Category: PostSports

BUFFALO, N.Y. (WIVB) — Sabres general manager Kevyn Adams took accountability for his team’s failure to end the longest postseason drought in NHL history, and the qualities he will seek in a new head coach after firing Don Granato on Tuesday.

Solemn at the start of his 45-minute remarks, Adams spoke with more determination as he went on about the Buffalo’s unsatisfactory effort this season, on the ice, behind the bench, and all the way up to his desk in the front office.

“I don’t think we performed consistently enough up to our expectation of what I have,” Adams said. “And I don’t think we were competing at a high enough level game in and game out.”

“From day one of training camp, I don’t think we had our standard high enough,” the GM continued. “Our expectations inside the room need to be raised and there needs to be accountability across the board, and that starts with me. I take responsibility for this.”

Adams indicated he did not seriously consider making a coaching change during the season, in which the Sabres finished with 84 points, seven fewer than they achieved a year ago. But the conclusion to move on from Granato after three-plus seasons in command was one that Adams said he “didn’t make this decision on the plane last night.”

“This was my decision,” Adams said. “I certainly talked to people that I’m close with and that I work with. I certainly spent a lot of time recently talking to Terry Pegula about this, but this was my decision. I felt this was what I needed to do and what we need to do as an organization to take the next step.”

So what’s next?

Adams asserted that he knows exactly the type of coach he’s looking for to lead the Sabres back to the playoffs.

“I want the next head coach to be someone that has experience and can push this group to the next level,” Adams said. “I have it in my mind exactly what I’m looking for and that’ll be starting today.”

“I’m gonna move forward as quickly as possible because I have a very clear direction in my mind of where we’re gonna go,” he added. “But previous NHL head coaching experience, pedigree, is important.”

Adams declined to comment specifically about Buffalo’s all-time winningest coach Lindy Ruff, available now after being fired by the New Jersey Devils this past season.

The stated desire for an experienced NHL coach would seem to rule out Seth Appert, who is currently leading the Rochester Americans into the playoffs. Adams, however, spoke well of the job Appert has done in the American Hockey League.

“He’s done a phenomenal job. He’s got a bright future,” Adams said.

“My biggest thing with Seth right now is I want him to be completely focused and locked in on Rochester. They have three games left here, which are critical games, and they have, I truly believe an opportunity to do something special in the playoffs with the talent they have on the roster. And I also know how much that’ll help our guys. But, big, big believer in Seth Appert.”

BUFFALO, N.Y. (WIVB) — The Sabres have fired coach Don Granato and two of his assistants, the team announced Tuesday morning.

Granato concluded his third full season behind the Sabres bench with a 39-37-6 record, missing the playoffs for an NHL-record 13th consecutive season. Including his time as interim head coach in 2021, Granato had a 122-125-27 record.

The seventh head coach to be relieved of his duties during Terry Pegula’s ownership of the Sabres, Granato had the most success and longest tenure of the playoff drought. The move comes with the 56-year-old Granato still having two seasons left on his contract, which featured an extension that kicked in to start next season.

“I would like to thank Don for his time in Buffalo and commitment to the Sabres organization,” general manager Kevyn Adams said in a news release. “He has been integral in the development of many of our players and has undoubtedly been the right coach to bring us to where we are now, but I felt it was necessary to move in a different direction at this point in time. My expectation is to be a consistent contender and unfortunately that goal has not been met.”

Adams will address the media at 3 p.m. Tuesday.

The Sabres also announced that assistant coach Jason Christie and video coordinator Matt Smith have been relieved of their duties.

“I would also like to thank Jason and Matt for their contributions to the team,” Adams said. “This is not a decision I take lightly but know it is in the best interest of our team moving forward.”

Buffalo stumbled through a season in which the team won three straight games just twice and were too often unable to overcome slow starts.

This was not the expectation for a team that opened the season with Adams declaring the window of contention as being open. The blossoming hopes were generated by the Sabres missing the playoffs by two points last season.

The playoff drought stands as being tied with the New York Jets as the longest active streak in North America’s four major professional sports.

The Associated Press contributed.

BUFFALO, N.Y. (WIVB) — General manager Kevyn Adams set high a standard of success for the Sabres as training camp opened: “When I think about playoffs, our expectation of course is there. But honestly, our expectation is to win the Stanley Cup,” he said. “I think our window’s open right now and our goal is to be giving ourselves a chance every single year.”

For the 13th year in a row, the Sabres won’t be competing for a Stanley Cup. Extending the longest playoff drought in NHL history, and equaling the longest current absence from postseason play in North American professional sports, Buffalo remains on the outside looking in the window to championship contention.

