mjd1001

Boston currently is holding down the last playoff spot with .559 point percentage. So what do the Sabres need to get to .560 starting tonight? A total of a 12 game winning streak. Yep, that is it, win tonight, and win 11 more in a row after that. That would give the .568 point percentage, which could, SHOULD (but not guaranteed to) have them stick their nose up to the very last, 8th spot in the eastern conference. So starting tonight, beat Toronto. Then beat Boston, then the Islanders, then Chicago, the Blues, and then Dallas. That gets you half way there by year end. Take that 6 game winning streak into the new year and build on it with the revenge win vs Colorado. Then take down Vegas, then Washington, win against Ottawa, beat Seattle, and then finally Carolina. Do all of that without a single loss, and you might be a point or two up on the last spot. Just don't lose the next one to Pittsburgh, that might drop you back out of it again. Then, do all that, and then play hockey from that point on at a 35% better rate than you have so far up to this point right now (in terms of wins/points) and you just MIGHT be the #8 seed. -OR- Just lose 3 in a row (maybe just 2 in a row, tonight and tomorrow depending on how Nash and SJ do) and you are at the absolute bottom of the league. 32 out of 32. A loss tonight and basically the Season's over...I mean, most of us realize its probably already over, but I think this weekend really seals the door shut with no chances of a miracle happening.....next POSSIBLITY of a playoff game with this franchise moves to the calendar year 2026.

If they make a change at GM, and if Pegula can even get any decent interviews, what needs to happen is something like this: Pegula: "I'm letting you know I have probably reached into hockey decisions quite a bit in the past, and previous GM's haven't so much as had a 'budget' but have had to run ever line item by me. I'm ready to make a change, to let you, as the new GM make decisions without my input and to give you a budget that is a number to do with almost as you please, just inform me of big moves before you make them. If I initally disagree with your moves, I will not veto those moves, but instead only listen to you give me your reasons behind them so I understand why you are making them. I'm also going to let you pick your entire hockey department and I will pay what is required for it." Pegula needs to do that first, and then write a really REALLY big check with lots of 0's on it to that GM to make it worth their while to come here. I don't quite think he's ready to do that.

For those who do not have facebook, is it an rumor? Article? What is it about?

I hope that line can score some goals, but I fear their 'overall' play and ability to buy into a '2 way' type of play rather than run-and-gun more than ever when I see them together.

My hope....Sabres win it in OT 3-2. Tage gets the puck on the far wall, circles behind the net, glides out on the near side just behind the close faceoff dot, lets a shot go and beats the goalie cleanly for the OT victory...sending the likely 80-90% Leaf's crowd home unhappy. Probable reality? 5-2 loss.

I think Pegula meddles too much, but to me that is not his worst trait. I personally think he is very VERY sensitive to anything negative being said about him. Jerry Jones is a jerk, he had the whole incident where he threatened a media guy who asked him a tough question a month ago, but he shows up when things are tough. Pegula, not so much. If there is good news he'll show up and talk, but when things get bad he seems to hide away. But, I just THINK when he gets criticism, he isn't a guy who takes a step back and says "Maybe I'm not doing something correctly, I should change, they might have a point". Instead I think of him as someone who stews, gets angry, and in his head says something more like "Who do they think they are, I'm doing things MY way and I'm going to dig in even more to prove them wrong" Just my impression.

I was probably wrong on the need for more veterans mixed in with the youngsters on the Sabres roster. Actually the Sabres probably brough in enough veterans, maybe one or two more would work, but the issue was the quality of the veterans. I was wrong in the past thinking they had enough. But the issue was the quality: -Okposo was used in a roll where he would slide up to higher lines and on the PP, but you needed somoene better than him. -Other vets were Hinestroza, Tyson Jost, Collin Miller, Erik Johnson, Cody Eakin, Mark Psysk, and Riley Sheahan. THAT is the issue, they brought in some vets, but they needed to pay more to get guys who were difference makers, not guys that would be in the press box every couple games, and when they did play, were on the ice for 12-14 minutes per game at most.

Its comical you would respond to that, when its obvious based on context the original post that I replied to was the the owner is not at fault because he simply does not play. Any other interpretation beyond that is nonsensical based on context of the discussion. Nice try though...

The daylight hours being so short. I don't mind that the days get a bit shorter this time of the year, but not this much. June and July it seems its still a bit light out at times until almost 10pm. Maybe if this time of the year it was like that until 6pm or 6:30. But these days where dark right around 5pm..just too much.

I'd want Pegula out as owner as much as anyone, but Only if he sold to someone local who really really wanted to keep the team in western NY. If that isn't a guarantee, I'll put up with his bad ownership. Better to have a team here, to hope to eventually get lucky and good, to have 40+ times a year NHL hockey played that we can attend in person (even if that is the 'other team'), than risk them moving.

