Kristian

Making it to the playoffs in the first place is usually a big enough problem for this team.

That one made me laugh, cause it's true. Way too much "How's my hair hockey" been played here since 2007 :-)

Not even the virtual Islanders will be stupid enough to take that contract ;)

I don't hate Hull for scoring the goal. Why would I? I do however feel somewhat annoyed by him being a total ass about it, most of the time. Want to talk about hate? How about some for Brian Holzinger and his stick lift attempt? :wallbash:

I'll never argue with the stats, he was a goal-machine, no doubt. I just have this feeling, this is like "Miracle on Ice" all over - Nobody remembers that Team USA still had to beat Finland to take gold, they only remember beating the Soviets.

Impressive, like I said. Not defining, compared to no-goal, which he himself does all he can to keep alive, apparently. In 20 years, will people remember 86 regular season goals on a team that won nothing, or a triple OT Stanley Cup winning goal, and a controversial one at that? Never said it wasn't a heckuva milestone, though. Heck, 72 is outrageous as well.

Get over it Brett, everyone knows your defining moment in an otherwise impressive career, is bull. Why do you always get so massively defensive when talking about it, Brett? He sounds exactly like Lance Armstrong did for years, when asked whether he doped or not. Of course he does. That's what has-beens do.

Hehe, Pitts bested me 4-3 in OT, in my opener. Guess you got the killer instinct I lack :-)

In the regular season, sure. They only finished as the 7th seed too. However, they had an outstanding PP in the 1999 playoffs, splitting second at 20%. http://www.nhl.com/ice/teamstats.htm?fetchKey=19993ALLSAAALL&sort=powerPlayPercentage&viewName=summary The PP scored in every single Sabres playoff game that year, except game 4 against the Leafs, and games 3, 4, 5 and 6 against the Stars. Dallas curiously, had a pretty poor PP in the 1999 playoffs, only ranked 12th, after being 6th overall in the regular season. They did however finish 2nd in PK, at 90,5%. It's a lockout - I'm bored. It was the no-touch years. Lots of strange things happened during that time, like interference being called for instance ;)

Last home regular season game of 2004, before the lockout, the team wore the classic whites. With the traditional black goathead uniform pants, though.

Wouldn't mind seeing that, and I'm more than willing to cut him som serious slack. I'd much rather see young players screw up and learn from it, than 6+ year veterans doing the same thing, then hand out toga-party invites afterwards.

No, but unless you No, but apparently, if you're not up by 2 goals halway through the first period, the coach starts juggling his lines. Also, your backup never gets to play.

This alone is enough reason to buy NHL13 :w00t:

Couldn't agree more. Third jerseys, no jersey's, New Jersey, what-freakin'-ever. Only things I care about are : a. How does the roster look on opening night. b. How does the standings look come the end of the regular season. Everything else can go hump a tree for all I care.

Not that I disagree, but at least it's your own choice if you want to buy one or not.

I liked the jersey, just didn't like that it made the Sabres look like the Blackhawks. A new third? How about the goathead black? After all, they did make some nice Sabres history in those.

I agree, although a Shane Doan would probably be worth an extra million in Buffalo than on other teams, simply because he's the type of player the Sabres have lacked since Peca left.

On this I can agree - Developing our young players is key to this franchise moving forward. Unfortunately, I don't much trust the current staff to accomplish this, as they haven't had much luck in the past.

I see what you're saying, and I'm not trying to be an a-hole here, so please don't take this the wrong way - But you could put that quote in any of the past 4 or 5 seasons, if you wished.

It's the coaches job to bring things together, isn't it? And if Ruff is as much in on personnel decisions as he's rumoured to be, again his responsibility only becomes greater. Of course the players should be held accountable, god knows I've been no fan of the roster in recent years, but let's be honest - Buffalo, the past 5-6 years, has been a place of NO accountability. Coasting regulars getting the same amount of ice time as always, Connolly being given a 50% raise for not playing, and a front office more bent on making excuses for their team than improving on it. I doubt most of the people involved with the Sabres franchise know the meaning of the word, "accountability". Top to bottom.

I'll be honest with you, I have no idea whether Dineen is better than Ruff or not. My beef with Ruff, is that I don't feel he's good enough to go all the way, and that's he's worn out his welcome with the roster, however it may have changed, long ago. I am particularly frustrated with his seeming inability to adapt to strategy changes in games, and how he resorts to line juggling if the opposition seems to get the better of his approach to the game. We're always asked the question "who else could do a better job?". It's a standard phrase in sports, I know, but I do feel it's being used excessively when it comes to the Buffalo Sabres, People seem scared to take a shot at someone else, and see where it may bring them. Why? It's not like Buffalo have been anywhere near contention, barring perhaps 2-4 seasons under Ruff, and these were either due to an all-world goaltender in his prime, or rule changes that benefitted the Sabres in particular. Why does there have to be someone proven out there? Was ruff proven when he took over? No. What changed?

Exactly. More often than not, the Hasek-era Sabres were outshot 2 to 1 in games, and would win 1-0 or 2-1.

It was his 2nd year. He made the ECF the 1st year, lost to the Caps. I liked how Ted Nolan always seemed to pull a lot of fight out of his teams. Other than that, he was riding the best goaltender to ever play the game, and Ruff's two first years was the exact same thing - Dom was out of this world in the 97-98 and 98-99 seasons.

The way I'm reading it, he's happy it made Darcy abondon his all-finesse roster, and finally clear out some of the dead wood for good. For me personally, I was obviously NOT happy watching Miller get run, but I also think there's a silver lining to all of this. Namely that the infamous "core" is all but broken up now, and the bodies coming in instead are NOT smallish finesse players, but brawn and grit all the way. And yes, the fact that Lucic gets away with it is total BS, You can clearly see him lining up Miller for the hit before he even enters the faceoff circle.

One-dimensional teams are never a good idea. Just like 18 figure-skaters can't win a cup, neither can 18 knuckle-draggers. The secret is in the recipe - Get the right mix of grit, toughness and skill and you have a shot at it. Easier said than done though, although I think Regier's MO the past 7-9 years has pretty much demonstrated how NOT to do it.