What We Learned: Palm-tree guys love palm-tree teams
The Buffalo Sabres are in the midst of a six-game losing streak, and their general manager just held a press conference complaining about how hard it is for the team to attract free agents.
Everyone is understandably harping on the quote he gave to reporters about how they have high taxes, and not palm trees, which is why no one wants to sign with the Sabres. What this elides, obviously, is the fact that this is one of the primary loser franchises not just in the NHL, but all North American sports. I'm sure you can find some woeful eighth-division Belgian football club that has it worse, but if we're talking about teams in top-flight leagues worldwide, you'd be hard-pressed to find one that has caused itself as many problems over the past decade-plus as the Sabres.
The Boston Bruins, just to choose a team in the Sabres' division, are an organization that has dabbled way more in free-agent hunting — to greater and lesser success — than in-house development in the 13 seasons since the Sabres made the playoffs, let alone the 17 since they got out of the first round. Massachusetts is a state with zero palm trees and high taxes (hell, I pay 'em!), so what's the difference? Oh, right: An ownership group legitimately committed to winning, that drafted, developed, traded for, and/or signed as free agents a generation's worth of winning seasons.
But that's all kind of beside the point because the quote that really stood out to me in the Kevyn Adams presser was the one about how the Sabres weren't going to make a "knee-jerk or reactionary trade that sets us back."
Two things on this: First of all, there is, at this point, no such thing as a knee-jerk trade for the Sabres. They are sitting on a baker's dozen of playoff misses, with a drought-high point total of just 91 points. Yeah, it all comes with the caveat that they've been in the most consistently top-heavy division in the league for most of that time — their struggles extend a handful of years beyond the present playoff format a lot of people seem to hate — but in a league where at least half the teams in the league have made the postseason in that stretch, you don't want to get into a situation where the Columbus Blue Jackets are making the playoffs more consistently than you.
Literally any trade the Sabres make at this point definitionally couldn't be overly aggressive. They're sub-.500 against one of the softer schedules in the league. At some point, you have to take it at face value that all these guys who seem to be "underperforming" maybe just aren't that good or lack some level of dimensionality to their games that keeps them from taking a step up to their perceived ceiling. Maybe the Sabres aren't nurturing those players in the right way, or not putting them in a position to succeed, or are too concerned with nebulous ideas of "accountability," or just hired a coach who didn't have a lot of answers for a much better roster (which is perhaps not coincidentally flourishing in his absence).
The other funny thing about the Sabres not wanting to make a trade that will set them back is this simple question: "Set you back from what, man?" Three of the Sabres' 11 measly wins from their first 28 games have come in OT or the shootout. They have the same regulation record (8-13-6) as their opponent tonight, the Detroit Red Wings – coincidentally, the only team in the conference the Sabres can look at as having a worse record relative to preseason expectations. Then again, if you were expecting the Sabres to be much more than a .500ish team this season, give or take a few games, I have a slightly used Jack Quinn to sell you.
How on earth could any trade Adams jumps on at any point between now and the deadline set the Sabres back? Obviously he could move on from, like, Rasmus Dahlin or Owen Power, but there's not a GM on earth who would consider that. But if we're gonna go ahead and consider this a lost season — and I'd argue you don't hold an out-of-nowhere early-December presser where you whine about how easy it is for those darn Florida teams to sign all the guys you totally would have signed otherwise if you don't already think it's a lost season — then it might be time to think about moving on from some of the veterans who have been around long enough to show they can't be the specific kind of top guys to lead you to the long-sought promised land of a first-round playoff exit. As an aside, did you know Tage Thompson is already 27?
Everyone wants to be part of the solution, of course, but after 13 years you have to look at the common denominators and try to figure out a way to avoid some of the chasms your predecessors kept falling into. One of the biggest that seems applicable to this particular iteration of the team is that the Sabres kinda famously entered the season with something like $7 million in cap space. I know guys don't seem to want to sign there, but that lack of financial commitment after a summer where the big add was Jason Zucker makes it easy for people to say, "What is this guy even talking about?" For all we know, the Sabres offered the entirety of their cap space this summer to every top-tier UFA on the market before being rejected, and dangled some first-round picks (of which they currently have the standard three over the next three drafts) for a more meaningful player who is signed with term. That's very plausible. So too is the idea that the kinds of guys who would sign in Buffalo for that money aren't really worth it — we've all heard about the Columbus Tax, and it makes sense that there would be one for the Sabres as well.
