Thorny

That’s more accurate than the way I phrased it

Easiest contract negotiation ever: blank check. He’s not going to take so much as to actively harm the team he loves. At most he’ll take market rate this deal will soon be added to the shortlist of Adams best moves as gm So called because it’s literally a short list

The one other thing I’ll add about Tuch is if the team actually improved around him it would probably offset a lot of his likely age related downturn over the first few years of the deal as perceptively it would stave off the inevitable age related erosion through more team-wide support. PP inflation, etc. Signing him is a no brainer if the team is good it’ll be a good deal and if they are bad there’s no hope anyways What was Adams gonna do, wheel and deal for a better player? LMAO

“Pay him whatever he wants cause we will have space”

Players have a myriad of potential motivations - in addition humans are resistant to change. He also loves buffalo so would obviously be biased. He’ll sign and I don’t think we need to read much more into it than the price was right and he bleeds blue Maybe he’s confident in the direction after trending down for the last 2 seasons..maybe he’s not. It doesn’t mean anything one way or the other to a certainty he was spouting off in the post game last year that “a year ago we’d have folded!” when the results were the exact same or worse. The idea he has a better grasp on the outlook of the team or is more likely to be right or more likely to remove his own bias OR that he’d even be an open book about his true thoughts doesn’t jive to me He’s not a canary in the coal mine - look at NMCs and free agency for that. Tuch is a Sabre through and through

There’s no room on the Buffalo Sabres for a 50 win GM

Do you think every player than signs a long term deal with a team does so because they believe they’ll be a long term contender? And if so, what does it say that the success rate of those players being right is abysmal? logically the argument falls flat on it’s face. It’s either not true, or irrelevant: as then the players would most often be demonstrably wrong

Everybody liked the McLeod trade when it happened. But otherwise I agree. Your last sentence sums it up perfectly: what else could the sabres have even done? They either succeed, or tried their best It’s all we have

I agree, if Tuch signs it’s a clear endorsement of Adams and a mandate for a further 5 years of the plan. It proves the fans wrong, and the team right Meh. Remember Dahlin requesting a meeting with management specifically to inform them how pleased he was with the direction? I think you are off base

This just seems like semantics - we are saying the same thing. The context was that my opinion on the sabres is more so reflective of the state of the base as a whole. The bases’ reaction is accurately reflective of their state

I knew you’d be picking up what I threw down

Contract won’t start until he’s 30 so it’ll almost certainly be paying more for a lesser version of Tuch, but it’s easily the lesser of two weevils when the alternative is losing him entirely. We aren’t going to spend to the cap anyways - spend what you need to lock up the good player. The Sabres can’t even operate under plausible deniability if Tuch walks, they’ll get this done I’m confident

I don’t think the teenage intern in charge of running their social media account is allowed to stay up that late

Lmao winner

Sabre official social media team bolded the word “nice” in reference to a joke that was relevant about the last time the team made the playoffs, the context of the joke being a reference to two people performing oral sex one one another at the same time - - -

A team that hasn’t scratched winning in 15 years has an official account making sex jokes That’s our Buffalo Sabres now

This is Adams’ one “vibes” card to play after doing nothing all summer, they know that It will be timed up specifically to generate buzz Tough situation. Have to sign him. Also going to be a significantly inferior contract value wise to the last

The Sabres are the fans. That’s what I always say. We are the sabres. And WE have shrunk to a smaller entity than I’ve ever seen, under Pegula, and it shrinks by the year How could it not be the lowest point if the fanbase has been eaten away at, literally? Looking at it from only one’s personal perspective and mood is myopic. The base is at its weakest right now - not sure that’s arguable: regardless of what any one person tells themselves. That’s why it’s the lowest point: because most people will tell you that I’m not prophesying impending doom. I’m just listing to the chorus

The Sabres certainly haven’t advanced beyond his shadow while he’s been here so until I see otherwise I can’t agree

Not necessarily, the way you explained it just didn’t make very much sense to me. What you feared needed not be the case and it only was because of the people in charge - and they are still here, 5 years later, while not having deviated from their modus operandi Others have explained their stance in a way that makes sense to me even if I don’t share the opinion - I didn’t understand yours it’s not a matter of right and wrong - it’s a matter of me being legitimately confused and asking if you could explain it in a way that illuminated my thinking - - - I do think that, for me, your layout above is fairly close. As mentioned, for me, the lowest point is most akin to being the furthest from your last drink in the desert. That’s when your body and mind feel it the most, and it’s when the solution (a drink of water, finally) becomes ever more likely to be “too little too late” for a barren corpse we aren’t “closer to the finish line” cause as mentioned: it’s only, ever been a year away, for a decade. A year away with competence. It’s the continued lack of competence that’s troubling *the hurdle has never been high.*. The particular struggle with the sabres drought has ALWAYS been our inability to clear a *low* hurdle. We’ve never needed a 5 year plan. No team does.

Maybe a better thread would honestly be whether this is closer to the bottom 10 moments, or the top 10 moments. There does seem to be a lot of active and manual polarization.

I lie to myself all the time it’s specifically human not saying you are but it’s certainly not a wild hypothetical. In the absence of a stance that seems inherently logical I’m going to question it. 💁🏻‍♂️ I think that’s fair, in an open forum where I’m also questioning the salience of my own position - - - It’s also the only relevant thread in a month I’m not afraid to step on a few toes in the name of a more lively discussion

Seems to come down a lot to how it’s being defined. “What was the point at which you felt they were least likely to succeed in the coming season?” seems to be an interpretation of choice That’s the high minded, desirable approach I think…it’s aspirational. “Past is the past”. It’s rather salient - - - I wish I came down there. To me, it’s not about the likelihood of success in the immediate season, now, straight up - it’s about the fact I’m truly scared im not going to care about it when it does happen That’s why it’s the low point: the fear of the apathy they have and may have caused. I expect losing. I fear winning

You didn’t ask me, but I can think of 2 comments on this: So in general your outlook on the team has improved since Adams instituted his rebuild plan - you feel better after 5 FURTHER years of unequivocal failure - somehow the same ownership that’s still in place now seems *more* likely to succeed after stacking 5 years of failure on top of 9 - these 5 years have allowed them to gain ground for you. As for the latter, to each their own but finding out my team could be bad once definitely didn’t feel bad as actually being bad for 2 decades as I said, to each their own - - - Bear with me here but I honestly struggle to classify this as intellectual honesty. 5 years ago you feared the Pegula Sabres would be hard pressed to make the playoffs, and now after that being proven true, and no end to the regime in sight, no indication they’ve changed their modus operandi that got them to your “lowest point”, now 5 years on you feel better about it? They’ve only doubled down on every mistake since and continue to do so… no team ever actually is or needs to be “5 years away” from the playoffs - the only reason that ever is the case is because of poor aptitude and choices - the fact we are suffering from both has only been proven *demonstrably more true* over the course of the last 5 years. We were one year away in 2021. We chose to be more than that, and those who made the choice are still here