More follow up from Rhett and crew out of town, the piling on has continued....

Well, he is a clutch scorer isn't here? The goals he scores are in critical moments? Let see, lets go back 3 years so we can include his 31 goal year to make the numbers look as good as possible. Over the last 3 seasons: Tuch: 17 game winning goals Thompson: 11 game winning goals Peterka: 7 game winning goals Cozens: 3 game winning goals. oops....

Well, as long as its not from Pittsburgh or Penn State either. We did have non-Sabres tie in guys at coach with Bylsma and Krueger and Granato (kinda) as coach. Botts and Murray were the up and coming Beane type....as GM.

I really don't have an opinion on Peca or Drury in terms of who does their job better. I like Peca. I do not like Drury. I'll take Peca in any role if given a choice of the two.

I get it. When I look at things though, the personal way I look at things is to start at the very top with the owner, or the very bottom with the players, and go from there. Maybe Adams is terrible, hes making bad moves, no moves..etc. Just like I read a sentence from right to left, I start my evaluation of a franchise from the very top to the very bottom, and I have so much trouble getting beyond how bad Pegula is to this team.

I have argued that for a while. If a Pegula says no changes, and Adams wants to make a deal, someone who is sensative to criticism and doesn't show up to answer to the fans when things get tough like Pegula, he would not take that too well. Put it on Adams if you want. This may be on him, but the owner certainly makes things even worse than they need to be. The chances of the Sabres getting ANY different GM with experience who knows what they are doing probably slipped a little more after Pegula came in and said that.

If one wants to defend Lindy, and I'm open to that, you could say it looks like they really liked a system the played 2 years ago, where they could fly up and down the ice, not worry about playing the 'hard' part of the game, and just run and gun. Now it looks like its the 2nd year, and 2nd coach that wants to reign that in, and they are throwing a tantrum and some players are refusing to do it...just because they don't want to.

If either of those 2 things have any truth to them, they are the biggest indictments of the owner and the gm I have come across this year. Things are bad. I have alwyas said if the team doesn't make the playoffs, oh well, they are nightly entertainment for me and I can move on..but...No, things are getting BAD.

I've had some bad opinions over the years on here. I am usually anti-change. I didn't want Ruff and Regeir fired over a decade ago. I thought Bylsma, Housley, and Granato could have used more time. I didn't want Botts gone as GM, I haven't been pushing Adams out the door. I am usually VERY patient with young players. Give them YEARS before you call them busts (Cozens and Krebs are the recent exceptions, but I have kinda come around on Krebs as a bottom-of-the-Roster guy). With all that said, DO SOMETHING! Its obvious the current mix isn't working. Its obvious that the Roster, the front office, the development staff, or any combination of multiple things NEEDS to change. You may make a trade and lose that trade on paper, lose it in the eyes of some fans, lose it in the eyes of media pundits. But even if that happens, you may win the trade in terms of needing to do something. Please do something meaningful.

Sports illustrated online getting in on the action. https://www.si.com/nhl/sabres-social-media-post-sad-11-straight-losses

I'm not sure and I'm not going to try, I don't need to. Its my opinion, the opinion of a lot of people on this forum.....and I think missing the playoffs for 13 straight years in a league where 1/2 of the teams makes it, that support stands on itself. If someone can find me an orgainiation in major north American sports that has missed the playoffs that many years in a row where about half the teams make it, that has gone through so many coaches, GM's, presidents in that period of time, I'll listen.

The part about this that is the most notable, is that pretty much everything he promised turned into the exact opposite. Previous owners here, owners in other cities that are closer to 'absentee' owners opering their sports teams on a budget 'luck' into more success. Pegula promised the very best, 'hockey heaven' and it turned into possibly the single worst period of sports ownership its length in the modern history of American sports.

He agreed to be Head coach, but I'm not all that sure he wanted the previous staff. Technically, if keeping the previous staff was a condition of employment I GUESS he agreed to it. But there is a difference between "wanting" or "being fine" with the previos staff...or having "no choice" if he wanted the job. Its the 'one hand on the wheel' thing.

I don't like the choices. I would vote no, but I would'nt call them Bums. I just don't care about that. If they do fine, I don't care. If they don't fine, I don't care.

The Bills success might be a negative this time. Pegula can just ignore the mocking of the Sabres whenever he wants. Everytime he feels any pressure or mocking based on his ownership of the Sabres, he just closes his eyes and plugs his ears until he can open up the "NFL" news page and look for the first article about the Bills, and then he is happy again.