Hoss

I think it means nothing. As soon as possible for a severed leg is never.

Evander Kane @evanderkane_9 Will be back ASAP. #sabresfans #thankyou

If they're Swedish and Linus then it's Lee-nus. Linus the pinus.

I got so tired of navy jerseys in sports. It was so overdone and almost always looks bland on TV... But Colorado did it for their thirds and it's perfect. https://twitter.com/myregularface/status/658107049482547200

What else did you want Murray to do? You can't have an ace at every position and backup spot. He could've cut Johnson and tried convincing a free agent to come be a backup here. I'm not sure there'd be a huge difference there. Might as well see what you have in Johnson as a backup.

Jack Eichel gives us some hope

If a single member of the team is thinking this they deserve a game in the box. The goaltending has been shaky, but they're averaging under two goals a game. They're not giving a lot of wiggle room to their netminders.

I can't wait until they're released at the right moment to join the Avengers and save the world.

8 - 2 = 6

Hooooo boy... All down hill.

No, Weber is a healthy scratch. Foligno has the lower-body injury.

Nothing I said counteracts that. I actually had a few posts in the game day thread last night bemoaning the "we'll get results eventually" & "they'll get better if they keep trying" posts. I'm not saying we should be giving everybody a free pass, but again: the sky isn't falling, it's just under construction. Being upset about a lack of results is natural and okay.

This thread wasn't a response to any individuals. It was from my own thoughts and "research." There have been multiple Sabres fans (Sabres fans =/= board posters only) who have been throwing their hands up wondering why the team isn't tearing it up yet... This was a reminder that the process is long and expecting them to be there right away misses the point.

Ryno!

That sequence by Franson was brutal. New Jersey goes to clear the puck and he waves his hand at it instead of trying to keep it in with his body. He fumbles around with the puck... And then he trips Gionta.

Atta boy, Enzo. My first goal prediction was Ennis.

Pretty much. I might even given it a year and a half before I start to worry much about wins and losses. Obviously if they put up less points this year than they did the last two I'll worry, but if there's some improvement I'll be satisfied for the time being.

The early season seems to have left a lot of fans wanting more. It's understandable with how the last two seasons went down and the amount of turnover this roster saw. However, it simply isn't and never was going to happen overnight. The path this franchise went down has been grueling and something they've never done before. It's seen a ton of results in other cities, so why not here? I anticipate it'll turn out to be the right move and bring success this city has never seen from its hockey team. How long will that take? Well, let's look at the teams everybody brings up when talking about this strategy: Pittsburgh and Chicago. Chicago Blackhawks High draft picks: Jonathan Toews (2nd - 2006), Patrick Kane (1st - 2007) Points by season prior to Cup: 65 (drafted Toews), 71 (drafted Kane), 88, 104 (lost WCF), 112 (won Cup) Key moves: Hit big on Duncan Keith at 54th overall and Niklas Hjalmarsson at 108th; acquired Patrick Sharp and Marian Hossa to supplement youth Pittsburgh Penguins High draft picks: Marc-Andre Fleury (1st - 2003), Evgeni Malkin (2nd - 2004), Sidney Crosby (1st - 2005), Jordan Staal (2nd - 2006) Points by season prior to Cup: 58 (drafted Malkin), lockout (drafted Crosby), 58 (drafted Staal), 105 (lost 1st rd), 102 (lost SCF), 99 (won SC) Key moves: Drafted high The difference between these two is clear: Chicago hit big on a few other moves while Pittsburgh hit big on their draftees and rode them. Also want to point out a side note: when teams apply these strategies it often takes a few coaches to get it right. Chicago Coaches: Coaches: Trent Yawney (2005-2006), Denis Savard (2006-2008), Joel Quenneville (Cup winner) Pittsburgh Coaches: Ed Olczyk (2003-2005), Michael Therrien (2005-2009), Dan Byslma (Cup winner) TL;DR: This is going to take more than a handful of games. It's likely to take a few years, but when it happens it can happen quick. These teams were at the bottom of the barrel and needed to work the pieces together to hoist the Cup. It seems like we're more likely to follow the Chicago model because we've made some big moves outside of our high picks and had a ton of other picks to (hopefully) hit on. Regardless of what happens on the ice over the course of the early months and/or the entire season it's premature to start questioning Murray and co. From the time we started down this road to the second GMTM said "Buffalo selects Jack Eichel" it was known the road was going to be a long one. Keep this in mind before you step closer to the edge.

I don't think that's a fun question at all because I don't think more than 5% of Sabres fans would say yes. This would likely be an extremely difficult trade to match up on... Possibly even a three-team deal if it were to ever get to that point (which I think most of us understand it's highly unlikely to). To make the money work more immediately I think Moulson, Bogosian or Gionta would be in the conversation as moderate at-best pieces to the deal. Reinhart is probably a lock to be in any such deal along with one of Ennis/Girgensons (immediate-impact forwards). So maybe Moulson, Reinhart, Ennis and a 2016 first gets the conversation going. Beyond that you might ask Tampa to add some value that you'll match with a similar piece (which Murray seems to have done in other deals). It's definitely an interesting discussion as to what you would give, what it would take and why it would or wouldn't make sense.

Final (predicted) Box Score: BUF 2 1 2 5 NJD 0 1 1 2 1st: Ennis from Eichel and Ristolainen; Girgensons from Foligno and Moulson 2nd: McCabe from Pysyk and Reinhart 3rd: Kane from O'Reilly and Reinhart; Eichel unassisted Bet on it.

They're on pace for 47 points. There's basically zero chance that keeps up, but they'd have to double their current pace to get to the 90s. I don't see that happening. I see them finishing in the 70s unless something big changes.

This is a worthy conversation. A little speculation doesn't hurt. But a new way of asking the same question: Would you pursue Stamkos if he becomes a free agent? What would you offer him? For me it's the most obvious yes possible. All 30 teams should contact his agent the second they can. Considering this it's probably going to take $11M a season (slightly more than Toews and Kane) which would be a 7 year, $77M deal. The MAX he's allowed per year under the current cap is just over $14M... I don't know if some team is going to go crazy and offer him that.

This is something I don't expect to happen, at all. But Murray should be having the conversations if Yzerman is listening. If it's going to take too much (which I expect it would) then just see if it gets to free agency... I'd be willing to move a few big pieces for it to happen, but probably not enough to make a deal go down.

It's highly doubtful they both end up better than a top-five player in the league. If you land Steven Stamkos it's not going to be 5-6 years until you're contending. This is true about a lot of guys but it's not true about the league's elite. They change the team immediately.