Nothing left for the Buffalo Sabres except firing the GM

Nothing left for the Buffalo Sabres except firing the GM

An embarrassing defeat at home leaves Sabre fans speechless. 5- nothing at the hands of the Devils. We’ll recap it coming up here in the Locked On Sabres podcast. You’re Locked on Sabers, your daily podcast on the Buffalo Sabres, part of the Locked On podcast network. Your team every day. What is up everybody? Welcome in to this Friday edition of the Locked On Sabers podcast. Thanks for making us your first listen every day here on the Locked On Network. Now, the number one sports podcast network. You can listen to the show wherever you get your podcast. You can watch the show on YouTube, like and subscribe, and you can become a part of our locked sabers text club if you are not already by heading over to joinsubtex.com/lockedonabers. Sneaky Joe Debbiasi following a five to nothing defeat by the Buffalo Sabres at the hands of the New Jersey Devils at home at Keybank Center in a game where the Sabres did play pretty well, but the results just not there on the night. The owner was in town. I think there’s some conversation about that to be had from this game. the future of the team goalie a little bit today because Alex Lion got back into the mix. So yeah, there’s a lot to get to on today’s show and uh maybe you’re at a loss for words. I’m going to try to come up with 25 to 30 minutes of them and we try to figure out together what what is what is this what’s going to happen here? What is this all worth? Why are we doing this to ourselves as the team continues to sit now in last place? They spent a couple of days out of last. They jumped Toronto for those couple of days, but right back down to the bottom. And um we’ll see if they’re able to pull out of it. One thing that you’re not going to get out of today is much injury excuse because that team that was on the ice tonight that lost five to nothing is about as healthy as it gets. And again, played well but didn’t get the results. And you could only say that so many times and have it feel like it is meaningful. So, lot to get to on today’s show. We’ll go through all the goals and where I had problems um with all those that New Jersey found a way to score in three of them in the third period when the Sabres were not yet out of the game. And then New Jersey really pulls away and that crowd became a very negative sounding crowd very quickly. There have been a lot of good games in that building this year. They’ve been good at home. The last game that I went to, they scored nine goals and it was super fun. And we had the wave and we had the beer swords and it was awesome. And a week later it’s about as bad as it gets. And I got friends that are going to the arena like I haven’t seen them score a goal in the last three games I’ve gone to. So you can get lucky, you can get unlucky. And uh if you went to this game tonight, you maybe got a little unlucky. So before we get into what happened in the game itself, really just the the big picture, the overall is where I wanted to start because in this game in the third period with Terry Pagula in attendance, he was there and I’m assuming Kevin Adams there as well in a pretty packed house. The announced attendance at the game was a sellout 19,070 and a sellout crowd 4:00 the post Thanksgiving game is always a great game to go to and to have this be the result obviously stinks. Fans are upset and in the third period they are booing heavily. They are chanting to sell the team which I’m not sure I’ve heard that chant specifically make it onto television. hearing it through the broadcast, that’s when you know it’s got to be a certain level of loud to get through that extent. So, you had to sell the team chant and you had some pretty loud Fire Adams chants with the owner in attendance. So, the GM, the owner, the team’s not going to get sold. I don’t think I’d be stunned if that were to happen. But I think the big picture thing to say here after this game and the tone of the crowd and the chance and everything is we are really any covering this team, being a fan of this team, watching this team, all of the above. I think what we’re all doing is we are just killing time until the GM gets fired. I I feel like the the thing with this team is there’s nothing left to do other than move on from the general manager. I don’t know what else would be next. I don’t know h how to seriously have a conversation about anything that is next that includes Kevin Adams remaining in charge of the hockey department. I just don’t see it being possible that that could continue. How that’s feasible. So, I think we’re that’s the that’s the only thing left to do. It’s the only thing left is the GM has got to go. and you can like him or like his I don’t know like I’m not sure there are a lot of people that maybe love his personality and the way he kind of comes off in the media but he’s a