It's the perpetual question in Sabreland, how many failures will we go through before this organization to finally gets it right? It gets tiring having to revisit the amount of turnover that's existed since Terry Pegula bought the Buffalo Sabres in 2011 so we'll make it as quick as possible: numerous changes in upper management including a very brief, four-month stint for a hockey operations vice president, a fourth general manager, this one with no pro hockey administrative experience and after a recent firing of their head coach, the Sabres are on their seventh bench boss who is interim status means (we suspect) an eighth one is coming soon.
Then there's figuring out the identity of the team which, seemingly, will transform again (if there ever really was a fully conceptualized one to begin with). Again, we'll try to keep it brief: two tank years followed by a focus on a western conference, heavy style, which was followed up by an eastern conference stretch-the-ice, offensive style and, most recently, a defense-will-lead-to-offense philosophical approach.
Got that?
The Covid-19 shortened 2021 hockey season may go down as the worst season in Buffalo Sabres history. This despite a small core of upper-end talent augmented by the signings a former League MVP and and aging, but still productive (until this season) Stanley Cup winner.
It was an epic fail.
As written here, this Sabres team was not built for the rugged 2021 MassMutual East Division which was part of an NHL restructuring with coronavirus travel limitations in mind. The sad part about this team as constructed is that even if they were in their regular Atlantic Division instead of the rugged east as constructed this for this season, they'd be bottom-three at best and undoubtedly barreling towards a 10 consecutive season outside the playoffs and yet another high draft choice.
It continues to boggle the mind just how inept this franchise has been. Buffalo's most recent incarnation featured no less than 14 first round picks topped by two first-overalls (Taylor Hall and Rasmus Dahlin,) three second overall picks (Eric Staal, Sam Reinhart and Jack Eichel) and five top-eight picks (Kyle Okposo, Jeff Skinner, Rasmus Ristolainen, Casey Mittelstadt and Dylan Cozens.) For those who've wanted the team to amass talent, there you have it. You might argue individual talent quotients and value but Jiminy Christmas, top-10 picks are generally regarded as having top-end talent.
It didn't work, so it's back to the drawing board. How novice GM Kevyn Adams builds this team should prove to be interesting but really what it comes down to is they've got to rid themselves of the soft and fluffy skill players they're loaded with and move on from an overabundance of ineffective pluggers.
A case like Hall is relatively easy as he'll be a coveted rental for some team headed towards the playoffs. Making a decision on Reinhart will be difficult as he's been the most consistent scorer on the team other than Eichel and is considered a core piece by many. Players like Okposo and Skinner have immovable contracts while Ristolainen is anything but soft but needs to get out for his own psychological health. The bottom end of the roster features ineffective grinders like Cody Eakin, Riley Sheahan and a tall, soft, young whirling-dervish-to-nowhere in Tage Thompson. Adios.
On defense they have pending UFA's Brandon Montour and Matt Irwin as well as Colin Miller who's under contract through next season. and in goal? They have no one.
Yes, ladies and gentlemen, it's time once again for the Sabres to strip it down and start from relative scratch.
Unlike other years, Buffalo has three very strong foundational pieces with which to rebuild--Eichel, Dahlin and Cozens. Of the three Eichel is a bona fide No. 1 center, a coveted piece that every team desires. The problem with Eichel is that he's been through nearly six years of this Buffalo shit-show and it's gotten him nowhere. In fact, it's gotten worse. However, for as much as he may want to absolve himself of any personal responsibility, the 24 yr. old has struggled a bit in his own right. He's had injuries throughout his career (back-to-back seasons missing at least 15 games,) is presently sidelined as well having played in 21 of the Sabres 29 games and was largely ineffective in the games he played in (2 goals, 16 assists, -9). He's also been captain of this team the last three seasons and for as much as he might see himself as the unquestioned leader, he may not be the leader he thinks he is.
