The NHL is concerned about the Buffalo Sabres, and they should be

The NHL is concerned about the Buffalo Sabres, and they should be

Are the Sabres a concern at the NHL level? Has it gotten that bad? We’ll talk about a little bit of a rumor and talking point that the national media up in Canada was talking about this week coming up here on the Locked On Sabres podcast. You’re Locked on Sabres, your daily podcast on the Buffalo Sabres, part of the Locked On podcast network. your team every day. What is up everybody and welcome in to today’s episode of the Locked On Sabers podcast. Thanks for making us your first listen every day and tuning in here in the middle of July. It is hot out, but we’re talking hockey here on the Locked On Sabres podcast. Today’s episode is brought to you by FanDuel. Right now, new FanDuel customers can get $150 in bonus bets if your first $5 bet wins. Be sure to check us out on our YouTube channel. You can watch the show. If you do, be sure to hit the like button, hit the subscribe button. And if you got a comment or a question that you want to pass along, you can hit us up on our text club. And if you’re not already a subscriber of that, you can go over to joinsubtex.com/lockedons and you can sign up there. Sneaky Joe Debiosi here on this Monday as football season gets a lot closer and Buffalo sports fans are real excited about the Bills. Training camp coming your way on Wednesday. Okay, remember hockey season always sneaks up right behind you. Like it’s a little over a month until training camp starts for the Buffalo Sabres. That hockey off seasonason is a lot smaller than that football offseason. So before you know it, we’re going to be at camp for the Sabres and we will be looking at line combinations and hopefully this year goes better than last year because if you remember last year, I think Rasm Stallene got hurt 90 seconds into the first practice of training camp. So can’t go worse than that, I think. So anyways, a lot to get to on today’s episode of the Locked On Sabres podcast. There was a very, very interesting comment made by Chris Johnston of Sportsnet over the weekend that I want to talk about today. We’ll talk about the Sabres embedded piece. They released a 30-minute video of the of what went into the draft process and at least what they’re willing to show and Kevin Adams is involved of course and Jerry Foron and I got some observations about Terry Pagula and Yarmmo Keolinan that I noticed in this video as well as they ended up picking Redeem Murka and then made the trade for Connor Timonss in the second round and then so on and so forth. couple of interesting observations about the dynamic of Adams and Pagula and Adams and Kealinan and just kind of all that was said in that 30 minutes and you know not all of it was bad but there were a couple of things that a little bit concerning on my front and there’s a couple of things that I think are worth feeling good about. So that’s coming up today on the Lockdown Savers podcast. Got a good mailbag question about Constah Helenius I want to get to. So, we got a lot of hockey for you today here in uh in the middle of July. The heat of the offseason, heat of the off seasonason. So, where I wanted to start with today’s show is a comment from Chris Johnston of Sportsnet, and he was on the Off the Post podcast um about a week ago, like late late sometime during last week, and Johnston said that the Sabres, who are, you know, record-breaking 14-year playoff drought, record-breaking. is by four years the longest playoff drought in NHL history. Now, one thing that that could set a lot and maybe you don’t know the context of that, like why is the NHL why is that the record in the NHL by so much and in all these other sports like in football for instance, the Bills had a 17-year playoff drought. It’s nowhere near the record in the NFL. I think the Cardinals have like a 25-y year streak of not making the postseason. In baseball, there’s longer streaks. In basketball, there’s longer streaks. Um, the the NHL, something that’s funny, I didn’t even really know this until a couple years ago. The NHL for years, it was very easy to make the postseason. Like, everybody made it. like 18 out of 24 or 16 out of 24, like a majority of the NHL did make the playoffs. So, what’s interesting about the Buffalo Sabres is if you go back to their beginnings, you go all the way back to 1970 and then you go from 1970 to let’s say 2001 for instance, right? That’s that’s 30 years. That’s 30 years of Sabres hockey. um 30 seasons. In those first 30 years, the Buffalo Sabres only missed the playoffs eight times, made it 22. And then over the next decade, you know, you go up to 2011, the Sabres only missed the playoffs another seven times. So, it’s it’s actually kind of amazing if I’m doing the math right on this. They have missed they missed the playoffs 15 times in their existence before 2011 and they have missed the playoffs 14 times since 2011. They this year if they miss will have doubled their rate of missing the playoffs. But again part of that is it was so easy to make the postseason. The Sabres in, you know, 1991 made the playoffs with a 3137 and 12 record. They were six games below 500 and they made the playoffs. If you go back to um you know, there’s other teams in here with losing records or around 500 records. Uh 31 and third 3130 and 19 made the playoffs for the Sabres in the early 90s. Um 35 32 and 11. All those ties mixed in there makes it look a lot, you know, worse than it really is. But a lot of seasons like that that were mixed in there and you could still make it because everybody