Kristian

He likely will pretty soon, anyway.

All of the above.

Yeah, cause missing they playoffs for a decade+, really should put butts in the seats, right? 🙄

I think Lindy Ruff is becoming pretty embarassing.

Nah, maybe the league thinks it’s a team thing. We can hope, right? 😂

Trade Power before the league finds out how piss poor he is on D.

Get rid of the entire roster, fold the team. It’s over.

Seriously, ***** Tage Thompson. Weakest play i ever saw, him getting stripped off the puck for the gamewinner. I say again : ***** Tage Thompson.

Easiest position to build around, if you got the goalie, I suppose. So theres that.

Fair point, but I think it’s also fair to say “Let prime Dom backstop the current team, and he’ll only have two Vezinas and no Hart trophies”.

Of course they were outshot, and badly most on nights. Look at the roster - Derek Plante lead the team in points in 1997. The team was, for all intents and purposes, pretty mediocre at best. Yes, Hasek was amazing, no duscussion. The 1996-1998 Sabres were a bad squad after Lafontaine went down. They had no business getting beyond the first round, let alone reach the conference finals. Hasek, or no Hasek. What you’ll notice in a lot of Doms highlight reels after he makes two crazy saves, is a Sabre clearing a fat juicy rebound in front of a wide open cage. You know, the ones we’ve seen banged home on every Sabre goalie again and again for the past 10 years. That’s how it looks when your skaters aren’t putting up an effort. They started improving offensively in late 1997, by adding guys like Satan, Sanderson, eventually Stu Barnes and ended up a pretty rounded bunch for the 1999 run. But before that, the Sabres were Hasek and 18 skaters. Sadly, they lacked the offensive punch to overcome a stacked Stars team. But while “the hardest working team in hockey” may have been a catch phrase, it was rooted in the scrappy Muckler/Nolan teams that eventually became the Regier/Ruff team that should’ve beaten the Pens in 2001. The Mucker/Nolan team being the hard working team, and the Regier/Ruff team slowly morphing into a pretty “stacked” 2001 squad, with more emphasis on a well rounded game.

Doesn’t change the fact that people hated playing the Sabres either way. But sure, you’re right. UPL is not Hasek, so why bother? Is that right?

Totally agree - You’re teaching the youngsters that “it’s ok to lose, because…”. And as a result we keep losing, cause why not? At worst, you get traded to a better club. The Sabres keep playing you and resigning you, regardless how badly you perform.

I miss “the hardest working team in hockey”. Teams used to literally hate playing against us. Not because we were big, bad, or particularly skilled, but because other teams knew, that every damn night, that goathead logo would be in your face from puckdrop to the final buzzer. And to win, they’d have to freakin’ earn it. Now? Embarassing to watch.

But, but…. Pegula is SO much much more knowledgeable about hockey, than Illitch…. That quote could NEVER apply to him. Someone else, yes. Not HIM, surely.