Jsixspd

If only Sabres could have such problems. Showing some ring rust after years of top shelf play and multiple Stanley Cups, but still being one of the top teams in the league. Sigh!!!

110% agreement. That's so childish for that to happen. Personally, I have never discussed, and never will discuss, politics at this forum. There was that old adage "Never discuss politics or religion at the dinner table" - and that applied to FAMILIES having dinner. If family members couldn't discuss such topics without pain and anguish, imagine how much worse with relative strangers to one another??? It's like throwing matches into gasoline. Nothing good will come of it. We don't need that crap here. Thanks, mod team!

Well, that was pretty ugly, and the Sabres are on pace for an 82 point season - about the same as last year. A finish in 2017 identical to 2016 would be extremely disappointing, to say the least, especially with all the money lavished on this team. Rebuild implies BUILD, not a holding pattern.

^^^ Yup - the pecuiliar, dysfunctional org structure the Pegulas have saddled their teams with might work great for making family vacation decisions, but the results clearly suck for competitive sports teams. BTW, there's been much ado about the Sabres' 'resurgence' after New Years. I just reviewed the record for January- if the Sabres lose tomorrow in regulation against the Habs, they'll have earned 14 points in 14 games in January. 1 point per game. That's basically what they achieved over last season. And that's with Eichel, O'Reilly, Ennis, etc. It may be better than December, but 'better' is a relative term. 82 points on a season is still stinkburger hockey, and doesn't show much improvement from 2015 to 2016.

I haven't watched this game yet - but it appears from the comments and the links posted there were two good goals scored by Buffalo which the NHL's "review" process inanely didn't confirm as goals, including a late one by O'Reilly, and Franson accidently tapped the winning goal into the Sabres net, whereas he could have easily pushed it safely away and prevented a goal. And when peeps here are saying the penalty calls were lopsided against Buffalo, I believe it! Buffalo won this game, then, despite the score. That's how the team ought to feel. If I were one of those hockey millionaires on the Sabres, I'd take a little 10k fine to absolutely blast the NHL and the officiating and rip 'em a new one!

Two very good wins back to back. Would love it if they could keep it up. They are 6-3-1 in January, with 13 out of 20 points. Still skeptical but a decent run over the next 10 games might make me rethink my opinion of the team.

Lehner was sick again? I didn't know why they were sitting him out - thought it was just because Nilsson was perceived to be on a hot streak? That guy seems to be sick or hurt half the season; wasn't he out due to illness earlier this season too?

But frankly, two of OUR goals came off horrible amateurish face-palm worthy defensive miscues by Toronto both in the 1st frame. We were lucky they made those mistakes; I think the odds are they wouldn't even make one of them in the typical game. So that sort of cancels out the two horrendous embarrassing softees our goalies surrendered last night. That would be a terrific add to the team!

He's ok - I don't see him as any real upgrade over other net minders we've had in the crease since Miller left. He's definitely not elite; just average (albeit shoot out and breakaways WAAAAY below average!)

Sorry, a team could be bad for 30 years - to me a 'rebuild' starts when a GM and Coach take over, and start to SHAPE the team, and apply their vision to the team and make roster and hockey decisions. Shanahan started as President in spring 2014 - he hasn't even been there 2 years. Babcock was hired May 20th, 2015. Lamoriello - the current GM of the Leafs - was hired July 2015! Rebuild clock STARTED July 2015. Ok, or even when Shanahan started but that hasn't even been 2 years yet! Wasn't too much 'suffering' to endure during the Lamoriello/Babcock rebuild. They're showing real results already. Meanwhile, Sabres are 27th in the league 3 seasons in Murray's rebuild, and 2 seasons into Bylsma's stint. Sabres suffering continues - bottom 5 NHL isn't exactly a happy place to be! And YES,, there's gonna be existing talent on the roster that every new GM and Coach combo takes over to work with - the Sabres were not talentless when Murray took charge either. What you're implying actually makes where the Sabres are seem WORSE by comparison - Leafs had been bad for years and years and years - a new GM and coach come in during 2015, and leap frog over a Sabres team that was BETTER than the Leafs when the current Murray regime assumed command!

That's just this season. Under Bylsma, the Sabres have now lost 6 straight games to the Bruins - the last time the Sabres won against Boston was November 2015 I believe. Nolan's tank lineup had a better record against Boston!

I am awaiting, after this latest loss and the Sabres now 0-2 against the Leafs this season, a team we used to defeat with glee and regularity, Tim Murray's defense of his 'employee' Dan Bylsma. Because remember, Dreary Dan told us - Tim is the 'boss'. And obviously Murray choose and hired this 'employee' of 'his'; the PA Connection is just a coincidence, and just because the Pegulas damagingly meddle in the Bills on field operations, clearly that doesn't prove they must be endlessly meddling in the Sabres too. No rubberstamp of Pegula decisions by GMTM, like Whaley, right? Because Murray has a gruff face in public interviews, we know for certain he's a lot more in charge than Whaley, no? lol BTW, 0-4 against Boston for the season (6 consecutive losses to Boston including last season) and now 0-2 against the Leafs. How does Bylsma keep surviving these debacles?

