I understand that the majority of readers are Pittsburgh Penguins fans. It is a really good time to be a Penguins fan, as they entered this season after two straight Stanley Cup victories. In fact, they may be primed to win a third straight title. Kudos to the Penguins and their fans; they have enjoyed a multitude of success and deserve recognition for it. What about the fans of not so good teams, though? What about the teams that many, including their own fans, consider to be absolute dumpster fires? The Buffalo Sabres are one such team that has experienced such heartbreak, disappointment and anguish. Every year, the Sabres and their fans say that their team is making a comeback, that they are ready to get back to the playoffs and compete against the best teams in the league. The sad truth, however, is that is never the case, especially this year. Buffalo has been one of the biggest underachievers of this NHL season; they have the second lowest point total in the league and have experienced a multitude of problems on the ice and off. Needless to say, they need to conduct some drastic changes in order to turn things around.

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It is not like the Sabres have failed in an effort to make progress. They made some adequate acquisitions and draft picks to build toward their future, but they have mishandled said effort, which has resulted in the team consistently being in the basement of the league. There is honestly nothing that does not need fixed, but there are a few glaring weaknesses. Buffalo desperately needs to adopt a new style of playing the game of hockey. The kind of hockey they have played in the past, from what I have observed and read, is very conservative. “Conservative” does not mean passive, in this case. It means that the Sabres basically sit in their own zone for most of the game, and the majority of their offense is dumping and chasing. Especially when, or even if, they get a lead, they expect the lead to last for the duration of the game or expect their defense to be satisfactory enough to hold the lead. That is not the mentality of a winning hockey team. They have the offensive firepower with guys like Jack Eichel, Evander Kane, and Rasmus Ristolainen to lead the way; they just need to adopt a similar style to what coach Phil Housley helped make successful in Nashville, who, by the way, made the Stanley Cup Finals as the eighth seed last year. Building off of that, their dreadful Power Play (PP) has to be a topic of discussion. Last year, the Sabres had one of the top three PPs in the league, and for a time had the best in the league. They fell off a cliff in that aspect of their game this year though. They are second to last in this category to the defensive-minded Columbus Blue Jackets, scoring on about 13 to 14 percent of their PP chances. Their PP must be more fluid and they need to fit the right men in there for it to improve.

 

Speaking of their defensive style, a large reason why it does not work in Buffalo is because this dumpster fire of a team has no idea how to play defense. Every time I watch one of their games, which is rare anymore, at least one of their goals given up off of a horrendous defensive mistake, such as a botched pass or a lack of rotation so obvious that a five-year old likely recognized it. Half the time, they are not awake on the defensive end. A lot of that can be contributed to youth and injuries at this point, but those excuses them so far. Their defense is extremely porous and laid back, and their fundamentals desperately need revisited. Like with their offense, they must be aggressive and suffocate the opposing offense, or at least force the offense into difficult situations. On defense, Buffalo needs to learn how to skate, get in front of pucks and place themselves in the right position to be between their man and their goalie. The defense sets up the offense and vice versa, and right now neither is doing their job.

 

Huge elements to their game that contribute to their struggles on the ice is a blatant lack of player accountability and a dissolving team chemistry. The players give little to no effort while on the ice. Meanwhile, successful teams, like the Penguins, have players racing up and down the ice, completing their checks, getting after pucks and creating scoring chances. Buffalo players look like mummies on ice, which will and has resulted in failure. In fact, star center Jack Eichel, the man who is supposed to be the “savior” of the team, was demoted by his coach for his lack of defensive effort. If the leader of the team does not give a rat’s behind about his effort, what would one expect from the other members of the team? I will leave out any mystery and tell you the answer: the followers of that leader will not give a rat’s behind about the level of effort and intensity they play with. The Sabres do not have an accountable and noble leader, and that combined with the constant shuffling of the lineup, the players display little to no connection to each other nor a common goal of winning hockey games.

 

Right now, the Sabres are embodied by a culture of laziness, horrendous fundamental hockey and a lack of player accountability. Coach Housley is preaching the right elements of the game and the front office has seemingly stabilized after a shake up in the offseason. Right now, it is on the players to come together, show responsibility for their mistakes and learn from their misdoings to improve. Their youth will hopefully be presented with an open environment to display their skills and progress with time. Thus, a culture embodied by continuous improvement and willfully contending will encompass this current dumpster fire of a team.