Buffalo Sabres captain Rasmus Dahlin says the team bonded over some beers to help spark the franchise's turnaround.Joe Hrycych/Getty Images
A parking lot a stone’s throw from a donut shop and a casino isn’t usually a very reliable place to find proof of a hockey team’s swaggering confidence heading into the Stanley Cup playoffs. But things are hardly normal for the Buffalo Sabres these days.
Not only did they pull off an incredible turnaround this season, going from the toilet to the top of the Atlantic Division, the team also ended a 14-year playoff appearance drought – the longest in NHL history.
Now they’re gleefully rubbing it in the face of anyone who ever doubted them, beginning with Ryan Whitney, the hockey podcaster who before this season began said the Sabres have a 0.000-per-cent chance of making the playoffs.
The team put up two giant billboards downtown, one in that parking lot just east of their arena, with Whitney’s picture, his quote and a front-page newspaper headline declaring “We’re Back.”
Then, the day after the Sabres clinched their division earlier this week, the team started going after anyone who ever doubted them on social media, mocking naysayers on its X account.
Can you imagine the Maple Leafs ever showing this much humour, or having this much fun?
The more pressing question is, how did the Sabres pull it off?
How did they manage such an epic turnaround, going from having the worst record in their division as of Dec. 8 – an embarrassing 11-14-4 – to then going on an absolute heater that saw them at the top of their division by mid-March?
How did they go from not being able to show their faces around town to putting up braggadocio-filled billboards?
Chris ‘the Bulldog’ Parker, co-host of Buffalo’s WGR 550’s afternoon show, points to one crucial piece of the puzzle.
“It’s impossible to ignore the coincidence of the general manager being removed,” he said. “I think the players in this organization had little to no faith that Kevyn Adams was ever going to lead them anywhere.”
Adams deserves credit for building the team over the course of his six years with the Sabres, the Bulldog said, but he’s right about the timing of his firing being impossible to ignore.
Adams was fired Dec. 15, and then the heater took off and never stopped.
The team’s new GM, Jarmo Kekäläinen, a senior advisor to the team who had previously been the general manager of the Columbus Blue Jackets, immediately set out to improve the character of the team.
“I think character is the biggest part of talent … and that’s the talent we need to focus on,” he said on his first day as GM.
Earlier this week, as the team got ready to play its final game of the regular season, Kekäläinen reiterated his faith in character.
“I believe in character and hard work, and that’s something that we’ve talked about, and I think we have a lot of [it] on this team,” he told reporters. “There’s a lot of skill, obviously, but the hard work and the compete is really showing right now, and the never-say-die attitude.”
Then, of course, there’s the beers factor.
If last year’s Blue Jays taught us anything, it’s that a team made up of players that actually like each other isn’t just capable of some remarkable play in the post-season, it is also incredibly fun to watch.
Last month, when Sabres captain Rasmus Dahlin said the team had worked on its brotherhood this season, he was asked the obvious question, how do you work on brotherhood?
“Drink beers,” was his answer.
It’s not just beers. It’s dinners together and playing cards together on the road and just generally enjoying each other’s company, said Luke Schenn, a former Maple Leafs defenceman who now plays for the Sabres.
“It’s an extremely close group of guys. Guys certainly have a lot of fun off the ice, which translates to guys being in sync and together on the ice,” he said earlier this week. “I don’t think if you don’t have a tight group off the ice it can really translate to being a team that goes to bat for each other each and every night.”
The camaraderie has helped elevate the team’s play to where it is today, Parker said.
“That really has shone through,” he said. “Once you don’t want to, really in a meaningful way, not let the guy next to you down, that gets you just the little bit more you need to keep competing, especially defensively, and that’s the area where the Sabres have improved greatly.”
Whatever sparked the turnaround, Sabres fever is running strong in Buffalo.
Drive in to the city and you’ll see a “Welcome to Lindy Ruffalo” sign that was put up over the “Welcome to Buffalo” sign by a fan who wanted to give a shoutout to coach Lindy Ruff.
Or look around at people wearing team hats and jerseys everywhere.
“It used to be that you were almost ashamed to wear Sabres gear,” said 24-year-old Kyle Flynn, a long-time season-ticket holder and manager at the Great Skate Hockey Supply Company. “Now, it’s like every second person is wearing something.”
He was more than happy to chat about the team – the beers quote, Adams’s firing, the great bandwagon ride the whole city is on, all of it.
“It’s the first time in my life I can talk about the Sabres with pride,” he said.
Here was a question for Flynn. With the team’s success ending an historically long playoffs absence, would fans be satisfied just making it to the first round?
Flynn, and the entire city of Buffalo, have an unequivocal answer to that question.
Just what do they want? What are they expecting after such a wild 180 of a season and a red-hot stretch that has lasted for more than three months?
The answer could be heard Wednesday night as the Sabres played their final regular-season game before opening the playoffs against the Boston Bruins at home this Sunday.
The game wasn’t even over yet, but fans were already chanting at the top of their voices.
“We want the Cup! We want the Cup!”