local guy and right he’s he’s involved in T-ball and stuff right like you could feel bad for him if you want but it’s just the reality of the situation it’s six years it’s six years there’s nothing left to do it’s got to happen and I don’t know if it’s going to happen it feels like he’s got unlimited job security and I don’t know what he did to earn that to this extent, but it appears he has. I don’t know how to keep coming on here and saying like, “Oh, they got to fire the GM and then a week later, oh, they got to fire the GM and then a month later they got to fire the GM.” Like, you could only say it so many times, but I guess that’s the only thing left. Just got to keep coming on here and uh others that cover the team will do the same thing. and basically say the same thing, which is, “Yeah, we’re just GM. No, we’re not doing that. All right, we’ll we’ll see who they call from Rochester uh to try to save the day.” So, the fans are obviously livid. Um, they are restless and they are on edge. I mean, the team has played well at home this year, and one or two bad games in a row are going to set fans off, but that’s earned. That is what comes with being in a 14-year playoff drought and being into year six with a GM. If you had different people in charge, I think the fans would very quickly buy back in to hope and thinking that they could really make the playoffs or do something meaningful in the trade market or free agency. Like fans want to buy in. They want to be gullible. They want you to sell them on why this next thing is going to work. But that maybe is why I think so many fans are lifeless with this team is there isn’t even that there isn’t even that opportunity to be sold on something that might not even be that you know something to be that optimistic about right like when Ralph Krueger got hired and that obviously ended up being a terrible idea him being from a different background and whatever like I could buy into that I could buy into this could be And this could be good and it was terrible. It was horrible. But there was that little bit of time where like, “All right, let’s see it. I’m in. Let’s let’s see a change here. Change is good for fan psyche.” And this team with the lack of change. It’s just it’s tough to stomach. It’s really tough to stomach. Oh, it’s just there’s nothing left. There’s nothing left to do than other than firing the GM. And also, how can you let Kevin Adams make decisions on the future of this team and the big moves that are to come? They have to make a decision on Alex Tuck soon because Alex Tuck is in a contract year and it sounds like he wants upwards of double digit million dollars per year and the Sabres don’t want to do that. And are you going to let Adams navigate the waters of the Tuck situation? whether to trade him, whether to risk losing him for nothing and go through the deadline, whether to pay him the big contract that he wants. The idea of letting Kevin Adams handle that doesn’t seem prudent, but maybe that’s what we’re headed for. It’s the only thing left. GM’s got to go and he stays for now. when we come back, what went wrong on really all five of the goals and how much Blaine Alex Lion deserves and whether he has really fallen out of favor. That when we return here on the Locked On Sabres podcast. Today’s episode of the Locked On Sabers podcast is presented by Monarch. 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That’s monarch.com code locked on NHL for half off your first year. Sneaky Jody Biosi back here on the Locked On Sabres podcast. A five to nothing defeat the New Jersey Devils over the Buffalo Sabres. I will be honest though, as mad and as angry as you could be from this game, and I think you absolutely have every right to be mad and angry from this game. I was. They definitely deserved better. They deserved better. The numbers point to a game that the Sabres should have won and won easily. and you had the complete and polar opposite. But I do want to get into why that happened and why you can’t absolve the Sabres completely because they make these little dumb plays and sometimes you don’t get the goalending and that can be what cost you the game. So five nothing Devils every other number the Sabres were the better team but that not in the one that mattered. shots on goal in this game. The Sabres outshot the Devils 42-23. They had 87 shot attempts to New Jerseys 38. That number is as stark and amazing as anything I have seen from the Sabres this year. How it is possible. I know shot attempts are not the end all be all, but to out shot attempt your opponent 87 to 38. And to lose by that much, that is the most shot attempts the Sabres have had in a game this season by eight. They had not had more. Actually, that was at five on five. Let me see if they had had any more than that. Uh, no, they have not had How about this? The Buffalo Sabres have not had more than 87 shot attempts in a game since 2021. It has been four years almost. Four years. No, there’s one other game in here. I found it. 2023. All right, there we go. Islanders Sabres. January 19th of 2023. That is the last time they had more than 87 shot attempts. They won that game against the New York Islanders. That actually, now that I’m looking at it, that might be the Ryan Miller night that they retired his number. I think I was at that game. Dylan Cousins in overtime. So, it’s been a long time. January of 2023. So, two almost three full years since they’ve played a game with that many shot attempts. Scoring chances in the game, 38 for Buffalo, 17 for New Jersey. and the expected goals in this one which don’t end up mattering. 