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NHL Standings: Sabres, Coyotes Are Racing For The Bottom

By Chris Gay |

This season the NHL Standings are a bit odd. Normally fans only care about climbing to number one. This season for a few teams and their fans it is all about the race to the bottom.

So, it’s come down to this. On Thursday and Monday the Buffalo Sabres and Arizona Coyotes will play an interrupted two games series for all the marbles.

The pair of contests will likely decide which team is guaranteed either Connor McDavid or Jack Eichel, and which will sweat while its long-term future is dictated by the whim of a ping-pong ball.

The Sabres and Coyotes took different paths in arriving at Fate’s Intersection.

For Buffalo, Thursday’s game represents the near-culmination of a long and deliberate strategy, beginning when then-Sabres GM Darcy Regier traded away

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team stalwarts

Paul Gaustad

and

Jason Pominville

in consecutive years. Ironically the since-deposed Regier now serves as assistant to GM

Don Maloney

in Arizona; adding another intriguing storyline to this tale.

Having already taken the long road in Buffalo unsuccessfully, Regier is now trying to take a shortcut through the desert to get to the Promised Land.

In an effort to join in on The Tank, a few weeks ago at the trade deadline Maloney outdid himself and, possibly the Sabres, when he saw fit to trade away nearly every quality veteran he had who was either not named Oliver Ekman-Larsson, or under 300 years old. (Shane Doan)

In response, the Coyotes offense dropped off a cliff faster than their nickname’s namesake did in countless Roadrunner cartoons. They quickly mastered the art of losing to the extent that it seemed even an inter-squad scrimmage would end in a loss for both sides.

As such they whittled away the Sabres lead all the way down to three points, while passing the Edmonton Oilers on the way. However, after an astonishing win over the depleted Detroit Red Wings on Tuesday, the ‘Yotes now currently hover five points above the Sabres in the standings.

It didn’t seem fair, really. Buffalo GM Tim Murray made numerous trades to maintain the 30th slot, and it would be fully cemented already if every single average-to-awful goaltender the Swords threw between their pipes over the past few months didn’t suddenly transform into Dominik Hasek.

General hockey fans not invested in losing this season the way Buffalo’s backers are can see the humor in the Sabres current situation. Buffalo has been extraordinarily horrendous in its attempt to fail this season…yet it still has to fight-off the desert vultures due to the superior goal-tending it’s received from goalies who weren’t good enough to have provided it.

Meanwhile, in the blink of an eye Sabres head coach Ted Nolan has turned himself from a local folk hero into Public Hockey Enemy #1. It’s readily apparent that he seems ready to do nearly everything he can roster-wise to yank the Sabres out of 30th place, and shipwreck them on much more unsettling and uncertain 29th.

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Nolan should consider himself lucky that he even received another chance at a head coaching job. And even though he’s almost certain to be canned at season’s end, he’ll still be paid for the two years left on the three year contract Buffalo generously gave him. Though he should probably forget the lifetime supply of free dinners he surely would’ve received throughout western New York if he’d put the overall good of the team first.

And since we’re on the subject of tanking let’s get this out of the way.

Tanking is legitimate. There’s no rule against it, and many, many teams have gone that route. Every NHL fan old enough to tie his or her own shoelaces by 1980 knows that, without setting the gold standard for tanking in an effort to draft Mario Lemieux, Pittsburgh would not only have zero Stanley Cups it wouldn’t even have the Penguins.

Do you know what the teams who don’t go that route look like? Yesterday’s Buffalo Sabres; a team caught in a constant cycle of mediocrity, destined to hang around the middle of the pack in perpetuity. Buffalo finally realized the futility of this and exited the rotary.

Pity some of its fans haven’t.

In a year with two low-hanging superstars there for the tanking; uh, I mean taking, there is no honor in clawing yourself out of the cellar up to 29th place. The Sabres reward for that wouldn’t be integrity; it’d be stupidity.

The employment requirement of both players and management is to perform their respective jobs to the best of their abilities. Sometimes, like now, those jobs do not run parallel to each other. And there is nothing wrong with that at all whatsoever.

And before you feel bad for this year’s Sabres edition, consider: without tanking several career AHL-er’s would not have seen this much big league ice time, along with the benefits that come with it, perhaps in their careers. Also, Ted Nolan would not be coaching in the NHL on that three-year contract.

You can be in the game without getting in the game. And now Buffalo and Johnny-Come-Lately Arizona have opted for the latter.

Regardless of how they both got here, they are here. And as stated above, it’s come down to this. No, there’s no mathematical certainty of a sweep winning the jackpot for either. But the reality is it probably will.

These games themselves should be captivating. I grew up watching Arizona head coach Dave Tippett play for the Hartford Whalers, and I know there’s no quit in him. Ted Nolan has made his position clear, and the players are paid to play.

So that means it’s up to the puppeteers in the Front Office sky-boxes to pull the strings, even if they have to take a chalkboard and spell it out to their rink-side subordinates.

After being out this long there’s absolutely no need for Zach Bogosian to come back for Thursday’s game. If Tyler Ennis or Matt Moulson should develop so much as a hangnail, they should both receive all-expenses paid trips to the press box for the evening.

Allowing these teams to go all out to win these absolutely meaningless games, especially at this point, would be almost a dereliction of duty for either GM. Two forgettable losses here could significantly change the fortunes of either, and for decades.

And not just by getting McDavid or Eichel, either. Think about what comes with that. Obvious motivation for top name players and coaches to sign on…Far more international media and television coverage…A positive impact to the local economy…The real potential for one or even multiple championships.

Think one player of their caliber can’t make a difference? The New England Patriots “fan base” was a laughingstock for close to their first 40 years.

There’s been some speculation about how Sabres fans will react to whatever the Sabres do at home versus Arizona on Thursday. But speculation is all it will be until around 10pm.

No one, even the attending fans, knows what they’ll think until they’re actually in the moment. Because most of them, or any other fans for that matter, have never been in a face-to-face situation with so much at stake equally for both their team and its opponent. Particularly when the benefit to you comes if your team loses.

There’s no shame in rooting for a loss; the fans in Buffalo are going to be there long after all the skaters on the ice have moved on either to different teams or retirement. It’s nothing personal, and everyone should understand that.

Sabres fans in particular have earned the right to root for their own best interests. Good team or awful; rain, shine or snow, they come. They support their team through thick and thin and thinner. They propel U.S. TV hockey ratings through the roof whether the Sabres are playing or not.

Buffalo sports history has had more than its share of bad bounces, bad calls and bad luck. The Coyotes are lucky if 20% of Arizona even knows they exist.

So root on a loss with a clear conscience, Sabres fans. Buffalo deserves a win (loss) of this magnitude.

Although…until the Sabres secure that coveted 30th slot, just because it’s Buffalo, I know I’ll keep thinking of that Clint Eastwood line from Unforgiven: “Deserve’s got nothing to do with it.”

Regardless, these two upcoming Sabres-Coyotes games are sure to be some very unique forms of entertainment.

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