nfreeman

U-P-L! U-P-L!

Whoa. Is this really happening? UPL was solid as a freaking rock again (I know those 2 goals leaked through, but the 1st one was a wicked 1-timer off a cross-ice pass and the 2nd one was by an elite NHL scorer who was allowed to stroll into the circle and pick his spot). He was calm, controlled, anticipated well, used his size well and made great saves in OT and the SO. I think he is giving the team a major confidence boost. And I think he might be the one.

I've been somewhat interested in Fitzie over the years. He's a RHD, 5'11, 190 lbs and turns 25 in February. He grew up in Massachusetts, played 4 years at BC (the Sabres drafted him in the 3rd round in 2016, after his freshman year at BC) and then the 2 Covid-shortened seasons in the AHL (the Amerks only played 29 games last year; he played in 22 of them and had 2 goals and 11 pts). So far this year he's played in 21 games in Rochester and has 4 goals and 7 pts. He was a member of the 2017 US team that won gold at the World Juniors (beating Team Canada for the gold in a 5-4 shootout win at the Bell Center -- take that, hosers!) and had 3 points in 7 games (other defensemen on that team included Charlie McAvoy and Adam Fox). At BC, he was team captain during his junior and senior years and won the award for best defensive defenseman in his conference despite producing respectable offensive numbers for a college defenseman. I'm glad he's getting a shot.

UPL? Tuch? This hopium is top-shelf stuff, I tell ya.

It's gotta be reassuring for Rasmus, as a guy who's supposed to take the most risk on D in order to create offense, to have a 6'5, 220-lb giant behind him (I saw a bunch of the Sabres, including UPL, in person in street clothes at the Bills' opener in September, and UPL is big and thick with plenty of physical presence) snuffing everything out. This can only be heightened by the other circumstances -- great start to the season, followed by losing 17 out of 20 and a complete revolving door poopshow in net, plus plenty of gaffes by Rasmus and related criticism, until UPL arrives, starts 4 in a row and plays very well, stabilizes the San Andreas fault in net and creates optimism for the future. Holy mackerel I hope he keeps it up. That was a fun game to watch last night.

Well, he played really well last night and the team seems to be responding to both him and to the increased stability in net. Maybe, maybe…

Very fair question, and it's certainly reasonable to conclude that he's done like dinner and pass, especially since they'd be committed for a $3.33MM cap hit for him next year. My point is that (i) an NHL GM could conclude that he's still got some game left, (ii) I am absolutely not OK with just giving up on the rest of this season and (iii) making no more moves at goalie is IMHO tantamount to giving up on the rest of the season.

Khudobin turns 36 in May. 2 years ago: 16-8-4, 2.22, .930 Last year: 12-11-7, 2.54, .905 This year: 3-3-1, 3.73, .873 It's hard to avoid the conclusion that he's out of gas and in steep decline, or the prediction that he'd be unhappy to find himself on a crappy team in Buffalo, would be counting the minutes until the end of the season and would play poorly. And yet -- he's better than what the Sabres currently have, unless we're suddenly confident that UPL has arrived and is ready to be a good NHL starter. I'd be fine if the Sabres signed him, and I'd certainly prefer signing him to doing nothing.

All true, but still... I can't help feeling like (i) the team, next year and in subsequent years, would be substantially better off if they were scrapping this year for a 85ish-point season, and not losing 17 out of 20, again getting everyone used to losing and alienating the fan base even further, (ii) that 85ish-point outcome was eminently achievable if the team had secured reasonable NHL goaltending and (iii) securing reasonable NHL goaltending was eminently achievable at some point in the last 2 offseasons, both of which came and went with KA sitting out the goalie musical chairs game. Am I hopeful that next year's team, with Quinn, Krebs, JJP, Tuch, Samuelsson, Power and UPL will be able to take a huge step? Of course, and I don't think that hope is from outer space. But KA's choices have made it less likely to occur IMHO.

I like Donnie too, but we can't pretend that the Sabres haven't lost 17 out of 20, and then there's this:

No you hoser the Jax game from a month ago.

