BUFFALO, N.Y. — The NHL playoffs start this weekend and the Buffalo Sabres will be watching from home for a 13th straight season. But this is new territory for first-year Sabres defenseman Connor Clifton, who spent the first six seasons of his career in the Boston Bruins organization.
“I don’t think we deserved the playoffs the way we played, but the promising thing is that we were the ones who didn’t play our game consistently,” Clifton said. “So I think you struggled with that because you know it’s in here, and I’m excited to be part of this group and I’m excited for camp next year. Obviously, we have a long time to wait and a long time to prepare, and I think that’s just part of the process. We just weren’t good enough. We got to bring that pissed-off mentality after a season like that into September, October next year.”
That pissed-off mentality was certainly present over the last three days of exit interviews at KeyBank Center. It started with general manager Kevyn Adams on Tuesday and continued with more than a dozen players who met with the media in the 48 hours after the team fired Don Granato as head coach.
Here are the notable nuggets from the week.
1. At the trade deadline, Adams mentioned he shopped around for a veteran center. Entering the offseason, the third-line center spot might be the Sabres’ biggest need. But the forward group as a whole needs to be reworked. That could mean adding a top-six forward who can push another player down the lineup. Adding to the bottom six will be a given, too.
“I do think the bottom six of our lineup, our forward group, we can have a little more be a little more abrasive, a little more identity,” Adams said. “And that’s something that I’ve talked about with you guys before, that we’ve accumulated talent and sometimes now it’s figuring out the ways your lines kind of flow together and maybe a little bit more of identity on a line, lower in your forward group.”
In early December, Dylan Cozens was the first player to mention the Sabres were playing “soft” and needed more “F-you” in their game. Adams didn’t like the comment at the time, but Cozens still wants to see more of that from the team.
“We have to want play like that and we got to talk about playing like that,” Cozens said. “And it doesn’t mean you have to go fight someone, but whether it’s just finishing a check or getting in a battle after the whistle, it gets you into the game. It does help. We just have to hate losing so much that you want to go hit someone and take some frustration out that way. We just need to be hard to play, I think, whether that’s finishing more checks or just being grittier sometimes, goes a long way. It’s tough playing when you know you’re going to get hit every time you touch the puck.”
Cozens added that he would embrace the addition of veteran players who play that style of game.
2. When asked what he plans to work on this summer, Peyton Krebs had the most honest and specific self-assessment of his game of all the players who spoke during exit interviews.
“I’m looking forward to growing a lot of strength so in those corners, I’m not getting knocked off pucks as easy,” Krebs said. “I can hit a guy hard skating a mile away from them and run them over, but can I take that hit? That’s something I’ve really got to work on. Obviously, I want to shoot the puck more. I’ve got to work on my shot, different situations, being uncomfortable with that is something I really want to work on.”
Will the Sabres trade Peyton Krebs? (Sergei Belski / USA Today)
Krebs, who is a restricted free agent, said he loves Buffalo and wants this to be his home. He also added, “We’re going to win a Stanley Cup. I know it.”
This will be an interesting summer for Krebs, though. The 23-year-old was a big piece of the Jack Eichel trade and hasn’t yet reached his potential in the NHL. He played mostly a fourth-line role last season and early this season. When he got a brief chance to play on the third line at the end of the season, he didn’t produce. Will the Sabres try to trade him or bank on him improving under a new coach? Adams said he wants to change the identity of the bottom two forward lines. How Krebs fits into that remains to be seen.
3. Mattias Samuelsson said he had right shoulder surgery and has been cleared to skate but still has work to do in order to regain strength in the muscles around the injury. Tage Thompson will also miss the world championships with a lower-body injury sustained in the last game of the season. The injury shouldn’t impact his offseason training, though. Thompson also admitted he came back early from the wrist injury that cost him 10 games early in the season. In the final stretch of the season, he looked more like the player who scored 47 goals last season.
4. Cozens said the injuries he suffered after fighting Garnet Hathaway in early November threw him off for a bit, but he didn’t want to use that as an excuse for his down season.
“There’s not too many positives I’m going to take from this year for myself,” Cozens said. “I know I disappointed a lot of people, I disappointed myself.”