4.1 for Buffalo, 1.8 for the Devils. So, what that means is that you had an incredible night from Jake Allen and he was the game’s number one star. He made a lot of big saves in this game. A lot of chances that he really shut down without allowing a rebound. Um Allen was fantastic. He was supposed to be the number one goalie in last year’s free agency class and he ended up not hitting or not changing teams. He stayed put in New Jersey and he’s actually been their number one goalie this year. Jacob Marstrom has had a down year. Allen has taken over as the number one. So great year for him. 4.1 goals saved above expected is an insane number for one game. Meanwhile, on Alex Lion’s end of things, he allows 3.2 goals more than what we’re expected. So, polar opposite nights on the goalie front. And that is not encouraging at all because Lion was somebody that I was hopeful could be the 1A goalie this year if that couldn’t be Lucin. And Lion was doing that. Lion was doing that, but he has fallen out of favor. So, we’ll get to him a little bit more a little bit later on, but otherwise like good game from the Sabres were good and they’re healthy and you see the speed, you see some you see I think a system that works. What I see from the Sabres right now and what I saw in this game is the system works, but there is a talent disparity. And to me, when I see a team be capable of putting up numbers like that in a game, but not scoring a goal, what it means to me is you’ve got a good overall team effort and system that works, but you don’t have the scoring ability, the scoring talent to score the goals that you’re supposed to score. Even Zack Benson, who is my favorite player on the team to watch and I think an incredibly valuable piece that I would not want to move at all. In this game, there were two moments where he had a basically a breakaway 80 90% breakaway where he passed the puck off and that was ridiculous. He should have shot that puck. And then another almost breakaway where he was getting caught from behind and he had to slow up and he had to kind of just take the offensive zone possession. Didn’t get a shot on either play, which should have been two breakaways. And that’s a guy there that is a great player and a smart player and a valuable player, but does not have goal scoring ability at all right now. Hasn’t scored yet this season. A lot of assists, but not a goal yet. And that’s true of a lot of guys on the roster. How many players on the team score more goals than they should given the opportunities that they create for themselves or create for others? Like it’s just Tae and maybe Tuck to some extent. That’s it. You can’t be a good team and have two guys like that. You got to have seven, eight, nine. You got to have a lot of guys on your team that are capable of finishing and beating goalies one-on-one. And I don’t trust any player on this team to beat a goalie straight up consistently than Tae Thompson and Alex Tuck. They used to have Purka in that way. I think Don is impressed in some ways, but his goals feel more like effort goals to me and, you know, rebound goals, front of the net, dirty stuff. Um, good player, but I think they’re missing that goalcoring acumen. So, that was something that I took out of this game. Otherwise, like great start to the game. The Tage fight was exciting, stepping up, fighting Steven Newison, who hit Taage in the head last year and nobody came to Thompson’s defense. And Thompson did say in postgame that there were other guys that wanted to take that fight for him and fight Noison, but Taage said he wanted to do it and handle his own business. So, he did well. Noon’s not a scrub. Like, he is a a guy who has fought in his career and Ta did really, really well going through some of the goals. So again, great overall team effort, but mistakes on individual plays and a goalie that can’t make up for them will get you killed. And that’s what happened in this game. And on two different accounts, the guy that made the mistake was Bo Byum. And we are reaching a critical place with Bo Byum where they got to figure out a way to move him. I think coming up soon in this game, the first goal, Byum, the first goal and the third goal are