mjd1001

I was almost anticipating when someone would make this comment grabbing the low hanging fruit... Yes, its true you are on the Sabres fan site. But many of us contribute both here and at 2 bills drive. The commentary of people who like the Sabres over the Bills that are fans of both teams is the point of this thread, not just 'counting votes' of Bills vs Sabres.

Sabres. Years ago it would have been the Bills. Up until about 5 years ago it would have been the Bills. As a kid, I watched every minute of every game I could without exception. I had Bills Season tickets from the time I was 9 until I was in my mid 20's. But just in the past 2-3 years the Bills, and the NFL, just don't have the same draw to me. I've gotten bored with Football. There is very little in a game I can see that I haven't seen before. The names are different, but the action is similar, and I'm TIRED of the media coverage with the 'talking heads' throwing junk out there just to get a reaction, and the really dumb viewpoints you can't get away from coming from some media and the fans. You get that in Hockey, but not as much. I'll follow the Bills and NFL, I'll put the game on but if there is something else to do (Wife wants to go see a movie, there is an interesting Nascar race on, or maybe family is visiting), now the NFL/Bills will take a backseat to that. With the Sabres, my interest is pretty much the same now as it was when I was a kid. Maybe SLIGHTLY less now than in the past, but not that much less. On a scale of 0-100 measuring my 'fandom', When I was young it was a 95 for the Bills, an 80 for the Sabres. Now, Its closer to a 50 for the Bills/NFL, still probably a 70-75 for the Sabres. The NHL is more interesting to me in terms of the options you have to build your team. You can challenge for regular season dominance and/or a Cup run many ways. A veteran team (St. Louis of a few years ago is an example). A team with a handful of top end stars (Toronto?). A team with multiple top overall picks (Pittsburgh in the past decade). A team with few top overall picks (Boston). You can be carried to the cup in large part by D-man (Makar, Hedman), a great/hot goalie (Vasilevsky), or a top scoring superstar (Ovi, Kane, Crosby, Malkin). In the NFL, its not a GUARANTEE, but its all about the QB. Get a great QB and you are 3/4 of the way to being a top contender. The previous Superbowl winners? Mahomes, Stafford, Brady, Mahomes, Brady, Brady, Manning, Brady, R Wilson, and Nick Foles. (3 league MVPs, a first overall pick, Russell Wilson (who was GREAT for a few years) and Foles. There seems to be more variety in building a team in the NHL and that is more fun for me as a fan also. Again, short answer...Sabres.

The game is not on ESPN+ though is it? There is so much talk about this that my impression is...if you have spectrum even ESPN+ won't get you the game. You'd have to go the over-the-air antenna route (unless you want to do something like HULU Live TV, Fubo, Youtube TV or one of those other pricy options)? The antenna option can still be a problem for many of us. Buffalo and the immediate suburbs no problem, but if you live in Niagara or western Orleans county (Lewiston, Youngstown, Wilson, Newfane, Lyndonville,) you may or may not get the over-the-air signal. If you live in a very dense neighborhood or have your TV in a bad part of the house (facing the wrong direction, basement, etc) some in Niagara Falls, Albion, Medina may also have problems with an Antenna. To my knowledge, the ABC signals come either from the OTHER side of the Rochester Airport, or from the Boston Hills/Colden area in the southtowns.

I'm commenting here because I try to comment on all of these threads. Hope? A legit top 20 goalie this year. Expectations? I have ZERO idea. I wouldn't be surprised if he struggles and has to go the the AHL, just the same as I wouldn't be surprised if he is a top 10 guy in the league. I have no idea at all with him.

No expectations offensively. I'd expect a couple goals, but that isn't his role. The rest of his game? HOPE to stay healthy and play 70+ games. Expectation is to become a better penalty killer with experience and have him be a truly top 50 guy in the league in PK. Even strength, Be a good, responsible guy who minimizes mistakes and KNOWS his D-partner and where to be to allow that D-partner to play their game. Minimize mistakes.

He MIGHT be the most important guy to this team, but the issue with 10.5m, if its true, is the fact that it is SO much more than Cozens and Tage. You can justify that number by saying he is a #1 overall guy, he gets the most ice time, you can say he might be/is more important to the team than the other 2, its signed a year later, its not much more than they gave Eichel and this is years later...etc. BUT it would still be almost 50% higher than Tage and that seems like a big jump from him.

Seriously, is this real or not? I know some of the responses are real, but is there any truth behind this thread? If not, this should be listed as a parody thread or some kind of joke because seriously there are a few of us that don't know if any of the posts are real.

