matter2003

probably be in a playoff spot or very close to it.

Maybe...he has gotten progressively worse in the NHL the more games he has played which is somewhat concerning. He made UPL look like an All-Star this year in his 9 games where he went 2-7 with a 4.12 GAA and .872 Save Percentage this year. Has gone from a .905 to .899 to .872 save percentage in the last 3 years.

Levi has been worse than UPL numbers wise, so he needs to up his game first before he can provide that

The only times UPL has played well was when he had something on the line...his rookie year when he was trying to make the Sabres and in his contract year. Other than that, he has been bad. Unfocused, undisciplined, out of position, not driven to push himself but needs something else to push him. Not what you want out of an athlete.

Was bound to happen at some point...they kept trying to run it back as the team got older and older and never really replaced the aging vets. Pretty much the cautionary tale about holding onto aging players too long...should have taken a page from the Patriots book when Belichick was there and he would get rid of them a year too early rather than a year too late.

Upgrade UPL/Levi in games they played this year and they WOULD be a playoff team. Their team save percentage is .872 which is a joke in today's NHL. If it was even .895, which is still terrible, they likely would be in the last wildcard spot at least.

Quinn has the potential to be such a special player, here's hoping he gets it figured out for next year.

The same thing that happened to Carmen San Diego?

Probably....Over the first 33 games, the Sabres averaged 2.96 goals per game(.45 goals less) and averaged allowing 3.51 goals per game(.13 less). On balance, the change has netted the Sabres a +.32 differential based on how they play now, which is likely why Ruff made the change...a lot more offense, not much worse defense/goaltending.

With yesterday's performance, the Sabres are now #1 in the NHL in the last 40 games in terms of goals/game at 3.41. Unfortunately, they scored 141 goals over that time but allowed 145, along with having the 2nd worst save percentage in the NHL over that time period at .872. Just abysmal goaltending, #1, and defense #2.

Toronto did a pretty good job of that during their rebuild.

True, but on a per game basis nobody even is approaching NFL players salaries. NFL is also, by far, the highest revenue generating sports league in the world, nearly double the 2nd place MLB. NFL approaching $21 Billion per year in revenue, MLB is at $12.1 Billion. Also, out of the top 100 highest rated TV shows every year, around 75 of them are NFL games. A random week 12 NFL game draws more eyes than 99.5% of anything on TV. Super Bowl is, by far, the most watched TV show in the US every year and one of the most watched events in the world each year. To put in comparison...the Apollo 11 Moon Landing was considered one of the most watched events of all time with 125-150 million viewers. This past years Super Bowl averaged 127.7 Million Viewers.

I said the Bills, not the Sabres...the Bills are worth 5.35+ Billion dollars and are the 29th most valuable franchise in the NFL. Right, which is almost 70% of the cap in the NHL. I didn't say they were as much as the NHL cap, I said almost worth as much.

Won multiple cups in TB

the list of really good players that make great GM's is pretty short. Yzerman, Sakic, Doug Wilson, Serge Savard and Bobby Clarke are about it.

More like the NFL prints money while the NHL is a charity case. The Bills, one of the lowest valued NFL franchises, is worth 1.4 Billion more than the most valuable NHL franchise, the Maple Leafs. Just shows the huge disparity in terms of what each league is working with. There are players in the NFL that are paid almost what the NHL salary cap is for each team total.

No, that's why he sold a small percentage of the Bills to private equity firms.

100% and we also have cup and char pepperoni and some places have sweet sauce...they made it sound like that was the difference between us and Rochester.

seems about par for the course based on his last few years

The only really good year he has was in a contract year which makes me wonder how focused he is day to day outside of when big time money is on the line. Wouldn't be the first athlete who way outperformed his career average in contract years. Even with that very good year last year, his career save percentage is sub .900 which is abysmal for a starting goalie in today's NHL. In fact, come to think of it, UPL only really seems to be prepared nightly when something is on the line for him. His rookie year he put up really good stats similar to his contract year in a small sample size trying to earn a spot on the Sabres...same in his contract year. Seems like he slacks off and gets lazy and doesn't pay attention to details unless he has something at stake which isn't what you want from a pro athlete who should be constantly pushing themselves regardless.

that turned out to be a pretty great contract for 30-40+ goals every year

Tyler Head using his head...

been a good player, we should keep him.