In the first full year of our hockey lord and savior Terry Pegula, the Buffalo Sabres have managed to crash and burn in stunning fashion that makes the Buffalo Bills seem like a competent organization.

No, things haven’t exactly gone to plan for the billionaire owner this season. For a team whose sole existence is to win the Stanley Cup, perhaps making the playoffs should be the first thing on their minds.

After Monday’s 5-0 drubbing to the Detroit Red Wings, the Sabres fell to an anemic 19-21-5. They still haven’t managed to win back-to-back games since Nov. 11 and with the team past the halfway point of the season, now might be a good time to start putting a run together to move past 12th place in the Eastern Conference.

It’s a strange place for Sabres fans. No, not looking up in the standings at the end of January. Sheer and utter — and legitimate — disappointment.

For the 40 years before Pegula, the Sabres operated as a quintessential small market team. While the team often made the playoffs, including an astounding 24 times out of their first 30 years in the NHL, rarely were the Sabres expectations as high as they were coming into this season.

They weren’t the penny-pinching teams of before. They signed two of the biggest free agents available in Christian Ehrhoff and Ville Leino and addressed a glaring need by acquiring a veteran, shutdown defenseman in Robyn Regehr.

After back-to-back playoff seasons with a younger squad, the Sabres were pegged as a Northeast Division favorite.

Unfortunately, the reality has come crashing into the forefront harder than a Milan Lucic cheapshot.
Granted, this season is not over yet mathematically, nor is it really even that close. But the reality is the Sabres recent play would suggest otherwise.

Not only is this team 9-16-5 since the last time they posted back-to-back wins, they’ve lost to a host of bottom-of-league teams including Carolina, Toronto and the New York Islanders and sit seven points behind the eight and final playoff spot.

Their franchise goaltender is 37th in goals against average, 35th in save percentage. There are 30 teams in the league.

Drew Stafford and Derek Roy, each of whom will making $4 million this year, have yet to crack double-digits for goals.

You can blame it on injuries all you want, but when three of your highest paid players — and supposed leaders — are playing at this level, you have to wonder if they’re even capable of salvaging a decent season.

Surely hockey is the type of sport where players and teams can get on a hot streak relatively quickly. But if you’ve been watching this team — with or without Time Warner Cable — I think you’d agree that Roy, Stafford and Miller have shown no signs of turning things around.

All three have shown incredible stretches in year’s past, especially late in the season, but I’ve thrown in the towel on all of them.

I don’t think this Sabres team is capable of making the playoffs unless they make a drastic change to the everyday lineup and that starts with trading one of those three. If anything else, it would be sure to shake up a locker room that fails to be accountable and seems content with mediocrity.

Try not to forget this current core of players have never won a playoff series in four seasons.

A few of them were on the 2006-07 team, but that was Chris Drury and Daniel Briere’s team. Ever since the keys were handed to Roy, Stafford, Jason Pominville and Thomas Vanek, this group hasn’t won. Coincidentally, the lone long stretch of winning came at the tail end of last season when Roy was injured.

No general manager likes to blow up a team in the middle of the season, nor should they, especially with a young core and a lineup devastated by injuries.

But besides Vanek, Pominville and Tyler Myers, how would trading any single player on the team be considered knee-jerk?

Regardless, we should find out a lot more about this team in the coming weeks. They will get some players back, but they’re also on a six-game road trip that saw them lose resoundingly to the Red Wings Monday night.

Upcoming games with the Chicago Blackhawks and St. Louis Blues — two of the top four teams in the West — might not be the remedy.

The good news, though, is if the Sabres do manage to miss the playoffs, their aforementioned owner will not simply let it slide.

Might it be firing Lindy Ruff or Darcy Regier? Trading one or two core players? Maybe.
All we know is Pegula said he’d stop at nothing to put together a winner. And right now, this team isn’t a winner.

Write your own conclusion.