I totally agree. I like the Black and Red better. And I grew up with the Blue and Gold...started watching my first Sabres games in the late 70s. If it were possible, I'd like a 50-50 split between them.

Maybe that is his overall strength, and possibly why it was so apparent when he deviated from it. In games I watched against Edmonton, Toronto, and Boston that I remember, he wasn't as patient as usual. As I said in my original post, he seemed to get rid of the puck quickly and often blindly throw it around the boards in ways he didn't do in games against 'lesser' teams.

They are not rebuilding, but my point is they should be. They will not in large part because of the investments they've made in Judge and Cole. Were going to disagree Because I don't agree that they're gonna contend for a World Series title anytime soon. it's possible. I just don't see it. To me, the best case scenario with this current roster and some moderate tweaking would be to get them back to contending in the division and hopefully making the playoffs. But not being a favorite for the World Series. I think that's the best case scenario. However, if they were to go through a legitimate rebuild, they could probably be closer to the yankees of the late 90s and early 2000s, where they are year in and year out a favorite, with the assets and the money they have to get to that point. If I were a hardcore Yankees fan, that is 100% What I want them to do, not just tweaking and moderate changes.

Stay healthy the whole year, hopefully with his ice time being brought down slightly so he doesn't get injured or wear down at the end of the year, and to play as and be recognized as a top five defensement in the league

I don't think i'm there yet with him as being as good as others think, at least not yet. Hes good, he shows signs of being great, but I think hes going to still need a couple of years to elevate to the level of a top 50 D-man in the league. Specific expectations? Offensive production numbers slightly better than last year, but more importantly, less tentative with the puck when playing elite competition. Last year I thought physically he had the tools, but when playing against the better teams, he was very quick to pass the puck away to someone else... Or just to chip it up on the boards when a better Play may have presented itself with a slight bit more patience.

We really need camp to open and the season to get here. I browse the forums every day really looking for something new to talk about. I read the title of this thread and just ignored it until I found I had nothing to do but finally open it. As far as the topic, I was OK with the Greenway trade when it happened, but from what I saw of him, his play really just seemed to be the most boring, non-descript, easy to not even notice him of anyone I have seen in a while. I'm hoping it was just a small sample size and he plays much better, but its not even that I have low expectations for him...as a player I really feel nothing at all (no expectations at all, Kinda forgot he was even on the team when thinking of the projected lineup.)

I was a big Yankees fan growing up, and a big MLB fan overall. I hardly watch any MLB games anymore, i 'casually' follow the season through the standings and highlights, and honestly I really don't care for the Yankees anymore. More of an 'indifference' which I still can't figure out because they used to be my favorite team as a kid. With that said, this is a time they should strip this down and rebuild. Yes, I know, they have some big name players signed to long term deals. But this team isn't going anywhere, and even when they were in the playoffs over the last 3-5 years I never found them that likeable. Instead of saying how much money they have, so they don't have to 'rebuild', but 'retool' instead, take the other route. Because of how much money they have, they should be able to get the best/highest paid scouts, they can bid for the best/highest paid development coaches. A full rebuild may not be quicker than anyone else but if they deploy those resources the right way, it should be more of a 'sure thing' than anyone else if they have a fully loaded scouting and coaching staff. I'd find the team more likeable if the majority of the team was YOUNG, and home grown. I never liked trading for or signing the high priced mercenaries. If it takes 3-5 years before you are good again, so be it. The Yankees and their fans aren't better than anyone else and don't have a birthright to have their rebuilds happen instantly anymore than any other fanbase.

8-12 goals, one of the, if not the best forward killing penalties. A group of people criticizing him and wishing he would get replaced with a 'young guy' because they don't know, or at least don't appreciate the fact he is, in his all around game, above average for a 4th liner.

20 goals, 65-70 total points. I want/expect a little more progression in his game and if he shows that I think that is where he ends up.

They sure are. Got up and wanted to watch the F1 practice from Monza and no Espn. Or espn2, O or FX, or about a dozen other channels owned by disney. For me they have until 7am Sunday morning to get this fixed, or else we are canceling. I don't really need to resubscribe to the ESPN/Hulu Bundle either, we just dropped that after the price increases last month. I'll live without ESPN. I'm not a big fan of college football, so the games I do watch I'll watch over the air. Wife and I talk about this often. 95% of what we watch is done on a streaming network. And as the prices go up, we just rotate which ones we subscribe to. The vast majority of the content we want we can 'pick and choose' and not get cable. Even news now and highlights from most sports we can find online or a streaming option.

I looked two pages deep on the thread listing until I found it and it definitely was locked when I checked today.

