Pimlach

I too really wanted to see the team get playoff experience this year. It would reinforce the moves they need to make in the off season and the players would have gotten a huge lift from a tangible accomplishment. However, I would have definitely cared if they got killed. Losing is one thing, but my expectation was to go out and win some games. Florida has a bigger, more physical, and more veteran team so they matched up better than we would have, but we could have won few games and got some much needed experience.

I don't care for the related tangent. This "transition" you speak of is your own creation. I don't like seeing the fans and avid followers criticized for basically doing nothing but sticking with their team. No one is calling Tampa a terrible franchise and sure, they will very likely "rebuild" (more likely retool) faster than the Sabres did, and that won't be hard. The current Sabres FO, coaches, and players are evaluating their team the same way that every team does, by where you finish. Nothing I heard at the end of their season says otherwise. The Sabres problems for the past 10 years lies with a single common denominator - Terry Pegula. You want to blame someone or something for the past 10 years blame Terry and Kim. All of this is on Terry because he hires the people that run the team. Regier, Rolston, Black, Sawyer, LaFontaine, Nolan, Murray, Byslma, Boterill, Housley, Krueger - all gone. Only Terry remains. Hope and pray that Adams, a guy with no prior NHL Hockey Operations experience, can get the job done. That is all a fan can do. If a fan has to look for a reason to be optimistic then so be it.

@nfreeman said he wasn't a great player and I agree and it sounds like you do too. Great would be like having the season that Thompson just had, when your are playing so dominant that teams game plan just for you. But great really means that you do that every year for a long time. Reinhart has improved from good in Buffalo (~23 goals and ~55 points) to very good in Florida (~32 goals and ~75 points). Part of it was playing with the better team and part of it is maturity. He is up to 193 pounds now. When he started he was physically overmatched a lot. Not anymore. At least he did not publicly say bad things about the organization, although he could have and would have not been wrong.

Also admire the consistent high level of play. The Prez is not the prize.

Agree. Anything but that. That would be hockey torture for me.

Yes, there is something about their lineup that screams big and tough but mediocre skills after you get passed Bergeron, Toucan, Pasta and McAvoy. I asked the question at the start of the playoffs - Is Boston really this good and how much of their success is culture and expectations versus talent? Playoff hockey brought playoff pressure and Linus was not up to the task and neither was his defense.

Not good Claude. Don't drag her in to it. I was counting on the Bruins to beat Toronto.

Emotional about what?

You never know. Florida is physical. Their best players are stepping up. They are peaking at the right time.

Hysterical. Best to let that idea go.

Tkachuk with a great screen, Swayman never saw the shot.

Bruins fans booing.

I dropped the Bruins the day my Uncle told me the Bisons were ending and we were getting an NHL team called the Sabres. I was a fan before the entry draft.

They used him on the PP. Offensively he was good. Defense and leadership, not so much. Adam’s might have kept him but he wanted to leave. That team had no leadership to make them a team. They had factions. The kids we have now are further along as a team than the Eichel-Reinhart-Risto-Montour-Ullmark group.

Gilbert Perreault.

Montour with another. This game is amazing. Boston had them shutdown in 5v5 but Florida scores with the extra attacker.

Way back in the older days before the Sabres existed, the Bruins were my favorite team. Bobby Orr my favorite player. I despise the Leaves more than Broons. They will keep Toronto out of it.

The last four minors were on Florida, a few bad calls. That call was an evener.

Boston Florida really battling. Very physical game tonight.

Orlov blew up Bennett. Would love to get Orlov.

Broons in the lead.

It wasn’t high sticking or roughing. They ran into each other and Pastrnak went into a swan dive No. Just high speed play.

Montour’s third minor, looked embellished to me.

Bennett looking like a power forward.