Ryan O'Reilly was understandable peeved after his team's most recent close-but-no-cigar result against St. Louis.
I can't day I blame The Factor for feeling frustrated and angry.
His team played well in all three zones and yet came away empty handed in the end. The Sabres lost 2-1 to the Blues. However, had they buried their chances and played with some hatred and disdain for losing they may have won the game.
"We had so many chances there that we've got to put them away early when we have them," Sabres forward Ryan O'Reilly said. "It's not good enough. It's embarrassing. We've got to hate to lose more. I think we're too OK with losing. It's not good. We have to find a way to close that game out."
Losers of five straight (0-3-2), the Sabres as a group seemingly have accepted the taste of losing.
The shoulda, coulda, woulda excuses are starting to sound all too familiar to Sabres fans who were force-fed putrid hockey for the past two and a half seasons. Finishing 30th overall in the NHL standings for two straight seasons gave Sabres fans a glimpse of the darkest of dark days in their hockey history.
The 2015-16 season was supposed to be different.
Tim Murray has turned over roughly 60% of the roster players who were members of the tank brigade. His team has shown impressive signs of growth and development in its first 22 games of the next chapter, however, there seems to be lingering evidence that losses are acceptable when the Sabres give it their best college try.
ROR isn't buying that B.S. and frankly, I applaud him for saying so publicly. “We got a lead and we don’t have that killer instinct,… O’Reilly said on Monday night.
“We think it’s OK, fine, we got one. It’s on myself, too. I got to be a leader, step up and shut the door and do something.…
Were his teammates content to settle in and try to win 1-0 after the David Legwand goal gave the Sabres the lead?
O'Reilly and the Sabres are capable of scoring many more goals per game than they have been lately. In their past five games they have scored a combined five goals for. Is it any wonder that the team is winless in its past five games?
Are the Sabres relying too heavily on the stellar goaltending being delivered by Linus Ullmark and Chad Johnson?
By my count, the Sabres once again outplayed the big, bad Blues in the 5 on 5 portions of the game. The Sabres D have been physical and fast. The forwards have been good in their own end and have been keeping the third man high in the attack zone.
So why all of the hand wringing and drama then?
Th eSabres cannot score to save their lives.
They could have easily been in a 5-0 lead after two period on Monday night had they buried the four goal posts that they hit.
Also, in the final minute of regulation play with Blues D Carl Gunnarsson in the box, the Sabres went on a 6-on-4 power play when Ullmark was sent to the bench for the extra attacker. The Blues PKers somehow blocked four of the Sabres' shots at Jake Allen and the game ended abruptly.
The Buffalo PP is broken right now. Too much passing around the perimeter and not enough shooting on the enemy goalie.
The Buffalo PP are zero for their last 11 attempts and 1 for its last 17 attempts.
It's not as if Buffalo is devoid of talent on its power play units. Look at the names: Evander Kane, Ryan O'Reilly, Brian Gionta, Matt Moulson, Jack Eichel, Samson Reinhart, Cody Franson, Rasmus Ristolainen.
How on Earth can such a talented team of scorers be so passive and easy to defend on their power play?
“We got to hit the net,… O’Reilly said. “At a time like that, we moved it around well, we won some battles. But we got to place it on the net with traffic.…
Dan Bylsma has been a patient man with his young Sabres team. He has been forgiving of mental lapses and errors that lead to scoring chances against. However, I think Bylsma's benevolence has reached it's end. He, like O'Reilly, appears to be agitated by the "better luck next game" takes that seemingly flood the market after each close game loss in recent weeks.
Winless in the past five games and facing a double dip with high flying Nashville this week, I anticipate that Bylsma will make changes. He has already juggled his line trios and D pairs umpteen thousand times and has only gotten some negligible results.
My sense is that Bylsma and Murray are entertaining trade scenarios that will inject more urgency and attention to detail into the Buffalo room.
Nothing gets individual hockey players motivated like taking away ice time from struggling players.
Good old fashioned hockey trades also create urgency.
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In case you missed it last night while the Sabres and Buffalo Bills were playing simultaneously, I wrote a piece on the Winnipeg Jets and their interest level in the Buffalo Sabres.
