So the Sabres stopped saluting the fans at the end of games because of the booing and Fire Donny chant. What a bunch of thin skinned losers.
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To understand the insider part of the issue about to be discussed, you should know that reporters covering a Sabres game leave the press box and head to the elevator literally the second the final horn goes.
We don’t see the three-star announcements or the team’s salute to fans after a win. You often hear the celebratory foghorn blasting when you’re inside the elevator on the way down to the locker room.
So when I started getting emails and tweets from fans last month complaining that the Sabres were leaving the ice without skating to the center circle and raising their sticks to acknowledge the paying customers, there was no way to report that without seeing it for myself.
The crowd was fully giving it up to the team after a 7-0 rout and, lo and behold, the players started to head directly off the ice after checking in with goalie Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen. But then something was said – couldn’t tell by whom – and the Goatheads reversed course, stopped and raised their sticks before leaving. It wasn’t a full gathering around the circle but at least it was something.
What gives here? It’s all part of the toxicity of KeyBank Center.
Poor play at home the last two seasons combined with the franchise’s absurd playoff drought has understandably squeezed the last drop of patience out of the fans, and trust me when I say they jump their own team at the first opportunity more than any building in the league.
It reached a breaking point with the “Fi-re Don-ny” chants directed at coach Don Granato during a 9-4 loss to Columbus on Dec. 19. The locker room was severely rankled by that outburst and, apparently, the response has been a postgame snub of the fans.
Given anonymity so he could speak freely, a veteran Sabre said simply that the team made a decision to stick together in support of its coach.
“Look, we love our fans because when this place gets going, it seriously gets going,” the player said. “And I get all the frustration of how many years it’s been. But most guys in here haven’t been here very long. Kevyn (General Manager Kevyn Adams) hasn’t been. Donny hasn’t been. You can’t put all that on them.”
The Columbus game was one of the worst performances at home in franchise history, but it was answered two nights later with a 9-3 win over Toronto that made the Sabres the first NHL team in 40 years to score nine goals in the next game after giving up nine.
“Columbus was a terrible game but it was one game, and that should have been directed at us and not Donny,” the player said. “This team keeps coming back. Look what happened against Toronto. And we know what teams quitting on coaches looks like. We’ve seen it in other places this season.”
Sure have. St. Louis had checked out on Craig Berube, and the Sabres had 46 shots on goal against the Blues in their November visit, But Jordan Binnington stole the game. Los Angeles visibly waved the white flag on Todd McLellan when the Sabres ran the Kings out of the building the final two periods on Jan. 24 in Crypto.com Arena. And shelf life expired earlier this season on Dean Evason in Minnesota and Jay Woodcroft in Edmonton as well.
This is a complicated situation. It’s a slippery slope for players to complain about the fans, which is why nobody is going to do it publicly. I remember former Sabres captain Steve Ott griping about the booing here in 2013, and that didn’t go over well.
But I can tell you the locker room was not happy one bit about the team getting booed off the ice after the first period of the Jan. 8 loss to Seattle – when the Sabres were only losing, 2-1 – and isn’t thrilled about the boos that greet the seemingly nightly first goal against.
Ultimately, fans can direct their ire at who they want. Granato’s performance is like everybody else’s this season in that it hasn’t been good enough. The Sabres entered Saturday’s game in Minnesota with a 10-9-1 record since the Columbus debacle, not denting the playoff race but hardly fire-the-coach territory.
Since Jan. 1, they’re tied for second in the league in goals against (2.13) and eighth on the penalty kill. Since Jan. 15, they’re 18th on the power play, as Granato’s influence has helped a group that has been in the bottom five overall much of the season. And you might be surprised to realize the Sabres haven’t lost more than two games in a row since the first week of December.
Before the salary cap, you’d make some shake-the-team trades. Much tougher to do now. Easier to just fire the coach and hope for a turnaround which, by the way, hasn’t come yet on Long Island since Patrick Roy took over the Islanders. Careful what you wish for.
“I think coaching has and I think coaching always will be one of the most disrespected positions in the game,” Philadelphia boss John Tortorella said Thursday in Toronto. “It’s easy to do, easy to get rid of the guy. I’ve always felt that.”
There have been 13 coaching changes in the NHL since the end of last season. The Sabres have had a revolving door in the job since they fired Lindy Ruff in 2013. Granato is No. 6. But this team has been so bad at home for so long that it doesn’t matter who is coaching.
Since the start of the 2017-18 season, the Sabres are 31st in the NHL in points percentage at home at .473 and 29th in home goals at 2.83 per game. This season, 10 of the 27 home games have seen the Sabres shut out or held to one goal. They’ve netted only one four times in the last five games downtown.
If it’s too difficult for certain guys to play here, Adams will have to move them out. Bills fans were far more supportive of their team during its playoff drought, but the tailgating culture makes that more of an event than a football game.
Ultimately, it’s got to be maddening for Sabres fans to shell out the money they do for too many terrible games downtown and then see this team ring up big win after big win on the road.
