LTS

I don't really have a problem with this move. As much as I have a side of me that wants to skate them until there's no ice left to skate on I don't think it makes a difference. Let them watch video and truly tear them down. Point out every damn mistake and lack of effort. See how they respond. Unfortunately this roster is what it is right now and despite all of our desires to make meaningful changes to it right now it's not going to happen. The NHL doesn't work that way and even if it did at least 50% of the posters here aren't sure Adams could get it done properly. I mean, practice hasn't helped them one bit. Talking to the media won't do anything for the team. It will be the same questions as last night with a few new one's thrown in that will elicit the exact same, watered down, boring responses. It wouldn't matter if the media asked REALLY hard questions, the answers would still be the same. The team knows they were crap last night. I'm not going to believe they don't care. I am going to believe that until the care ENOUGH about being crap things won't change. I do believe this team can play hockey. I believe this team can play with a chip on their shoulder. What I don't understand is why they don't. I don't understand how any athlete can play a sport at that level without having had to play with that chip on their shoulder at one point. We've seen this team have brief moments of success, so it's not like they haven't proven they can. It's psychological at this point. They need to hit "F it". And Ruff needs to start stapling ***** to the bench or scratching them. Do whatever he can with what he has to get them to turn it around. Scratch the assistant captains, the captain, who cares. Send a message that hard work will be rewarded and playing soft and lazy will not.

Yes, I did do all that research. Not just to defend Benson but also to help support what my eyes tell me. I am sure there are teams in the NHL where Benson would not be on the roster. As was discussed with Benson when drafted, he was good enough to be in the NHL last season (30 points) and he could not play in the AHL because of rules. Yeah, he's on pace for 20 points this season, but until the end of the season it's hard to really know where he will end up. I look at his assist last night on the Peterka goal. He takes a solid hit, bounces up, gets the puck and makes a great pass. I don't see other Sabres doing that. I think on this team, if the top 6 were actually playing as hard as Benson, you wouldn't even question it. But they aren't and so you try and compare him to a first overall pick on a bad team but it's not the same. He's playing way above his position and we should be happy about that. Also, this team went out and got the veterans it could get. They had to give Zucker $5M just to come here. Let's not pretend that there are a line of veterans the Sabres could bring in that would do more than Benson is doing right now.

Too much credit. This is why. You can't give Adams credit for anything, including this. All he's done is maintain the status quo. Which isn't totally fair, he's done things as the GM. However, he's as effective as the guy shuffling deck chairs on the Titanic. So.. that's that. The Sabres hit the iceberg when Pegula bought the team. The boat has been sinking ever since.

This is so very true. The only other athlete I put up in Allen's tier is Michael Jordan. I hate basketball, I've never liked the sport at all. However, I could watch Michael Jordan play basketball any time. I still never watched other basketball games or knew the standings (although you knew the Bulls were near the top) but if the Bulls were on TV and I was flipping stations more often than not, Jordan was on my TV. It's not say Allen is the same as Jordan or there are not other great athletes, but that "IT" factor is just too much to turn away from. I am the same as you. I have come back to clearing my calendar just so I can watch the Bills play and it's because of Allen.

The Sabres will never break my love of hockey. They can't. If they break my love of hockey it means they win and we know the Sabres don't win. My disdain for these puffballs has actually gotten the point where I just want more stupid stuff to happen. If you are going to be the biggest joke in professional sports then go all in. Find some new ways to get even worse. Be the absolute best you can be at it.

Well... sorry all? There was a brief moment while I was sitting at a small local brewery sipping a serviceable Rauchbier and watching the first period that I thought the Sabres might make my day even better. But alas... it was just more of the same from this team. So, they didn't get me down because I wasn't expecting anything from them anyway. I still woke up today happy as hell that I will be employed again. It's unfortunate that everyone in the Sabres organization (who puts this team on the ice) wakes up every day content with the knowledge they will still be employed today.

Yep. I think some people like to say that if the Bills drafted Mahomes then they would have won a Super Bowl. I think they say it because Mahomes has won Super Bowls... but it ain't just Mahomes winning that. I don't think Mahomes would have had the same success elsewhere. The Chiefs have had a great roster and their coach is one of the best in the business. So, I take Allen. Frankly he just makes football fun to watch. He even managed to make me not even think about Collinsworth talking. So that's something.

Well... unless whatever drinking establishment I go to tonight has a television tuned to the Sabres game I am not sure how much I am going to see. Got a job offer earlier today, so the wife and I are going to celebrate a bit. I'd love a Sabres win, but right now even the worst loss in their history couldn't get me down.

Yep. Popcorn tastes so much better when watching a good drama.

I wouldn't expect him to fight Foligno. I expected him to bounce right back up to his feet and at least shove him or respond. He did NOTHING but stare. And yes, the rest of the team did it as well. It's not about fighting, it's about pushing back when you get pushed. If you get pushed and just take it, you are, in my eyes, being cowardly. You are afraid of the potential escalation. You can't play hockey that way. You have to be willing to get physical. Odds are good that if Quinn shoves back, a scrum ensues and no real fight breaks out. There might be a few roughing calls made.

