The Buffalo Sabres’ annual woes: “a real problem at the league level”

Dose
Crédit: Photo by Minas Panagiotakis/Getty Images

It’s now been 14 consecutive seasons, and therefore 14 years, since the Buffalo Sabres last made the Stanley Cup playoffs.

The franchise has become the laughing stock of the National Hockey League, and every year it’s the same story.

And the biggest problem in all of this is that the fans are the only ones who are bothered by the franchise’s failure, since every player in Buffalo eventually gets fed up and wants to leave the organization.

Ryan O’Reilly, Jack Eichel, Sam Reinhart, Brandon Montour, Jeff Skinner, and most recently J.J. Peterka, have all left the Sabres in recent years.

Worst of all, many of these players have gone on to win Stanley Cups and be decorated with success after being released by Buffalo.

So the Sabres have really become a joke in the NHL, when they’re not winning, and all their players want to leave as soon as possible.

And all these setbacks, well, it’s become a real problem for the whole league.

Indeed, that’s what renowned whistleblower Chris Johnston said on the Off The Post podcast.

For him, it’s obvious that what’s going on with the Buffalo Sabres has really become a concern throughout the National Hockey League.

It’s not normal for a team to become so much of a joke, and a circus, that no player wants to stay.

Johnston is clear that this is not good for the league as an organization.

Having a team that lacks so much seriousness, it’s really hard, and it gives the NHL a bad image.

If every time Buffalo develops a solid hockey player (Peterka, Montour) or even a star (Eichel, Reinhart), they end up trading him because that player wants out, or there have been problems of some kind, that’s serious.

You’d think you were watching an MLS team pulling out all the stops this season (without naming it), so many players arrive and leave Buffalo so quickly.

It’s even worse with the recent Bowen Byram saga, when the defender wanted to be traded, but finally decided to sign for two years with the Sabres, the exact amount of time that will allow him to become a free agent and pack his bags.

In short, the Sabres really need to find a solution, because if they don’t, things will only get worse, and we could see the Tage Thompson and Rasmus Dahlin of this world asking to be traded. We could even add Owen Power.

It would really be the end of the road if these two stars were to leave the team.

Overtime

– Interesting.

– Wow.

– Good news.

– What a great shot.