Kristian

Danish born and bred here, family in Marietta Georgia, Rochester, Palm Springs and at least 8 or 9 other places that I keep forgetting. The Rochester connection led to the Sabres in the mid 80's, and I've suffered with the native fans ever since :P

NHL 13 coming out next month, that'll take out some of the sting :lol:

It's late august - I've been without hockey for too long :P

Unless you get asked directly, I don't think there's much point in calling your team a contender, unless you're desperately trying to look like a complete jackass in 8 months time? If you're asked about it directly, it's a nasty question that you have no way of spinning your way out of. Which was it? I have no idea, and I don't care either. This club has bigger problems than what's said in the press.

Just goes to show how much trouble this team is in, if he actually believed that. I doubt he did, though.

Even under Golisano, the Sabres were way bigger spenders than under Rigas. So to use you're own words, I love how people use pre-Pegula days as a basis for an argument that Ruff has no blame in this. You can't give the coach/GM a free pass when the funds where there, but they chose to overspend on the wrong players, and play a system apparently not suited for said players.

Actually, you could trace all the way back to when Gomez took out Miller's ankle. Intentional on Gomez part or not, every Sabre on the ice just stood around watching their goaltender crawl back in the crease. Don't tell me other teams didn't notice that pitiful, pathetic display. I'm sure you could trace it back even further if you wanted to, but the point remains the same - It's common knowledge around the league that you can cheapshot the Sabres star players without fear of any sort of retribution. Hell, you don't even get suspended for it, apparently. It's going to take a lot more than John Scott or Steve Ott to change that.

Phhhfffff..... Thanks for reminding me, I had happily forgotten all about it :P

I seem to remember the Sabres also blowing several two-goal leads in that series? Or am I getting old?

I remember that very differently - The way I remember it, Boston dominated the Sabres physically. Don't forget, Buffalo was the higher seed in that series. They seemed to learn from that, and played the Flyers very hard. However, you could also see how the Sabres ran out of gas in the end, so maybe they didn't dominate Philly as much as I thought they did, or the physical play took such a heavy toll on them, there was nothing left in the tank for game 7. Also, let's keep in mind that Philly forechecked the living crapola out of the Sabres all series long, and it would never have gone to 7 games had the Flyers had a goaltender capable of stopping a puck.

What do you expect? The same people are fed up with the current style of play from this team, and contrary to what you wrote earlier in this thread, lack of physical play has been a complaint since Ottawa man-handled us physically in the 07 playoffs. I'll agree, some posters (myself included from time to time) get their panties in a bunch when describing what they believe is lacking in the roster, among these shortcomings is the ability to play a physical game when called upon, but I don't believe for a second that these people are happy with losing, as long as they're leading in hits. I think the Sabres problem is that they're one-dimensional. Way too many players of the same mold. IMHO, that's never a good thing, not if it's 18 knuckle-draggers either.

Believe what you want. Refer to the second paragraph of my post if you want to know why I believe people are fed up with a team that is notorius for being contact-shy.

Nobody here believes that. Some, however, believe being able to play a pshysical game if the situation calls for it, or if you play an opponent who notoriously doesn't like playing a physcial game (like the Sabres), is a good thing.

On this we agree, bringing in one piece to change the make-up of an entire roster is never going to work, even if he was still the player he was 4 years ago. That said, I still think he can play a physical and intimidating game, if the remainder of the roster and overall strategy allows it. Neither is the case.

Talk about seeing what you want to see. Regehr is a heckuva lot better today than Rivet ever was in Buffalo. I'll admit I expected more from him, but to call him another Rivet at best? Come on.

Well, you have to admit that's how it looked on paper.

As soon as the team cures it's ailments when it comes to being on the receiving end of cheapshots, sure. Until then, this thread should stay very much alive.

It's not like the title thread shuldn't have scared you off, if you really, really didn't want to read such threads, you know :flirt:

No way!!!! Ruff won the Jack Adams twice!!! If Ruff weren't here, the Sabres would be dead last, rather than 9th!!!! Who the hell wants to draft in the top three when you can be 9th in the conference instead??!!??! Are you nuts???!!!!!! /Extreme sarcasm off

A very rational answer, and you're absolutely right. However, you're not addressing the fact that there's a downside to choosing the rational, and sensible road - that the Sabres are exposed for being soft, and that their top players are eligbile for being cheapshotted at will. There's only one way to escape this tag, and it's not to fight Lucic. Lucic didn't care about being suspended, or brought up on charges in the slightest. That gives the pysical edge to the Bruins. Game set & match. Done. Over with. The fact is the Sabres need to start putting opposition players in the locker room, once in a while. Not by cheapshots, but by playing tough and gritty every game. Lucic knew nobody was coming after him, and if someone did, he knew he could handle whoever. He also knew the Sabres would never go after any other Bruin. Forget about fighting Lucic, forget about running Thomas - The Sabres need to play tougher for 82 games a season, and until they start doing that, they'll find themselves on the wrong end of cheapshots more often than not, which is a lose/lose situation any day.

He will if he tells him "You take liberties with my goalie, I'll take liberties with yours".

I agree, but the Sabres are a team so soft they actually need an enforcer, and not just that - They need the biggest, meanest psycho SOB they can possibly find, to make up for the remaining 23 skaters who'll apparently stand around and watch their goaltender get freight trained. Not saying I like it, just stating the current situation. Who knows, maybe Scott's not even signed to keep the opponents in check, but rather his teammates :flirt:

Having the Sabres alumni dress for games, IMHO is a bad idea. Then again, with the current roster in mind, maybe they'd do better if the DID dress the alumni.

Never liked that guy......! And the arrogance to have #99 retired leaguewide....!!

I knew it!!