"We were very purposeful and specific how we were building the roster this year, knowing that we're going to be extremely young and you're going to go through ups and downs, and we're well aware of that," general manager Kevyn Adams said Monday. "I'm calm right now, and I think calm is very important in these types of things, but I'm not comfortable. You could check my sleep habits, certainly not comfortable at all.
"I'm wanting to make sure that we have a calmness about this and know that these experiences are exactly what our players will help them grow and learn and get better."
The Sabres entered the season with the youngest roster in the NHL at an average age of 25.9 years old, including 12 players aged 24 or younger.
Buffalo (7-11-0) kept most of its roster intact during the offseason, giving the group the opportunity to learn to navigate through the inevitable bumps in the road.
"What we're really working towards here is sustainable success," Adams said. "Not just a flash of a week here, a month here. Sustainable success. And we all believe that the way we're going to have sustainable success is to have our young core go through these things. … When we look at our young players, and you look at the experiences of going through and the development that they're going through, it's never a straight line up. But they need to go through this."
The Sabres, who finished last season on a 16-9-3 run, appeared to carry it into this season when they started 7-3-0. But they haven't gotten a point since a 6-3 home win against the Pittsburgh Penguins on Nov. 2 and entered Monday one point ahead of the Ottawa Senators for last place in the Atlantic Division.
They will try to end the skid at the Montreal Canadiens on Tuesday (7 p.m. ET; NHLN, TSN2, MSG-B, SN NOW). Defenseman Rasmus Dahlin said it will take a team effort to turn things around.
"I need to step up, the team needs to step up," Dahlin said Saturday after a 5-2 loss at the Toronto Maple Leafs. "It starts with practice, practice habits. We've got to be better.
"When it's not really bouncing our way, you've got to work even harder. And it's mentally frustrating, but that's how it is right now. We've got to be mentally strong, and we've just got to dig in."
The Sabres have been outscored 38-19 in the losing streak, and in all but one game have lost by at least two goals. They have given up three or more goals in each of their eight losses, including five or more goals in five of them.
Adams pointed to losses against the Carolina Hurricanes (5-3), Tampa Bay Lightning (5-3) and Boston Bruins (3-1) among games earlier in the skid where the Sabres played well but were done in by mistakes in critical moments that tend to come with a lack of experience. Other losses stemmed from the details of their game not being up to par and the need for their "passion or compete" to be better.
Adams and coach Don Granato address that every day while trying to maintain belief in the players.
"You put it all together and it's where we're at right now, and you can't run, you can't hide from it," Adams said. "And that's why I say I'm calm, and I think calm is contagious in a way that the players know that we believe in them and support them and we're not changing course here.
"Nobody's going to come in here and say that this is good enough for now, because it's not. But we do know that this is part of the process of where we're at as we build this."
