Ghost of Dwight Drane

Even when he went on a roll over a few years: Derek Roy Chris Thorburn Jason Pominville Keith Ballard Dan Paille Thomas Vanek Drew Stafford What stands out? He hitched his wagon to his draft picks....and last year handed $22 million in salary to those 4 letter wearers. For any good he did in drafting talented players, he offset that by building AROUND them, and having them lead the team. He also overpaid them because they were HIS picks and he believed in them. Again....if the Master Plan is to have Darcy build through the draft, it is flawed on so many levels. 1) You need to have enough high picks 2) You need to have a better than average strike rate 3) You need to identify leaders that can be part of your team long term 4) You have to know when to sink more money into a guy or when to reward yourself for a nice pick and ship the guy out for assets before you get stuck with him Darcy has failed miserably in both #3 and #4 Again, name 1 organic leader with top 6 forward talent or top D pairing talent that was drafted by Darcy in ANY ROUND and was developed under the watch of the Buffalo Sabres the past 16 years.... You Can't It looks like the plan to get out of the hole is to hand out more shovels to the biggest digger of them all.........

And I'm not knocking Darcy's drafting ability to find NHL capable players.....I just want to know what internal discussion went on to come up with this Master Plan? Of course none of the questions I just asked were posed to Ted Black, but it is a pretty damning case to be made against it. The best leaders we have seen the past 15 years have all come from outside of the organisation. Darcy loved his draft picks so much that pretty much every leader we have had has left under murky circumstances. He handed the baton to The Core, and we are pretty much the most dysfunctional we have been in decades.....and that includes Owners going to jail, bankruptcy, coaches/players/wives swinging, Jennifer Smith, Jean Knox, Larry Quinn, Gary Bettman....you name it, I can't recall just laughing at the trainwreck so much as I am now. I really thought Ted Black was sharper than he has shown. They almost have to go make a Terrel Owens type of move, because the fans frustration has to be reaching critical mass regarding season ticket sales..... OK....so then how is the Sabres' Master Plan relevant? How will it become reality? If they trade up, your 14 picks become 3 or 4 picks.....50% gets you 2 guys of impact. If it's Crosby and Malkin, great.....if it's Jason Bonsignore......good luck with that.....

But Ted Black just said the way to build the team is through the draft and finding impact players in the top 60 picks. I just showed that in Darcy's 15 years of drafting, his Impact Players are the guys that have us at the bottom of the league, and fans begging to get rid of them all after 6 years of Darcy trusting them....and the mysery that evolved. This is Ted Black's plan and quote......not mine. There is a track record there. He just contradicted the Sabres own master plan.

But the Master Plan as we are told is now to build through the draft. We are also told that we will get "8 Impact Players" in 3 years of 14, top 60 picks. Questions? How was it determined that building through the draft is the best plan? What defines an Impact Player? What makes you think you can get a 60% strike rate on Impact players? These can be asked with any GM at the helm. Even if you can answer those questions, the next set becomes....Darcy has had 36 top picks, 30 of them going back to 2009 and previous. Less than half of them have put together a total of 3 NHL seasons. How is his strike rate going to improve on finding NHL quality players, let alone Impact Players?

I love how "we have 14 top 60 picks over 3 years.....that will get us 8 Impact Players!" Ok Ted......let's take a look at Darcy's draft record with top 60 players....although you want no part of it because it happened before Uncle Terry took over. Mika Noronen Henrik Tallinder Dimitri Kalinin Andrew Peters Norm Milley Jaroslav Kristik Barret Heisten Milan Bartovic Doug Janik Artem Kryukov Gerard Dicaire Jiri Novotny Derek Roy Chris Thorburn Jason Pominville Keith Ballard Dan Paille Thomas Vanek Drew Stafford Michael Funk Marek Zagrapen Phillip Gogulla Dennis Perrson Jhonas Enroth Mike Weber TJ Brennan Drew Scheistel Tyler Myers Tyler Ennis Luke Adam Zack Kassian Mark Pysyk Joel Armia Mikhail Grigorenko Zemgus Girgensons Jake McCabe 36 players......ok, so who are the "IMPACT" players on that list? Vanek, Roy, Pominville, Stafford???? Myers, Ennis? If those are the IMPACT players Darcy has worked his top 60 picks magic on over the years....that was just the Core of your team that has failed to win a playoff series the past 6 years and Darcy believing so much in his draft picks is what has us in this mess to begin with. Add in Enroth, Adam, Kassian, Brennan, Weber, Grigorenko.........now you have 10 of your starting 23 players on opening night this year for the Sabres and almost 50% of your salary cap. Who else was decent? Tallinder, Kalinin, Thorburn, Ballard, Paille? This is over 15 Years! Where are the IMPACT players? Again, the best arguement for "building your team" this way with Darcy at the lead, is your failed core from the past 6 seasons...... 15 years..... There's your list.