made it. And of course in the last 15 to 20 years, it’s a lot harder. Still still shouldn’t be the reason why this team has missed. But that’s why the number is so low if you’re ever wondering why in the NHL 14 is the record. But what what Chris Johnson had to say was the Sabres yearly struggles are quote a concern at the league level. Quote, “It’s not good for the league as a whole.” And I thought Bulldog from WGR, I do the morning show, of course, Bulldog in the afternoon. He said, I thought a good tweet about this. I can’t remember ever hearing this about other any other team in any sport. It’s not to say it’s never happened without it getting out, but damn. And I think that is right. I think when you have ever heard about the league stepping in or being worried about the state of a franchise, it’s more about a stadium, you know, deal not being able to get done or it’s in it’s a in the NBA when Donald Sterling, you had a racist owner that was leading a franchise like that. That’s a that’s a different story than here, which is just uh the team stinks. The team’s terrible. Because even though it was easier to make the playoffs back in the day, it still should be easy to make the playoffs in the NHL. It should be easier to make it in the NHL than it is in other sports. So to have a 14-year drought should really not be possible because it’s almost impossible. It’s never happened in the 100 plus year history of the league other than this team in the this last decade. So what does that mean though? concern at the league level. Gary Bman absolutely, I’m sure in a private moment would think, man, it’s not good what’s going on there in Buffalo cuz he’s not dumb. He sees the ratings. He knows that he’s not the NFL. The NHL is a regional sport. It is not cared for on a national level by most in the country. When South Florida, When does South Florida care about hockey? Oh, it’s when the Panthers are good and that’s it. When do sports fans care about hockey? When the Hurricanes are good and that’s it. It’s a regional sport. Teams care about markets care about their own team, but generally not about the sport on a national level. It’s not the NFL for that. The NBA is more of that. And you know, baseball maybe is kind of stepped back to becoming more regionalized uh and less national, but that’s definitely the case with the NHL. Buffalo is a market that does care about this sport on a national level. It is consistently in the TV ratings the highest has been the highest non participating market in the ratings and sometimes is even higher rated for Stanley Cup final games or playoff games than the team that’s actually involved. That’s less true I think as of late and Bman would be concerned about that because he’s only got so many markets. Maybe there’s two, maybe there’s three. Boston, Minnesota, like markets that care about the sport independent of the team in their market. And Buffalo is one of those. Buffalo’s not a huge market, I know, but it’s one of the few that he’s got. And the team is slowly killing the market as a hockey city. And I still believe that it’s dormant. I don’t think that it would ever be dead forever. I think the moment the Sabres get good again, everything bounces right back. A couple years ago, after 12 years of missing the playoffs, the Sabres in 2223 had like four good months and were in the playoff race, not even in the playoff spot, not even in the playoffs. And tickets bounced back and attendance bounced back and your season ticket base grew as a result. But absolutely, Gary Bman, Bill Dailyaly would be concerned that the Sabres are really neutering or neutralizing a a rampant hockey market. I mean, know for my job at WGR, like I did a segment on the Sabres today in July 21st. That doesn’t happen in other cities. You you don’t turn the radio on in Philadelphia right now and hear a word about the Flyers. You don’t hear in Pittsburgh more than actually I heard Andrew Filipony who does radio down there in Pittsburgh last week say that like when it was free agency free agency day they did one segment on the Penguins that’s it like here it’s the day because fans do still care about it I think a lot more than a lot of other markets and you’re just not maximizing this market if you are the NHL and the NHL is thinking from numbers and a business sense it shouldn’t be bottom three in attendance by percentage, which it is. Last year, I I saw a couple of different numbers in this. I saw a total, I saw a percentage, but about 82% attendance last year. And of course, that number, I think, is probably lower than that than the posted number. But I’m sure a lot of teams that’s true, too. But it’s it’s Buffalo, it’s Anaheim, and it’s San Jose. Like, those are the bottom three teams in the league. Anaheim and San Jose, Southern California markets, not traditional hockey markets that also have the worst teams in the league. That’s understandable. You would have to assume you put a team in those markets, Southern California or somewhere where it’s warm and there’s beaches, if your team’s bad, you’re not going to get attendance. Here, you’d like to think no matter what, you’re going to get attendance. And that was true for a long time. Sabres attendance was really good all through even the Eel era. and only recently postcoid it’s really fallen off and the season ticket base is really fallen off. What could all this mean though? Like that’s the part I don’t I don’t What’s Gary Bman going to do? He’s not going to give the Sabres a extra draft pick. He’s not going to take their name off of all these no trade lists. He’s not going to, you know, give