“Look, I’ve said it many times, I like our team,” Sabres GM Kevyn Adams said on Tuesday at the GM Meetings. “I continue to go back to process, try to remain process-focused, and there’s a lot of things to like about our process. But it has to all connect and we haven’t been connected. If we score, we get a night where our special teams let us down. Or we have a miscue in our own end. Or sometimes we don’t get that one extra save. That is the hard part.”
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“I do think the attention to detail has been there, and Lindy has done a great job with that,” Adams said. “One thing that stands out about this group is that they truly want to be held accountable. They want to get better, they want to learn.”
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“We may be young, but we have too much experience now to be considered a young team,” Adams said. “Look through our roster, you’ll see a lot of guys with a few hundred NHL games now, and that can’t be used as an excuse. We need to start to turn that experience into results.”
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And so, all of that has left Adams to wrestle with: Is now the right time to shake up the Sabres in an attempt to push them toward the playoffs? Adams has previously made no bones about the fact that it’s “go time” in Buffalo; it is Year 5 of his tenure. His predecessor, Jason Botterill, only lasted three years before owner Terry Pegula made a change.
Sources indicated Adams has been active in recent days and weeks calling around the league, with rival teams suggesting he is looking for a top-six addition at forward. But Adams also knows he has to give to get, and that won’t be an easy decision. It’s a crossroads, trying to strike a balance between process and results, and tinkering with the mix or hoping for continued organic growth that may or may not happen.
“I think, you know, I’ve made lots of calls to understand the market and what’s out there,” Adams said. “This is a difficult time of year to make trades, not every team is ready to do something. But I’m open to different things and I’m not going to stop trying to improve this team.”
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