Sending Santa an SOS: Save Our Sabres

First, an apology. A few weeks ago, after the now impossible-seeming successful road trip in which the Sabres swept all three California teams, the whole landscape for this hockey team has changed. 

The view, at the very least, is different now that they’re at the bottom of the Eastern Conference. Remember way back when, before Thanksgiving, at the end of the California trip, they were soaring and near the top? 

Oh, what beautiful memories. 

At the time, I foolishly allowed a moment of positivity and encouraged fans to remember that this is a team that has—had—shown they could compete and play against the best teams in the league and hold their own. They showed up; they didn’t roll over and give up if trailing late in a game. They fought. They had spunk. Unlike Ed Asner’s classic character in the Mary Tyler Moore Show, we love a spunky, tenacious hockey team. At the time, I said not to panic if they lost a game or two. 

Color me embarrassed. 

We’ve weathered these storms before, but good grief, does this feel particularly depressing. 

Remember learning in school that the principal, or a teacher, called your parents if you were doing poorly in class? Your shoulders would slump; you’d feel sheepish and maybe a little ashamed for getting called out for falling behind. 

This week, the Sabres had the equivalent of that when the team’s owner flitted off to Montreal to provide what was supposed to be, allegedly, a pep talk, telling the players that he believed the answers to the team’s flatlining performance were in the room. He said he had faith in them to make things better. 

If you watched any of Tuesday night’s game against Montreal, the then-worst team in the Eastern Conference, you know that just flat-out didn’t happen. 

We have the same exact roster as that glorious California road trip a month ago, give or take our injured captain Rasmus Dahlin and the addition and subtraction of once-and-again Amerk Tyson Kozak. Players have been benched as an attempted wake-up call. It worked for Jack Quinn, who scored twice in last week’s (sigh) defeat against the Maple Leafs up in Toronto—who will be here, in what will essentially be a teleported home game for them on Friday night in KeyBank Center. 

So this year, Dear Santa, please find it in your heart to do something, anything, to right this sinking ship. Find a way to help the Sabres. Whether that’s firing the general manager, convincing the league to step in and work with ownership to bring in a new team that actually cares about what’s going on here, or some kind of miraculous trade to bring in new energy and someone who actually gives a (hoot), please do something. 

The team might not deserve it right now, but the fans do. We’ve been so good and so patient for so long.