them an expansion draft pick. Like nothing’s going to happen. The most that’s going to happen, I think, is that the owner gets a call from the commissioner and that’s it. Like, hey dude, what’s happening down there? That’s the most I think you could see. And maybe that could kick Terry Pagula’s, you know what, into gear and put some more resources into the team and spend the cap. Um, but I don’t know what else you could really expect league concern to graduate to other than just, you know, it’s just a just another footnote out there of their embarrassment in the last 14 years. When we come back, the Sabres dropped a 30 minute embedded piece and there were a couple of really interesting things I wanted to get to on that. That’s coming your way here on the Locked On Sabres podcast. Today’s episode of the Lockdown Sabres podcast is presented by FanDuel Sports, summer sports is in full swing. And whether it is all about baseball, Toronto, man, right now Toronto top of the division, one of the best records in sports, golf was great this weekend and we’re heading towards the RDER Cup in the next month or so. And you got a lot of great soccer action that’s firing up. FanDuel is the best way to make every game even more exciting. And if you’re already following the action, well, why not make things a little bit more thrilling? Cuz with FanDuel, you can get in on the game while, you know, while you’re even while you’re out on the beach or while you’re out golfing and you just want to, you know, check in on what’s going on in the world of soccer and the world of baseball or maybe you got a rainy day and you’re staying in or for me, you know, maybe you’re just tired from golf and you need, you know, to chill back and you want a little bit of extra action. Well, check out FanDuel because I love looking at some same game parlays, watching a bet ride late into the ninth inning. FanDuel makes it feel like you’re part of the action. If you’re new to FanDuel, new customers can bet just $5, get $150 in bonus bets if your first $5 bet wins. Open the FanDuel app today or visit fanuel.com to get started. Sneaky Jody Biosi back here on the Locked OnSabers podcast. So, talked a little bit about the Sabres from a leaguewide perspective. Again, it’s kind of an embarrassing look like, oh, the league is concerned about the uh about the Buffalo Sabres. At least they care. At least we know that they care. Um, remember, by the way, real quick, one last thing I I forgot to mention about that. I don’t doubt Bman cares about making this market everything that it can be. No doubt. Like, I think he knows its uniqueness. He knows that it’s passionate about the sport as much as everybody, you know, it’s the tier one is Buffalo, Boston, and Minnesota. And I think they know that. Um, he also, remember, kept the team here. He didn’t have to do that. He could have worked to when Paul Allen wanted to buy the Buffalo Sabres and move them to Portland. That didn’t end up happening. And if Bman really wanted to have that happen, he could have had that happen. Wait it out. Tom Galisano team still here. And he I think he’s been I think he’s been pretty bad commissioner in a lot of different areas, but that’s the one thing you can’t criticize him for if you’re a Buffalo sports fan. So I’m sure he does actually care. I really do. So anyways, two embedded. So, the Savers dropped an embedded piece um looking back at the process of the draft and they went to one Bill’s drive to do their whole draft and really the couple of things that I wanted to point out that I thought were interesting from half hour. You can watch it. It’s on the Sabres YouTube channel. I thought, you know, couple of things we learned. Let’s start actually with with some information that we learned. And this is one of the annoyances I maybe have about this thing is Kevin Adams at a press conference this month got annoyed and talked about mis feeling bad for Saber fans because of the misinformation that is out there in the media which of course was nonsense as a concept in the first place let alone that we kind of learned that it’s not even really true in from himself. I I think that’s kind of how I read it because the feeling bad for our fans stemmed from reading about JJ Purka trade rumors and misinformation. Well, okay. Are you saying that’s not true? Well, he got traded a couple of days later. And not only that, in this embedded piece at the end of it, as they’re talking about the Purka trade and the makings of it, Adams says that he references talking with Bill Armstrong, the Utah general manager, well before the trade deadline, and how this was an example of something that they hit the pause button on and they came back to it in the off season. So misinformation, I mean JJ Purka was being talked about as a trade idea for the Buffalo Sabres. They either knew that he didn’t want to sign an extension or they thought that it was a good idea to trade him. However, they got to the conclusion. It was talked about with the Utah GM well before the trade deadline. I mean, that is six, seven, eight months ago. Who knows how long ago that it really was. So, I kind of can’t believe that we got a whole preach from the GM earlier this month about misinformation and then, oh no, you purka trade ideas were really being talked about going back into the season. I know the Samuelson part of it was really what he was referencing, but I still can’t believe that Matias Samson was the actual source of that frustration and not Purka. That’s one thing we learned. They’ve been talking about the Turka trade with Utah going back well before the