Another cheerful stat - our two top goal scorers this season have combined for 25 goals. Matthews by himself has 22 goals.

Sabres are now 5 games behind .500. Toronto, OTOH, with 21 wins and 42 games played, is a legitimate .500 team. And they started rebuilding after us! We LOL'd and gloated a bit that Babcock wouldn't be accustomed to the years of pain and suffering and losing losing losing that would be needed to build up the team. Apparently he didn't need to be accustomed to it - that team's turnaround is clearly faster and better than ours. And now the season series is 2-0 in Toronto's favor. IF they win one more, they win the season series. Again, where is this fast turnaround Murray promised in the first year of his rebuild? We're three years in, and playing at an 80-82 pt pace. Again.

1st period, yes. The rest, not so much. 2nd period was one of the Sabres' worst. They sat back on their heels, let the puck stay in their zone far too much, and surrendered 3 goals in ~10 minutes of game time.

Depressing game. Lehner gave up a softee for sure - after an unusual 1 goal game, he's back to his obligatory 3 GAA game. Guy is definitely not elite. And Bogosian....

Wow - almost 5 years ago. Time sure flies. That was a great goal. I remember it so well!

LTS, I recall before the Fast Ferry became operational - there were detailed figures published on overhead and operational costs. I then took the capacity of the ferry, factored in ~90% capacity for ticket sales (which is VERY optimistic), calculated the total possible ticket sales (number of trips x 90% capacity x price per ticket (splitting up between commercial and passenger traffic) to come up with an estimate of gross revenue per day. I then compared the published costs per day vs possible gross revenue - it was clear the ferry would lose millions in the first year, without even factoring in additional lost revenue due to breakdowns, weather cancellations, etc. I saw no way that it COULD ever work unless there was a significant increase in ticket prices (which were already high) If I could do these calculations in my spare time with the limited public information available, and the specifications of the ship and number of runs per day, WHY COULDN'T THE GOVERNMENT do this and cancel the project from the start???? That's why I say - somebody must have known this - seemed like a strong possibility of criminal collusion. IF a private company thought they could run a ferry service at a profit, it would have HAPPENED on its own! The Fast Ferry was a stunning example of either gross incompetence by the government OR outright negligence/corruption.

Good point! IF the team looks solid, but gets snake bit, it's a lot easier to take then an embarrassing loss such as in the Boston games, or the Islanders loss.

What an unbelievable boondoggle that project was. The developers turned a fast buck and scrammed, at Rochester's expense. might have been possible to build a new Hockey Arena with the money thrown away on that useless project. There should have been in depth investigations into possible criminal misconduct there - there may have been but I bet it was whitewashed/swept under rug. That was Bill Johnson's 'baby'. No one could tell him anything negative about. I predicted it would fold within 6 months - I was astonished that it only lasted like 87 days.

Good point! That is a terrible part of town. Not a place for an evening solo stroll down the streets. LOL. And as I recall they cheaped out on some facet of the stadium construction - I vaguely recall Bob Matthews regularly complaining about it during his radio show 12 years ago or so. Can't recall what it is - I've never even set foot there. They did cheap out on the roof at Frontier Field. They could have extended the roof to cover more of the seats for a reasonable cost (at that time) but didn't. Now it would be a lot more expensive to alter with construction complete.

The first meeting this season in November - the Sabres lost in regulation 2-1 to the Leafs at home in Buffalo. We need to even the score, and the Sabres record since the 1st of the year IS better than in the fall. Let's hope losing 2 in a row to the Leafs isn't a conversation we'll be having later tonight! Go Sabres!!!

Great point. There's the difference between winning and losing - the Pack sees Rodgers potential, and cuts a top shelf QB loose and decides to move on BEFORE the wheels come off the train. The Bills, by contrast, they couldn't even realize that Ryan Friggin' Fitzpatrick wasn't the answer at QB, and skipped a couple decent QB classes to draft garbage in Manuel. LOL

That irritating Pegula/Pennsylvania connection was certainly on display in this topic. So the up and coming Sabres prospects its not an issue for them to play at BC Arena on a regular basis, but it's unacceptable for a pre-season game? LOL And truly, Rochester should have had a new hockey arena YEARS ago. Rochester always does everything small; they think small all the time, and counting every pence and shilling like Scrooge.

Had to vote for Eich and Samson. The only one who might break up that Bromance is Bylsma with his incessant line juggling. lol