Thorny

Tbh I feel like this “have to” talk in basically..probably every GDT this year (?) leads to every game being treated at least as importantly as your standard NFL game. Where after losses we go off the rails, and after wins we go off the rails the other way. If we win today, do we HAVE to win next game? If the answer is no, then we don’t have to win today. Cause we could lose today and win the next game. None of the have-tos have meant anything. We are a middling club. You know what we need to see to know the team has changed? Not a 3 game win streak, not a 7-2-1 ten game stretch, not even a half-season where we are “actually” one of the best teams… we simply need an 82 game season where we finish above 17th

That’s the tragedy. We are asking so little. We are still here. Make the playoffs. Just make the playoffs once

Are ticket sales good again? Actually asking. I think the few beating the “everything is fine” drum are just that: the few. Anyone that posts here is a hardcore. Anyone that posts as much as we do specifically is certifiable It doesn’t need to be all doom and gloom. I’ll continue saying it: much of the frustration comes from fact making the playoffs isn’t actually that hard and a change of priority would probably address that real quick look, you have a good point in this sense: the fans DID buy into it, to a very real, VERY workable extent, for this organizational crew to have BEYOND a fighting chance, if they’d just take it. They *have* successfully lowered the bar of expectation to merely making the playoffs once. It’s right there. Right there for the taking. Immortality, take it: it’s yours. I scoff most when you do see the “sabres fans are never happy!” tact those who do remain sold sometimes employ. Like come on. Can we actually give the fanbase a legitimate accomplishment to test that theory, first? I think if we made the playoffs, these fans would be surprised at the elation and the relief

Better to reign in hell..

Imagine how much less we’d need to ask of our drafting, and young players if they weren’t being expected to fill the majority of the crucial roles on an unsustainable timeline. The problem with the tank wasn’t the difficulty of being able to construct a last place roster and “succeed” in attaining McEichel: the problem with the tank was the exceptionally high degree of difficulty we willfully attached to building out the rest of the roster by torpedoing it in the first place for one player Electing for the Youngest Team in Hockey every year wilfully puts the degree of difficulty seemingly beyond our reach, because teams with more balanced veteran rosters necessarily ask less of the youth stepping in.

Ya like I’m not saying we need to expect the “success” a team like the Winnipeg Jets has seen in an equally undesired market, like I get we are (by our own doing) narratively behind the 8-ball here because of sustained incompetence. But there’s a chasm of gap between the results of two equally hampered markets: we can’t, with handcuffs included, make the playoffs *1 gat-damn time* when they’ve made it 7 times since returning under similar market parameters? It’s progressed so far that we can grant Adams and co every single caveat we want, every single excuse, and the reasonable follow-up would still be, ”I get that, but wait, you haven’t made the playoffs *ONCE*?”

Been harping on it for so long: they have undervalued the time they are/were throwing away while implementing their plan for “long term” success to an egregious extent and it’s costing them. It cost them. Player psyche, and fan. They had the priority wrong.

Another of what I’d point to as a bit of a “canary in the coal mine” type of post. It’s your average Tuesday if I’m on here b*tching but when it was crusader a couple weeks ago or this, it means something a bit more

If “Appert” is uttered more than 2, 3 times tops in a GDT, it’s not a good sign for the in-game performance of the sabres

If I just could have made that pass…

I’ve been the dude sticking firm at playoffs being 51% likely since before the season started your must be the other guy

The irony i walked you off the ledge 2 weeks ago lmao I came to your defence when you were being called out by posters here for being too negative and now you turn the tables on other posters I dunno, you tell me

This is exaclty it, and the term I wanted to use: he made his own bed. I understand the Mike Harrington go to, “tell me, who is going to trade you a mythical top 6 F right now?” line of argument but it’s growing tiring. I’m not saying Adams can just “add one”, I’m saying it’s his own fault we are in the position of needing one. If you have to ignore all context and operate in a vacuum to make a point, your point doesn’t hold water and doesn’t stand up to the slightest amount of critique. It’s not about Adams’ inability to acquire an all-star on November 30, 2024 it’s about where the roster is on November 30, 2024 after being taken over by Kevyn Adams in 2020. The situation we find ourselves in is the sum total of the work the GM has done for going on 5 seasons

“Hockey trades just don’t happen anymore” what are we even doing here we JUST made one lol. agree to disagree Yes, there are no ufa’s available, no trades available, there’s nothing we can do. We are cursed. Does that make you feel better? There, you don’t need to have any expectations, you are safe Asking our GM to field a playoff team is “asking the impossible”.

I don’t fail to accept anything except your rants that the team is “cursed!” and should be sold or whatever it was the last time you went off the rails I can look literally within our own boundaries and point to Casey Mittelstadt as a player who wasn’t a free agent who was moved during the season NMC’s aren’t held by “most” players. They are held by a minority of players. The time period is 5 years. If your argument is that there aren’t myriad avenues of roster building available to every team within a 5 year period to the tune of being able to craft a playoff team, all transactions and tools at a GM’s disposal included: you have a bad argument, im sorry - - - I don’t care about whatever arbitrary definitions you want to attach to “top 6 scorer” to craft an argument that supposes it is beyond our control to acquire it and therefore can’t expect better. we added our 4th best forward this past offseason and didn’t give up an asset to do so

But not being able to trade for presumably Connor McDavid (jk) is a strawman. “Established” scorers can certainly be had, regardless of one’s definition of “big time.” We, just this offseason, signed a guy who’s immediately 4th on the team in scoring for forwards. He cost no assets. He’s a better forward than almost all of the forwards we had assembled over the last 5 years. 80% of the league is sans no movement clause. When the time period is 5 years, these items amount to excuse making We don’t need “big time” anything. We just need to be 16th/32, once

But Jimmy Carter is smarter

We’ve been saying “where is he going to get these guys?” for 5 literal years. its the job. That is the job of the GM. To field the requisite talent he’s had enough “well, you have to wait for the next transaction period”s

Always maintained around here that Eichel’s best asset was his playmaking.. it’s nice to see him really lean into it - leads league in assists this year

It’s also a f*cking week, now. At LEAST Brutal

Sabres should have the advantage on the injury front with JT Miller out too, obv

Like the old tale of the lobster in slowly heated water, the expectations have become absurdly low, gradually, over time until it almost appears normal to be fishing for positives in a game we lost 5 years into a regime that’s not made the playoffs and also averaged 76 points a season since taking over. But it’s very, very not normal ill be ecstatic if we make the playoffs, and I think it’s about 50/50, but playoffs were the mandate this year because they were the *absolute lowest result acceptable*. Ie, maintaining a spot on the edge of a knife of an absolutely unmissable goal isn’t a good spot to be. We aren’t precariously towing the line between success and failure: we are precariously towing the line between avoiding utter failure and utter failure They HAVE to make the playoffs I’m glad they played reasonably: that’s imminently preferable to playing poorly. But it’s also a terribly small take away relative to the actual result, im sorry

Agree. You are what your record says you are. Which is incompatible with the “moral victory” logic being thrown around. If the Wild are full credit for their wins, yesterday is no exception, and neither was it for our loss. - - - I also like the term “goalied” a lot for the humour it’s naturally imbibed with, as if it’s somehow indicative of a roster difference that will disappear over time for no reason at all. Next time we lose to Tampa and Kucherov puts up 4 points im going to say we got “wingered” lol. goalies and their outputs is a component of roster construction, yes yesterday, the wild had more expected goals at even strength. Their goalie played really well on the power play. Good for them

They weren’t “goalied” so much as they failed to put up quality shots: Good hockey eye, PA