Tanking in Buffalo

 

A sports franchise's objective is to win games. But my favorite hockey team is not trying to win games. At least they're not trying their hardest.

The Buffalo Sabres are assuredly tanking. They are not trying to win games, intentionally. It happens more often than I'd like in sports, but its happens. But lets lay out why I feel comfortable saying an organization is tanking.

1) They're blowing it up. Big Time.

They traded Gaustad, Pominville, and Vanek in less than a year. The first two were tremendously popular among the fans, and the later was their most talented offensive player. The return has been picks and young players, although impressive, is not going to make the 2013 or 2014 iteration of the Sabres any good.

2) They're not done blowing it up. 

More trades are on the way. Matt Moulson (who was just acquired) will likely be traded. Ryan Miller, the former Vezina winner and star of the 2010 Olympics, will likely be exported. Drew Stafford, a former 30 goal scorer, is all but gone. Steve Ott, also acquired by trade albeit a year ago and one of their best puck possession players, will likely be traded as well. Veteran defender Henrik Tallinder would likely be a trade candidate if he wasn't thought of as a mentor to young defensemen Tyler Myers.

3) Ron Rolston is still their coach. 

Coach Ron Rolston

Rolston's squad is doing him no favors, but the Sabres were serious about winning soon he would still be coaching. Lindy Ruff, a former Sabre, was their head coach for 15 years. But I believe the Sabres ownership did not want Ruff around a tank job, so they cut ties with him. Ruff was picked up by the Dallas Stars. Rolston is a developmental coach, and has coached the the Sabres AHL affiliate Americans, but he has no NHL experience. The Sabres

4) They're awful. Like really Awful.

 The Sabres are on pace for about 132 goals this season, a pace of 1.61 goals per game (just for perspective Wayne Gretzky, in his his highest scoring season, averaged 1.15 goals per game). The Sabres are also averaging the fewest amounts of shots per game. Buffalo also features an abysmal 19.4% points percentage, or ten percent worse than the second worst team in the league. They are unquestionably the worst team in the league.

5) The Sabres are young as can be. 

They're probably too young, recklessly so. When the Sabres dressed four teenagers in Florida, Mikhail Grigorenko, Zemgus Girgensons, Nikita Zadorov, and Rasmus Ristolainen, they became the first since 1996 to do so. Ironically enough, the game accounted for one of the Sabres three wins. Coach Rolston even conceded that the Sabres have "eight guys in the lineup who are learning how to play hockey and develop at the NHL level." 

Let's be clear. I'm not accusing the Sabres of not doing what's best for their organization. Just the opposite. The Sabres are totaling eschewing any possibility of success for the year, and developing players on the fly at the NHL level. They're doing something unpleasant in the short term for the long term success of their franchise. The Sabres are undergoing the organizational equivalent of a colonoscopy.

In fact, its kind of reassuring the Sabres have the kind of ownership that feels comfortable doing this. They are forgoing any chance of maximizing short term interest or ticket sales for the long term health of the franchise. For years, the Sabres were a mediocre team, never quite bad enough to get a franchise changing top pick. But they were content to make a profit, break even, and maybe if the right pieces fell together make a playoff run. But it's different now. Billionaire Terry Pegula the owns the Sabres now. His checkbook is secure enough.

When Pegula took over he claimed, "From this point forward, the Buffalo Sabres' reason for existence will be to win the Stanley Cup." Now it's finally true. It's just not what most expected. It's going to take awhile. As the Blackhawks have shown, champions are built through the draft, and the best way to jump start that is to be bad enough to pick very early.