BUFFALO – Sabres general manager Kevyn Adams entered the KeyBank Center media room, walked to the podium and started talking before he fielded a question.
Normally, GMs don’t hold a 23-minute news conference on a Friday morning in early December. But Adams’ Sabres, having dropped five straight games (0-3-2), including an embarrassing loss Tuesday in which they blew a four-goal lead and lost for the second time in franchise history, are in rough shape.
Entering Friday’s games, they ranked fifth in the Atlantic Division, 12th in the Eastern Conference and 23rd in the 32-team NHL. They’ve won just 11 of their 26 contests (11-12-3).
Despite all of that, they stood just two points out of the second wild card spot. They must, however, climb three teams, no easy task.
They could be barreling toward their 14th consecutive playoff DNQ, a stunning streak of futility.
The media wanted to hear from Adams, who’s under intense pressure to halt the NHL-record drought, about the Sabres’ sorry state, and he obliged.
He just wanted to make something clear before things got underway.
“If you’re looking for me to be panicking or overreacting because of the last few games, that’s not my style,” said Adams, whose Sabres host the Utah Hockey Club this afternoon.
So far, Adams has stuck to his plan to give the Sabres, the league’s youngest team at about an average of 26 years, consistent success. That means no shortcuts. That means disturbing slumps like their current one under new coach Lindy Ruff, while difficult, won’t lead to rash decisions.
“I believe our roster is talented,” he said. “We should be a team that is competing and in the playoffs. I’ve said that since the summer. I truly believe that. And, in saying that … when you have a young roster, you’re going to have mistakes. We have a new coach that’s putting in certain types of intricacies into the system.
“We’re 26 games in. So that’s why I said in the beginning, I’m not happy with where we’re at, but we’re not going to panic. We’re not going to overreact. We’re not going to make a knee-jerk decision or a reactionary trade that sets you back. We have to look at things that we think are going to improve our team, we’ll act on it.”
Adams was unusually combative Friday, sometimes bristling at questions and challenging ones he did not agree with.
For example, he responded to a question about the Sabres’ youthfulness possibly not working for a team in win-now mode by saying if he had signed a 40-year-old, that question wouldn’t have been asked.
He made a point to accentuate some positives. While it’s a meaningful statistic, disgruntled fans likely don’t care the Sabres are around playoff teams in even-strength expected goals for this season.
They ran out of patience years ago. Fair or not, they see an underperforming team, trudging through another campaign.
Still, an underwhelming start hasn’t shaken Adams’ belief in the ability of the team he constructed to win right now.
“I say, ‘The time is now’ because I believe in the people in this room, and I believe in the coaching staff. … I’m going to go to war with these guys, and I will not change, I will not back down from that. I believe in the people in our room, and I wouldn’t say that if I didn’t know the opportunity we have. …
“But do I believe in this team and do I believe we’re going to be a team that takes a step here? I do.”
As Adams explores his options to improve the Sabres, he has a valuable asset, $7,154,506 of salary cap space, according to PuckPedia. He said they don’t have an internal cap. Owner Terry Pegula lets him spend freely.
“Terry has done everything he can to provide us every possible resource to win hockey games, and that’s all I can ask for in my position,” Adams said.
The problem, of course, is many players have zero interest in joining the Sabres. Top free agents usually want an opportunity to win. You can bet most players with no-trade clauses have Buffalo on their list.
“You have to earn it,” Adams said. “I mean, look, this is for me, it’s really simple. You become a perennial playoff team, you make playoffs, you have a chance to win the Stanley Cup year after year. You are on less teams’ no-trade list.
“We don’t have palm trees. We have taxes in New York. Those are real, and those are things you deal with. But – and trust me – there’s, I think, conversations every day, and there’s a lot of players in this league that we’re on their list.”
Adams cited the Bills as a “perfect example.”
“I would assume that this wasn’t a destination or a place that a lot of people were signing up to when they were in a 17-year playoff drought, and they’ve done a phenomenal job over there,” he said. “You get Josh Allen, and people are lining up because they have a chance to win the Super Bowl every year. And I think that’s what we’re working to building.”
In the summer, the Sabres landed veteran winger Jason Zucker by giving him a one-year, $5 million contract. So far, he has been one of their most consistent forwards.
Adams also mentioned the Sabres diligently pursued a trade during the offseason – “We went all in on,” he said – that fell apart.
“You guys probably would’ve roasted me and said we were going to overpay to get that player, and they ended up not trading that player, and he’s still on that team,” he said. “So it’s not from lack of want, but we’re not going to go and just make a trade so you guys can say we’ve spent to the cap, if we don’t think it makes sense for now and into the future. You just can’t operate like that.”