Three Big Steps The Buffalo Sa...

The Buffalo Sabres haven't won in eight games now after falling 3-2 to the New York Rangers Wednesday night.

The Sabres are now just one point ahead of the last-place Montreal Canadiens in the Eastern Conference — and the Habs have a game in hand.

Obviously, something has to change in Sabres Land. Here are three suggestions on what should happen soon in Buffalo.

1. Fire GM Kevyn Adams

It’s not just a single loss that put Adams on the hot seat.

The Sabres are on an eight-game winless streak that dates back to Nov. 27. While they've had three different three-game win streaks, they've also had another three losing skids of three games or more.

They got close to the playoffs in 2022-23 and then dropped last season. Their current points percentage is the lowest since 2020-21, when Adams was first hired. Every time they look like they're improving for good, the losing returns.

Adams is in his fifth year as Sabres GM, and the results haven't improved much. And Buffalo's needed another secondary scorer for months now, and there's been no progress on that front.

As Adams said recently, Buffalo is not a destination city – but that would change if the team was winning. There’s the rub – the team isn’t winning. He’s changed coaches and key roster members, and nothing works long-term. The time for excuses has passed, and Adams has to be held responsible.

It’s not all Adams’ fault, of course, and he's done well in acquiring Alex Tuch, Jason Zucker and Bowen Byram over his tenure. But he can’t keep returning year after year and having his team consistently underachieve.

You can have a temporary GM until the summer, but Sabres ownership should act sooner than later and dismiss Adams.

2. Revamp The Power Play

The Sabres’ power play is pathetic at the moment. Their 14.1 percent success rate is the third-worst power play in the NHL. That’s unacceptable, even if Buffalo is still bringing in relatively young players to be part of the mix.

Whether it’s handing over the power play to a different coach or bringing in a new assistant coach to run it, something has to be done to address this special team.

Buffalo’s offense is currently 18th in the NHL at an average of 2.97 goals-for per game, so they’ve got more talent than they’re showing on the man advantage. But something is going screwy when they have the man advantage, and the responsibility to fix it falls to coach Lindy Ruff and Adams in general.

Ruff said before the season that he and new assistant coach Seth Appert will collaborate closely on the power play and have discussed tactics to improve upon last season, which saw the Sabres tie for 28th in the NHL with a 16.6-percent success rate.

That said, the Sabres can either bring in some fresh approaches to the PP or continue flailing away in hopes that something will improve. That latter approach would be terrible, in our opinion. It’s time for notable change in many areas, and the power play also deserves that.

3. Make A Trade – Any Trade

We’re not advocating for a trade to be made for trade’s sake. However, some type of message has to be sent to the roster – a message that tells the players this group of talent is not good enough and more changes will be made if the Sabres continue to be a woeful group.

The Sabres currently have three notable pending UFAs next summer - left winger Jason Zucker, left winger Jordan Greenway and right winger Nicolas Aube-Kubel. Buffalo should keep Zucker since he's third on the team in scoring and is exactly the type of forward the Sabres need more of right now. But the others should be on the table.

Buffalo management should move at least a couple of those pending UFAs to either find scoring solutions or restock their supply of draft picks and prospects. Maybe even youngster Dylan Cozens could be moved.

The Sabres are only four points out of a wild-card spot. They're running out of time to remain in the mix – but they're not completely out of time. It's not the halfway point yet, and making these changes now can put them back on track.