trade deadline. We also learned that deal almost didn’t get done because Utah saw Josh Don as like a core piece. There’s a phone call Adams and Armstrong, we only hear Adam’s side of it, not Armstrong’s. And after they hang up, Adams says to Lindy and everybody else in the room, they just don’t want to part with Don. They see him as too core of a piece. And it’s almost unbelievable that that would be true. These both these GMs must value Josh Don a lot higher than I do. And I’m not saying I don’t like the player because I do as a bottom six guy. But to view him as somebody that almost got in the way of this deal happening as opposed to just a throwin guy is 23 years old, played 13 minutes a night last year and had 19 points. I’m not saying he can’t be a good bottom six player or even grow a little bit offensively, but come on. he’s he is stopping the deal from happening and eventually that does not happen right like later that night then Utah I’m assume calls him back and says actually we’ll trade you Don and they end up doing the deal but originally Utah didn’t want to do it because they didn’t want to include Josh Don in the trade which is crazy to me so that’s another thing that we learned also observations about the dynamic in that room it’s really tough to really know because the Sabres are picking and choosing what they want in there and they’re even they’re teens stuff up, right? Like when Kevin Adams asks Yarmmo Keolin about his philosophy drafting, I tend to think that’s a teed up question for the series itself, right? It’s a it’s a nice watered down thing to put in there and you hear kind of the ideology of this new guy that’s in the front office, but is that a real conversation that they have unprompted? Um, I don’t know. It’s just kind of a it seemed a little bit set up. But either way, Kakalinan looks like he’s got some influence in there. Like just the way he speaks and the way he talks and, you know, it just it felt like from watching this like, okay, this guy is really a part of the front office and when he speaks, people are listening and he could really have some influence on this front office. He made an interesting quote in there about um how you you can’t you it’s easier to tame a tiger than it is to uh paint stripes on a pussycat. And I don’t know if he was talking about the Sabers when saying that or I mean it really was all under the umbrella of being tough to play against. And that’s another observation that I had. It is apparent through their actions that we already knew about and have seen this off season, the the departure from the best team of the drought two years ago that scored at will and played up and down the ice, fun, loose hockey, the best team they’ve had. They continue to run as far away from that team as they can possibly get. That’s again how this sounded. And when they talk about Redeem Murka, like Jerry Foron making the comment, like the part they put in there about why I should like this pick of well, you can’t teach 66 and you can’t teach right shot. I I don’t know. The other weird part is I Jason Carmonos in the little brief preview the Sabres put out about this episode. You’ve got Carmonos in there looking like he’s getting into a back and forth with the front office or whoever else about something maybe numbers related or I’m not sure. But Carmonos is like I’m just I’m asking the questions. Are we sure about blank? And it looked like that’s a good real honest discussion that we were about to get in this episode. And then you watch the whole 30-minute episode. I even went back and looked for it. That is not in there. They put a clip of Carmonos looking like, okay, this is going to be a good spirited conversation about, you know, one one side of an argument versus another. And then you watch the episode, it’s not in there. So, I I don’t know if that’s I don’t know what happened there. Um, but I was looking forward to seeing that part of it, and it wasn’t in the episode. And the last thing that I noticed from this was Terry Pagoula. And I am not one to defend Terry Pagula on the Buffalo Sabres at all. At all. But one thing that I think needs to be said about Terry Pagoula, one thing that’s not true, one false narrative maybe about Terry Pagula, and you see the evidence of this in this episode is the one thing he definitely isn’t is somebody that doesn’t care about this team or ignores it. you know, like I think there that has been said about him and just by fans, you know, whatever. You hear it once in a while that, oh, he only cares about the Bills now. Doesn’t care about the Sabres. I’m not saying he doesn’t run the Bills a thousand times better than he does the Buffalo Sabres. But in this episode, Terry is right there front of the table sitting next to Kevin Adams. He’s flipping through his packets and I It’s the NHL draft. I assume those are draft picks summaries. I don’t know. He’s the one of the guys sitting in that circle talking about the Conor Timonss trade. Um, so like Terry is very involved. Maybe you could you could go the other way. I would I would quick more quickly listen to, in fact, I definitely would listen to he’s too involved more than he’s not involved enough. And just if you ever are thinking like, oh, he doesn’t care about the Sabres part of it or he kind of ignores them. I mean that that almost definitely isn’t true and you see it in this embedded piece. Um so that’s just one other observation like Terry is front and center and he is like again the looking through the packets and stuff was uh very interesting. Um, when we come back, quick mailbag question that I got from our text