The Blue Jackets’ busy days leading up to the deadline provided a reminder for the Sabres about where they’ve come from and why relative peace now is a good thing
When the weeks and days tick down toward the NHL trade deadline, it creates different dynamics across the league. The cool and calm some teams can conduct themselves this time of year is countered by tension, stoicism, and nerves elsewhere.
It’s the time of the season when emotions run the highest everywhere across the league. Teams are either fighting for playoff positions or resigning themselves to the likelihood they’re not making the playoffs. Meanwhile, players are trying to stay focused on the game while also filing away the possibility that they, or their friends and teammates, might not all be together in hours or days as the clock counts down to the deadline.
In Buffalo, what became the annual rite of passage of seeing guys moved out for picks or prospects has been replaced this season by a virtual status quo while their young group gets to have its first taste of being in a playoff hunt. Going from one extreme to the other over the course of a few seasons makes this time of year feel like a relief even though the stress level is still high for good reasons.
Still, with the skate being on the other foot, so to speak, being in a new position is an eye-opener for those who’ve been around long enough to know what the other side is like.
“Thinking about it, it’s been every year that I’ve been here, it’s been ‘what are we going to do,’ except for the one year we picked up Simmer (Wayne Simmonds), or it was we weren’t going to do much,”Sabres captain Kyle Okposo said. “But yeah, it’s definitely a different feeling. We know where we’re at, and we’re probably not going to subtract from our group. So, it’s just a feeling of calm, and definitely less anxiety around the room and just guys just know what we have to do.”
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You only need to look back on the darker days of Sabres’ seasons past within the last 10 years or so to recall what it was like looking at it from the outside. Going through it and living it from within the locker room makes for a harsh reminder of the reality of life in the NHL. That’s why when the Columbus Blue Jackets rolled into Buffalo with the NHL’s worst record on Tuesday, it was a day that began with more questions surrounding them about when trades would happen rather than about that night’s game. Keeping a stiff upper lip while rumors and speculation swirled, despite the fact they’d begun to play better hockey recently, is hard to do when you know eventually teammates and friends are headed out the door.
“The trade deadline, it’s every year this time of year, and obviously, we’re not in the spot we want to be in at this time of year,” Blue Jackets captain Boone Jenner said that morning. “But as far as our group in here, I think we’re just trying to focus on our game and what we can do to build this in the right direction and focus on our process and how we need to play as a team. And it’s exciting when you put a few games together, something to build off. Guys can feel it in a room, of being in every game, knowing how hard it is to get points in this league, and it’s something we can build off and keep growing.”
That’s an unenviable spot to be in for any team around the bottom of the standings and with good players on expiring contracts that may not be eager to stick around while a team rebuilds. And it’s hard for a leader, in this case Jenner, to put on the brave face while staring down a miserable season.
Just think about how the Blue Jackets had to prepare that day and how the rest of the day played out.
Defenseman Vladislav Gavrikov had been held out since February 14 in anticipation of a trade. Even though he skated and practiced with his teammates while being kept out of the lineup, it’s a team-imposed limbo in which no one is happy. Making that day even stranger was backup goalie Joonas Korpisalo, who also skated that morning with the team to prepare for their matchup against the Sabres, joined Gavrikov in the press box as he was also held out of action for trade-related reasons.
As fate would have it, it wound up being their final day as Blue Jackets. Gavrikov and Korpisalo were traded to the Los Angeles Kings later that night after their soon-to-be former teammates surprised the Sabres with a 4-3 win on the road. Injured teammate Gustav Nyquist was traded to Minnesota hours before that night’s game. When the trade whirlwinds finally settle down, it means the players left behind have to sort through a new set of feelings. To say it’s uncomfortable or awkward would be putting it very lightly.
“The most recent (game day trade) that I can think of was (Marco) Scandella,” Okposo recalled. “I came to the rink for the game and saw him and he said, ‘I got to go, I got traded.’ It’s just when you hear that, and it’s somebody that you basically spent every single day with for the last month, six months, and then all of a sudden—boom, done—and we don’t talk for a while. It’s a really weird thing. Think about it in the context of a company and say you’re working for Amazon in Seattle. And then, ope, sorry, you’re going now to Google, and you’ve got to move that night to Atlanta. It’s just kind of crazy to think about. So, when it does happen, there’s that human element and it’s just it’s a strange thing.”
The veteran Sabres can look back on those times and think about how that kind of scenario isn’t very likely to happen this time around and the younger Sabres who are just getting accustomed to the rigors of the NHL won’t have to get a grip of the sometimes-harsh realities of the business side of hockey.
General manager Kevyn Adams has said on more than one occasion leading up to the deadline that while he’s always listening to what’s going on and wants to be involved in every conversation, making drastic changes is highly unlikely, and even smaller ones that could unseat key younger players from the lineup aren’t as appealing, and that message is shared within the Sabres locker room.
“I think Kevyn is going to do what he thinks is best,” Okposo said. “I think, short and long term, you look at our lineup and see our young guys and think it’s probably best to give them experience in these games. It’s going to help out in the long run, and we want to see how these guys play. And if you add or are subtracting somebody from our lineup, it’s a player who probably needs to get experience. Kevyn and I are pretty close, obviously, and I know that we have kind of a similar philosophy. So, we believe in the group that we have here. We really do. And we think that we can get it done. And once you get in, anything can happen. But we just got to make sure that we continue to climb the mountain.”
The hope that the Sabres will do something to give them a lift in their battle with the Pittsburgh Penguins, New York Islanders, Florida Panthers, Ottawa Senators, and Detroit Red Wings for one of the two wild card spots in the Eastern Conference burns hot among the fans. It’s understandable given how long it’s been since their last postseason appearance (2011), but the debate of how hard to push and what that does to the long-term outlook is something Adams has to weigh carefully.
It would be easy to make a rash decision and cough up young players or high draft picks to get a quick fix, but Adams has been very clearly all about going for the fix that will last for years to come. At the very least, the players know they probably won’t need to keep their eyes locked on their phones all afternoon and they can instead think about how they’ll handle the schedule the rest of the way in Buffalo.