Sabres Are in Desperate Need of a Culture Shift

Instead, this team settled for a “deer-in-the-headlights” look while they waddled around the ice wondering what to do next. There was no fire, no passion, and ultimately no response by the end of the game. Noesen was ejected for the dirty illegal hit to Thompson’s head, so they could not address that player directly, and this caused even head coach Lindy Ruff to have some choice words during his postgame press conference; both about the hit and the response. The fact that there was a lack of response as a whole means one thing… this team needs a culture shift immediately.

Sabres’ Poor Way of Addressing the Thompson Hit

Instead of doing the right thing and addressing the hit during the same game, they decided to wait… for two more days… for the Columbus Blue Jackets. Right at the start of the game, Dennis Gilbert lined up and dropped the gloves with Mathieu Olivier as a display of toughness. He threw some punches and ultimately went down, and the Sabres bench cheered vigorously, but the entire fight felt empty from the view of the crowd. The hollow fight felt like a “too-little, too-late” situation, and it did not set enough of a physical tone for the game, as it was the only real scrum throughout. There was the usual amount of pushing and shoving like there is in a hockey game, but there were no extra hits being thrown nor any extra aggression coming from the physical forwards. The fight did nothing but show that they can only act on things too late, as they have all season long.

Another facet of this catastrophe was the interviews about the hit after the game versus the Devils. Forward Jason Zucker had the mentality of “we won” so the lack of a response did not really matter. Mattias Samuelsson, Alex Tuch, and Rasmus Dahlin all had the sentiment of “this can’t happen and won’t happen again,” which was rich coming from the 6-foot-4 Samuelsson who was out on the ice when the hit happened. He did express his regret for not doing anything at the time, but he also expressed the one universal opinion of everyone on the ice at the time which was confusion and “we didn’t see it.”

This is the part where I want to lose my mind. Regardless of whether a player sees their star teammate get hit or not, they are lying face down on the ice, and you know for a fact it is serious, there has to be some sort of response from the team. Nobody needs to be throwing punches necessarily, but there was a veteran on the ice in Zucker who could have stepped up and been vocal, or Samuelsson, who is an alternate captain, could have done a little pushing and shoving instead of standing around like nothing happened at all. Show some life, show some backbone, and most importantly, show your teammates that you have their back.

How to Shift the Sabres’ Culture

This lies in the hands of the coach and the general manager because the players clearly do not have the right mentality in the room. Ruff took some action against the Blue Jackets when he iced his team with only Rasmus Dahlin wearing a captain’s letter. No alternate As were worn on the ice that night as it looked like he too was appalled by the lack of response from his team. If there is going to be an adjustment in the mentality of these players, it starts with him and who he deems are the real leaders in that room.

Then there are the moves general manager Kevyn Adams can make. Moving out soft players with weak mindsets from that game would send a big message, and moving in some character players with some physicality would be a massive upgrade, especially during a season when the playoffs are all but a pipe dream. Moving on from someone like Samuelsson after his remarks and poor response is an easy answer, but also another defender like Owen Power would be an even bigger message. Power was also on the ice, and while he is not known as a physical defender or a “fighter” per se, he still has the size (6-foot-6) to grab anyone on the Devils and manhandle them in a scrum, and he has been struggling regularly this season on top of that. Making a trade that moves either — or both — of these players out and some quality players in would be a huge step towards progress for next season and a shift toward a real culture rebuild.

How the Sabres Can Move Forward

All week, the hockey world has been laughing at them, or worse, looking at them as weak. The unfortunate reality is that the Sabres as an organization have had this reputation since the day goaltender Ryan Miller was run over by Boston Bruins forward Milan Lucic and nobody addressed that hit. That happened back in 2011, and mentally the fans have not recovered from it. Being a team used to mean something in this city, and it is why fans look so fondly back on 2006-07. When then-captain Chris Drury was run over by Ottawa Senators forward Chris Neil in a similar way to how Noesen ran over Thompson, rookie forward Drew Stafford (not a fighter by any means) immediately stepped up and fought Neil for what he did. Then, the infamous Feb. 22 brawl took place on the next shift, all because their star player was injured on the previous play. That team banded together to support one another and showed some solidarity.

As a team firmly in the basement of the Eastern Conference, wins do not mean a thing, but their teammates should. Standing up for Thompson should have been every player’s first priority in that game, not winning. The remainder of this season should be focused on learning how they can band together as a group, especially if Adams is going to stick with this core. If there are not going to be any key trades made, everyone in that locker room needs to do some soul-searching and they all need to come out much more fired up when they play.