BEST OF SDP: What is going on with the Buffalo Sabres?

BEST OF SDP: What is going on with the Buffalo Sabres?

Let’s talk about uh one of the spurned lovers in the Jake Trouba saga and that is the Buffalo Sabres. Everybody was talking about the Columbus deal that was in place. From what we understand, the Sabres had one in place, too. And they could have used some good news last week after going up four nothing against the Colorado Avalanche in front of producer Drew and then losing the game four nothing. It was four nothing. Do they want to have the most expensive decor in the history of man? Well, I mean, power freaking add 8 million bucks in Trouba. I keep saying it, Steve. How many towering defensemen are you going to add before you realize you need something else other than towering defenseman? Well, at the end of the day, goal scoring contest. That’s what I’m saying. And and and so this is so Kevin Adams, I thought, had three or four notable quotes and and uh you made me ignore all of them over the last few days. Yes. so that I could react live on the show and it’s been very difficult. I’m going to warn you that this particular news conference is mixed like a Beatles concert uh concert uh mixed like a Beatles album in that one side will come in one ear and one side will come in the other because they mono mixed it. So annoying. Nobody fix Nobody will hear that. Oh, nobody will hear that. Oh, that’s good. No, I’ll fix it. Jesse Blake. But we’ll start a minute 55 into this. Uh, and I want you to hear what the reporter has to say because the reporter, Buffalo is a hardcore hockey town. They’ve got great media. You can’t fool them. And no, you can’t. And listen to what this reporter says. This is just after Kevin’s opening remarks. And you’ll see this reporter just lay right into it. Oh, the hard part. Yeah. Here we go. Yeah. Happy to answer questions. Kevin, you’ve got 11 wins in 26 games. You’re 12th in the East. You’re 23rd in the league right now. You’re coming off your three days removed from one of the most disgraceful losses in the history of the franchise. Why is your team so mentally fragile? And what are you going to do about changing the composition of this mix? Yeah, I think you know the No, let’s not keep Let’s keep going. Let him answer. Let him answer. Bravo. Good question. Holy [ __ ] Hey, let’s go. Cuz I want I want you to hear his answer here because you that starts with that question. Here’s what he answers with. Game is that’s tough. You know, that’s uh that’s one of those games that you know, they wins and losses at the end of the day all count the same, but those ones hurt. And uh yeah, there’s a lot of reasons I think as you watch the video and you go back that you know we we unraveled and um we need to learn from that and be better. You know, I think if I’m looking to the the positives of you bring in Lindy um you know, new system, we’re 26 games into the year. you know, some of the stuff that I look at trying to judge our team. Um, there’s some positives there and and reasons to believe that we’re going to take some steps, which we need to. We’re not happy with where we are. We need to get better. But, you know, you look at, you know, even strength, expected goals, four goals against, we’re right where you want to be, you know, to be a playoff team. You know, you’re we’re surrounded. I think it’s Jersey, Dallas, um, LA maybe. There’s just good teams in that mix right with us. So, we’re there’s some things that I look at when you try to step back and zoom out and take some of the emotion out that are positive signs. Okay, let’s talk. Hold it there. So, I want you to I wanted you to hear that because I wanted you to hear the the reporter who ostensibly is representing the fans. Yes. Right. Yes. That’s what the media’s ultimate job is to be. You’re the conduit between the fan anger and and then you listen to how the organization responds, right? you listen to how Kevin Adams responds there. Do you do you feel and see and can you empathize with the frustration that a Sabres fan must feel listening to an answer like that? Yes. Um, to me, and we said this sort of at the beginning of the season, the Sabres are one of the most difficult teams to evaluate and talk about this season because at the beginning of the season, I said I think they’ve done a lot of good things. I think they’re on the right path. And I think if you look at where they are in the standings, I think that’s the I I think I was correct. I think I was right. They’re better than they were last year. Are they good enough? Sabres fans have re they finally after all these years, it’s here. The breaking point is here. They’re done. I thought after Eel and everything, that was it. No, they still had some punishment to go through. And I don’t know if I don’t