5. Bowen Byram wasn’t happy with the way he played in the short time he was in Buffalo. The Sabres acquired Byram at the deadline and he got off to a hot start with three goals and four points in his first three games. But he didn’t score in the final 15 games of the season and had only five points. Byram could benefit from a new coaching staff as much as anyone on the roster.
“I feel like when I first got here I kind of just went out and played, and I thought I played some of my best hockey,” Byram said. “But as time goes on you’re trying to learn how the coaches want you to play, trying to learn new systems and it can kind of make things difficult. I felt like for a stretch I was thinking too much on the ice, not just going out and playing. When I go out and play and trust my instincts is when I play my best. I need to be accountable with myself. I wasn’t good enough for some parts, but it’s not easy as well. So, it’s going to be very nice coming into training camp, everything, to kind of get my feet under me again and get going in the right direction.”
Given that Byram is eligible to sign an extension this summer, it was notable that he said, “I want to be part of the solution here. I want to help this team win. That’s definitely the goal moving forward. We’ll see how things play out, but I’m super excited to be here and I want to be part of the solution.”
He has one year left on a contract that has a $3.85 million cap hit and the Sabres have committed long-term deals to Owen Power, Rasmus Dahlin and Samuelsson, so Byram’s next deal will be interesting.
6. A few alarming quotes about practice came out of Buffalo’s exit interviews. Adams was the first to mention that raising the team’s competitiveness starts at practice. Dahlin said he thinks the team needs to recognize practice is as important as the games. But Samuelsson may have had the most revealing answer when he said, “When I say harder, I don’t necessarily mean you got to be skating up the ice like more exhausted. But I think just more mentally engaged, maybe a little more of a purpose or objective when you go out there. I think with those things it could be a lot better.”
When Casey Mittelstadt arrived in Colorado, he made a few comments about how impressed he was with the speed at which the Avalanche practice. He said it’s “intense and demanding.” Added to the context of the Sabres’ exit interviews, those comments don’t paint the best picture of how Granato and his staff organized practice. It also shows what the Sabres need in their next coach.
7. Lindy Ruff and Gerard Gallant are two prominent veteran coaches who could fit the description of what Adams is looking for in the Sabres’ next bench boss. Alex Tuch is familiar with both. He played for Gallant in Vegas and grew up watching the Sabres teams Ruff coached. He said Ruff was his favorite coach growing up and was grinning ear to ear at the prospect of playing for them. He also had an interesting perspective on Gallant, who has a reputation for not having a lot of patience with young players. Tuch was young when he played for Gallant and loved the relationship they had. He said Gallant brings a lot of “firepower and energy” and held him accountable as a rookie.
Gerard Gallant could fit the description for what Sabres GM Kevyn Adams wants in his next coach. (Brace Hemmelgarn / USA Today)
“One of the things with Gerard Gallant that I realized early on is that he can come down the bench and he could yell in my ear, but five seconds later he was tossing me back out there because he knew that I was going to get the message,” Tuch said. “That’s interesting, and I’ve had coaches throughout my entire hockey career — some that are able to do that, some that have maybe struggled with it in the past. I obviously had a really good relationship with Don. I’ve known him since I was 16 years old and so maybe that’s different for me as opposed to other guys on the team. But if you’re able to get a coach who’s able to do that with every guy, it’s really big.”
8. Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen played 54 games for the Sabres and arrived as a starting-caliber NHL goalie. His .918 save percentage and 2.57 goals-against average were a big reason why the Sabres remained competitive down the stretch and clawed closer to the playoffs. He is a restricted free agent this summer, and his next contract will be his biggest yet. Luukkonen said he’s already had preliminary talks with his agent to plan out the negotiations but “nothing too crazy yet.” He’s open to a long-term deal in Buffalo, though. And the Sabres have every reason to want to keep him around after the way he played this season.
9. Adams noted that while Matt Ellis, Marty Wilford and Mike Bales were among the coaches retained on Tuesday, not all will continue in their current roles and Adams will have that conversation with a new coach. Ellis won’t be the power-play coach after the team sunk to 28th in the league on the power play this season.
10. Cozens, Byram and Power are all going to play for Canada at the world championships. Dahlin will play for Sweden and JJ Peterka will play for Germany. Luukkonen and Henri Jokiharju won’t play for Finland because of their upcoming contract negotiations.
(Top photo of Dylan Cozens: Robert Edwards / USA Today)