A cornucopia of Western Conference teams have been keeping a trained eye Ryan O'Reilly and his teammates .
The Sabres have played San Jose, Dallas (2x), and St. Louis (2x) since November 14. Sabres will host Nashville on Thanksgiving Eve and will travel to Music City on Saturday night. The Carolina Hurricanes will be the Black Friday door buster.
The Sabres don't play the Winnipeg Jets until January 10, 2016 in The Peg, however, that hasn't stopped the front office brass from the Jets from scouting Buffalo Sabres home games. As I have been telling you, the Jets have been scouting the Sabres for the past two months.
For the past few weeks, the Jets have sent their director of pro scouting to watch Sabres home games.
On Monday night, the assistant general manager of the Jets attended the Buffalo-St. Louis game.
The Jets have been looking league wide for a veteran top six forward to infuse adrenaline and scoring into Winnipeg's slumping offense. They continue to evaluate and scrutinize the Buffalo Sabres live and in person.
What gives?
Buffalo's no trade, top six forward list includes Ryan O'Reilly, Jack Eichel, Samson Reinhart, nor Evander Kane to Winnipeg. I have to put Matt Moulson on that list because is Tim Murray traded him away, Jack Eichel would be personally affected. Not a great idea to shake your money maker.
Is captain Brian Gionta available? How about Tyler Ennis?
The Jets are also said to be looking to trade a top four D in order to clear salary cap and 20+ minutes per games for NY Islanders D Travis Hamonic. The Manitoba native requested a trade from the NY Islanders recently. Garth Snow and the Isles will oblige Hamonic's trade request and will be sending him to a team of his choice. Snow has reportedly be trying to trade Hamonic for the past month. Snow will not be giving Hamonic away for pennies on the dollar. You better believe that Snow will get max value for Hamonic. His preference is to play close to his Manitoba home so that he can be closer to his family.
By virtue of the fact that Winnipeg is a fine Manitoba city, The Peg is the odds on favorite to land Hamonic in a trade for Brooklyn.
Hamonic is in year three of his seven-year $27 million contract. He is a an excellent top four D-man with a neat and tidy salary cap hot. Hamonic's AAV is $3,857,142. Hamonic will play against the opposing team's top first or second lines and will create 35-40 points per season from his rear guard position.
The following teams are reportedly hot to trot for Hamonic:
Winnipeg, Edmonton, Anaheim, Minnesota, LA, Calgary, Vancouver.
I can see the Jets wanting to trade lefty Toby Enstrom and his $5.9 million cap hit and 22 minutes TOI to Buffalo for a top six forward. In so doing , Kevin Cheveldayoff would create the necessary ice time and special teams responsibilities for Hamonic in The Peg.
Cheveldayoff currently has $13 million in available salary cap for this season, however, he will have to create as much additional space as he can so that he can re-sign UFAs Dustin Byfuglien and Andrew Ladd. Byfuglien is looking to sign a monster $7 million salary for next season and beyond. I'm told that Byfuglien is looking for 7 years at $7 million per year and the Jets are more inclined to go 5-6 years at $7 million per copy. Ladd is a two time Stanley Cup winner and is earning $4.4 million. He is said to be seeking a multi-year extension in the $5.5 million range.
Cheveldayoff will also have to sign his RFA's to long term extensions. Top four D Jacob Trouba will be getting a heavy pay raise when his entry level deal expires in July. Ditto #1 center Mark Scheifele and energy forward Adam Lowry.
The Jets are off to a disappointing beginning to their season. They had high hopes for a fast start to this season. At 10-9-2, they find themselves in a ties for 8th place, just one point ahead of 10th place Arizona and four points ahead of 11th place Anaheim.
For two months leading up to the February 2015 Evander Kane-Zach Bogosian-Tyler Myers-Drew Stafford trade, the very same Jets front office members were frequent flyers in the Buffalo press box.
There has been more and more talk recently of a three team deal to secure Hamonic.
Might the Jets, Sabres and Islanders be working on the first major hockey trade of the 2015-16 season?