But in a world where every GM seemed to talk about how tight they were to the cap, for several summers in a row, turning out your pockets only to have almost $7 million in unspent money hit the floor with a thud seems like an imprudent approach.
The big takeaway from that presser, I think, is that Adams and the Sabres organization would like people to keep buying tickets with the understanding that all this losing is just one of those things that's out of their hands. And given the last 13 years, that's a sales pitch you can almost buy. So many iterations of different "cores," so many guys who wanted to leave, so many coaches, so many GMs. You can't point to one inflection point and say you've identified the problem, and can therefore work up a solution.
Well, except that one inflection point in February 2011. But nobody in the organization is gonna want to talk about that.
What We Learned
Anaheim Ducks: It's so funny to make the biggest trade of the NHL season and everyone just kind of ignores that your team was in it.
Boston Bruins: They've played more games than almost anyone else in the conference, but they're also back in a playoff position by points percentage. I just think it's interesting.
Buffalo Sabres: One of the things you gotta learn is that you don't want to say something that allows fans who hate you to bring inflatable items to games to make fun of you.
Calgary Flames: I've been seeing headlines about this a lot lately. Wonder if they can make it happen.
Carolina Hurricanes: Maybe not surprising that this happened but still something you just don't see very much.
Chicago: The big name in this headline sure is interesting. Why not, right?
Colorado Avalanche: Might wanna dial in the focus to something in the slightly nearer future given that they have two regulation wins in the last seven games and have conceded 28 goals in those.
Columbus Blue Jackets: Had to think this was coming eventually.
Dallas Stars: They often feel like they're real close to putting it together and then they just kinda don't. Would love to see these guys go on the run I think we all know they're capable of.
Detroit Red Wings: The Wings are playing a lot of one-goal games lately. They say your record in one-goal games often isn't in your control, and winning or losing a bunch of them might not indicate much. I leave it to you to determine whether them being 5-4-4 in such games means anything.
Edmonton Oilers: Oh, okay.
Florida Panthers: Looks like someone has 19 points in his last 10 games. Uh oh!
Los Angeles Kings: At this point I'm kinda of the belief that you can't argue with results.
Minnesota Wild: The former. Sometimes you lose. Whatever.
Montreal Canadiens: Does something not have to give at some point?
Nashville Predators: It's getting awful dark.
New Jersey Devils: And that's bad news for you, buddy!
New York Islanders: Impossible to foresee this.
New York Rangers: Well, ahh, that's a lot of years I think.
Ottawa Senators: How are you gonna damn the home team with faint praise in the headline? Woof.
Philadelphia Flyers: Two regulation wins since the beginning of November, but yeah diving is the problem.
Pittsburgh Penguins: The Pens are winners of five of the last six with a plus-8 goal difference and wins over Vancouver, Boston, Calgary, Florida, and Toronto. Pretty good???
San Jose Sharks: Someone's been working his way through the Kurosawa section of the Criterion Channel.
Seattle Kraken: When you're "striving" for a .579 points percentage, that's bad.
St. Louis Blues: First regulation loss of the new coaching regime. Sometimes you're just gonna lose to the Oilers on the road. That's life.
Tampa Bay Lightning: I'd say so, yeah.
Toronto Maple Leafs: I don't think it did.
Utah [fill in the blank later]: You cannot be comparing this team to the 2019 Tampa Bay Lightning.
Vancouver Canucks: This rocks. I love it. Yes!!!!
Vegas Golden Knights: Love to see this news be officially official.
Washington Capitals: Ideally you're not in a position where you have to "overcome" Montreal, but a win's a win.
Winnipeg Jets: Now this is take-writing.
Play of the Weekend
Hachi machi!!!!
Gold Star Award
I know he lost the game, but Mackenzie Blackwood stopped 49 of 52. He's up to .909. He should have made Team Canada, as the prophecies foretold.
Minus of the Weekend
It took longer than expected, but the top four in the Atlantic are once again distancing themselves from the bottom four. Same as it ever was.
Perfect HFBoards Trade Proposal of the Week
User "Empoleon8771" is history on proposalback:
Penguins trade Grzelcyk, O'Connor and the Penguins highest 3rd
Vegas trades Hague
