Thorner

Lol: “Drafted 62nd overall in the 1989 NHL Entry Draft by the original Winnipeg Jets, Draper did not see much NHL action in his early years. He is a rarity in that he played in the American Hockey League (AHL) and NHL before playing junior in the OHL. After playing just 20 NHL games for the Jets in four seasons since he was drafted, he was traded to the Detroit Red Wings in 1993 in exchange for $1.” 1 dollar, Bob

It’s now 116,765th

I always chuckle when people reference that run in a negative connotation haha It was so much fun! A brief reprieve in the desert. I’ll take another one and worry about the rest later. I like wins I take your meaning relative to what came after but…still

Is Cozens really that bad 2 way or just struggling overall? I’ve always seen him as a pretty good 2 way guy but I could be way off the mark

Yup. Completely formative for this young Sabres fan at the time. It’s funny to think I almost certainly saw the best Sabre I (or maybe anyone) will ever see when I was only around age 6-14, but thinking about it, that probably added to the..utter magic more than anything. You couldn’t fail to appreciate the brilliance even as a child- because he was visibly transcendent. Stats, advanced or otherwise, need not apply. I have memories of what in my mind is the literal birth of the nickname “Dominator”, as he made a particularly nice save and some fans held up a sign in the crowd over a bannister. This memory cannot possibly be true - but all good legends deserve embellishment Exactly Gretzky is admittedly sort of an extreme example in that the supporting cast was legendary, but it’s extreme in the sense also that Wayne was the greatest ever, so it goes both ways and fits as well as any example

Guy who can do it on his own without a supporting cast? the list starts and ends with the greatest goalie to ever exist in the history of planet earth, at the one position that can, on it’s best day temporarily be an exception that proves the rule, and even he lost, in the end You should watch him play

I’m sorry I mean this with all due respect as I’m just singling this post out as an example: this meme absolutely needs to die a long, slow death. Did I say slow? I meant quick. Get it outa here. *no one can do it without a supporting cast* that is not part of the criteria for determining a superstar Wayne Gretzky didn’t win a cup once he left the oilers McDavid doesn’t win anything and he plays with *another superstar* Eichel wasn’t counted on in Vegas TO be their best player but that didn’t stop him from BEING their best player. I don’t know if you need a superstar to win. I do know you need to support your superstar to win

“I'm an artist, and if you give me a tuba, I'll bring you something out of it.” - John Lennon I like Granato. I just pray Adams didn’t leave him with merely a cowbell Simultaneously a good excuse for Granato, and following my point on chain of command: no excuse at all for Kevyn Adams

Ultimately falls on the GM, not the coach

I’ll always sports hate Montreal the most/top 3. Inherited grudge. We will win that game because we have to

The issue supposedly being Ullmark’s “demands” is merely a smokescreen for the real issue, which was our failure to meet said demands a miscalculation of the net (result, and the position). Prioritization of a tree before the forest

Fair. My response prob a little too on the nose re my expected content I’d say you are objectively correct where your point is concerned: it’s always driven me nuts but the game quite literally becomes a different one in the playoffs. I literally avoid talking about it out of some sort of “out of sight out of mind” positioning because it truly is a daunting thought

Pulled his groin sitting around like qui-gon during scrape breaks

I refuse to set my expectation beyond making the playoffs. To me aiming for higher is hubris, where this franchise is concerned. I linked a post yesterday I made from 2021 where I proposed a theory re: the potential poisoning of this type of thinking: but deleted it, as it’s too early. But it’s still on my mind

You are a baseball guy, right? I know it’s not the same situation as they had more actual turnover, but the Jays worked themselves into a shoot to improve their D this past offseason, and certainly did so. It just happened to neuter their offence to the tune of actually committing a slightly worse record to paper this season you can tinker, you can tailor, but if they don’t have the right soldiers for the game plan, we might be spying the standings early on

And Savoie isn’t Gretzky I read on this forum that’s Benson

That’s fair, but I don’t believe any of these options has bearing on whether the trade was a good one or not. That’s measured based on the results. Is there a “why” here that shifts the results to, “oh ok that was a better alternative”? I don’t think so. It didn’t work out in the moment, which was presumably the aim as the time to win was then, and it didn’t work out in the “future” re: Botterill’s plan as he got fired and we started over the aim of the trade wasn’t to punt on the next 5 years and in turn allow the next GM, whoever that ended up being, to ice a 1C by way of a prospect who was a long shot to reach that ceiling in the first place the main thing is still, for me, the logic. Even the argument where it’s claimed the trade “worked out” isn’t the same as it being a good trade. Again, if literally the same logic can be applied to dealing Tage for a draft pick, right now, that luckily turns out even better in a few years, it’s exposed as faulty logic - - - regardless, and perhaps more importantly, the Sabres need to start salvaging these relationships rather than conceding to issues being “beyond repair” and creating “beyond repair” fallouts in the first place.

It’s a race, and it’s an interesting calculation, I think, as well: how quickly can they sort out the D to a reasonable level, and, particularly given the fact the roster hasn’t changed: how much offence relative to last year ends up getting sacrificed in pursuit of said D. Particularly relative to all the career years we saw last year. And when comparing and contrasting the two, is it a zero sum game, or does it allow for a net gain to the tune of bridging the gap we needed to, to make the playoffs? pretty fascinating

The wafer is better than the icing

This was always the issue with attempting to replace Quinn with the Next Quinn. The BEST case scenario was realistically another very good rookie season. But with increased expectations, we didn’t need another good rookie season, we needed a good veteran level season that CURRENT Quinn was penciled in to provide. They didn’t replace Quinn, it was so weird

Cinematography looking a bit equal

You are a better fan than me, my guy and there is not one iota of snark in that you are the epitome of loyalty where the Sabres are concerned, and when they eventually win the cup, the team should be sending folks like you, who buoy this team up beyond what they probably even realize, one of those miniature Stanley cups You got the reference and that’s all that matters

At the end of the day, we are 1-3 out of 82. There’s a ton of runway and the story for this season is still obviously being written. Maybe it’d take a twist worthy of Shyamalan for the looming story take such a turn from the previous 12 chapters…but there have been Signs

No one. No one in the last 4 years. And overpaying Ullmark would have been a mistake because, while winning much more, our cap sheet, online GM mode, top of the line prospects, “we have no room for anyone at forward”, “hockey news ranks our prospect pool at the top” online Simulator set-up wouldn’t look as clean some people are happier just not having expectations merely the promise of