After getting waxed 7-1 by the Colorado Avalanche on Saturday, the Sabres have a scout in Anaheim to watch the Ducks host the Dallas Stars.
Never underestimate the relationship that Sabres GM Tim Murray has with the Anaheim Ducks. He helped to build the Ducks into a Cup winner and is partly responsible for the success that they Ducks are experiencing right now.
Remember the Bobby Ryan trade that no one in the NHL saw coning? Murray's finger prints were all over the deal.
Which Ducks players and/or prospects might the Sabres be interested in?
Goalie John Gibson. Center Rickard Rackell. Winger Devante Smith-Pelly.
The Ducks have scouted the Sabres in Buffalo in recent weeks.
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Ryan Miller was hung out to dry by his teammates in Denver on Saturday afternoon. His boys neglected to set their alarms for the 1pm (3pm EDT) puck drop. They didn't forget to show up, they chose to not show up. I can tolerate errors of commission. However, I despise errors of omission. The Sabres as a team are guilty of the dereliction of their duties in Denver.
What an abomination. That was hockey. That was an out and out avalanche. Before Miller could get his bearings it was 3-0. Miller allowed the fourth Avs goal on the 14th shot he faced. Mercifully, Ted Nolan hooked Miler after 40 minutes. Miller allowed 5 goals on 27 shots. Jhonas Enroth mop and bucket couldn't prevent two more Avs goals on 12 shots that he faced.
7-1 final.
There are no good excuses for the Sabres and their lack of compete. There was more than one Sabres forward who refused to throw hits and who opted to not engage in wall battles. You could have put a dozen eggs in the hockey pants of all of the Sabres forwards before the game. At the end of the game not one egg would have been broken. No body checks, just drive-bys. No jam. No bite to their game. The boys acted like choir boys on the team annual family trip. Unlike the prideful effort in Phoenix on Thursday night, the Avs game was a joke.
In his post game presser , captain Steve Ott chastised his team's lack of urgency. He also called them out for embarrassing Ryan Miller.
Ted Nolan was furious with the lopsided loss.
"You're not going to play a consistent game all the time if you're in bottom place," said Nolan. "That's why we're in bottom place. Because the guys just don't get it. Some guys are continuously making the same mistake and you continuously tell them. What more can you do? We just gotta get back to the drawing board and go back at it."
Ott wasn't hearing any of the excuses about the Sabres landing in Denver at 3am Friday after the win in Phoenix on Thursday night. Nolan gave his team the day off on Friday so that the players could do off ice workouts and do team building exercises like spending time with the families of teammates. Sounds like a ski weekend in the Rockies rather than a business trip.
Ott wasn't pleased with his team's response when the puck dropped on Saturday afternoon.
"That's a treat, when your coach gives you a day (off)," said Ott. "You go for a stretch, you have some team activities, you get loose, you're prepared for a one o'clock game. This is the NHL. We don't need to go out there and pass eggs like it's The Mighty Ducks anymore. This is game time, and plain and simple, we didn't show up."
Good on Ott. His teammates stunk out loud in Denver. They were blown away by the awesome skill and precision passing of the Avs. The Sabres D looked like the Nexus lane at the Peace Bridge with Landeskog, MacKinnon, Duchene, O'Reilly, McGinn, Parentau, and compant driving right through without having to pay a toll.
Time after time, the back door was open on Miller and Enroth because the weak side forward and the D refused to cover the goalie's blind side.
What a mess.
"We weren't ready to go from the get-go," Sabres coach Ted Nolan said. "We should have had some energy. We should have had more energy than frustration. We never put a body on anyone. It was a very ugly game to watch. This shows where we are. There are guys that don't get it. There are guys that are continuously making mistakes."
Buffalo (15-31-8), which is last in the NHL standings, failed to win its second consecutive game for the first time since they did it December 17-19. The Sabres are 2-5-3 in their past 10 games.
The Loser's Cup is Monday night in Buffalo: Sabres vs. Oilers.
Now might be the correct time for the Sabres to make a Ryan Miller trade. Put Jhonas Enroth in the cage and let him play out the string of remaining games.
After being embarrassed like he was in Denver, do you honestly think that an alpha dog like Miller would want to stick around to be party to the re-build.
The British blues poet Gordon Sumner said it best:
If you love somebody, set them free.
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