In a season that’s had more than a few lowlights, Tuesday’s 6-2 loss to the worst-in-the-NHL San Jose Sharks is the latest.
BUFFALO — One night after dropping a hard-fought game in overtime against the Canadiens on the road, the Buffalo Sabres had the chance to right things against the team with the worst record in the NHL, the San Jose Sharks.
The Sharks entered the game with 11 regulation wins, the fewest points and are shaping up to be the team that’ll have the best odd in the NHL Draft Lottery after the regular season ends. The Sabres were 13 points better than San Jose in the standings even though they too are scouring the bottom only just in the Eastern Conference. On paper, the Sabres are a vastly better team, but on the ice on Tuesday they most certainly were not.
The Sharks schooled the Sabres 6-2. The rookie combo of 2024 No. 1 pick Macklin Celebrini and 2023 No. 4 pick Will Smith looked every bit the part of elite young star players when they made plays that faked out Sabres veterans and each managed to score a goal (Smith also had an assist). Yeah, the Sabres are a young team, but they weren’t born yesterday either.
“Too many passengers,” Sabres coach Lindy Ruff said. “They won the compete, they won the puck-play game. Our puck play was awful. Just too many guys took the night off.”
The Sharks had a 29-22 edge in shots on goal and even outshot the Sabres in the third period 8-6 as Buffalo tried to get back in the game. It was ugly, the fans booed often and lustily, and it’s yet another head-shaking defeat for the home team who now sits in their own mess with the fourth fewest points in the NHL.
“I think it’s just a respect for the game,” Tage Thompson said. “It doesn’t matter who you’re playing. It’s having that pride that you’re going to put everything you’ve got into a battle to come out with the puck and if you don’t, you’re going to track to get it back. I thought we were just too casual all the way through tonight.”
More ahead from what was the kind of game that makes you have the thousand-yard stare afterward.
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There are ways to rationalize an ass-kicking from the boots of the worst team in the league, it’s just that they really ring hollow.
The Sabres were playing their sixth game in eight days—as well as third in four nights—and were coming back from playing in Montréal the night before. That’s hard on the body, mind, and everything else no matter who you are.
“When you look at as well as we skated last night, it looked like there was fatigue in our game,” Ruff said. “You have no legs, you have no hands, then you have no brain after that.
“We gave up goals on face-off coverage, we gave up goals on just over-backchecking. Our puck play three times led to goals, just breaking out the puck, hitting a stick. You look at some of the plays in the first period, handed them a couple of pucks where UPL had to make a great save just inside of our blue line. Our puck play was pathetic.”
Of course, the Sharks were also playing their third game in four nights, all of them on the road as they swing through the East Coast. They played in Toronto the night before and were coming off a 3-2 shootout win against the Maple Leafs.
“It doesn’t matter what happens throughout the year,” Thompson said. “There’s no excuses. Everybody is playing 82 games. Everybody has a tough schedule. You can sit here and try to make all the excuses in the world, but when you lace them up in the locker room and go out you better battle, you better compete. We didn’t. We took tonight off.”
It’s rightfully damning self-criticism from Ruff and Thompson. Ruff’s frustration was clear as his postgame chat with us went quickly. Having another night like this when they’re 60 games into the season must have him at his wits end. Lord knows the fans are fed up with it. When you’re the coach tasked with turning things around from a year ago and getting them to the playoffs—something that’s almost certainly not happening again for the 14th straight year—the stress of the organization comes through in how Ruff airs things out after bad losses like Tuesday night.
Many times after games this season, we’ve heard from players and from Ruff about how the team wanted the game to be easy and that sometimes against supposed lesser opponents they’d get too cocky or start trying to be too cute with pucks or try to do things flashy. It’s something the coach was ready for this time around only to see it go unheeded.
“There’s nothing to be overconfident about,” Ruff said. “This team has been in a lot of one-goal games, this team skates really good. Nothing to be overconfident about. We issued a warning on how tough a game it was going to be.”
Reaching the point of the season where every possible reason for losing a game has been exercised is hard because then you’re out of answers and that generally comes with consequences of some kind. If there are any major ones coming, they won’t occur until after the season, but even that’s hazy given the relationships in the front office. For the on-ice component, however, the players have to keep playing and try to not fall into the same traps they’ve gotten snared in repeatedly all season.
“Everyone wants to play in meaningful games, but at the same time, we put ourselves in this position,” Bo Byram said. “There’s no excuses from our room, but you also have to find a way to go out there and compete every night and bring your best every night, no matter where you are. It’s too good of a league to have nights like that. There’s always guys coming up taking spots and, yeah, it’s just obviously not good enough.”
The Sabres have an off day on Wednesday before they head to Florida for a mortifying doubleheader with the Tampa Bay Lightning and to Sunrise against the Panthers with the trade deadline falling in between those games. How different or not at all the Sabres roster looks from game to game will be fascinating. It would be great to know what the team’s approach to the deadline will be but that will remain a mystery until it plays out.
What we do know is they’ve still got UFAs-to-be in Jordan Greenway, Jason Zucker and Henri Jokiharju. Zucker is still out with a lower-body injury sustained against the Rangers when he blocked a shot. He was seen in a walking boot after the home game against the Canadiens in which he did not play which would seem not good.
Jokiharju has been a healthy scratch in each of the past three games which could either be from defensive rotation or to keep him healthy to trade. We’ll make that a dealers’ choice how you choose to view it. Mattias Samuelsson was a healthy scratch for the game in Montréal but that was done to get Dennis Gilbert in the lineup.
Greenway has been very good since he returned from injury and has yet to be held out for a potential trade. You’d have to think they want to sign him (and Zucker) to extensions, but if either of them wanted to test the market this summer you couldn’t blame them. There’ll be a lot of money out there to be had.
It’ll be a fascinating few days for the Sabres and how GM Kevyn Adams handles it will get electron microscope scrutiny whether he likes it or not.