know exactly what it was. Maybe it was watching all the former Sabres win cups in recent years, especially on the Panthers. I mean, Eel winning one the year before had to hurt, too. I think that that made them snap. And they just don’t give a [ __ ] what the excuse is anymore. They’re done. And I don’t want to hear it. If the Leafs were where the Sabres are and Tring or Dubis or Keefe or Bube or Py or Lou or anybody got up and said, “Yeah, but look at where our expected goals our expected goals are pretty good.” He I don’t think Kevin Adams said anything wrong. I don’t. But that doesn’t mean uh saying them out loud is right. No one wants to hear that [ __ ] If you say something no one wants to hear, was it the correct thing to say? I’m not totally sure. Well, especially in a situation like this, he made the same mistake that every executive seems to make in these situations. He tried to talk his way out of it. All he had to do there was go, “You know what? I I want to level with you. Nobody on the team and nobody in the front office is is uh happy with this either. Yep. That’s it. There’s your sentence. There it is. How often does an executive talking make it better? It’s almost never. Well, he starts this press conference and we won’t go to it, guys, but I I want to say that he said, “You guys wanted me here. I’m here. I’m I believe in being accountable. Here I am.” That’s how he opened the press conference. Bless him. Bless him. Uh uh I don’t know if it was the right call, dude. Okay, now I want you to listen to this. Um the 7 Go to 7:38, Jesse, if you can. Uh this is where the the jokes from this weekend sort of started, although this isn’t quite the palm trees line, but he does go back to this a couple of times because the reporters put him in this direction. So this is the line you’re looking for is we’re not a destination city. I want to run this one and then I want to run the next one and then I want to break it down. So have a listen to this. Uh it’s about 40 seconds. All like this is not a a time we’re not a destination city right now um where you’re going to be able to go out and get UFAS um that are the that are the key guys. And I just don’t think that’s that’s the way to build a sustainable winner. So you evaluate your core. You look for trades that you can have players that can can grow with you and add to your team. if there’s UFAS that you can add that are that make sense that work, of course you’re going to be open to doing that. So that’s what we’re in the process of. But to circle back, yeah, you always look at everything and if there’s ways to improve, we’ll do it. Okay, let’s go to the next one here. Well, in recent memory, the way to build a winner is to call you. Uh let’s go to Hold off on that just for a sec. Let’s go to 1415 here. And this is where the palm trees quote comes in. Okay. So, you add that to what you I wanted to add to that quote because that quote was the one that made the rounds, but there were other things around it. It’s it’s really simple. Uh you become a perennial playoff team. You make the playoffs, you have a chance to win Stanley Cup year after year. You are on less teams, no trade list. Um we don’t have palm trees. We have taxes in New York. Those are real. Um, and those are things you deal with. But, um, and trust me, there’s I’m in conversations every day and there’s a lot of players in this league that we’re on their list. So, we need to we need to earn the respect and it starts with getting over the hump, getting in the playoffs, competing, and um, once you do that, I mean, look at look at the the Bills. I mean, I would be a perfect example. I would, you know, assume that this wasn’t a destination or a place that a lot of people were signing up to when they were in a 17-year playoff drought. and uh they’ve done a phenomenal job over there. Uh you get Josh Allen and people are lining up because they have a chance to win the Super Bowl every year and I think that’s what we’re working to build here. Okay, now we’ll pause it there. Now, here’s the thing with the Savers and this isn’t Kevin Adams fault necessarily because uh he is several general general managers removed cuz they replaced one every month it seemed like there. Um it was crazy. But they did have a Josh Allen. His name was Jack Eel. and what the Sabres did, and this is where I take I take real umbrage with his we’re not a destination city because it plays into the nobody wants to live or play in Buffalo thing, which is not true. I’ve seen eras of Buffalo Saber hockey where free agents went out of their way to sign there. Isn’t Minnesota in first place? Well, yeah, but I I think people would say that that Minneapolis and Buffalo are very different economically, different challenges and that sort of thing. They don’t have palm