club. By the way, if you want to join, joints.com/lockdowns savers on constellaneous when we come back. You’re on locked on savers. Welcome back here on the Locked Oners podcast. Wrapping things up here on July 21st version of this episode. We’ll have another mailbag question coming up later in the week on Wednesday. And uh, you know, we’ll keep you we’ll get some fun stuff coming your way this summer. for some nostalgia and whatnot. So, be sure to come back for that. But the uh the one question I got from a tester a couple of days ago that I wanted to get in here is talking about, you know, rookie of the year candidates and looking at the Sabres for that and asking, do we think Constahellius makes a push to make his debut on the Buffalo Sabres this season? Now, the way that that was put, I think is the right way to put it. not asking if Constah Helenius can make the team out of training camp because if you’re wondering about the potential for that, I don’t think that’s possible. I think he could look great and I still would bet heavily against him starting the season in Buffalo because of the the shift towards veterans and reliance less on youth and the Sabres are still already so young that plugging in a 19-year-old as what? He’s going to play third line center for me. I’ve already Ryan Mloud for that. He’s going to play third line wing. Like what is he really going to do for me? I would severely bet against that. However, as a guy that could be a callup at some point during the year, one thing that Constellius has going for him is he’s a player that is a fit for the DNA that they are currently looking for. They want guys that are tough competitors, that are tough to play against. When we had Amir’s head coach, Michael Leone on the show during the playoffs, he compared Constellaneous to Brad Marshon in the postseason. And in the postseason, he was physical. He was getting under opponent’s skin. He put up some points, six points in eight games. Like that’s what he was showing a little bit of when he was down in Rochester. So him being able to do that with the Buffalo Sabres this year, it would have to happen middle to end of the season. He would have to thrive early on for the Rochester Americans and he’d have to compete with Noah Osland. Noah Osland. And this is where maybe he would have the step above is all of what I’m talking about here. The tough to play against the the two-way game that he has. Helenius, I think maybe would have the step above Osland on that front and he would probably be one of the first call-ups the Buffalo Sabres would make. You know, depending on who would get injured. Is it a top six guy and do they want to try him because he’s got a little more offensive flare than you know uh someone else down the Tyson Kak for instance that would play in the bottom six. So I think you could see him make his debut this year. I would even predict you will see him make his debut debut this year playing a couple of games but I don’t think he is going to play enough games to be anywhere near the Calder conversation. Um, so, you know, hope to be wrong about that. If he was in the Calder conversation, then I think things went really, really, really well. Uh, there’s no Buffalo Saber though that I would expect to be in that conversation. I just don’t I don’t think they’re going to have a rookie. Who would be the rookie on the team? It’d be Oscelin or Helenius. And I don’t think either are going to be asked to be on this roster this year. And there’s nobody else that there’s nobody else that qualifies. Uh, looking at the roster right now, no, nobody else. I mean, Kouli played enough games where he’s obviously above the limit now. Um, that’s it. It would have to be Helenius or it would have to be Oelen, and that’s that’s not going to happen. All right, that’s going to do it for us today here on the Locked On Sabers podcast. I mentioned we’ll get into some nostalgia coming your way in the next couple of episodes, which I’m excited about. I love doing that every offseason. Um, we’ll talk we’ll talk about, you know, maybe another all-time Sabres draft. I like doing those at least once a year. you know, get people’s different perspective on that, but that’ll come a little bit later in the offseason if we end up doing it. So, stay tuned. Uh, join our Lockdown Savers text club. Join subtext.comlockdowns if you want your question heard on the show on our next show or throughout the summer. You can hit us up there. That’ll do it for us. Be sure to check out Locked on NHL if you’re looking for all things leaguewide, all the stories that matter. I’ll actually be on that show tonight. So, local coverage from Locked On. Find Locked On NHL on YouTube or wherever you listen to your podcast. And we’ll talk to you on Wednesday here in the Lockdown Savers podcast, part of the Lockdown Podcast Network, your team every day.

The Buffalo Sabres are riding the longest playoff drought in NHL history and the league is reportedly concerned about the state of the franchise. What could that concern rise to? What could Gary Bettman and the league really do about a team that doesn’t have a stadium problem, or a financial problem, just a ‘they’re really bad all the time’ problem? Sneaky Joe looks at attendance numbers, the state of the Buffalo hockey market, and Bettman’s history with Buffalo.

Plus, what we learned from the Sabres ‘Embedded’ series that featured Terry Pegula and Jarmo Kekalainen front and center, but also a revelation from Kevyn Adams about how far back the JJ Peterka trade talks with Utah went.

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