Thorny

Well I know dude, that’s why the substance of my post was about how when it comes to the D, since what we are actually looking for more so is complimentary pieces to the 2 maybe even 3 studs we already have, those would best be found externally ala Chychrun We definitely need to add from the outside, wanted it to be the deadline, but the summer makes sense too. The key is those pieces should be reasonably attainable

I forgot that unlike every other team in the league we aren’t supposed to be able to win with one player out of the lineup we ain’t ever going to BE in a healthy playoff chase, so if you ever want to enjoy a playoff chase, get used to it

They aren’t *close* to out of reach by past indicators good grief. Just typing words. the islanders if continuing to play at the pace they have, for over 60 games, now - you know, looking at all past team play indicators and outcomes - are pacing for 92 points, and the 8th playoff spot. Buffalo, using all past indicators, is pacing for 89 points. Florida is pacing for less. Ottawa is pacing for the same 3 points. A single game’s worth + 1 We aren’t “oh I know we’re *mathematically* in it, bUuUT..” We are simply very much in it

Don’t see why the excitement would be down for this one find a way to win, hopefully the pens take care of business against the islanders, and we are sitting 4 points back of a playoff spot with 3 games in hand. lesssgo

Owen Power in at #3 in the Calder ranking, including garnering a first place vote: https://www.nhl.com/news/trophy-tracker-calder-kraken-matty-beniers-golden-knights-thompson-favorites/c-341836540?tid=277729400

nhl.com running their Trophy Tracker series at the 3-quarter point. Dahlin in at #2 for Norris https://www.nhl.com/news/trophy-tracker-norris-sharks-karlsson-sabres-dahlin-favorites/c-341899396?tid=277729400

nhl mailbag features a q/a on Sabres specifically KA and Granato https://www.nhl.com/news/over-the-boards-dan-rosen-mailbag-march-8/c-341950308?tid=277729162 “I don't think they're slept on. I think they receive a lot of credit for what they've done together with the Buffalo Sabres. We're doing our Trophy Tracker series this week for the three-quarter pole of the season and Granato, Buffalo's coach, was fifth in the voting for the Jack Adams Award behind Jim Montgomery (Boston Bruins), Lindy Ruff (New Jersey Devils), Rod Brind'Amour (Carolina Hurricanes) and Dave Hakstol (Seattle Kraken).” “Adams, in his third season as Buffalo's GM, has been steadfast in how he's built the Sabres. His refusal to sacrifice the future for the present is admirable and correct. He wants to acquire players who fit the Sabres' age group, as he did with 26-year-old forward Jordan Greenway in a trade with the Minnesota Wild on Friday.“

Don’t really think those takes are very far off ^ The vet leadership and physical play can be found by way of the good defensemen, the main thing is the goalie. That would certainly represent a “need to see something” move. And I tend to agree on the GT add: if the reasonable expectation next season is playoffs, even with the internal improvement we’re looking for i don’t think status quo in net would put us in a safe spot in that regard. Short of Levi coming in this year and looking stellar right off the bat More than any specific designation of what we should expect to achieve, there’s simply the matter of a lot of the rest of the roster being ready to take a run at it, to the point where failing to supplement that with good goaltending would be an awful waste

Like when the Orioles official twitter account tweeted “CHAOS!”, pinned it, after they closed within a game of a playoff spot last fall, and they proceeded to lose like 7 straight games lol. It was like, “how long are they going to leave this pinned?”

Like it or not, the hardest pieces for any team to find on D are already here. Not only do we have a guy settling into a career as a likely perennial Norris contender, we have another guy that has every chance to be a legit #1. So, we’re going to have an advantage over teams on pair 1, and an advantage over teams on pair 2. It’s annoying to me as well we haven’t been more proactive in adding the complimentary pieces as there is potentially so much to gain this year but, Adams will eventually add them and our D is going to be great at that time. The pipeline isn’t great, but when Dahlin and Power are kids, and you are only drafting to fill complimentary pieces on a D unit, you are one draft away from easily adding a couple guys with that realistic ceiling, even likely floor. It’s more about the immediate term: we were close on Chychrun. It was probably just not quite close enough to forgo paying the assets required to add him now, as opposed to using those assets this summer on a greater pool

At least as far as the Islanders are concerned, I didn’t see Barzal out there, or Pageau. Their 2nd and 5th leading scorers Tuch and Samuelsson isn’t any worse than Barzal and Pageau. Things only got serious when / for as long as Dahlin is hobbled