trees. They don’t have palm trees. They do have taxes. The the the I think the where I want to go with this is you’re not a destination organization. Mhm. The way that and I want you to go and I want you to watch uh and I’ll still have Sabres fans disagreeing with me in my comments when I make this. I want you to go and watch episode 4 of the Amazon Prime series uh The Captains. And they talk about Oh, not the Captains. That’s the Jake Trouba one. I want you to look at the one with Jack Eel. Uh yeah. Who’s he paired with? I know what you’re doing. Yeah, just go watch the one with Jack Eel. I we don’t we don’t have to break it down too too much. Uh what this organization did to Jack Eel was they made it seem like he was a primadonna. They made it seem like, hey, listen, we’ve done everything we can for you, Jack. We gave you $80 million on a contract. The least you could do is do what our doctor says to do with your neck that you have to live with for the rest of your life and get operated on what was it every 10 years for the rest of your life. Yeah. And what happened was the what really happened here guys and I Sabres fans I need you to hear me on this because Sabres fans turned on Jack Eel. Yep. And and it’s not necessarily your fault but the organization wanted you to. They wanted to drive home the pressure of if you’re gonna be here, you’re gonna do it our way. And Jack said no. And what so there was a press campaign of which some of the media participated. Mhm. Where, hey, Jack Eel, you’re being a primadonna. You don’t care about Buffalo Sabres hockey. You’re not in it to win it. I’m so glad that you got traded. And this is an organization that Ryan O’Reilly signed a contract with and when he won the consm set he lost his love of hockey. This is an organization that moved moved off of Brandon Montour very quickly. Couldn’t get rid of Sam Reinhardt fast enough after a couple of seasons where he Let me ask you this. If you’re a free agent or you’re a Jake Trouba looking at the Sabres organization, why would you want to go? They got one big fish in recent memory and it was Taylor Hall and it’s cuz he [ __ ] up. And how did he do there? He was bad with the Sabres. They’re like the bad kid school. Like you got you got detention too many times. You know, Taylor Hall didn’t do his homework and now he’s got to go to Buffalo and for five seconds by the way until they traded him for because he was bad. Like Andrew, how’s Andrew Bork doing? and a second I think Taylor Hall who was not very far removed from his MVP. And this is this is the the thing right was mentioning this morning that Sabres fans are all over Dylan Cousins and Savers don’t want to move off him because they worry that he’s the next guy to leave and and then go win a cup somewhere else. I mean learn something from history for God’s sake. You have Cousins, you have Purka, you have Stage Thompson. They’re I love all them too. They’re too good. And and this is the thing. All the goal scoring that the Buffalo Sabres need in the expected goals department. Here’s the thing about expected goals is you actually do have to finish. You do have to score them. All of those guys could have provided that. Eel, Ryan Hart, they could all be there. Those are the guys I would argue they need. Casey Middlestat. Did you need to did you need Bo Byum that bad when you have power and Dene and all these other guys in retrospect? I like I kind of liked the deal at the time, but in retrospect, if you look at roster construction, you need Middle Sat more uh than you need Bum. That’s not the case for most teams. I think most teams need uh Bram more than you need Middle, but they need Middlestat, who also hasn’t had the greatest season. Yeah. but on a really good Colorado team that’s been mostly injured and really really really good start and then he’s tailed off but still and then Jesse if we’ll go to the last one here. Uh the one thing that Sabres fans are super pissed about is you know you do the Jeff Skinner buyout you’ve got a significant amount of cap available. Why haven’t you done anything with it? Here’s what they say. Point. Yeah. I mean I think the answer is yes except like it’s not in a vacuum though. Lance, like you you you have to look at past this year when you’re putting your roster together. And um the cap, I think I’ve clearly explained before, has never been something that I’m as focused on as as all of you or the fans. We’re trying to build a roster out that we’re able year after year to compete. And if you go add an $8 million uh player that’s got five years left on his contract, what does that do for the next round of guys? And that’s what my job is to make sure we’re positioning ourselves not only today but into the future. So if there’s if there’s players out there we think that it will