Eichel has voiced his frustration for a while now and there seems to be rumblings that he wants out. You can't blame him but he is a valuable player who's under contract with Buffalo for another five years at $10 million a season. The approach from this blogger is, "Jack, we're extremely sorry for what's gone on here but we really need you. We need you to do your thing, maybe even with an 'A' instead of a 'C'. We need you to be the complete professional you are and need you to take that top-center role to heart while the youngins fall in behind you learn the NHL game. We know you have certain wants, and certain needs as a hockey player and we'll do everything in our power to build this the right way. However, much to our dismay (and yours as well,) we need a few more years to get this thing on track."
That's the ideal, of course but the Sabres are gonna need someone to sell it to a player in Eichel who's level of cynicism is reaching a boiling point. The Sabres burned through six Eichel years with two head coaches (Dan Bylsma and Ralph Krueger) who had defined styles they wouldn't budge from despite not having the proper talent to succeed with their respective approaches. And Krueger's power-of-positive-thinking approach still has players like Eichel trying to shovel out from under the pile of bullshit that he heaped on them. These Sabres players are in fool me once (or in the case of some, thrice) mode and the Pegulas won't get by with another amateur hire to save money. Eichel is already midway down a road travelled by players like Rod Langway, Marcel Dionne and Rick Nash and it's unlikely he'll be convinced that ownership wants a winner if they hire a novice head coach on the cheap.
Can they convince Jack? Or at least allay some of the dread? Who knows? But that's the first building block.
The next one is Rasmus Dahlin.
Let's get this out of the way, Dahlin was never expected to be a lock-down defensive defenseman and he was never known for his defense in Sweden to begin with. He was let loose during his rookie season by head coach Phil Housley, who was the exact same offensively skilled/defensively bereft d-man when he joined the Sabres out of high school in 1982. So why on earth would a coach (Krueger) try to pound a square peg into a round hole by having Dahlin focus on defense under the guise that defense leads to offense?
Dahlin is task number two for Buffalo's impending new head coach. His skating is impeccable and his stickhandling is, at times, remarkable. It's still taking him a while to find his way in the confines of a smaller rink and the puck oft-times has been more like a Mexican jumping bean on his stick, but the kid is still only 20 yrs. old (soon to be 21 next month.) Scotty Bowman never forced defense down Housley's throat (although he did move him to wing out of team-preservation) and Housley's in the Hall of Fame. Back in the 80's Glen Sather never forced future Hall of Fame defenseman Paul Coffey to be Charlie Huddy. You don't need to be a rocket scientist to figure out that a offensively gifted defenseman who's weak on defense should be paired with a defensive defenseman who can cover those weaknesses while allowing for him to express himself offensively.
*goes to find 'X' on wall to beat head*
Plain and simple, Rasmus Dahlin has the makings of a top-pairing/No. 1 defenseman. Just put him in a position to succeed while using his strengths with a d-partner (Will Borgen looked the part) holding down the fort. Those two pieces, a No.1 center and a No. 1 (or at least top-pairing) defenseman are two things every team needs. Wants. Desires. And Buffalo has them right now.
The next piece is a two-way, second-line center, and it looks as if the Sabres might have that as well.
Dylan Cozens came into the NHL this season after a very successful IIHF World Junior Championships tournament and hit the ice in stride. With everyone else having a short training camp in a quick ramp-up to the shortened season, Cozens came in flying and was the most consistent player for Buffalo. Up until he was injured by a questionable hit some 10 days ago, his transition to the NHL was turning heads. Granted, his production wasn't eye-popping (2+5 in 20 games,) but Cozens was doing all the right things, and doing them at a high pace while acclimating to the NHL game as a rookie. He even got into a fight (and won) trying to provide a spark for this sullen bunch of losers.
At only 20 yrs old, Cozens has a lot of growing to do but he has a nice foundation to build upon. And although they played him on the wing, his 200' awareness and overall game leads one to believe he could succeed at center in a mid-six role at the least.
It's the opinion here that most teams in the NHL would gladly take Jack Eichel and Dylan Cozens as their top-two centers and Rasmus Dahlin as their top-pairing defenseman. Buffalo has that and they'll have a top pick in the draft this year. All the rest is bunk so get rid of it and start anew...
again.
No comments:
Post a Comment