dudacek

I think for many (most?) winning trumps all. See Patriots, New England. But the way you do it also matters. See also Patriots, New England. This point is less about “your” team and more about everybody else’s.

The bold is particularly interesting to me. I'm thinking of Adams comments about rebuilding the connection between the players and the fans, and Granato's about the benefits of bringing back the same players next year. Vegas built a team that was easy to bond with and tossed a lot of its key parts to the curb in favour of "better" but less-lovable players. That whole talent versus team debate creates an interesting thought exercise in terms of what wins and what the fan base wants.

Interesting topic on Vancouver radio this morning: the Canucks missed the playoffs because they only managed a single point combined against Detroit and Buffalo. Be nice if next season changed this perception.

This is why I can’t wait until October. No doubt this team is better than it was a year ago. But how much? Will we see the 75-point team we were this year again, the 85-point team we’ve been in the second-half, or the playoff team we’ve been over the past 6 weeks?

With all due respect to your scout friend, I’m not sure why this means much. It’s just another opinion. NHL teams whiff on goalie projections all the time.

My post wasn’t really a judgement on his moves, it was a response to @Zamboni’s skepticism of GM speak. Adams said he was going to trade away the players that didn’t want to be here, acquire players that did, give his young players opportunities, trade Jack Eichel when he got an offer that made sense for the Buffalo Sabres, treat players the way he’d want to be treated, build out an analytics staff, build out a development staff, foster an environment of open and honest communication, adopt a fast, attacking style of play and ice a team that fans can connect with. By and large, these are cultural things. By and large to me, he followed through.

Yet Adams has done, or at least tried to do, exactly what he said he was going to one year ago.

I was never a Skinner fan, but I think the poster you are thinking of was @TrueBlueGED. One of several good posters we seemed to have lost over these dark years. Be great if this team starts bringing back some voices, and bringing in some new ones.

I certainly did not think Skinner had this in him after watching the mess that was the past 2 seasons. He’s not only reclaimed his scoring touch, he’s become a better all-around player.

Any team that blows a 4-point lead this late in the season deserves to be blown up.

I missed him saying that.

I’m not even sure why “the Islanders took them lightly” is considered a shot at the Sabres. I see it as a shot at the Islanders. The weren’t prepared, therefore they got spanked.

Looked like the Islanders took the Sabres lightly to me too. That's a team that we've found impossible to penetrate in recent years, and one that's flirted with a top 10 record in the back half of the season. Seemed easy tonight. Yes, we are better, but unless the Islanders have fallen crazy hard, they've got a better game than that.

This is an oddly timed thread, considering that the attendance has been horrible all season and the numbers have been slowly climbing the past month or two. The fans will come back as the team earns it. They're starting to do just that.

5/1/0 outscored the opponents 26-16

The concept of Will Borgen is something that will never die around here. Guy has yet to play 50 NHL games and turns 26 this year.

Whatever you think of Don, this team ranks among the most improved in Sabres history. In terms of point percentage, last year’s team projected for 54 points. This year’s team has 71, projects at 74 and could get to 77. The Sabres have made a 20-point jump 6 times in their history. Best-ever leap was 37, from 51 to 88 in ‘72-‘73 and from 76 to 113 in ‘74-75. The others: ‘15-16 27 points ’05-06 25 points ’79-80 22 points ’87-88 21 points

Wasn’t Anderson nicked up and missed practice?

I think people tend to forget Jokiharju is 22. (Not disagreeing, or agreeing with either of your points)

i believe it’s 5 games for Ras on the right side now. He’s got 3 goals and 5 assists and is +2 averaging 24 minutes a game. Have we solved the question of our imbalance on D?

It's complicated because its point percentage, not points; teams are playing different amounts of games this year. That said, they are in now (barely), so if they win out I doubt they can be knocked out.

Since the catharsis of the Eichel return game, our record is 12/6/3. That's good for 11th in the NHL, 4th in the division and 6th in the conference. Our offence is 13th in the NHL Our defence is 15th in the NHL Our PP is 5th Our PK is 19th Shots for 27th Shots against 12th

Part of why I’m feeling optimistic is that everything I hear from the players and coaches screams optimism. I’ve specifically heard them speak to the bolded and suspect we will hear a lot of that on locker room clean out day.

I think those looking for sweeping upgrades are going to be disappointed. We're going to add a goalie and an RD and upgrade Eakin. None of those 3 will be big names. Adams will be counting on internal growth from UPL, MItts, Quinn, Power, Krebs, Cozens and Peterka.

Couple recent national podcasts (I think Custance and Marek) made a point of saying something good and long overdue is happening in Buffalo.