Thorner

Very true. It’s certainly true of my own experience, though Which is all I can really speak to

couldn’t*

The Barb side of the films is a pathway to many viewing experiences some would consider to be...enjoyable - - - I have it 5 for the year Rn tbh

Dahlin I agree with the unanimous consensus

We are at least at (to use my old term) Base Level Competence. Which, make no mistake, is a drastic turnaround, as you rightly point out. That base level competence is so far beyond where we were, yet still (at least thus far) leaving us in a below-average spot standings wise is where much of the consternation comes from I think. It can and is two things at once, we can (and should) say we have seen a ton of improvement while at the same time saying more is *necessary*. Not that it’d be nice: literally that it must come, in reasonably punctual fashion, for the improvement we have seen to be made whole. I think my biggest contention is that those claiming the success itself is already here.....difficult to put into words but I guess just for me, it ruins the fun. We’ve been waiting so, so long for much of *any*, if we need to proclaim it here, before it even actually is, it’s anticlimactic

Optimism pessimism rinse repeat Enough already

I certainly have a better reading of your stance than you have of mine, it must be said. The bold isn’t what I’m saying at all, you miss (ignore?) the nuance. I’m not (have never said) they squandered anything by engaging in development years: merely that conversion in a reasonable time frame afterwords is revelatory in terms of whether those years were squandered, or not I deal in results you deal in a peacocking your glorious optimism, for all to fall short of

You folks are basically incapable of framing much of anything beyond the parameters of “optimism“, eh? It’s lazy, its boring, it’s honestly tiring. You aren’t interested in discussing anything other than continually laying out your belief in Adams’ course of action - I don’t mean this flippantly: you literally just continually state that Adams has a documented plan we know dude I know

I did not make that assumption In fact, I picked them to make the playoffs LAST year (contrary to your other statement, earlier, actually)

Absolutely it’s a failure if we miss. Regardless of injuries. Are you kidding? As a GM, you can absolutely toss away *multiple* years to free pass evaluation years, as part of your plan, but the price is that once you are “ready to win”, your runway for conversion shrinks since we are WILLINGLY committing years to record where there is no expectation. Or else, why wouldn’t every GM select the long range plan, if they could be granted all these free cake years with NO CHANGE to the timeframe of expected success afterwords, once the team decides to turn the page? A time frame of 5 years is more than fair. KA committed a terrible team to the ice his first year, and tossed away the next 2 in the name of development. That’s fine. But he’s got 2 years now: you have to make the playoffs within a 5 year frame - - - anyways that’s my weekly summer posting output matched in a day, my sincerest apologies

Exactly. Where John missteps is he keeps saying this is the “right” way to build. Even if we *succeed* that absolutely hasn’t been proven, there’s of course more than one way. Never mind waiting till we actually get success

The place has become SO overwhelming “fall in line with the plan or you aren’t a true fan” positive that even the smallest critical take sticks out, like the singular drink to the non-drinker. It’s why we get takes like that, when it’s by FAR the most optimistic (deservedly so) its been in a while

This is the exact policing that is severely cutting down my enjoyment here: an *overwhelmingly* positive board that has certain members actively losing their minds at even the sniff of the suggestion of concern you have it ass backwards. Respectfully

We aren’t in a “fantastic” position if we miss the playoffs lol. Maybe you weren’t referring to this coming season, though I thought I was the guy who said that

Get rid of the pond hockey, shinny-esque 3 v 3 OT that bears as little resemblance to actual hockey as the shootout: I don’t need 5 minutes of keepaway. PP merchants would have even more value

Literally the same thing lol just depends what you are used to

Love long movies anyways OPPENHEIMER was great. My third ranked film of the year and 5th ranked when considering the last 3 years

Don’t really like being condescended to. If you didn’t mean it that way it’s fine but I’m still going to react to the actual words

You lost me at “Well,” and what you mentioned you are agreeing to isn’t what I said Yes, I understand all GMs have evaluations in mind, thanks

I think how they’ve dealt with the Quinn situation is probably illuminating - Adams isn’t going to break his evals, I keep coming back to it. Quinn being hurt doesn’t change what any team would need to give up to get any particular asset on the Sabres, be it player or pick. If Quinn’s spot needs to be filled, it will be filled internally with a young player if Adams terms when looking outside the organization aren’t met to a T. If UPL is bad, it isn’t going to change the fact Adams want to evolve the team almost purely through what we have in house

Sometimes acquisitions don’t work out: why try welcome to Kevyn Adams sabrespace

I think Bennett was in play too

@Sabres Fan in NSim glad you’re with me, here at the end of all things

Whoever can get the most “eye rolls” for daring question it, wins

#2 overalls from 00-20 Dany Heatley* Jason Spezza Kari Lehtonen Eric Staal* Evgeni Malkin* Bobby Ryan Jordan Staal James Van Riemsdyk Drew Doughty* Victor Hedman* Tyler Seguin Gabriel Landeskog Ryan Murray Aleksander Barkov Sam Reinhart Jack Eichel Patrik Laine Nolan Patrick Andrei Svechnikov Kaapo Kakko Quinton Byfield ...I’d say the 5 guys with a * are something truly special whereas the rest are varying levels of good with which Reino fits right in on a reasonable spectrum