Buffalo, N.Y. (WGR Sports Radio 550) - The more things change.... well, you know how the rest of that phrase goes.
Barring a miraculous run over the next month-plus, the Buffalo Sabres will miss the Stanley Cup Playoffs for a 14th-straight season, extending their record for the longest postseason drought in NHL history.
So what went wrong?
I really thought the return of Lindy Ruff as head coach, with his experience and track record would have been enough to get the Sabres over the hump. However, a number of issues have prevented that from happening.
In no particular order, special teams have been a big problem.
The Sabres' power play has consistently underwhelmed, and is currently ranked 27th in the 32-team league. The penalty kill has been a little better, but is still is only 19th-best.
During the last couple of seasons under former head coach Don Granato, the Sabres were notorious for getting off to slow starts. Ruff was able to solve that problem, but this season's team has had trouble in the second and third periods.
The Sabres have had a lead after the first period in 27 of their 59 games, but have gone on to win only 11 of those 27 games. They have been tied or led after one period of play in 43 games, but have ended up losing 21 of those contests, including overtime and shootout defeats.
Buffalo has scored first in 35-of-59 games this year, but went on to win only half of those games. Too many times when they gave up a goal, it led to another and then another.
An occasional lack of mental toughness is an item on the what went wrong list.
Ruff's squad hasn't been good enough against teams it had to beat out to earn a playoff spot. The Sabres have won just 12 of their 33 games against Eastern Conference opponents.
Of course there was the nightmare post-Thanksgiving stretch that really put them behind the eight ball. The Sabres had a 13-game winless streak from Nov. 27 through Dec. 21.
If they could just ask for a re-do of December, that would really help. Their record in December was 3-9-2. The combined record for October, November, January, February and March is 21-20-4.
If they played at that pace in December, they would still be in the race for a Wild Card spot in the Eastern Conference.
So what will the Sabres do about this? That is a very good question.
Most fans will be looking for the team to replace general manager Kevyn Adams, who is in his fifth season on the job. That is longer than the other two general managers hired by Terry Pegula were given.
Tim Murray lasted parts of four seasons in Buffalo, while Jason Botterill was around for three years.
During Adams' tenure, the Sabres have never finished higher than fifth in the Atlantic Division or 10th in the Eastern Conference. Since reaching the high point two years ago when they had 91 points and just missed out on the postseason by a point, the team has gone backwards.
Adams relied on, and had too much faith in his young core of players to carry the franchise. They rushed a number of those young players to the NHL instead of giving them time to develop in the minors.
The Sabres and Adams iced a very young defense group, which can lead to struggles and too much being put on the shoulders of the goaltenders. He also gave out too many big contracts too soon to too many in that young core.
If owner Terry Pegula doesn't want to make a change, he should, at least, bring in a President of Hockey Operations to oversee that department. And please bring in someone who has been an NHL general manager before.
All three of Pegula's hires at general manager have had no prior experience in that post. Oddly enough, out of the nine general managers in the history of the franchise, only one had previously had that job with another NHL team. That one was Punch Imlach, the very first general manager of the Sabres.
Hang in there, Sabres fans. It has to get better at some point.
You'd think the odds would be in our favor.