How did a season that began with so much hope and up like all the others?

Stagnant summer

Buffalo’s disappointing 2023-24 campaign started with a lackluster offseason.

Coming within one victory of ending the drought a year ago, Adams and coach Don Granato believed the NHL’s youngest lineup would grow into a playoff form. In their season-ending remarks, each spoke “with absolute conviction” as if progression to the postseason was fated.

The Sabres added defensemen Connor Clifton and Erik Johnson in free agency, which led to modest improvement on the blue line. But finishing fourth in scoring last season, they did not make any changes to the forward group, or the leadership core, re-signing veterans Kyle Okposo, Zemgus Girgensons and Tyson Jost to one-year deals.

Adams mined a gem in the draft, nabbing Zach Benson with the 13th overall pick, and the 18-year-old was one of only four players in his class to make the NHL. Benson tallied 11 goals and 30 points, displaying grit beyond his years. But his presence only made the Sabres more youthful, and he could not provide the necessary roughness that the Sabres seemed to need in order to reach the next level.

Declining to add an established goaltender after Craig Anderson’s retirement, Buffalo banked on rookie Devon Levi at the start, and were late to recognize Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen as their best option in the crease. Eric Comrie won the backup job in preseason, and it took months before the Sabres stopped trying to juggle three goalies and gave the net to UPL.

The lack of aggression and desperation to win now continued into the season. The Sabres were unable to convince South Buffalonian Patrick Kane to make a playoff run in his hometown. They never utilized more than $6 million in cap space left over from a frugal free agency approach.

When the trade deadline arrived, the Sabres sent away their top point producer in Casey Mittelstadt, and let captain Okposo and Cup-winner Johnson go to teams that were closer to contention. Defenseman Bowen Byram, acquired in the MIttelstadt deal, fills a long-term need for a top four D-man, but did little for the team’s in-season fortunes.

Star power outage

Buffalo’s plus-2 scoring differential was a modest improvement from last season (minus-4). But the Sabres did that while netting 50 fewer goals, squandering the club’s best goaltending in over a decade.

After four players surpassed 30 goals in ’22-23, and five tallied more than 60 points, none reached those marks this year.

The biggest letdowns came from Buffalo’s top two centers, both entering the first year of contract extensions paying them more than $7 million annually. Tage Thompson dropped from 47 to 29 goals, with injuries limiting him to seven fewer games. Dylan Cozens lost confidence early on and slipped from 31 to 18 goals.

While JJ Peterka doubled his scoring from 14 to 28 goals in his third NHL season, that was offset by Victor Olofsson’s slide. After setting a career-best with 28 goals in his fifth season, Olofsson was scratched 31 times in a contract year, and slumped to just eight goals.

Buffalo’s scoring dip was most evident on the power play, which produced 27 fewer goals and ranked among the league’s bottom five with a 17% conversion rate. Last season the Sabres were in the top nine at 23%. That regression could cost assistant coach Matt Ellis his spot behind the bench.

Slow starts

With unreliable goaltending and an offensive attack struggling to find its rhythm, the Sabres lost their first two games and sputtered below .500 for much of the early going. They were 15-19-4 by the end of December, skidding out of the playoff race before midseason.

Finishing 24-18-2, a wild-card worthy 93-point pace since Jan. 1, wasn’t enough to keep Buffalo from being eliminated before the season’s final week.

Falling behind early was a season-long trend. The Sabres allowed the first goal in 46 of their 82 games, and came back to win only 14. They allowed more first period goals (97) than any other team, and had the NHL’s second-worst scoring margin in the opening period (minus-30).

In 29 games, more than a third of the season, Buffalo gave up two or more goals in the first period, often before the 10-minute mark. They had a 7-21-1 record on such occasions.

Injuries

The Sabres were not hurt enough to make excuses, coming in around league average. But the timing of injuries to top forwards did contribute to the poor start.

Jack Quinn missed the first 32 games following offseason surgery to repair a torn Achilles tendon, and another 23 games with a lower-body injury sustained in January. The winger’s absence affected Cozens and prevented the Sabres from solidifying a second scoring line. Cozens was further hampered by an upper-body injury he got in an early season fight, never adjusting to the protective shield he wore for several games afterward.

Buffalo’s top line of Tage Thompson, Alex Tuch and Jeff Skinner combined to miss half of the first 40 games and never found the consistency it had a year ago. Thompson and Tuch were both slowed by their injuries until midseason.

The Sabres struggled last year whenever Mattias Samuelsson was out of the lineup. He was less impactful when healthy this year, but missing another 41 games stressed Buffalo’s blue-line depth. With Bowen joining the core, the Sabres need each of their top four D-men dressed and thriving in order to reach their full potential as a team.