No smiley face in the one I'm referring to.

When I watched the play live, I thought it was going to be close. I don't think I saw anything at any time, live or on replay, that made me think it was clearly a bad call. For the record, none of my posts on this should be interpreted as an argument that every call was correct -- obviously that is not the case in a human judgment situation. The point is that (i) teams don't win or lose games because of "the refs" -- they do so because of how they play, (ii) there is no conspiracy to screw the Bills and (iii) blaming "the refs" for losses is the ultimate loser's lament. I'll also note that neither of the articles in the Athletic today about the game included a single word about questionable calls.

Well, since as usual you can't be bothered to do 60 seconds of internet searching to bolster your half-baked theories, I went back and looked at the posts in this thread about the Jax game. There were 7 posts, including one BY YOU, complaining about the refs.

First bolded: perhaps people aren't saying this explicitly, but there is a non-negligible percentage of posters here (including one who bizarrely claims upthread not to be complaining about the refs) who invariably blame the refs -- without naming any other factors -- every time the Bills lose. Second bolded: I'd argue "the difference" was the sum total of all of the things the Bills and the Bucs did and didn't do over the course of the game.

I thought it was impossible to tell from the replay angles they showed.

The refs have made the Bills go 0-5 in games decided by 7 points or less! It has nothing to do with coaching, QB play or pass rush! It’s the refs!

The refs made JA throw that terrible interception at the end of the first half! The refs made McD go for the fake punt on 4th and 2! The refs made McD punt it on 4th and 2 in the 2nd half from midfield! The refs made Brady magically able to do whatever he wanted in the first half! The refs blocked for Fournette on the 60 yard TD run! The refs, the refs! They’re conspiring against us!

The refs made us lose 5 out of 6! It’s not anything we did! It’s the refs!

Oh the refs, the refs, they took yet another game from us that we deserved despite our $250MM QB putting up 3 pts in the 1st half and our allegedly good defense getting worked yet again whenever they play a real team! The refs made us not run a play for some reason before the 2-minute warning! The refs made us not be able to pass protect, pass rush or run the ball! The refs made Diggs stop tracking a very catchable deep ball because he was too busy trash talking the DB! The refs made JA miss Diggs by a mile when he was wide open late in the 4th quarter! The refs made JA go 3 and out in OT! The refs made Edmunds whiff on the 3rd down short yardage tackle in OT and then made him get beat across the middle on the TD! The refs, the refs, those dastardly refs! Ridiculous

@PASabreFan -- do you not think the Sabres, or any team, would prefer to avoid having to submit the 3-year corrective action plan to the league? And do you not think the CBA sections you quoted create the possibility of losing revenue sharing?

Well, I think it depends on what is meant by "major rebuild". I think this team was deeply flawed and needed a major rebuild. You may be defining it differently, if you view a major rebuild as being mutually exclusive with the elements you mentioned upthread: I think a major rebuild can, and should, include these elements (with my tweak in bold), especially in the Sabres' case. Certainly Eichel's trade demand was part of it, but IMHO it was only a part, and probably less than half.

I agree and would also point out that not expecting to win next year would effectively be giving KA a 3-year pass, since his first year was a DFL debacle despite spending close to the cap. There's a reasonable argument to be made that giving him a pass for his first year in light of inherited lousy coach, injured/wanting out Eichel, huge disappointment Hall, covid, austerity measures in FO and cost-cutting apparently ordered by TP -- in fact, it's one of the strongest cases I can remember for giving a GM a pass for a crappy season. But even so, it's more than fair to hold KA accountable for the 2020 decisions not to extend Reino and not to upgrade the goaltending.

From the Athletic today, in an article partially entitled "The Taylor Hall Problem": Hall reminds me of former Bills QB Rob Johnson -- he has all the tools, and sometimes looks great, but something critical is missing -- and the net result is that he's just not effective. I am really glad the Sabres didn't give him a long-term deal.

I don't think there was any linkage whatsoever between the decision to sign Butcher and the decisions KA made on goaltending.