the same story. The only mistake that is made, the Sabres have possession and they’re just trying to find a way out of their zone. And Bo Byum has got the puck on both time. Both times behind the net and both times he turns it over and within three seconds the puck is in the back of the net. The first one he just throws it up the wall, it hits a devil and then the puck’s out in front for a one-time and it’s in. Um, and that’s the one where they kind of crashed the crease. I will say Lion I thought was way too deep in his net on that goal. He slid way like he gave himself no opportunity to make a big save there. So Lion deserves some blame too. But Byron with the turnover was bad. And then the third one, um, another turnover behind the net trying to make this weird play with his backhand to get it along the boards and then it comes out in front for a one-time uh to the not front, more sword to the left and Lion gets beat with a slap shot one-time. So, bad game from Bum for those two games. We’ll probably talk more about what trade options they might have for him coming up soon because I think it’s about time they they did that. the other goals that found the net for New Jersey. The second goal of the game, which was very demoralizing in the second period, um Dene throws it up the boards. I guess you could blame Dene a little bit for not trying to skate it out or trying to find something else up the ice. Uh he throws it up the boards, a turnover, and then the scramble around the front of the net and out into the slot. Jason Zucker has got his man marked and he loses him and he doesn’t win the battle in the middle of the ice and he kind of allows it to be an open one-time. So, I guess he would be the guy to look at on that second goal, but it was kind of a bang bang bang play. Um, no big big problems. The fourth goal, Quinn and Dene have a big miscommunication. Dene had pinched up in the play and it looked like Quinn was back recovering and then Samuelson decided to pinch too and for some reason Quinn kind of followed Samuelson a little bit up the ice. It’s almost like he thought Dene was was heading back to go back to his original position but Dene was still up in the play and then by the time they realized it it’s a breakaway the other direction and it’s in the back of the net and then the fifth goal game is over. That is one of those game is over goals where you’re just trying to find a goal. You’re playing desperate. You’re playing aggressive. It’s the end of a game. You’re down four. Jacob Bryson tries to pinch and he fails. I’m not going to blame him for trying to pinch. You’re down four goals. You’re trying to make something happen. There’s two minutes left to go. He pinches. He doesn’t get the puck and then it’s twoon-one and Connor Timonss allows a pass through. So again, mistakes all around. Byum would probably be the number one culprit on the night. Um but it wasn’t a great game from Alex Lion either. And I want to get to him a little bit when we come back on what the plan should be going forward. Is he done? I mean, it’s been a tough run for him and I’ll tell you just how rough when we come back. You’re in the Locked On Sabres podcast. Today’s episode of the Locked Sabres podcast is presented by FanDuel Sportsbook. Had a lot of football the last couple of days. You got more coming your way this weekend. You got a huge game of college football. You got big games in the NFL. Also, basketball is back. NBA is back. No better place to get in on the action than FanDuel, the official sports betting partner of the NBA. If you miss the start of a game or you want to ride the hot hand, FanDuel has live bets on everything from who’s going to score next, you could do that. Live betting uh or third period comeback. If you like the way your team is playing and they’re down and you want to get them while the they’re in the plus money, you could do that. Combine your live bets into a same game parlay. You get a shot at a bigger payout. keeps every game more exciting, especially when your team is making that late push. Right now, FanDuel’s giving new customers $300 in bonus bets when your first $5 bet wins. Again, new customer, $300 in bonus bets when that first $5 bet wins. So, head to fanduel.com, sign up, and play your game with FanDuel, the official sports betting partner of the NBA. Wrapping things up here on the Locked On Sabres podcast. The Sabres fall five to nothing to the New Jersey Devils and they are right back at it tomorrow night against the Minnesota Wild. That’s probably going to be tough for them. The second of a back-to back on the road. They’ve not won on the road this year. They are not playing anywhere really super super close. They’re not going to Pittsburgh. They’re not going up to Toronto. They’re going out to Minnesota. So that’s not great. Although time change, they should get an extra hour, right? Um I think that’s how it works. Central