Sources: Sabres not expecting big shakeup after Monday meeting with owner Terry Pegula

Credit: Dec 8, 2024; Inglewood, California, USA; Buffalo Bills owner Terry Pegula attends the game against the Los Angeles Rams at SoFi Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Kirby Lee-Imagn Images

Turns out, the sky is not falling in the Sabrehood – at least in the eyes of the owner.

Buffalo Sabres owner Terry Pegula traveled to Montréal to meet with his team at Bell Centre on Monday in lieu of practice. Despite a loud outcry from fans, it doesn’t sound as if demands for change will be answered now. Rather than peel the paint off the walls speaking to a team that has lost 10 straight games (0-7-3), sources indicated to Daily Faceoff that the tone of Pegula’s message was largely positive – despite his team floundering to the bottom of the Eastern Conference while riding the second-longest playoff drought in North American pro sports at 13 years,.

Sources said Pegula told Sabres players that he believes in the team and that he was confident the solution is “within this room.” He also professed his faith in GM Kevyn Adams and coach Lindy Ruff and apparently told players to “not expect a big trade,” Pegula saying that he believes Adams and the front office has built a good team.

Adams had been engaged in various trade conversations over the last month or longer, but he was up against the clock to pull something off this week. The NHL’s holiday roster freeze, which prohibits trades around the holiday season, kicks in at midnight on Thursday and lasts through midnight on Dec. 28. Pegula opted for a reset on Monday rather than a knee-jerk transaction or job change, believing that the only way out is through.

Adams also addressed the team and attempted to wipe the slate clean, declaring Monday a “fresh start.” He told his team that what’s happened in the past no longer matters. It was just over three weeks ago that the Sabres were in a playoff spot – and momentarily held third place in the Atlantic Division with an 11-9-1 mark after clawing back from a 1-4-1 start.

The wheels have fallen off since Thanksgiving. Buffalo has dropped six consecutive games at home, including winnable games against teams who have since passed them in the East standings. That led Ruff, a veteran of nearly three decades behind an NHL bench, to declare after Sunday’s loss in Toronto that the Sabres are the “toughest solve I’ve been around” as a team that struggles to defend consistently.

“I’m almost lost for words, obviously,” Ruff told reporters. “It’s on me to solve this. This is the toughest solve I’ve been around. It is on me to get these guys in the right place and win a hockey game and nobody else. Just me.”

The Sabres have qualified for the Stanley Cup playoffs just once in Pegula’s stewardship of the franchise, three months after purchasing the team in Feb. 2011. He declared at the time that the “sole existence” of the Sabres was to win a Stanley Cup, which they have been searching for since 1970. Adams is now in his fifth season as general manager; his predecessor, Jason Botterill, was only at the post for three years before being ousted by Pegula. Ruff returned to the Sabres’ bench in April, 11 years after he was fired as the winningest coach in franchise history in 2013.

Bolstered by a young core that includes Tage Thompson, Rasmus Dahlin and Owen Power, the Sabres were expected to compete for a playoff spot this season. They sit six points back now, ahead of only Tuesday’s opponent – the Montréal Canadiens – in the Eastern Conference standings. It remains to be seen how positive and patient Pegula will remain if the Sabres’ skid continues.

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Sources: Sabres not expecting big shakeup after Monday meeting with owner Terry Pegula

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