Interesting point. While I think 'entertainment' at a game helps, it can be overdone. I want some highlights on the scoreboard. I want some music between periods. The songs between faceoffs can be fun. Would LOVE gathering areas between periods or more activity in the Arena between periods...etc, etc. All that stuff is good. But it CAN be overdone. Volume shouldn't be so high that you can't talk to the person next to you, and having a few minutes of 'down time' of noise coming from the speaker can be good. Entertainment outside of the game is good. But please, don't feel the need that you need to blast something out of the speakers if you have so much as 60 seconds of down-time.

Right now I would put Ottawa a tiny bit ahead of the Sabres, with Detroit 3rd. Of course I'm hoping the Sabres are better than Ottawa, but I can see Ottawa as having a similar year this year to what NJ did last year. Long term I would swap Buffalo and Ottawa (I think the Sabres ceiling of the current roster is a bit ahead of Ottawa) but Detroit is still 3rd long term. Detroit is built to win now, they have a lot of vets on the Roster. Debrincat will help, so they should compete for the playoffs but just don't have much high end to compete with the best of the best teams in the playoffs. Detroit won't be bad, but I just don't see the amount of young talent there as Ott and Buf have. I could engage in a seperate thread about Detroit, I just think they are so overrated long term. They have enough vets now that they might be a good team and their 'floor' isn't that low, they will be competitve just about every night, but I don't see the upside? Raymond did not take the step forward people were expecting. Seider MIGHT be an all star D-man eventually but he is no-where near that yet. Edvinsson and Kasper aren't even ready to make the team, and they are good prospects but probably won't be elite. They really have nothing else in the system that looks to be impact players.

Its hard to sometimes say what we mean when using words in the forum. I am guilty of thinking I am getting a point across when maybe I'm not. Maybe I should have started with "The Sabres have more potential devleopment of young guys left/still to go compared to Detroit and Ottawa" instead of saying the other teams are ahead of them.

Again, I'm not talking about who is better right now, or was last year. I am talking about how much development is left for who you project to be on your team going forward. The Sabres have a lot of young guys that may/might/should be part of this team going forward that still have a lot of development in the future. Savoie, Levi, Kulich, Rosen, Östlund, Kozak, Kisikov are all guys that have a ceiling that could be very good NHL players. On the roster you have Power, Quinn, Peterka also that have ceilings to be potential NHL players/goodplayers. They ALL have more 'development' in front of them than they do behind them. Neither Detroit nor Ottawa have as many players with ceilings that high in their pipeline that have more development in front of them than behind them. That is exactly how I am judging that the Sabres are 'behind' them in terms of development. Its not a bad thing...but it has zero to do with who is better now..it is just how much room there is between where the young players are and where their ceiling is..and just how many you have in that category. See my immediate above post. I am not incorrect. YOU are incorrect in that you probably don't see the direction I am coming from or that I view 'development' a bit different than others.

I think they are farther ahead as a team overall. Detroit's top 2 scorers were Larkin and Perron, both are there this year, and both are already seasoned vets. Debrincat is already going into his 7th season. Outside of Seider, their top 6 D-men are all close to or over 30 years of age. Compher and Copp are going to probably all get top-2 line minutes. This is a veteran team. They have built the team to do well now, there are a lot fewer players left for development here than on the Sabres. More vets with big roles (especially on the back end). I'm not sure how you can NOT say the Red wings are ahead of us when they have so many more vets in key roles. Ottawa is closer to Buffalo than Detroit, but again, I think Buffalo has more players they are expecting to play key roles in the future that still 'aren't there yet' than Ottawa does. Stutzle turned into a star last year, so while he can still get better he's already where he needs to be. Jake Sanderson played a lot, but he would fit into a role like Power has with the Sabres (one year down in the NHL, many more to go). But the rest of their roster isn't littered with 'top prospects' that you are waiting to mature. They too are trying to win now and really don't have several first round picks in the development pipeline like the Sabres do looking for their spot in the organizations. So again, The Seeing how many more young/high draft pick players the Sabres are 'waiting on' compared to Ottawa, I'm also not sure how you can't say the Sens aren't ahead of us.

As far as Beane goes, my opinion is he his "OK". Don't love him, don't hate him. But as far as judging him by his drafting record.....I always had the impression since he got here that the draft was as much McDermott as it was Beane. Yes, Beane is the GM, but I don't think a pick gets made without McDermott signing off on it...and if it came down to a difference of opinion I think McDermott wins out.

At the moment, I'm the opposite of you. We have the streaming services to get all those national games, but I haven't decided to spring for the expensive cable package or MSG plus subscription. That might/probably will change, but maybe I'll give it a month or so (of watching games at a friends house or restaurant/bar) before deciding to go all-in.