TAMPA, Fla. (AP) — Dylan Cozens scored twice and the Buffalo Sabres concluded another disappointing season with a 4-2 win over the playoff-bound Tampa Bay Lightning on Monday night.

Jordan Greenway and Zach Benson also scored for the Sabres, who will miss the playoffs for an NHL-record 13th consecutive season.

Lightning captain Steven Stamkos reached the 40-goal mark for the seventh time in his NHL career, Erik Cernak scored midway through the third period and Andrei Vasilevskiy made 31 saves for Tampa Bay, which is assured of finishing as the first wild card in the Eastern Conference.

The Lightning, 0-2-1 in their past three games, will play either Boston or Florida in the first round of the playoffs after concluding their regular season against Toronto on Wednesday night.

Buffalo needed just 1:26 from the opening faceoff to take a 1-0 lead when Cozens snapped the rebound of Jack Quinn’s shot past Vasilevskiy. He put the Sabres ahead 2-1 with a short-handed goal at 5:08 of the second.

Greenway, who set up Cozens’ second goal, made it 3-1 at 16:12, helping the Sabres defeat the Lightning for the third time in their four meetings, and Benson added a third-period goal.

Buffalo goalie Eric Comrie, playing for the first time since March 7, made 31 saves. He had been 0-7-1 since winning his first start of the season on Oct. 21.

Stamkos’ goal at 2:27 of the second period tied the game 1-1 and came off a pass from NHL scoring leader Nikita Kucherov, who earned his 99th assist and 142nd point.

Cernak’s goal at 9:39 of the third cut the margin to 3-2, but Benson scored 15 seconds later.

BUFFALO, N.Y. (WIVB) — Penn State has become a factory at producing NFL defensive lineman. Edge rusher Adisa Issac is looking to add his name to the long list. He says playing for the Nittany Lions gets a player ready for the next level. 

“It helped me elevate a lot when you have chemistry when you have guys that are on the same page that you’re fighting for every day and you’re riding for it brings the best out of you and makes you play to a higher standard knowing that the person next to you has your back and you have theirs so when you play for your brothers it’s a different feeling that comes on the field,” Isaac said.

The 6-foot-4, 250-pound pass rushing machine racked up a team-high 7.5 sacks and 15 tackles for loss last season in Happy Valley and was a team captain. 

“He’s a great player, shows up everyday and works hard he teaches all the young guys and leads by example he’s also vocal so Adisa Issac is a great player,” teammate Chop Robinson said.

His road to the NFL draft was paved with several challenges. Adisa, his two brothers and sister were raised by a single-mother. All three of Isaac’s siblings have disabilities that leave them unable to talk.

“You have to grow up quick,” Isaac said. “Like I said it all translates into the man I am now I’m grateful for it all now football is a team sport and you have to put people before yourself and I’ve been doing that my whole life so it’s nothing new for me.”

Issac is projected to be a third round draft pick.

BUFFALO, N.Y. (WIVB) — Trey Benson’s skill set is like a box of cholates, you never know what you’re going to get.

The Florida State running back has the size to bully tacklers and the speed to bust off a long run. Two of the reasons why he’s widely considered to be the best running back in the draft. 

“Just the ability to break tackles. I’ve never been hulked on the field I’ve got getaway speed just bringing that in a compact build I’m 220 [pounds] and bring everything to the table,” Benson said.

Trey rushed for over 900 yards in each of the last two seasons and averaged over six yards per carry. 

“I make cuts sometimes but really just running and not being caught just using my speed and my power because people underestimate my speed because of my size most DBs and linebackers but just get to the edge and go,” Benson said. “When I get the ball, I’m thinking about scoring every time.”

He accomplished that a lot in 2023. Benson had 14 touchdown runs last season and was a second-team All-ACC selection. Trey Benson is projected to be a third round draft pick.  

BUFFALO, N.Y. (WIVB) — The Bandits have clinched a playoff berth for the 25th time in team history, but it remains to be seen if the reigning NLL Cup champions will return to their raucous home arena in the postseason.

Buffalo’s third-straight victory, 14-7 against the Calgary Roughnecks before an announced sellout crowd of 19,070 at KeyBank Center secured the Bandits their spot in the eight-team NLL playoffs. But Buffalo (10-7), currently seeded fifth in the unified conference standings, needs a win next week in Vegas (4-12), coupled with a loss by Georgia (10-7) at home against struggling Rochester (6-10) on Friday, or a pair of losses by Albany (10-6) in order to host a quarterfinal game in Banditland at the end of April.