It’s true though - it’s funny it was even suggested. You’ve been so far from that

Ya I mean if the isles go 0-1-1 and we go 2-0-0, we’ll have mathematically accumulated points at a (very slightly) superior rate to the islanders this season, as we’ll have a .554 points % to their .551. It’s still just going to come down to whichever team finishes strong. There’s a few teams so I get the odds aren’t great but as long as it’s simply a matter of “play really (but realistically) well down the stretch and you have a decent shot” it’s not close to over. Even just give us a .500 mark for the games in hand. We are talking making up a gap of 3 points on the islanders, with two teams tied with us (Florida and Ottawa) over the final 16 games. 3 points in 16 is far from insurmountable, it’s doable, I just need to see the team LOOK really good again. That in the next 2 would be great. Ymmv obviously

It’s definitely not the most likely scenario. But up until recently the math was suggesting we had a better shot than any other ONE team in the race. The field was still more compelling mathematically (and even more so now) but if you had to pick ONE the math was suggesting buffalo while we were in 7th by points %. we aren’t very far off from being mathematically in 8th by points % again. It doesn’t mean we make it, because of “the field”, but I’ll do the math here real quick and I think it’s a small combination of Ws and Ls that would have us with the best odds of any one team gunning for 8th

another reason how we are actually playing matters way more is b/c of the games we have in hand: as long as we have those in our back pocket, we technically aren’t relying on anyone. What matters is how we are playing because if we, say, keep pace with the islanders from HERE on in, and win those 3 games, we’re in a spot

Eh, I was referring to the outlook of the fans, more so, the perspective- we’ve seen how it is: if we win 2 in a row, it’s going to be a lot more optimistic. You sort of missed my point: there is still a lot of hockey left to play. Nearly a quarter season. My point wasn’t that those two games would single handedly reverse our fortunes: it was about how the perspective would change after those 2 wins: we’d presumably be witnessing a team that’s looking much better (healthier?) than the last couple. Feeling better about what we are seeing them commit to record. My point was about how there’s still plenty of games left to put together the record we need, the fundamental issue FAR more so is that we see a team CAPABLE of doing that that was my point. If we see THAT team these next two, yes, I believe the outlook changes yet again

Doug Weight honestly He wasn’t even that good that year

Sabres won’t be eliminated until the last few of season, likely. At least by math

Ya I feel like if all there was was the LOUD HORN SOUNDED from on high, those funny “oh that’s definitely a goal!” ones you rarely hear, we’d be ok. They seem to get the main, egregious ones. The famous Duchene offside play is so famous because up until and including that point it only happened...once once. Isn’t that an issue to anybody? Just inherently? It wasn’t a problem. It was an anomaly. And you dig up the whole farm

Samuelsson seems to get banged up not uncommonly, this falls under “expected issues” and things we need to plan for in advance. Which means it comes back to defensive depth. It’s not really unfortunate timing when it’s not the first time this season or even the second. Dahlin is interesting to follow b/c it could be a realistic result of the amount we’ve leaned on him for 75% of a season so far. I just hope he’s not fighting through TOO much pain and hopefully even heals up a little down the stretch

I think we’d be ok w/o the 1 RW and 2D for a while as that’s not extreme - if our 1D wasn’t hobbled. But that really seems to tip the scales b/c of his importance. He’s not THAT hobbled ie 80% Dahlin is still a really good player but, to your point, the margin is razor thin. We win 2 in a row, though, the outlook probably looks entirely different. Its not *close* to over Exactly. Still at the stage where a reasonably small or moderate sample size can significantly alter the math

Thank you

All sports officiating, really. NFL has an issue. NBA has techs being dished our for personal reasons. MLB umpires losing their own strike zone are under fire constantly. It’s why I don’t want robot umps or offside challenges or really any of it if I had my way. It’s probably fixing a problem that isn’t there. This stuff evens out in large sample sizes. Half the time replay is used (or not used) there’s still subjectivity anyways so you waste 5 minutes of time making the product more boring. Then everyone argues about it after anyways. Just play the game and accept human error

Ya I think that’s what @Randall Flagg was getting at

The emotional boost he notably gets from sooner and more easily eclipsing his career marks next season, after them being somewhat artificially lowered to end this year. I mean just for one