corporate speak and that’s something almost never engaged in by Ruff.
So I kept at it, reminding Ruff that this 11-game winless streak is particularly onerous given its sudden appearance in a season that was going well. And that the Montreal game felt like an organizational tipping point that seemed to call for an immediate response.
Thankfully, Ruff took down the PR façade.
“That was a really tough one, really. I think you’re right,” he admitted. “The fact we couldn’t handle that mishap at the beginning of the game (Nicolas Aube-Kubel’s turnover that led to Joel Armia’s goal 19 seconds after the opening faceoff) when we had the day we had the day before, it was a tough, tough situation. You would have liked to have seen a lot bigger response in the first period.”
Thank you.
Ruff’s team turtled in that first period, giving up an astonishing 21 of the first 22 shot attempts in the game and emerging in a 2-0 hole that could have been much worse were it not for the work of Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen. But in the second period, the goalie joined his cratering crew in playing small and gave up four goals as the Habs turned the game into a debacle of the highest order.
“We’ve got to keep working with what we got,” Ruff said. “And we’ve got to keep that communication going on: Is there ways to make the team better? Now we’ve lost another key piece (forward Jordan Greenway), so that communication will be ongoing.”
From the Bad Timing Department comes this nugget: The Sabres’ struggles will be a talking point for hockey eyes around the nation for the next two home games as Friday’s contest will be on ESPN+ and Hulu, and the Dec. 27 visit by Connor Bedard and the Chicago Blackhawks will be on ESPN2.
Don’t expect the national talking heads, especially the intermission studio shows, to cut the Sabres any slack. It’s going to be quite a contrast from the comfy, cushy sanitized informercials the front office has long demanded its employees produce on MSG that barely mention when the team is on any kind of extended skid.
The GM, whose has gotten touchier about criticism of his program over the last two years, barely hears his name mentioned on the local telecasts. Somehow, I don’t think he’s going to escape lots of air time that he’s not going to want on ESPN.
“The answer is in this room” really isn’t a great answer.
Dylan Cozens proffered the theory again Thursday but at least he spiced it with the caveat that it has been said for a while – and added a perfectly-in-context expletive to emphasize it’s about time the Sabres bleeping go do something about it.
“You can’t expect things to change and make the same mistakes every game,” added Luukkonen. “I think that’s the biggest thing.”
It will make a difference to have captain Rasmus Dahlin back on the ice. Perhaps not in the standings but in how the Sabres look and play. Let’s not forget they had a 4-1 lead against Colorado early in the third period before Dahlin went to the dressing room after taking a shot to the back from Cale Makar.
Four goals and a 5-4 loss later, the season has felt over since. The Sabres are 0-6-2 in December. If you had any doubt about Dahlin’s value, both as the marquee player and as the new captain, these last 2½ weeks should make it clear.
The Leafs’ last visit here was their 3-0 win on March 30, a game most remembered as the night Auston Matthews scored his 60th goal of the season. Like several recent Toronto visits, it seemed like the crowd was at least 80% Leafs fans, and maybe even more. The scene was chaotic.
“I try to just use it as motivation,” Cozens said. “Hopefully we can get it to where that doesn’t happen.”
Still can’t believe the same group that met the Habs will get to play the Leafs.