The Sabers are off to their worst start since the 2017-18 season. Can Kevin Adams fix it?

Buffalo Sabers lost with a score of 2:1 Detroit Red Wings on Saturday evening. It was their third loss in a row, dropping their record to 4-7-1 and tying the team. Canadiens And leaflets for last place in the Eastern Conference.

This is Kevin Adams’ fifth season as general manager, and it’s the Sabers’ worst 12-game record of his tenure. This is the Sabres’ worst performance through 12 games since the 2017-18 season. It was Jason Botterill’s first season as general manager, and the Sabers finished last in the standings. NHL.

This wasn’t supposed to be one of those years. That wasn’t the organizational message when Adams hired Lindy Ruff to replace Don Granato as coach after a disappointing 84-point season in 2023-24. Adams said this team is ready to win now, that this core of players is hungry for responsibility and that the team needs to raise its standard.

But the first dozen games of the season looked familiar to anyone who watched the Sabers during their league-record 13-year playoff drought. First, the anchor was the special teams play. The Sabers allowed two more power-play goals against the Red Wings, dropping their penalty kill rate to 71 percent, fifth-worst in the NHL. They also went 0-2 on the power play in Detroit, giving them a power play percentage of 8.6% this season, which ranks last in the NHL.

This is one obvious problem that continues to emerge, but it is not the only one.

The Sabers continue to allow goals at the second-highest rate in the NHL. They have scored six goals in their last three games after scoring 13 during their three-game winning streak heading into that stretch. They were inconsistent, partly because they could not solve all their problems at once.

We’re live with head coach Lindy Ruff after today’s game in Detroit.

— Buffalo Sabers (@BuffaloSabres) November 3, 2024

When the power play was scoring, the Sabers were on defensive assignments in the same game, leading to rushing plays. The Sabers had 10 or more high-danger chances at even strength in their first five games, but have not reached that number in six games since.

You can view a list of this team’s disappointing records and individual performances. Jack Quinnwho was supposed to be a breakout candidate for the Sabers, has one goal (an empty net) and looks like a shell of the player who excited the team as a rookie in 2022-23. Dylan Cozenswho is an alternate captain and makes just over $7 million per season, also has only one goal. The Sabers still rely too heavily on Tage Thompsonline and Rasmus Dahlin generate resentment. They were also unlucky and their goaltending was below average at times during the first 12 games.

Big changes were to come behind the bench. Early season results showed that it would take some time for Ruff’s coaching accomplishments to become clear to the players. The Sabers take untimely penalties like Quinn’s delay of game penalty against the Red Wings. They also miss defensive assignments too often and don’t get enough traffic in front of the other team’s goal.

There’s a lot to fix, and Ruff is looking for answers. He shuffled every Buffalo lineup that showed up for the game. All four forward lines and all three defensive pairings looked different than they did the night before against Islanders. Here’s the lineup to start the game:

Forwards

Jason Zucker — Tage Thompson — Alex Tuch
JJ Peterka – Dylan Cozens – Jack Quinn
Jordan Greenway – Ryan McLeod – Jiri Kulich
Beck Malensteen – Peyton Krebs – Sam Lafferty

Defense

Bowen Byram — Rasmus Dahlin
Owen Power – Henri Jokiharju
Mattias Samuelsson – Jacob Bryson

Even with all the changes, the results remained the same, which is a familiar story for this franchise. Ruff can only craft a limited number of times. The real question this season for the Sabers is whether the roster as it stands is good enough to be a playoff contender. Adams is in his fifth season as general manager, and he handpicked most of those players. Five players on this team already have long-term contracts. Five more will become restricted free agents at the end of this season.

Since the start of last season, Adams has traded Casey Mittelstadt for Bowen Byram, purchased Jeff Skinnertraded for Ryan McLeod and then signed Jason Zucker, Bec Malenstine, Sam Lafferty and Nicolas Aube-Cubel. While some of these players have played well, the needle hasn’t budged for this Sabers team. And Mittelstadt’s deal gets worse with every point he scores for Colorado.

Adams said at the start of the season that he was confident the Sabers’ scoring would rebound thanks to the players on the roster. The Sabers are now 15 percent of the way through the season with no internal improvement. The Sabers also have $7.2 million in untapped cap space and a plethora of prospects and picks, so there’s no excuse not to add to this roster at some point.

A 2-1 loss in early November isn’t usually a cause for concern, but now the Sabers will have to play at a 105-point pace for the rest of the season to reach the 95-point mark. Can they play that well with what they have? Adams will have to answer that question quickly. And if the answer is no, his job may depend on what he does to fix it.

(Top photo of Detroit’s Dylan Larkin scoring on Buffalo’s Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen goal: Brian Bradshaw Seewald/Imagn Images)