Mango

I agree with this. In regards to Skinner, I feel like him hitting the breaks is what he decides to do. Whether he is coached that way, I don't know. But he basically goes "meh, I don't do this" It is pretty reliable behavior. Everybody can try and adjust. As for Cozens, it often looks like he is paralyzed by indecision so he circles around and when in doubt chases. Who knows where Cozens could end up. So nobody knows how to cover for his dumb ash.

It isn’t just a goal issue. I wish he was just “bad in the defensive zone”. But it’s like he actively has no idea where he is supposed to be so he just skates in circles. Like, Skinner doesn’t play defense. That’s a problem, but he knows how to play hockey and is trying to play the fast break/actively deciding not to play defense. Whereas Cozens looks totally lost in the defensive zone. Cozens is being carried by JJP and Quinn at the moment. I think it’s time to push him out to the wing, give him less responsibility, and see if he can be a productive top 6 RW. We have a million center prospects, I’d give it a whirl. The season is lost.

Here is a bonkers stat. Before Terry bought the Sabres the franchise had the 4th highest point percentage in the NHL at .553. That’s from a teams inception until 2012. I since Terry bought the team they have had the worst point percentage from 2012 until today and have plummeted from the 4th most winning franchise to 14th. If you took the point percentage from Scotty Bowman’s 10 most successful years. Not consecutive years. Just cherry picked his best 10, his point percentage would be .693. If the Sabres linked the best years from the best hockey coach of all time; Bowman run starting next October would take the team 10 YEARS to get that point percentage back to the pre Pegula era. It is more or less impossible for Terry to fix this franchise in the time it took him to break it. The Sabres should have to have the greatest run with the greatest coach the league has ever seen.

The sad part is, I think Terry is a very involved owner, and Adams is basically the de facto POHO. That is the whole reason we are in this mess. Terry is too involved. I hope Terry either: 1. Sells the team to somebody who is committed to keeping the franchise in Buffalo for eternity. 2. Relinquishes control of the org to a true POHO and stays in Florida for eternity. EDIT: That said, I am hoping that the talk about Adams not reaching out to Mitts, and Granato not being fired are because the plan is to move on from Adams when the season is over.

Trade Mitts because we hope that Cozens might be equally as good in 3 years? It doesn't make a lot of sense to me, both are young. One is much better than the other today on a team that needs more players like Mitts. Agreed. I also don't think the decision is looming in the immediate future. But I also think you have to find a way to keep Mitts. At the moment I think this team can make it all work and keep Mitts on a long term deal. But they are going to have to start making some hard decisions afterwards. The 2025 offseason will have JJP, Quinn, and Levi come due (RFA), and if freeing up Cozens $7M per year helps keep all those guys I think it is a slam dunk. Cozens will has another year/offseason to burn brighter. For reference, Cozens $7.1M cap hit would make him right around the 11 highest paid RW in the league. Right now that winger money is better spent on JJP than it is Cozens.

My opinion on Levi has nothing to do with UPL or Comrie. Making decisions for Levi based on the talent or lack there of in the big club is the problem. The best thing for Levi is to be in Rochester. I don’t care if we only have a 50 year old Marty Biron on the roster.

He should stay down for the remainder of the year. I LOVE Levi. But he may never be the goalie we want if we don’t take some ownership of his progression. Depending how that goes I might still be in favor of bringing in another goalie next year to pair with UPL and letting Levi continue to marinate with some spot duty next season.

And Levi was just sent back to Rochester. It’s the Uppie show.

This season is by far the biggest gut punch. This year was the year we were supposed to start some sort of positive trajectory and we didn’t. In regards to the NFL, it’s just easier. It’s a couple months and you reserve Sunday at 1pm. You almost never have conflict. Hockey you have City Council meetings, or kids TKD practice. Maybe a date night with the misses or a work event. It’s unpredictable. Different days and different times. When your team is bad it takes a lot of effort to carve out time for every game.

I feel like JJP and Mitts were on a line for a bit this season with either the Benson or Greenway injuries and it went well. Moral of the story is that Mitts is probably our best player right now.

Are John Biebe and Judge Burns available. (It is bonkers to me that there are no Mystery, Alaska Giphy's anywhere. Sheesh)

The Cozens injury thing has been driving me nuts. His game been slow and sucked to open the season. He got punched in the face a couple of months ago and his game still sucks. He looks like Hellen Keller playing "ring around the rosie" in the defensive zone. That isn't an injury.

They're something else alright.

Protect Levi at all costs. It doesn't matter if he is better or worse than Levi, Comrie, or UPL. Send him back to the AHL. Let him work on his craft and get some more swagger. Keep him away from the stink that this team has at the moment. After re-watching some of last night, this team is playing some of the most uninspired hockey of the Pegula era. I am starting to wonder if there haven't been any moves because Pegula has handcuffed Adams until he is fired at season end. A girl can dream I guess.

