Tanks a lot

The Buffalo Sabres are on holiday these days, enjoying a long All-Star break.

Good thing. The people covering team need to figure out new ways to describe losses. Eleven straight regulation defeats will do that.

The latest skid has put "tanking" back on the table as a discussion for discussion. That's when your team more or less gives up on a particular season or two in order to get the best available talent in the draft.

Sometimes, a team picks the correct year to lose. In basketball, the former Lew Alcindor (later Kareem Abdul-Jabbar) went first to the Milwaukee Bucks in 1969, and he turned that team into a champion in short order. In hockey, Mario Lemieux needed a few years to get a Stanley Cup to Pittsburgh ... but he got them there. The Penguins, you'll recall, didn't exactly load up with talent the season before the draft in order to avoid the chance of getting him in the draft.

On the other hand, there are no guarantees. The Edmonton Oilers have had a bunch of high draft choices lately. Yet they are still at the bottom of the NHL standings. The Philadelphia 76ers have had some good picks in the NBA draft too, but haven't quite found the combination yet to change their fortunes. They remain awful.

The Sabres had a hot streak in December that got them well out of the basement. But this poor run on losses in 2015 has put them in the basement and renewed the talk of tanking, frustrating players and front office members alike. After all, who wants to be associated with losing in that way?

Let's look at the Sabres situation. How do teams that are in losing streaks react? Usually, they follow a series of steps.

First, they look to the minor leagues for reinforcements. The Sabres have done some of that; most of the best players in Rochester have had at least the proverbial cup of coffee in Buffalo. You could argue, and some have, that there are players like Mark Pysyk who are better than guys in Sabre uniforms. But there is something to be said about giving players time in the minors to grow and mature - particularly defensemen. Others have come up and shown little.

Second, they make trades. Yes, most (all?) of the phone calls to general manager Tim Murray no doubt are about young players. No doubt, they are also one-sided offers. Even so, teams often trade "my fringe player for your fringe player," just to shake things up. That hasn't happened. The Sabres did add some players in that sense last year, but so far it's been quiet. In fairness, it's tough to know what's possible and what's not in such areas.

Third, they fire the coach. Obviously, that hasn't happened here. Ted Nolan signed a three-year contract last summer, I believe, and he still has plenty of good will among members of Sabre Nation. When the team is in 30th place overall, you should save all the good will you can.

Yet, both Nolan and Murray are operating under an odd situation. They were both hired by Pat LaFontaine, who later, um, vacated the premises. That means Nolan wasn't hired by Murray, an unusual situation for a coach and general manager. Since LaFontaine wasn't replaced, no one can be sure what it would take to send Murray or Nolan to the unemployment line. Owner Terry Pegula and team president Ted Black could order such moves, I guess, even though it would be odd for someone to be fired for following the overall blueprint for rebuilding.


Add it up, and the Sabres have been on the quiet side in reacting to the situation this season. Meanwhile, what constitutes a tank anyway? Most non-playoff teams in hockey usually trade their soon-to-be unrestricted free agents for prospects and/or draft choices in order to get better in the future. Clearly, trading Ryan Miller last year meant the Sabres did not have short-term interests in mind. But most agree that the deal probably was the right idea under the circumstances. It's difficult to find good free agents to come to a team at the bottom of the standings; sometimes even overpaying them isn't good enough. So is collecting young players proof of tanking, or do you have to find a cliched "smoking gun" document that says "let's lose as often as possible so we can get Connor McDavid"? Depends on your definition, I guess.


The Sabres can't exactly sell the present to the fan base. But they can sell hope - hope that better times will be coming. It shows the passion of those fans that many are willing to watch the team lose - yes, even root for losses - if it means a superstar in the form of McDavid is coming. That puts them on opposite sides from the current group of players, who obviously have an interest in doing as well as possible.

It's an uncomfortable situation for everyone, and it will test the patience of those involved - from ownership to fans in the 300 level. This is a new situation for all concerned, since the Sabres haven't gone through many long droughts in their history. We're likely to learn a lot about those connected to the team in the coming months.

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