You can always get the sound bite when John Tortorella speaks, but you have to go deeper, too.
"It’s a young, dumb league," was how the Philadelphia Flyers coach put it the other day during a TNT interview. But before you go all dinosaur on him – or send him that ridiculously overplayed "Old Man Yells at the Cloud" meme on social media – you should realize he's probably got a point.
Tortorella's team, which has too many young players and too many injuries, just endured a 10-game winless streak. The Sabres lived through an eight-game losing streak in November, and since it ended, they have played one bizarre contest after another. Around the league, it seems like nobody can hold a lead anymore. For years, a three-goal advantage has pretty much meant a game was over, and the same usually applied to most two-goal leads. Not anymore. Teams continue to attack and, thus, make mistakes, allowing opponents to get back into games.
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And the Sabres are far from the only team with goaltending issues, be it from poor play or injuries. There simply aren't 32 No. 1 NHL goalies in the world these days, and it's another reason games are never over. Just keep shooting.
"There are so many (more) mistakes made now in our game than back in the day," Tortorella said. "As coaches, we've evolved. I think you have to. I used to be that dot the 'I', cross the 'T' guy and almost forecast what the game was going to be before it was played. Now, I think you need to allow them to live through some of those mistakes for them to mature. The catch point there is, it always that same mistake? That's when it gets aggravating for a coach."
You can blame the Sabres' poor defensive structure and abhorrent penalty problems, and you'd be partially right. But at some point, the goalie is there to make saves and often has to do it to bail out his team. It hasn't been happening for Luukkonen, Mike Harrington writes.
Presented with Tortorella's theory on Thursday after enduring the Sabres' patently absurd shootout win the night before in Detroit, Buffalo coach Don Granato agreed that the shift in the NHL has been vast.
"I guess it's exciting for fans. Some might tell you it's not exciting, that it's too nerve wracking, but it's the way the league is going," Granato said. "It's a much, much younger league. More money is going to players under 25 (that) never went to players under 25. It went to players over 30. It's just the way the league was 10 years ago. Agents put work into their younger clients now, and teams obviously do. The league has just completely shifted in the last 10 years, it's amazing how different the league is."
In this view, teams started to shift their thinking after Los Angeles forward Anze Kopitar signed an eight-year, $80 million contract on Jan. 16, 2016 – when he was already 28 years old and had won two Stanley Cups. The deal runs through next season and Kopitar will be 36 when it runs out. He hasn't had more than 22 goals or 67 points in any of the last four seasons. Teams have to be wary of those kind of deals for players going into their 30s.
The Sabres handed an easy standing point to an Atlantic Division rival. And while Jack Quinn earned Buffalo a 5-4 win with his highlight-reel shootout goal, the Sabres' bad habits reared their ugly head again.
It's potential and projection now. Look at what the Sabres did in signing Tage Thompson and Mattias Samuelsson, and what they will have to do with Rasmus Dahlin and Dylan Cozens. Look at the value Dallas is getting from giving NHL goal leader Jason Robertson four years and $31 million at 22. Imagine what he'll get at 26 if he stays on his career path.
The eight-year deals signed in October by Mathew Barzal of the Islanders ($73.2 million) and last week by Roope Hintz of Dallas ($67.6 million) went to a pair of 26-year-olds, and that's on the outside edge for teams. Ottawa gave Tim Stutzle, 21, an eight-year, $66.8 million deal in September, and it's another sign that bridge deals aren't going to happen as much anymore.
"The Sabres have been bad for a long time, as we all know. Maybe the first step to getting good is not being boring. The Sabres are certainly interesting. These games have been shake-your-head, must-see TV," writes Mike Harrington.
If you like your guy, you go big and go early. Don't do what Calgary did this offseason, giving Nazem Kadri seven years and $49 million at age 31 and Jonathan Huberdeau eight years and $84 million at 30. Those are Kopitar-style deals. Kadri and Huberdeau entered the weekend having combined for only 12 goals and 28 points.
The change is vast. Players quickly get paid and put into leadership roles on their teams almost instantly.
"He didn't have any clout, he didn't have a voice, he didn't have anything," Granato said of the league's former young players. "And now, it's a young man's game, it just is. They influence the league. And when you have an influx of more youth, you have less experience. And when you have less experience, you have more game-changing situations and plays and everything else."
The salary cap has many teams under huge pressure and waiting for the expected jump in the figure in the next couple of years.
"The top (teams) have probably come down a little bit by virtue of the cap and cap challenges and age," Granato said, "because some of the best teams in the league are really old, and not getting younger, and then some of the younger teams in the league are getting more experienced at the same time. So it's interesting. It's a very dynamic situation right now."