I was busy tonight and went to turn on the 2nd and it was 5-2. Turned it off right away. I’ve pounded the table to send Levi down to the AHL. Are these 5 sloppy goaltending, our standard terrible D, or both?

I think Terry sells the team and tells everybody that it’s because he needs to pay for the increased cost for the new stadium and two major franchises keeps him away from Kim far too long. That will all be true. But he’ll leave out a very measurable part that is he sold because he was really bad at his job. Everybody in Buffalo will accept this answer because Josh Allen.

I don’t think this is how it happened and I loath the Sabres version of Terry Pegula. I think the biggest condemnation of this franchise is that both Miller and Vanek should have easily retired Sabres and both actually asked to be traded after Pegula’s second year even though Terry was very open about wanting them to stay here. They were offered extensions and they responded that they’d be open to being traded. Even the long time vets under Golisano were like “get me the fork out of here”

I think (hope?)they’re tanking/planning for the future. Protect the kids with promise from the cancer that is the 23-24 Sabres. I hope they send Levi back down too. Protect anybody’s development they can. The guys they extended with good money need to start carrying this team through the slump. Benson and Ryan Johnson are covering for Cozens and Power.

Here is my Mount Rushmore of worst problems. 1. Adams. and everything that comes with it. 2. Granato. Peaked with a bad roster. 3. Power. Part of this is on Adams 4. Cozens. I said it. Thompson has a bit less offense as 2C he had to take a step. Not stumble back. 5. Also Adams.

Terry has already irreparably damaged this hockey fan base and it has had absolutely zero, zilch, nada, no impact on his NFL product. He has more or less ruined the Sabres brand and I will be attending the Pats game this weekend. The NFL doesn't care either. It is myopic to think anybody cares about hockey enough to even put a dent in the monster that is the NFL. If the Bills win a championship and Terry sells the team to be able to "focus on Kim" the city will tuck their tale between its legs and continue to show up in droves all over the world. Hell, if the team doesn't win a championship and he quits because he needs to commit more time to a single franchise in order to win one the city will love him for it. Hell, a measurable portion of this board is calling for Terry to sell the team. And these are people who prefer the Sabres to the Bills. The Sabres have some of the worst attendance numbers in the NHL. But some of the best TV viewership. This city likes watching other peoples hockey teams, but doesn't have a product to support. In theory removing the team doesn't change the TV viewership short term. Now if the Bills take a nose dive? Then I think the city sharpens its pitch forks towards Pegula.

Right. I’m not blaming Buffalo. I’m blaming Pegula. What I mean to say is that I thought having a hockey team in Buffalo because it is a quality hockey market was important to the league. But since Terry has purchased the team they’ve been the worst franchise in the history of the sport. Literally. And instead of averaging 99.99% attendance nightly. They average something like 72%. And likely much lower this year. I’m starting to think that the league would prefer a team in Utah not run by Pegula if it means removing a team from Buffalo. I agree that Buffalo can be a good hockey market. But it’s not now for the Sabres. And in a league with 84 games per season I’m not sure how long it would take to get this city back on board. I don’t think we can overstate how bad Pegula has hurt the Sabres fan base.

Utah getting a team was back on a few of my social media algorithms today. This was the first time I thought “there goes the Sabres. Mark it down.” I’ve defended Buffalo as a meaningful market for the NHL. But I’m honestly not sure anymore. I can’t see any other path for Terry.

This franchise has been painful since the tank. Not just bad, but for the most part just not fun to watch even if they aren’t good. In the covid year I sensed a tide turning. Then last year they flashed. More often than not it was fun hockey even if the team was “meh” overall. But when you’re bad and just terrible to turn on, you’re effed. For that reason alone the entire FO and coaching has to change. It just has too. Adams inherited a bad unwatchable team. And now here we are a few years later talking about a bad unwatchable team.

I’ve defended Buffalo as a meaningful hockey market for the league. But this is just getting crazy. The Utah rumors got bumped again on Reddit today. For the first time after reading about it for forever I thought “oh Buffalo could end up there”.

Family is staying with us for the holiday so I put the game on in the other room and popped back in and out. Every couple of minutes. In total I probably got 60-70% of the game but it was roughy to pick up the flow. Fun game. Obviously better play. One wild stat. We scored 9 goals, only 4 skaters failed to register a single point. Samuelson, VO, EJ, and Cozens. Samuelson gets extra points for being negative in the plus minus. 3 of those players have been catching a lot of flack to be benched or traded.