BUFFALO, N.Y. — Buffalo Sabres owner Terry Pegula was sitting in the press box watching the team’s Saturday afternoon game against the Seattle Kraken with general manager Kevyn Adams. With Pegula’s Buffalo Bills hosting an NFL playoff game on Sunday, this was an opportune chance for him to get an in-person look at his hockey team, which is in last place in the Eastern Conference.
Pegula watched as the Sabres took a 2-0 lead on goals from Sam Lafferty and Jack Quinn in a dominant first period. And then he saw what came next: another inexplicable collapse that ended with six unanswered goals from the Kraken in a 6-2 loss for the Sabres.
By the time Kaapo Kakko scored his second goal to put the Kraken up 5-2, fans were rushing to the exits. It’s worth noting the Kraken acquired Kakko last month for Will Borgen and two draft picks. The Sabres, meanwhile, haven’t added to their roster all season despite multiple injuries and a 13-game winless streak. Fans who stuck around voiced their displeasure at that, attempting to start “Fire Adams!” chants. One fan in the 300s, sitting within earshot of Adams and Pegula’s usual perch, started yelling, “Sell the team, Terry!”
That’s the state of a fan base watching its team slip to 16-22-5 in what will more than likely be the 14th straight season without the playoffs. This crowd was energized early in the game, too. The Sabres were riding a two-game winning streak and outshot the Kraken 15-7 in the first period.
Buffalo hadn’t allowed a goal in more than 100 minutes of game action dating back to a win against Washington when Seattle finally broke through late in the second period. That’s when Ryker Evans scored after a brutal backhand pass from Dennis Gilbert led to a turnover. Then with less than a minute left in the second period, Oliver Bjorkstrand scored at the net front. Ruff lamented the team’s sloppy defensive zone coverage that he attributed to Rasmus Dahlin and Bo Byram taking too long a shift after Byram turned it over at the offensive blue line.
“I thought the second period was embarrassing the way we played,” Sabres coach Lindy Ruff said. “We had O-zone time. Didn’t get pucks to the inside. Didn’t get pucks to the net. Pass the puck around the perimeter, look for the pretty play and eventually it caught up to us. And then to give up a goal in the last couple minutes on that play, unacceptable. Just embarrassing, actually.”
This loss would have been unbelievable if it wasn’t such a familiar story for the Sabres. The Sabres have scored first in 21 games this season. They are 11-5-5 in those games. They are 2-5-2 when tied after two periods. They have a minus-15 goal differential in third periods and a minus-29 goal differential in first and second periods. The Sabres even started the third period with a power play but managed nothing. The Kraken got their first goal of the third period moments later when Jacob Bryson batted a puck into his own net. Kakko scored his first goal of the game 38 seconds later on a clean shot from the circle.
“We’ve seen too many times this year where we give up one and then it’s just a disaster,” Sabres forward Dylan Cozens said. “We give up one and then another and another. I don’t know why it keeps happening, but we’ve got to figure it out and not let that happen.”
what the bjork is happening!?!?!?! pic.twitter.com/btIu4oLK0J
— Seattle Kraken (@SeattleKraken) January 11, 2025
Asked how the team finds a way to get mentally stronger, Cozens said: “We have to find a way to get that because I think once we get up we start thinking about how we can blow this game. If they get one we start getting nervous about giving up another one and giving the game away. We do need to become mentally stronger.”
Ruff said this performance was a “hard one to explain” and described it as “painful.” Dahlin said Ruff’s message to the team after the game was that it was “unacceptable. He said a lot of different things that we needed to hear.”
But Ruff has been saying a lot of things the team needs to hear. Whatever buttons he’s tried to push have resulted in the same inconsistent play. Similar problems continue to pop up game after game. Poor puck management. Defensive breakdowns. Careless play with the lead. After 43 games, it’s safe to say this is who the team is.
“Young players have to learn as soon as you start feeling good in this league, it’s over,” Dahlin said.
“You have to remind yourself it’s hard every single shift out there. You cannot take any shift off. It’s that simple.”
Even when the Sabres were down 5-2 and pulled the goalie, Ruff didn’t like what he saw. He noted that the team passed the puck back and forth on the perimeter and didn’t show any urgency to get the puck to the inside of the ice.
“That’s just a mentality that you’ve got to want to win it the hard way,” Ruff said.
This team doesn’t want to do it often enough. A few weeks ago, Pegula spoke to the team in Montreal in the midst of the 13-game winless streak. His message was that the answers were within the room. What did he think as he watched what unfolded on Saturday?
(Photo: Ben Ludeman / NHLI via Getty Images)
