Thorner

Dahlin reaches the 50 point mark in his 43rd game of the season. He reached the mark in his 76th game last season.

It’s not that big a deal to me from a Sabres perspective. It’s no slight on him and he gets the rest. But looking at it objectively, the only point of having a all star game at all is to market the highest skill your league has to offer. Any format that excludes Dahlin has an internal fundamental flaw that needs addressing because he’s not just “very good”, he’s got the flashiest of skill the league is legitimately shooting itself in the foot. Such a dumb league

I was about to say Karlsson’s was better, as great as Dahlin’s was, and it does seem to go a bit higher, but it’s closer than I thought. Karlsson’s is almost a full 2 zones, Dahlin is a little further up. But Dahlin also fires his off his back foot. Which ups the degree is difficulty for sure

I theorize a fair few will look to change their vote on who the Sabres’ best player is on that poll by season’s end.

Funny, that

It’s just funny cause he might be the BEST defender in said league, and he’s probably the best player on our team, too. oh well. He’ll make the first or second team “all stars” at the end of the year or whatever they are called. Which I guess mean more. They still do those, right?

Dahlin might be the best defenseman in the NHL (see: that pass) and he’s not going to the all star game. kinda funny

Olofsson actually corralled that pass out of mid air on his goal. such high skill!

Little late but my top 10 of 2022 1 Nope 2 Top Gun: Maverick 3 The Banshees of Inisherin 4 The Northman 5 X 6 The Secrets of Dumbledore 7 The Batman 8 Avatar: The Way of Water 9 Wakanda Forever 10 Violent Night

Oh cool what’s your field of study?

I thought BRAWNDO was the “spoiler alert” guy. Thanks a lot chief

Not on tv so no game for me. I’ll be following along in thread for balanced and unbiased coverage

I prefer Hank Yarborough myself but, good stuff

There’s a school of thought that says the team that spends nothing on July 1 is the winner. I guess sometimes too much $ in the hands of a GM represents a weapon just as likely to cause damage to themselves as others. Of course, to your point a disciplined GM having more options wouldn’t seem like a bad thing. But the biggest priced FAs declining your franchise serves to take that weapon out of your hand, for you. For worse, or better, is I suppose duda’s point

5 1UP! emojis given today, 2 REDEX! emojis given.. you are correct, it’s a little harsher than my normal ratio but that could be circumstantial. - - - You said “kind of”, so maybe there’s some wiggle room for me to work with. I’m not exactly sure how I feel about Hinostroza, tbh. He signed a contract under full knowledge of the fact Rochester was a possibility. Should he not honor it? Actually asking. As far as I know he hasn’t said he doesn’t want to report, this is all hypothetical, anyways. I’m just interested in the idea he should get the choice, now, should he wish to not report. Would that hold true if he was not up front about it, with the team, during the signing process? Was he forward about it? “oh by the way, if I DONT make it, I’m not going to Roch LOL.” At the end of the day I think choice is king so it would be all good, do right by the player, fine, understandable. But I think “earned the right” kind of tripped me up. In so far as anyone has the right to tell any job they don’t want to do to “get bent, keep your cash!”, totally agree. But I don’t think we owe him anything. Not more than other employees. He signed his deal. If they “do right” by him, they are really just “doing right” by the image they want to project to the league. - - - TLDR; The above is my hobby, and I’m formulating an argument for the purposes of discussion. You want the real answer? I gave you a red X because you liked a comment in another thread that said I should be muted 😈

Oh I agree re: 14-3 - - - Your “baggage” comment really got me thinking. I wonder how I would feel about this Sabres season if I could somehow view it purely through the prism of an Independent Event. No lingering baggage from past franchise failures, not considering the franchise beholden to that, purely analyzing and expressing. It’s such an interesting question and thought. My initial impression is that it might be somewhat of a double-edged sword. I think we are in 22nd place? I’d probably be thinking “well, we’re ok.” My brain perhaps occupied much more by dwelling on what could be, going forward, with no frustration due to the expectation it might collapse due to past precedence. So happier about it, in a way? But on the other side of the coin, SO MUCH of the positivity is drawn from the hopeful comparison *to* that past: looking for little signs pointing to how it’s different. It’s probably all part and parcel. Things feel worse because of how long we’ve been in the desert, but the good developments also feel better than they should because of the comparison to relative ineptitude. WORDS!

