Thorny

The logic of Bane’s “open door” prison I kid. But seriously, that was the logic: the illusion of hope was the key aspect of the torture I think that’s where the “might as well sell” side comes from

He predictably led the league or was near the top of the league in penalties drawn for quite a few years, allowing any team with a capable power play a world of opportunity. Scholars will document whether we capitalized on that. Skinner may be totally shot, now, I don’t watch much hockey, but there was a good stretch of time where he was a very strong overall positive in the right fit If the buyout was the right call, it was the right call. But it’s not hindsight to say that re: team competitiveness, which is the only important factor, clearing the cap space was always only the first half of the equation

Definitely the Joey Tribbiani

I still think Adams can get it done, this season

And the social media team showed Adams over the moon at snagging Matt Irwin. It’s documenting ineptitude across the board, we already knew this When fans don’t see their owners involved they scream, “absentee owner!”.

Doesn’t that fact the “everything is actually fine” defence is being employed wantonly, after a stretch of hockey that, according to history, literally couldn’t have been worse, illustrate to you are arguing with an unmoveable position? There’s no standard. There’s nothing you could point out that classifies as failure: hockey history dealt its most significant blow and the position was left undaunted. There’s no proof against it: the team is simply fine until such a time as it’s good: those are the parameters

As long as he gets fired from the GM position after indisputably falling flat on his face in embarrassing fashion for 5 years (should we miss this year), as so told by numerous avenues of demonstrable evidence from team building down to, most importantly, record over an uncommonly long time frame to fail to find an iota of success regardless of context and geographical location, I’m good

If we miss the playoffs, I think it’s basically 50/50. 5 years is a long time; on the other hand, I could see Terry and others pointing to someone like Yzerman in Detroit in defence of Adams.. “it takes time” etc etc.

It’ll likely pick up, but the east could also just be really weak this year. It happens

To me, the entire reason the strategy was even *arguably* logical was because losing guaranteed one of the two. The framing around this website, for example, was much more so “McEichel.” I’ve come to disagree with the strategy entirely, but if it was in our control to achieve such a functional goal (be so bad on purpose we finish last, guarantee McEichel), I see the vision If they did it with the sole purpose of getting McDavid to the extent the strategy’s success was, in their opinion, dependent on it, they are absolute fools. I think they had a 20% chance of that, even if they DID finish last. That would be a horrendous, meandering gamble. Yup, Terry definitely picked out Beck Malenstyn

Teams have made the playoffs with players worse than Skinner, teams will make the playoffs this year with players worse than Skinner, and teams will continue to make the playoffs going forward with players worse than Skinner. Bogosian was a mystic detriment to a team making the playoffs until he wasn’t. The sabres were a point away two years ago: the gods didn’t step in because of Jeff: he was a central reason we were as close as we were. Edmonton is in a playoff spot right now. I’m not saying he’s who you target specifically, at this stage of his career: but sometimes I think people actually think Taylor Hall provides lottery luck or Jeff Skinner represents a curse against making it

Feel like the Sabres gain the most ground when they don’t play: …unlike last year, the playoff cut off line might not even require a mostly mediocre team, it might actually settle for “just be a bit less bad”. A team or teams may heat up, but at least as of now, you only need to be bad -but not terrible- to find yourself in the spot right now. I think all 3 carrion teams GM’s (detroit, Ottawa, buffalo) should be on hot seats correspondingly hotter because of this fact

You’re thinking of PELRP

Current pace for 8th is 82 pointz make .500 great again

Forest from the trees. The reputation risk seemed to go unbalanced in the equation. I think their chosen tact was far more risky, and it bore out: BEFORE we even consider the on-ice roster differences resulting *directly* from the Vegas swap. The other end of it is, as you present it, almost entirely rooted in scorned emotion: “he asked out, now he wants this? Screw him.” Zero accountability from the organization, when it mattered most. Why is that? *THEY* tanked to get Jack Eichel. Prioritizing Jack above the rest of the roster wasn’t just what they signed up for, it was their *enacted strategy from day one*. They thought they could renege in the end, after failing to build a team around the man they torpedoed the team for, and anointed savior? They refused to lie in the bed they made, when a franchise player asked out, not even because of their failings, but because they intimated they wanted to replicate them, in enacting another long form rebuild, their cheap “hack” to get high talent, at the cost of the prime of the player they burned the first go-round? So full of hubris. You let him get the surgery. Look at the results of situation, with an honest eye, I dare you, or anyone He doesn’t get credit because his teams have averaged 76 points a season since he took over. These teams are inclusive and reflective of the moves you mention results

Have you seen the film INCEPTION (2010)?