One goal leads to two and three
When the Avalanche burned the Sabres for three goals in a span of 2:53 on Thursday, you didn't know it was the norm for the night around the league. A tough Thursday for defense and goalies also included:
• New Jersey scoring three times in a 2:38 span of the second period in its overtime loss to Nashville.
• Carolina scoring three times in 1:04 of the second period to turn a 2-0 deficit into a 3-2 lead en route to a 6-4 win at St. Louis.
• Florida scoring three times in a franchise-record 59 seconds late in the first period of its 5-1 win at Vancouver, flipping a scoreless game into a 3-0 lead.
Mittelstadt has a long rope
The Sabres made an obvious move for Thursday's game by taking Casey Mittelstadt out of his center spot and inserting Peyton Krebs in the middle of a line between Mittelstadt and Victor Olofsson.
While Cozens’ three-point night Thursday in KeyBank Center wasn’t enough to help the Sabres overcome the defending Stanley Cup champion Colorado Avalanche’s power play in a 6-4 loss, he showed again that he’s emerged as a consistent difference-maker in Buffalo.
In this view, Granato didn't go far enough. Both Mittelstadt and Olofsson could use a night or two in the press box, given the way that line has been rolled by opponents in recent games. I would have tried Krebs between Rasmus Asplund and Vinnie Hinostroza, who brought some life to the party Wednesday in Detroit, but found himself on the outside looking in against Colorado. And Granato added to the complication Saturday when he noted Hinostroza is dealing with a lingering injury
Mittelstadt's abhorrent 5-on-5 play (three points in 24 games) has continued all season, but he was showing value on faceoffs. Now he's cratered in that area as well, posting a 9-29 record in a three-game stretch that ended Wednesday at Detroit.
In Monday's loss to Tampa Bay, Mittelstadt had no points, no shots on goal and was 1-10 on draws. That would have been enough for me to have him take a seat and watch for a spell.
Tic Tac Tuch
Sabres winger Alex Tuch on the goal he scored at seven seconds of the third period Thursday, courtesy of a Tage Thompson faceoff win and a Rasmus Dahlin shot pass off the end boards: "'Tommer' had won a couple in a row, so I thought he'd be able to snap one back, and he was able to. I told 'Dahls' to just send it off the Tim Horton's sign at the end, and, hopefully, it's going to pop out to me, and it ended up being perfect."
There was some history connected to the goal, too. It was one of four within 15 seconds of the start of a period or OT on Thursday, the most in one day in NHL history. It was the third-fastest goal from the start of a period in Sabres annals, and it was Tuch's 200th career point.
That's eight straight losses in regulation for the Sabres against the Avs, and they've been outscored 38-16 in those games. The last win was a 4-2 victory in then-Pepsi Center on Dec. 5, 2017. Jack Eichel had a goal and two assists, and Robin Lehner made 35 saves that night. Buffalo meets Colorado in Denver on Dec. 15.
set play off the face off using Tuchs speed, he puts it away 7 seconds into the 3rd period. 5-4 #LetsGoBuffalo #GoAvsGo pic.twitter.com/uensmbogQd
— Buffalo Hockey moments (@SabresPlays) December 2, 2022
Around the boards
• It was Award No. 2 of the season for Ryan Miller on Wednesday night in St. Paul, Minn., as he was in a group of five inducted into the United States Hockey Hall of Fame. Miller was inducted into the Greater Buffalo Sports Hall of Fame last month, and his No. 30 jersey retirement and induction into the Sabres Hall of Fame comes Jan. 19 prior to the game against the New York Islanders.
• Tanking Chicago had the worst record in the NHL in November at 2-9-2, and the Sabres were next, tied in a trio with Anaheim and Ottawa at 4-9-1. Philadelphia was 3-8-4.
Best records? New Jersey 13-1-0, Seattle 10-1-1, Boston 11-2-0 and Toronto 11-1-3.
• Looking for some must-see TV? I say you've got it Monday night when Vegas plays at Boston in Jack Eichel's first game in Beantown for the Golden Knights and the return of former Boston coach and current Vegas boss Bruce Cassidy. But you'll have to fire that up on ESPN Plus or Center Ice while TNT has the odd decision of taking the Sabres and Blue Jackets on Wednesday night from Columbus. Execs really thought anyone outside of those two markets cares about that game? The league and its TV partners has to make better choices for its national broadcasts than that.
• What a weird season St. Louis is having. The Blues started 3-0, fell to 3-8, won seven in a row to move to 10-8 and have now slipped again to 11-12 entering the weekend. The seven-game winning streak set an NHL record for the longest after a losing skid of eight games or more.
"When we were kind on the losing streak, it just seems like every bad bounce was going away,” captain Ryan O’Reilly told the St. Louis Post-Dispatch recently. “It’s just funny. It’s the mental side of it. When you’re losing, everything’s a little tighter. When you’re loose, it’s funny how the puck just seems to find you better.”