time, whatever. It’s late for me figuring out figuring that out. The other tough part about tomorrow is the Wild have won seven games in a row. So second of a backto-back on the road against a team that’s won seven in a row. Uh not fun, but hopefully they can get a win. So we’ll get to that game though uh this weekend. the plan and goal and what is to become now of Alex Lion because I’m wondering I’ve wondered this with all the other guys and I guess we’re at a point with the three goalie system the make it take it goalie system as I’ve described it where no one’s making it. UPL had a good game last weekend, right? Solid game last weekend. Ellis had a couple of nice games, but the last start from each of the three goalies has been poor. The last Ellis start was poor, the last UPPL start was poor, and the last Lion start was really bad. So, that’s becoming demoralizing. One of the three can one of the three give me show me anything. And we’ll see who gets the next one. I think I mean, if you’re just going by whose turn it is, Ellis would be the next guy up. might want to predict he does get the start, but it’s so tough to predict this year with goalie. So, I’d predict Ellis, but a better question is, is Lion going to find himself out of the rotation? Because Ellis, as I mentioned, one bad start and a couple of nice ones before that in his last couple of games. UPPL, bad start in his last game, couple of good ones before that. Lion, you got to go way back to find his last good start. Lion. The Sabres have lost the last six Alex Lion starts. Six straight losses when he starts the game. He got pulled in one of those. In those six games, Lion has faced 155 shots. He has allowed 21 goals. That is an 864 save percentage. Putrid save percentage. Not great goals saved like minus uh 3 point something and goals saved below expected for him as well. So, that’s not great. The numbers on Lion are not strong. And now we’re left to wonder when would his next opportunity even be because it might take you four or five games to get back in. If you get two good games from Ellis before he comes out, if you get two good games from Lucin before he comes out, like it could be a while before we see Lion again. And I don’t know like how many turns do you get before they decide you’re the odd man out. I’m going to try to predict this all year. I think they’re going to do something at some point. It’s just tough to know when they got to feel really comfortable with it. But I I don’t know. Lion’s not going to get opportunities in perpetuity, I don’t think, to show that he’s one of their best two goalenders. if they play him every fifth game and every time it goes poorly, like eventually they’re going to make a call and they’re going to wave him or they’re going to do something with him, trade him, I don’t know. So, tomorrow is against the Wild, Monday against Winnipeg, Wednesday against the Flyers, Friday against Winnipeg. Like, I would predict he’s not back in the net in the next week that we’ll see Ellis and UPL in the next four games. Um, maybe one, maybe Ellis gets three of them. Maybe UPPL gets three of them, but I think it’s might be a while until you see Lion again, personally. All right, 5 nothing. GM is still employed. Uh, they’re in last place. Here we are. We’re well practiced at this though. Can tell you that there’s no podcast that’s more experienced at November 28th. They’re in last place. Kevin Adams the GM. What should we do about it than this show? So come back after Sabres and Wild. Hopefully we have some more fun things to talk about. They can pass Toronto tomorrow and get out of last place. Do that one team at a time. Seven points out of a playoff spot, by the way, if you’re wondering. All right. If you want more hockey talk, but a little more hopeful, a little more optimistic, you can do that over at Lockdown NHL game night. Find them. They’re available wherever you listen to their podcast or also on YouTube for them as well. We’ll talk to you next time. You’re on the Lockdown Savers podcast, part of the Lockdown Podcast Network. Your team every day.

The Buffalo Sabres were embarrassed at home with Terry Pegula in attendance by a score of 5-0 to the New Jersey Devils. A sellout KeyBank Center crowd was left to chant to “sell the team” and “fire Adams” as the team was getting routed. Despite severely outshooting New Jersey and having the better of the chances, Jake Allen outplayed Alex Lyon by a lot and the Sabres couldn’t get the goals they needed.

There is simply nothing left to do with this team other than Kevyn Adams getting fired. Everyone is playing the waiting game until that happens. Could be weeks. Could be months. Could be years. Will Pegula finally make the right move? Plus, is Lyon now out of the rotation? Is Colten Ellis the next in line to start in goal? And Tage Thompson stands up for himself.

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