Josh Byrne scored twice to reach 50 goals on the season, and tallied five assists to bring his league-leading point total to 126, assist-leader Dhane Smith matched Byrne with seven points (one goal, six assists), Chase Fraser scored four goals, including the highlight of the game, Matt Vinc made 43 saves on 50 shots, and the Bandits had their best defensive result of the season in the home finale win.

SUNRISE, Fla. (AP) — Sam Reinhart got his 55th goal of the season with 1:02 left in overtime, and the Florida Panthers clinched home ice for at least Round 1 of the Stanley Cup playoffs by beating the Buffalo Sabres 3-2 in the next-to-last regular-season game for both teams on Saturday.

Reinhart took a pass from Panthers captain Aleksander Barkov and delivered the winner. Anton Lundell and Kevin Stenlund also scored for Florida, and Matthew Tkachuk had an assist — his 60th of the season, the third straight year he’s had that many.

Sergei Bobrovsky stopped 27 shots for Florida.

Tyson Jost and Jack Quinn scored for Buffalo, which got 39 saves from Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen. The Sabres got a point off Florida for only the second time in the teams’ last 11 meetings; they’re 1-9-1 in that span.

Florida had a 5-minute power play in the third after Buffalo defenseman Connor Clifton was given a match penalty for an illegal check to the head of Panthers’ center Nick Cousins. But the Panthers got nothing past Luukkonen, who stopped seven shots to preserve what was a 2-2 tie.

The Sabres came through with another penalty kill with the game on the line. Buffalo’s Alex Tuch took a high-sticking penalty with 34.9 seconds left in regulation. Florida didn’t get a shot on goal before the third period expired, then had a 4-on-3 advantage to begin overtime as the power play continued — and the Sabres thwarted them again.

The teams combined to score four goals — two for Florida, two for Buffalo — in a 6:49 span of the first period, all in seven combined shots. It was 2-2 by the midpoint of that opening period, making it seem like a wild one was brewing.

But there was no more scoring until the end.

Jost was credited with his first goal since Dec. 2 when he deflected a shot by Rasmus Dahlin past Bobrovsky at 2:59 of the first, ending Florida’s bid at a third straight shutout. Lundell tied it for Florida at 5:02, with Tkachuk getting one of the assists on that goal.

Stenlund scored short-handed about three minutes later, before Quinn knotted things up on the power play.

UP NEXT

Sabres visit Tampa Bay on Monday night in their season finale.

BUFFALO, N.Y. (WIVB) — Iowa State’s T.J. Tampa is one of the top cornerbacks in this year’s draft class. 

Tampa was a standout wide receiver in high school but switched to defensive back in college. He has a lot of potential as a prospect.  

“Being that I just started playing I have a lot of growth to do while I’m in the NFL,” Tampa said. 

The adjustment to playing defense took some time, but he was a full-time starter the last two seasons and was a first-team All-Big XII selection in 2023. He had 107 tackles and 9.5 tackles for loss during his career.

“I would say it just has to do with all-out effort and pursuit to the ball which we take seriously at Iowa State,” Tampa said on what makes him such a great tackler.

He’s got the ideal size for an NFL defensive back and during college, he showed the ability to play in different defensive schemes.  

“I feel like it gives me a great advantage just being able to play different coverages and getting a lot of reps at it and seeing it on film so I feel like it will help me a lot,” Tampa said.

Tampa is projected to be a second or third-round draft pick.

BUFFALO, N.Y. (WIVB) – Georgia’s Javon Bullard is one of the top safeties in this years draft class. He started 22 games over 3 seasons and played all over the Bulldogs defense with snaps at safety, slot corner and even some time at cornerback. That versatility is coveted by NFL teams. 

“Different teams have different things they want to see. Like I said, it always depends on your scheme, your skill set and who you have in your organization,” Bullard said. “Really just, versatility is everything. Being able to be on the field all downs. Being able to start at safety on first down and second down and then crunch time on third down, you get off the field, you can drop down to nickel. That’s value, that’s very valuable in a team, valuable in an organization, and I pride myself in that.”

Bills GM Brandon Beane believes instincts are a very important part of playing safety at the next level.

National draft analysts say Bullock’s quick processing skills and football IQ are a strength.

“It’s just a feel for the game. Instincts I don’t think can be taught,” Bullard said. “I feel like it’s just a feeling for the game. I always say be good to the game and the game will be good to you. Just dialing in and do your mental preparation, but instincts is a true component of being an elite safety. Instincts, ball skills, and just being a fixer man. Being that guy that makes everything right. If everything goes wrong in the front seven, the safety gotta make it right. And that’s the job of a safety.”

Size and strength are a concern with Bullock. He is projected to be a 2nd or 3rd round pick.