Please go re-read my post. But in the event that you don't do it I will summarize. My opening statement was about driving offense. In the same paragraph I stated that it would be nice if he scored more. Now, putting that aside. He's a first round pick, 13th overall and while he was chosen in the 2023 draft he's barely older than the 13th overall pick from the 2024 draft (Jett Luchanko). I think its important to keep his draft position AND his age in mind when setting expectations of where he should be in terms of offensive capabilities. Looking at 13th overall picks from the past 10 years.. how many of them do you think were offensive power houses in their second season and how old were they when they played their second season? Because I have a lot of free time right now I will do the work. Below is a list of 13th overall picks and the number of points they put up in the NHL in the second year after being drafted. 2010 - Brandon Gormley - Coyotes - 0 points, didn't make the NHL until 2013. 2011 - Sven Baertschi - Calgary - 3 points, 5 games played. 2012 - Radek Faksa - Dallas - 0 points - didn't make the NHL until 2015 2013 - Josh Morrissey - Winnipeg - 0 points, 1 game played 2014 - Jakub Vrana - Washington - 0 points, didn't make the NHL until 2016-2017 season. 2015 - Jakub Zboril - Boston - 0 points, didn't make NHL until 2018 2016 - Jake Bean - Carolina - 0 points, didn't make NHL until 2018-2019 season. 2017 - Nick Suzuki - Las Vegas - 0 points, didn't make NHL until 2019-2020 season. 2018 - Ty Dellandrea - Dallas - 0 points, didn't make NHL until 2020-2021 season 2019 - Spencer Knight - Florida - a goalie 2020 - Seth Jarvis - Carolina - 0 points, did not make NHL until 2021-22 season. 2021 - Matt Coronato - Calgary - 0 points, did not make NHL until 2022-23 season. 2022 - Frank Nazar - Chicago - 1 point, 3 games played. Zach Benson had 30 points in 71 games in his first season. Zach Benson has 6 points in 18 games for the Sabres this year which projects to roughly 20 points. I'd say, given the production of 13th overall picks, I have no problem with where Zach Benson is performing relative to offense. The problem with the Sabres offense lies with the players who are not in their second season in the NHL, not remotely close to the youngest in the league, and are playing in the top 9 forward positions.

Really? What do you call a guy who gets knocked down and just sits there looking at Foligno and does nothing about it? The entire team watched one of their players get knocked down and not even a shove at Foligno? Why? It's cowardly. The only other word I could possibly use would be uncaring, but this team is soft and they don't want to engage in playing a physical game. They care enough to try and play skilled, so uncaring is not right. So I would use cowardly. They are afraid to play physical either because of the physicality itself or because they are being coached to avoid it.

I heard he's over rated though. 🙂 That clip is the perfect embodiment of Josh Allen. He's a big kid playing football. He's goofy as hell but when it's time to go out and play he plays his butt off and puts his body on the line for his team. I can understand why players talk about him being a great leader.

Well, I have no job, so I have no money. It's cold outside, so I don't want to be outside, especially when it's dark out. So I guess I will turn the game on. I hope they play well enough that I don't want to turn the game off. That's as positive as I am going to get right now.

Yep. Granted I am in Rochester so there is SOME additional effort to attend the game but no thank you. Right now my effort to watching Sabres games is that I will multi-task during them. Soon I might not even multi-task and just keep them off entirely.

I don't think Ruff is coaching for 2 years. He might have been given 2 years to give him some extra pay so he would come coach this team, but I think he's done after this year and they expect Appert to take over. Which does nothing for me since I don't believe in Appert either.

It just confirms what everyone should already take to heart. A politician has no morals and should never be expected to stick to their word. He said he would not do it, but now he has. I really wonder if he would have done it if Harris had won the election. In my opinion he's completely de-legitimized himself. Not that I had a high opinion of him to begin with, but have some backbone and stick to your word. Your kid F'ed up and should pay the price.

Not every player on the roster is supposed to drive offense. The fact is Benson is like the 4th youngest player in the league (Luchanko, Celebrini, Bedard are younger) and he's playing harder than certain 6'4 vets who are supposed to love the Buffalo area and the team. He doesn't back down from anyone. Yeah, I'd love for him to score but what I would love more is for those players who are older, more experienced, and are being paid to score goals for this team take on some of his personality and actually give a damn about the quality of hockey they play. He's not immune from criticism but as the 4th youngest player in the league in his second year in the league, I wouldn't expect him to carry the team, so he gets some leeway in the scoring department. Compare him to the top 6 forwards in the Sabres. He's 3-4 years younger than the youngest. The 16k number is paid attendance, not through the gate. Regardless of who shows up at the game itself there are on average 16k people who were willing to pay for a seat in the arena for that night's game. That said, the Sabres are near the bottom of the league when it comes to percentage of attendance. https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/5914065/2024/11/12/nhl-attendance-tracking-red-wings-penguins-2024/