It’s a huge positive the ~8th place teams are struggling mightily this year. Generally around this time of year, to find ourselves 1 point back of the team on the final playoff pace, we’d need to have ~3 more points right now than we do. It may not seem like a lot, but it’s the difference between pacing for 77 points like we are now and 91 points instead. we should capitalize

I somehow quoted a post from the future

He’s only hired 3 GMs in 14 years. By far the most likely scenario is they just aren’t good GMs He’s not the GM. He’s not micromanaging the roster He’s handcuffing Adams with a self-imposed cap And they almost all meddle Such is why we can find the votes by way of the empty seats, instead I agree. He’s staffing under qualified candidates, and failing to maximize their chances by limiting their budget. Of course the buck always stops at the top What we can reject is that he’s some sort of devil behind the curtain, sabotaging these amazing teams the GMs would be building if he just f*cked off (which, again, almost no owners do) People are trying way, way too hard to find reasons/evidence for some sort of bizarre behind the scenes strong arming. Occam’s razor is a term literally invented for these moments: teams that don’t spend don’t make the playoffs. Teams that are really young don’t make the playoffs. We are both. We don’t need to invent anything beyond those handcuffs. This is the strategy Adams *signed up for* that he said he could use to mold a championship team. They are part and parcel. The new Finkle and Einhorn

Have you even seen me and Idemo Buffalo post at the same time

more like this, I think: Roy and Pominville did that in a suped-up AHL during the 05 lockout when Roy was too good for the A he put up 20 points in 8 games the following year

It is sort of an odd choice of term based on the layout of the chart, I agree

It’s not so much about how the move helps Levi: we’ve been missing the mark on that front since day 1. This move is merely the inevitable whiplash to the reason Levi was up here so soon in the first place (Buffalo was never the best place for his development, not if he didn’t have the requisite ability necessary to start the games at this level necessary to facilitate said development). No, Levi was up here because Adams thought it best for the team. The importance of this move today, the impetus behind it, is removing a player who’s performing absolutely awful from the roster in the name of what best serves the team: the mindset we shouldn’t have been neglecting from the beginning Whether or not Levi develops *at all* in Rochester is a distant secondary concern to how Levi being removed from the team helps develop our pursuit of the playoffs this season There’s no room for non-NHL players. Sabres aren’t a farm team. Aside from being run like one most of the time I think development, tweaking one’s game, is something that ebbs and flows for a lot longer of a time period than some think. Particularly in goal. I’d even draw a comparison in some ways to Golf: over time the swings for even the greats often undergo full-scale changes and revamps over the course of their career, adjusting to various circumstances that change over time. Or a pitcher. Maybe a baseball pitcher is a better comp. It’s not just about raw development with a pitcher, golfer or goalie: a pitcher can fine tune his repertoire, win a cy young, and the league “catch on” to his stuff the following year requiring new skill development. Goalie are much the same way: I don’t think a 20 whatever year old could possibly be beyond learning at the AHL level at this stage. He had a season with good numbers, sure. Let’s see him replicate it as shooters adjust And that’s just square 1. Free your mind of the idea Levi is pre-ordained for anything. He’s not above the AHL, not if he’s performing as among the worst goalies in the nhl

Imo this (finally) ends phase 1 of the Levi experiment. The “don’t be afraid to believe in the hype: this guy is following in Hasek’s wake” (not-hyperbole) stage. The “it doesn’t matter that he’s tiny and that goalies are almost never ready for full NHL workloads at his age - if anyone can do it, it’s Levi. He likes Star Wars.” stage. The cold-sweat-inducing factor is Adams had Levi pencilled in *last* year. Yes, an all-time narrative sales job on a player, probably the most expansive I’ve seen for a Sabre, but the rub is that the *GM* bought in, and in fact planned it. It’s time for a more level headed and realistic, divorced from KA fantasy phase 2: a good goalie prospect developing in the minors until such a time as he’s ready for a consistent nhl workload, if ever

I’m not sure there’s a compelling argument to be made quite yet that we “finally” have depth, at all. Is there a better reference point than record? Team average point total per 82, Kevyn Adams’ teams, his previous 4 seasons as GM: 76 points Team current point pace, Adams year 5: 77 points Serious question: how big does the sample size need to get before we adjudge 76 points per season to be Adams’s wheelhouse? I struggle to see how the record this year, so far, is indicative of improved depth. Are we hoping the record is unrepresentative thus far, this year, and coincidentally just looks nearly identical to the previous 4 seasons through almost a quarter of the year now? Yes I suppose that’s the hope