Weave

Agreed. The seemingly inevitable Byram deal should tell us alot about whether KA is just continuing to nibble around the edges, or if he is super cereal this time.

During the tank years I was pretty adamant that a GM that waited until trade deadline to move players they did not expect to re-sign was a negligent Gm because they waited until value was minimized to make the move. I like this deal because KA moved JJP while his value was still high. I don’t like this move because it feels like we didn’t get equal value in return. This is an attempt to change the type of play on the ice. I think the team needs that desperately. Is it enough? Probably not, especially when we now have to overcome the loss of JJs offense. No easy task as currently it requires the current roster to perform above their past performances. I will withhold judgement until after Byram is moved.

And which of these two have games better suited to playoffs and the grind to get there?

4 out of 5 dentists agree.

I just need something that excites me. The pick needs to be something that gives me a “concept of” type of player to drool over for a couple of years, or the pick needs to be traded for someone that gives me hope for ‘25-‘26. Cheeses, Im not even asking for much at this point.

76. Tied with Selanne that season.

Hawerchuck, Andrechuck, Audette, Ledyard, Svoboda. I don’t think we fully appreciated what we had.

There were alot of rumors swirling about Russian mafia shaking down NHL players. I recall Bure being linked to the Russian mob. I always assumed that Mogilny’s fear of flying was related to threats on his life. I know there was speculation it was related to him not wanting to be a Sabre, or not wanting to be under Bowman. I thought fear of the Russian mob was the more likely circumstance.

Holy *****! Its about time.

Empathy is the wrong word. You are thinking of sympathy. Sympathy comes from a perspective of superiority. There is no feeling of what it is like to be in someone else's shoes. Empathy comes from a perspective of “this could happen to me”. Ain’t no way Kyvyn could have happen to him what is happening to the fanbase.

This is how we know you are truly back.

Are there more than a small handful of AHL cities big enough to attract an owner that has the ability (and desire) to compete with NHL owners?

I think thats it for me. I have real cognitive dissonance over fighting in the pros. It certainly entertains me, but the CTE and concussion issues are real, and should make us all feel icky for enjoying those fights. You are entertaining yourself watching men do lasting harm to each other. but I have no dissonance regarding junior players fighting. There is nothing entertaining about kids fighting.

I was responding to “the old days” and the idea that the aud sold out every game for years. It did that when the team was good, and entertaining. But there were significant stretches where the team was mediocre to bad, and there were plenty if seats available for walk up sales during those times. Today, the difference isnt the fans. Its that the significant stretch is old enough to be entering high school.

You guys are forgetting basically 0 for the 80s (I know Taro, its not quite that, but 0 for the 80s is easier to type out), and the Aud was puny. There were stretches of half filled seats between games against Adams division foes and games against Pittsburgh. Darth Sator, anyone? You always needed to provide base level entertainment to get the fans to come.

Clearly, if we are 7th in fighting majors they aren’t related in the way most folks would relate them. To me, it seems like our fighting majors are a reaction to teams taking advantage of our soft play. Its a poorly developed line if thought on my part, but I suspect we’d have fewer fighting majors if we were harder to play against. We play soft, some opponent takes advantage of it, then someone ill-equipped for fighting drops the gloves as a reaction. Ultimately, it is our soft play that drives it, I think. Or maybe its just the jade colored glasses I see this team through.

Can I keep Kulich and add something else to make it happen? No? I guess OK then.

The team having noone to make up for it might be the anomaly though. I don’t know the rosters around the league well, but it sure feels like everyone has someone thats better than Gilbert at it, and we don’t even have him anymore.

Entertainment matters. Winning matters too, but alot of that is in the context of entertainment. The Bills lost era had big crowds because the overall experience was always entertaining. When the Sabres are not a good team there is nothing in the arena experience to make up for it. The Sabres need to be a good team to have the overall experience be entertaining enough to justify the effort and expense to attend a game.

If he were good enough we wouldn’t have to imagine…..

Maybe Tage is the problem.

I’m not surprised at all. No way any of those guys come here if they are offered market rate.

The premise of the post started with competent ownership and management. Its a faulty premise. Or maybe better stated as a fairy tale premise. Thats Ok. I’m not terribly invested in continuing anyway, so feel free to carry on without me.

I think you are missing the point of my post. The assumption that we had competent ownership means the decision to tear down to nothing doesn’t get made and likely a team like Arizona finishes dead last instead, and oor rebuild core does not contain Sam or Jack.

Competence would have prevented us from being near enough to the bottom to ever have a sniff at Dahlin.