I have been touting for years now that, if you need a championship to justify all this, not only are you setting yourself up for disappointment, you are allowing for the very real possibility you’ve engaged in an illogical pursuit for the duration of your life that would have been better left untouched. I think it serves to admit there’s a real mathematical possibility it never happens. In my humble opinion, in order for it all to be worth it, any member of the fandom need to be able to find joy by other means: that the journey, like @dudaceksays, and the camaraderie, like I always say, are what makes it worth it. If there’s no satisfaction until a championship is achieved, and you are comfortable with that, you are a better gambling man than me. So having said all this, what the Sabres have been is on the other absolute extremity. I’m MORE than happy to settle into a lifetime of making the playoffs in-line with the mathematical average (half the time) and enjoying a run here and there, even if we never male it all the way. Oh well. The Sabres...it’s just so funny, they haven’t even been close to giving us that, any time in recent memory. I truly believe there are plenty of people, plenty of fans ready to embrace even just the NORMALCY of a REGULAR NHL franchise and the inherent ups and downs that implies. We really aren’t asking for a lot, we *already are* the one with perspective. Struggling to find joy in a team that’s *still* losing more than they win isn’t indicative of lack of perspective. Those that can say, “ah, this is what it’s all about” NOW, with THIS kind of “success”, that’s even better: you truly are going to siphon the joy from any situation. Honestly that’s a great thing. I’m hopeful. I think we are headed to being that “can make the playoffs” team, year in and out. But it’s been so long, anyone free of frustration at this point by any right should be the outlier, imo

Firstly, and most importantly, don’t reconsider. - - - Secondly, if this is more Bills centric, I withdraw this post. Bills should be full on enjoyment imo, win is a win is a win type stuff - you are in the promised land as fans: competing in the playoffs with a shot to win. This *is* it, this is what it’s all about, truly. If it’s more Sabres centric, forgive me but this comes of slightly promo-esque re: why aren’t the fans showing up? Absolutely correct that the fun is fuelled by the tension: but that’s only an established case when the tension, as much as not, ends up breaking the right way. The right word for that tension, imo, is “foreboding”, when your muscle memory naturally knows, for decades now, that it’s much more likely to break one way

I wouldn’t have retired the dude’s number, if you are going to retire any number at all, for me you do that if you can’t reasonably see someone surpassing their accomplishments, so why bother giving them a shot at living up to the number. Hello Hasek. But he was a very good goalie, one of the best we’ve ever add, he’s deserving of a special night for sure. I can only assume your “average” lingo is hyperbolic, there isn’t really a reading of the stats that gets to that conclusion As for the eye test, he was a fundament piece during the 2 seasons that make the rest of this dearth worth living through

If the line is keeping guys like JJ and being open to dealing guys like Rosen for the right upgrade, I fall on the same side. Unless someone blows the doors off I’m keeping my key prospects, but dealing some of the other guys, when we have so many, isn’t just something I’m open to I’d say it’s actively the correct idea. Convert some to currency, use your great talent eval to decide who, the intel other teams don’t have, getting a leg up on those teams in the process. Making some trades, dealing some prospects, isn’t “Tim Murraying” the team, whatever that is. Any sort of absolute stringency isn’t a good plan, and it’s not what KA is doing

If the evaluation isn’t there, it’s not there. I agree. I always envisioned Horvat as a F with a great defensive game for some reason, so he’d be the exact type of F I’d want to add to this team that needs better 2 way play all around. But if he’s not that guy I would look elsewhere even if the price was right

Event game - I expect a dub

Lol

As long as it’s to make the playoffs, I’m good