One of the Pegulas’ teams is holding regular lovefests in Orchard Park, is getting a $2.1 billion stadium built there, just spent Sunday night doing snow angels on NBC in celebration of a fifth straight division title, has the NFL’s most valuable player and darn well might win the Super Bowl come February.
The other one?
With that group, it just feels like Lucy keeps pulling the ball – er, the puck – away from Charlie Brown. Over and over and over again.
What would you have said to me if I had told you, at 7:05 p.m. Tuesday, that the Buffalo Sabres were going to lose to the Colorado Avalanche 5-4 in a game that would see Tage Thompson and Nathan MacKinnon land in a 2-2 tie in the battle of the No. 1 centers?
Buffalo Sabres defenseman Bowen Byram leaves the ice after a 5-4 loss to the Colorado Avalanche in KeyBank Center on Tuesday. All losses count the same in the standings, but this one felt like something worse, writes Mike Harrington.
There would be disappointment at the result, for sure. But it might have felt like some 35-31 Josh Allen-Patrick Mahomes shootout when both guys were throwing their haymakers and the clock just ran out on one side. You would have felt the Sabres put out a solid effort against a team two years removed from a Stanley Cup, and just aren’t able to get over the hump against that type of club a lot of the time. Fair enough.
We know, of course, that it doesn’t feel that way. That this game went much differently than that.
When he had to fire Lindy Ruff in 2013, then-general manager Darcy Regier said a dreary home loss to Winnipeg the night before felt like a “tipping point,” from which there was no turning back.
Sometimes you hit those moments that feel earth-shaking to a season, and sometimes an entire organization. July 1, 2007, was one for the Sabres as Daniel Briere and Chris Drury went out the free-agency door, never to return. The night in 2014 when they traded Ryan Miller was another. There’s losing Connor McDavid in the lottery or the seminal pressers from Ryan O’Reilly and Jack Eichel that were precursors to their trades.
And Tuesday night’s disaster in KeyBank Center sure feels like a game that will be hard to come back from.
Maybe the Sabres will beat struggling Winnipeg on Thursday night and go on some winning streak.
But who’s kidding whom here? They’re not mentally tough enough. We’re just over a month away from hitting two years since this club won even four games in a row. They’re pillow-soft.
The version of the 5-4 loss to Colorado that we saw remained unfathomable, even the day after. It’s the first time the Sabres have ever lost a game at home after holding a four-goal lead, and it joins a 1988 debacle in Calgary (the Sabres were up 4-0 and lost 10-4!) as the only times in franchise history that has happened.
Fans have supported this team in the building pretty well this year. Ruff talked about how the joint was jumping when the horn went after the first period and the Sabres were up 4-0. Called it “a pretty excited crowd.”
And they didn’t boo much until the final couple of minutes and the last few seconds ran off the clock. What was notable to my eyes came when Artturi Lehkonen scored the winning goal for Colorado with 4:22 left.
Thousands of fans got up and left. With their team still down only a goal and plenty of time left. They had seen enough for this night. And maybe for this season.
Kevyn Adams’ shelf life as general manager seems to have expired. He was in meetings Wednesday and requests by the media to speak to him were deferred until later in the week. Adams went all in on internal progress, and guys have failed him.
Mattias Samuelsson can’t stay healthy. Now $11 million captain Rasmus Dahlin has a bad back. Dylan Cozens has yet to prove his 31-goal season wasn’t a fluke, and Owen Power is making you feel every team in the NHL missed when he was a consensus No. 1 overall pick in 2021. Adams missed worse when the GM handed him a seven-year, $58.45 million contract 14 months ago.
Is Power ever going to learn to move anyone out of the front of the net? How many more tap-ins with Power watching – like Lehkonen’s or Anders Lee’s power play goal Saturday on Long Island – is the big guy going to give up this year before he ties somebody up on his goalie’s doorstep?
Poor Alex Tuch – who is woefully underpaid among this group, given his consistent efforts – was trying to answer for Tuesday’s debacle and said his team has to, yet again, learn from it.
Somewhat rudely, I admit, it was hard to hold back, and I suddenly chirped from the back of a scrum of reporters, “What makes you think this team is capable of learning?”
Tuch stiffened up and did the best he could.
“I still think we’re light years ahead of where we were. I still think we’re light years individually, and we’ve added pieces that really help us,” Tuch said. “I think for the majority of this year we’ve played a really good, solid team game. It’s the mental lapses, the slips that we just have to hone in on. That’s how you win. You minimize your mistakes and maximize your opportunities.”
Fair enough. The Sabres were plenty good in forging a 4-0 lead in the first period. But light years ahead? They were a 91-point team two years ago, and lots of guys had career years we haven’t seen since.
Who’s better now? Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen, for sure. Anybody else? Players have regressed. One coach got fired and the general manager is going to be next.
The Sabres canceled practice Wednesday and watched tape of the debacle. Tuch said Tuesday he knew that was coming. Here’s betting there was no popcorn.
The only way the Sabres sold season tickets for this year was on the hope of Ruff’s return. Not many teams sell a coach, but they had no choice. You can’t sell any of these players. Just call them the Overpaid Connection.
Ruff was a clear Hail Mary by Adams and the Pegulas. How many coaches would want to deal with the weight of this playoff drought? Or the terrible reputation of this owner in hockey circles?
Yes, there are 57 games left. Yes, the Sabres are only three points out of a postseason spot, even if it feels like it should be 13 or 30 points, and they have fewer than lightweights like Columbus and San Jose – which started the season 0-7-2.
But if this absurd drought continues, what is next year’s pitch? Especially when so many people are trying to save up for football PSLs?
Nobody buys tickets because of a new general manager. The only hope would be a new owner.
Dare to dream.