The Sabres stopped playing physical hockey and began going for the cute pokes again. Look at all the little drop passes and other "cute" crap they attempted against the Islanders that did not work. Thompson in the lineup and they defer to him for the shot, etc. Naturally that's not across 4 lines, but the tone of the team changed. Even the last part of the Canucks game they played like they cared. They played hard and they were rewarded with goals. The reason I am so down on Ruff, besides no appreciable change in how the team is playing compared to last year is that he juggled the lines in the Canucks game. He put Quinn and Peterka with Thompson, but Tuch, Benson, and Cozens together and there was a spark. He stayed with those lines for the first period against the Islanders. The first period where the Sabres scored no goals but were not getting massively outplayed. He changed at the beginning of the second and the Sabres immediately were on the back foot. Right now? Just play whatever players are playing hard regardless of goals. Let someone ask Tuch why he's getting 8 minutes on the 4th line as an assistant captain. They aren't scoring any way, so who cares if your "super" stars are on the 4th line. Hell.. look at Adam Gaudette on Ottawa. He's 75th lowest in TOI/60 (5v5) averaging 9:06 per game. He's at 2.7 G/60, that's top in the league. He has 9 goals... that's only 1 less than Tage Thompson, the Sabres leader in 5v5. The next highest Sabres 5v5 goal scorer? McLeod, Byram, Cozens, Peterka all at 4 goals. Sure Gaudette is a bit of an anomaly but who cares at this point. Play players who are playing hard the most minutes and let those who aren't get the least minutes. You can't bench everyone and until there's a trade it's the roster Ruff has... so reward effort.

I think overly emotional people have existed forever and that they will take action regardless of message boards. I'm pretty certain when they talk about the enabling of violent action from message boards they are not targeting a message board dedicated to a recently repeatedly pathetic hockey club. Assassinations attempts and successes, bomb threats and successes, etc. all happen throughout history. Hearing about them more does not mean it's happening more often but that it makes for good news at the time. I'm not dismissing them as acceptable. Personalities that are prone to making violent or extremist statements, such as Trump or Musk, are also more prone to invoking Newton's Third Law of Politics. Some people I know made comments about Trump's first assassination attempt that I never guessed would have come out of their mouths. No message board drove them to that, it's the very nature of how strongly they object to Trump and his persona. I suppose the way I see it, in the end, is that "F off and Die" is more akin to saying "I wish such and such didn't exist" versus "I wish someone would kill such and such"

The return wasn't overly egregious. But the Sabres don't need another young defense player who wouldn't be on the roster. They need older, established, veteran forwards who can put the puck in the net and teach this team how to play hockey the right way.

Last night was the reality of this team. They have no heart, no desire, no desperation to play the game. This was the Minnesota game except this time more pucks went in the Sabres net. I'm not even going to get into the players on the team other than to echo what others have said. Benson gets it. Krebs might be the next hardest working player on the team. I'm done with the Lindy Ruff experiment. This team looks the same as it did last year. They sucked AGAIN on the PP. They show no adaptability to when others teams have their number. Ruff is clearly not demanding accountability or Jack Quinn would be sitting in the press box. Who cares who plays over him, it's not like Quinn scores. Granted, after last night I'd want to sit the whole team. I'm done with ANY coach on this staff, no keeping some of them. they all get to go. I'm done with Adams who has built this joke of an organization. I'm done with Alex Tuch as the poster boy of players who want to be here. The only way he could try any less harder would be to not take the ice. He's loving his paycheck I am sure. And of course, it's all Pegula's fault. Year after year. This board has more emotion about the Buffalo Sabres hockey club than all those who step on the ice or work in the front office.

Who are these "wrong people"? What is this future doom you are portending? We're not going to sanitize all speech so that no phrase could be misconstrued as calling for violence against political officials right? If we did then we should probably look down on Musk as he did openly comment after one of those assassination attempts in question that "no one is even trying to assassinate" Biden or Harris. I'm not real sure where Ukraine and Afghanistan fit into this conversation. As far as I know those aren't pertinent to the discussion of "what constitutes a phrase as advocating for violence against a politician?" Neither of those events have anything to do with someone indirectly saying about Musk "F off and die". At least I can't see the connection. Is there one or are you just adding other events in some strange attempt to legitimize your position on advocating violence against politicians?

Here we go again... At least this game is late enough that I can make an excuse to go to bed afterwards. I don't usually go to bed after 7pm games anyway, but yesterday was tough because it was over and then I was like.. what now? I want to see the desperation to win in this team, shift after shift. That's all.

I don't recall the military comment from months ago and I'm not going to go looking for it. F off and die? I'm pretty sure I was told that more than once in my life. I never felt threatened by it. It's mildly more threatening than Go F yourself. I feel like calling that out as a threat of violence is quite a stretch. Hell, my teenage daughter's routine response to my Dad jokes is "Die. Just Die." I don't really think she means it, nor do I think she's going to kill me. And Musk is a absolute lunatic, his outward persona reeks of an unstable mind.