help us today um that also keeping the long-term view in mind um we’ll act on it. But you already know you’re not paying big money to Quinn or Levi now. And in July that might have been a question. You know that now that they’re not getting big money deals after the season. Oh yeah. I’m glad I wish you were their agent, you know. I mean, but the whole world knows that just by watching the games. So I mean and you’re right. You have to take the long-term view, but we’re talking about this year. I mean, you cannot go 14 years out of the playoffs. I mean, teams make it just out of dumb luck. I I I mean, I understand you’re probably doing consistent trade talks with teams, and I know the trooer rumors are out there right now. You might be on the team tomorrow for all we know. The question, I think, is simply, why isn’t there another even another Jason Zucker type one-year veteran kind of acquisition being made? not a guy with five years left on his deal. You’ve got the room on the cap this year where you can still deal with future years. Yeah, I guess, you know, I’d have to go into specifics, which is which is tricky in these situations, but if you go back to the summer, uh there were there were a short list of UFA guys that, you know, we we had targeted and fortunately we were able to get Zucker because I think he’s really stepped in and been a stabilizing player and been a good leader and mentor and played well on the ice. there were other guys pursued um chose other places. That’s what happens in the UFA market. And uh in terms of trades, I mean there was uh in my mind a trade that we worked really hard at this summer that we went all in on. Um you guys probably would have roasted me, said we were going to overpay to get the player and they ended up not trading him and he’s still on that team. That would be Marty Nes. It’s not from lack of want, but we’re not going to go, Mike, and just make a trade. So, you guys can say we’ve spent to the cap um if we don’t think it makes sense for for now and into the future. And that’s just you just can’t operate like that. So, that’s Yeah. So, that that’s the one thing that I took issue with with with Kevin Adams there cuz like the the palm tree stuff I can I can get like they’re obviously not a destination. He was just trying to say like we’re not Florida, you know, which like he said in the worst way possible and became a meme and all that, but then not spending the money and the excuses and I think the guys asking the questions, the reporters in the room there, they’re so right. That’s 20 minutes in to the crucifixion of Kevin. Yeah, it’s a 30inut press conference. Holy [ __ ] You’re sitting there and you’re you’re asking him 14 years out of the playoffs. Like every year now has to be a go for year, right? And and Steve, if I give you a hundred bucks and I say, “I I got I’m going to give you $100 so you can buy dinner today and tomorrow.” And you say, “Well, I want this dinner here. I’m looking at this menu and they have an item for $100, so I can’t buy that cuz then I won’t have anything for tomorrow.” Don’t spend the full hundred. Like, why don’t you get something different so that you’ll have money for today and tomorrow? Kevin Adams. The question about the cap is you have so much cap room and you have supposedly the thumbs up from the pagulas to go spend the money, but your excuse is that you don’t want to sign an $8 million deal for 5 years. Don’t do that contract. Do the lesser contract. He didn’t have an answer for that because he seems like the way he’s GMing this Buffalo Sabres team is coming from a standpoint of of being way too timid and he’s doing he’s doing the easy path of like we’re we got a bunch of young guys, we got a bunch of draft picks, just play them. It’s all good. Instead of being proactive in building a team and trying to do something to win, he’s sitting back and he’s throwing his hands up and saying, “We can’t get free agents. We got a bunch of young kids. They need to stick around. They’ll need contracts one and just sitting back and relaxing instead of everybody’s asking for some sort of action from Kon Adams and he just doesn’t seem right for the job at this point. The anecdote that he provided to if I just to add to that before you jump in the anecdote he provided about well what happens in the next 5 years of the player that has you know an $8 million contract goes up and you do your job. Yeah. Uh okay. So you know what you’re right you’re making several million bucks to do this or a million bucks or whatever he’s making. Just don’t do anything.

Original Air Date: Dec 10th, 2024

Steve, Adam, and Jesse react to Buffalo Sabres General Manager Kevyn Adams’ press conference and the state of the franchise as a whole.

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