Buffalo Sabres New Year! (A Little Late)

Posted 8:05 PM ET | Comments 1

First and foremost, Happy Belated Holidays to everyone. I know it’s been quite awhile since I was on here. Due to my work situation, and the Holidays which proved more interesting than normal, caused my absence. However, that hasn’t kept me from staying on top of the Sabres, and watching what has appeared to be an improved team attitude.

A lot has happened throughout the past few weeks. What I feel has been most impressive is the fact that the Sabres are showing up and playing hard each and every night. It’s a lot easier to swallow being in dead last when your team shows and plays every night. No one is expecting Buffalo to actually make the playoffs. Fans do expect them to show up and at least try to win their games.

At this point, it seems to me that the Sabres are trying to assess the talent that they have on their roster and in their system. Now, there’s not a lot of talent that the Sabres have right now. The rebuild is finally starting to take shape. Buffalo needed to start doing this years ago. I go back to what I said earlier this year, and in prior years, this just isn’t that good of a team. There isn’t a ton of talent on the roster, and there’s been little to no direction. The difficulty, is that LaFontaine and Nolan are trying to right the sinking ship that they inherited on November 13, 2013.

So what does the year of 2014 hold for the Buffalo Sabres? Not many would have expected the Sabres to still be without a GM at this point in time. Buffalo is currently without a GM. I understand why the Sabres may want to hold off on this right now. Personally, I’m fine with LaFontaine and Nolan continuing to make the moves they want to for the rest of the season. As the 2014 season comes to a close, more GM’s may get fired. It’s within reason that the Sabres want to look at everyone, and then get the best man for the job.

The Sabres GM job has to be appealing. Not in the way that one would be coming in to take over a team with a ton of talent. It’s appealing due to the fact that the new GM will be able to start building this team from scratch. They can hire their own coach, could be Nolan, may not be. The way Nolan has this team playing I’d be ok with that. It’d be nice to see what Ted Nolan could do with a team that has talent on it. While it will take work to undo the damage from the past, the future is starting to look better.

I also, unfortunately, see Ryan Miller’s tenure in Buffalo coming to a close. While he does see to be a little less frustrated, I still feel that his time in Buffalo is done. Once again, he has been the bright spot on an otherwise bleak season. Most of us already consider this season as lost. Miller should be gone before the 2014 trade deadline. Personally, I see Miller getting traded pretty much immediately after the Olympics. Why then? Miller is going to be able to demonstrate what he can do with a good team in front of him. His trade value is going to skyrocket in Sochi.

What type of team do I see the Sabres building? A hard working team. I think that Buffalo needs to build around players like Girgensons and Weber. These are guys who show up, and play hard every single minute on the ice. Buffalo also needs a coach who demands that effort, hence why I feel that Nolan is making an argument to be given a chance to coach this team out of the darkness.

2014 can actually symbolize the start of a new era for Buffalo Sabres hockey. It’s a fresh start, and we all know more changes will be made to the the Sabres to where they need to be. This season does live up to the claim made that we would be enduring a lot of suffering.

However, I choose to think that there’s a light at the end of the tunnel for the Buffalo Sabres.

Follow me on Twitter- @SabresBTB, I live chat during games (work permitting), and post updates to my blog on there. I also try to pop on throughout the week with news updates etc...

And as always, thanks for reading!

Filed Under: NHL Buffalo Sabres Miller Girgensons Weber Nolan