Like a crappy GM....breeds a crappy Coach......breeds a crappy Roster???......

Good point out...... Maybe he should go all Steve Austin and jump on top of the glass in the penalty box and shotgun a few beers....and then maybe we'll roll with him. They have no clue.........Either there is a Darcy pigroast over the summer, or we are setting up for more battles.

Booooooooo!.... Oh, wrong thread.....

The Kaleta.....in the most case....I'm guessing 'Peg snow myself.........he can auction off a county of cows right now......

Flashback just got injured!.....I set up a Revolutionary/Flashback exacta box that would have been legendary.....but now I just look stupid. Verrazano was looking to be the favorite, and still could squeak in, but I don't think he has the distance or motion in him. Orb came out of nowhere, but has the style, pedigree, and connections to get it done. My guess is that he is the slight favorite. Revolutionary is now my pick. He will probably be one of the top 2-5 choices at 8-1 or so. He has the same connections as Super Saver who won the Derby and looks like a slightly more talented horse. I really like the way Vyjack looks......he came up short in the Wood, but on looks, he is a beauty and they scoped him with what amounts to a horsey cold after the race. He would be a top 4 finisher but I can't say he will win. It'smyluckyday had an ok run last race. He is still viable. I will scout as we get closer, but the favorites this year look good. Still a few preps to come. Revolutionary is my pick unless something drastic happens.

:blush:

Amen on both. That building is what we used to be.....

Now we're going all Doug Marrone here...... Speaking of....the guy looks like he aged 8 years in a month.........gonna be a long year...

This is honestly the weirdest vibe I've seen in Sabre nation.......it's like a cathartic volcano is spewing lava.........we need to let it all out, then hug.......

Hasek-Kelly Miller-Ferguson Fuhr-Flutie Barrasso-Bledsoe Crozier-Kemp Edwards-Edwards....just wanted to do that..... I can't take advantage of a man who's in an emotional mix-master....... Edit: I meant you...not Miller.....

I predict 3+ fights. I'm locked in and craving Polish Sausage and Genny now.......... I hope they win just to defuse a potential crowd bomb on Thursday.

So for clarification.....Steve Ott's wife called a News Reporter a Negative DB? This year is a nightmare. Someone needs to have a sitdown with Ott and explain things. He seems like the type of guy that would go apesh!t as a fan if he lived through the last 6 years here.....

Too bad our earlier conversations have gone to dust. There was some heated debate 3 or 4 years ago about the vibe at the arena, Chet+Muffy, and how we got there...... I can only speak on a personal level. I have been a huge sports fan since I was 4 years old. I'm in my mid 30's now. I remember clear as day the Bills/Jets playoff game where we made a pick on NY's final drive....and the day we traded Gare and Schoney away. I owned Bills season tickets since high school, and Sabres season tickets in the $5 oranges starting my freshman year in college. Most of my frre time and discretionary spending has always been on sports...most of it Buffalo sports. I had season tickets even when I lived in Miami. I would give away most games to charity and family and friends. Sometimes they would go unused because interest was ho-hum. Something big changed in 2007. Even at the new arena before hand, the atmosphere was pretty good. Even when there were 13,000 in the stands during the worst of the Rigas days, it was still a "hockey crowd". The type of people who would clap after every zone clear on a PK, stand after a goal, rise to their feet after a big hit as a scrum occured, anticipating a fight.......But 2007 set this franchise back in a major way, now it seems on all levels. That year, I had people pretty much begging me for tickets...some even getting pissed when I couldn't come through for them. The same people that would say "no thanks" if I offered them a pair in 2004. Tickets were gold....I would hook up everyone that helped my elderly parents....the neighbors, the mailman, the nurse, etc. It was like healing lepers. It was also at this time that I started to dislike the Sabres team and management, and to a point, the fanbase. Regular posters here know how contentious it could get. I was never afraid to voice my opinion, and my own frustration with what I was seeing in the "cult like" following of the team took hold here. Going to the games was no longer as fun for me. It was an uneducated group of tagalongs, as Weave labled them. Spontaneous "Let's Go Buffalo" chants were replaced with "Let's Go Sabres"....Huh?...What?.......Who are you? Did mommy not score those Myley Cyrus tickets for you but somehow got you a pair in 312 for the Senators? The teeny-bopper effect was large, and the crowd started taking almost an entitled approach that I see in Boston RedSox or Yankee fans depending on the year. It was not the "organic" feel that I knew and loved ever since I was a kid. Between the team jettisoning off a lot of their talented grit the previous year, and now the atmosphere, I started to become a self-loathing Sabres fan. Old Timers will remember me proclaiming there was no way they would win the cup that year, and I scalped away almost all the playoff tickets that year. Once July 1st hit, and all the details around the previous 2 years of mismanaging contracts and which players to keep, I put up my entire season for sale the 1st day possible at a 30% discount to the average low price offered by other STH, but still almost double what I paid on average. I just wanted out. At the end of the year, even with the pent up demand, I no longer supported the ownership, management, and style of play of the team....and I gave up my tickets. I had a Sabres rep call and tell me to fax over the invoice and sign off that I no longer wanted my seats. They also said I could write a letter why. I did write them a letter, with probably not the most glowing reviews for Msgrs. Quinn and Regier. Between 2007 and 2011, I still watched almost every game, and make it to a handful each year under different circumstances, but without belief in the management and team, I viewed myself as almost a SabrePatriot, trying to warn what could happen to this franchise if people kept blindly supporting the "team". There were plenty of times where things got outright nasty here....and I was partly to blame for sure. Where we are today though......April 9th, 2013......is what I feared the entire time. It's been a great learning experience for me. I've learned that until something "happens", it is hard to "lead", and dispite using as much logic as possible in my opinion, I am not a good leader. I've also learned that it is a lot easier getting people to buy into a feel-good story than to disect and project a negative outcome......but that is only common sense as pretty much everyone uses sports to entertain and divert from daily life. Sizzle hit it pretty well, in about 10% of the words......but this has been a 6 year process that has culminated with multiple curtains being pulled away from multiple wizzards. When people figure out they have been bamboozled in some way, and they have personal carnage, in this case, $$$ and emotions spent....they get angry. And when that happens, all the pain and backlash that could have taken place slowly and more orderly over the course of time, bubbles up all at once. That's what Ted Black and Pegula are stoking when they fail to acknowledge the long term dynamics of this entire thing, and why Steve Ott can be forgiven to a point as he has been here 2+ months. I have no idea where this all goes. It seems like ownership is supporting the previous failed management who have not been forthcoming with the fans over the years. This year has culminated into more of a cluster-f than I ever imagined. God Bless us, Everyone........

The problem with the Kennedy thing was he was one of the few guys that went balls out against the B's in that playoff series. They wanted to make an example out of him. They did. So who has been worse off since his departure? They also made an example out of Dumont and Briere with arbitration.......I guess that is a little clearer than a push.....

I don't think they are going to make it, but I have enjoyed this style of hockey. If Miller is really "an elite" goalie, you can get away with outhustling and outhitting even if your Corsi Numbers and Fenway Parks look like crap. It's about attitude. Once you get some actual talent on top of that attitude.....now you are a real contender. That's all that happened to LA last year. They had an overall roster more talented and built bigger for playoff hockey though. We havent had attitude here since 2006. We still have Darcy here so who knows.....but I can't say I want Rolston gone. I went from 70/30 on him the first few weeks.....to 30/70 when they mailed it in for a few.....and now I'm back to 70/30 for keeping him unless we can get an established winner.

Last night was fun. In a matter of 30 seconds, Scott creams a guy at center, Kaleta gets someone to go goofy, then off the line change, Foligno actually locked on from 20 feet away and went and pasted a guy in the corner. Ott has been a monster on the scoresheet and in attitude. Gerbe last night flings a cross ice pass through traffic as he is retreating to the blueline (Ruff would probably sit him next game), and it set up one of the sweetest goals in years because guys weren't thinking about positioning on the transition, they were jamming off instinct. Hodgson has great vision and anticipation...he just needs to learn how to hustle in the backend and lay they body. He has a good build. I'll be honest, with a bunch of the core here so long and Lindy's coffe breath permeating to the 200 level, I didn't really care. Now we have a coach who while not dynamic, has made some strong decisions whether you agree or not, and at the same time has let the boys with nads off their leashes. Slowly but surely it looks like they are forgetting about the past, and even though some bigtime talent is needed still, I can get behind this crew until it comes together. It feels more like the Bills of 2011. And in all honesty......I wouldn't be surprised if the team is pumping up this "fan issue", as a last gasp at an "Us against the World" mentality to try and rally into the playoffs. There's plenty of truth all around from both sides, but just maybe they can hang in there another 4-5 games. I'm with you for sure.

Yes, Darcy has made a few decent trades. It's like getting excited about winning a brand new china cabinet on the Price is Right, then moving it into the upper flat of the crackhouse you rent for $250 a month......

The car had fancy rims and detailing but a 4cyl/1.8L engine The driver of that car had a bac of .18 and went over the median onto the other side of the road and ended up on somebody's lawn There is a waiting list of 3,000 people looking to get one of these cars even after watching the driver's-ed video of the carnage that comes about from owning that car the past 6 years The players that are here now and the fans are in the same boat for the most part. Instead of bickering, they should mutiny together and finish the cleanout job up top....... I've been to a few hundred Sabres games and don't think I've ever booed once. I just stop buying tickets. I booed the Bills once at the end of the half under Mularkey.

Lurch passed because of the Marfan at 46........... :o

That goal NEVER f'n happens under Lindy! 3 loosey goosey moves.....Gerbe cross ice on the retreat......Hodgson throws it.....Ott charging the net even on the Gerbe retreat.......love it!