Marvin

You are being generous: you are assuming improvement.

Great thread topic. I knew we were in for a really good decade when President Kim Pegula saved @PASabreFan by flying him to Gates after his heart attack from watching her demolish the Skyway with one punch to make room for the new Hall of Justice. It was then that I realised that a our owner had been hiding her super powers during the entire 2028 campaign.

They can't afford to break the network contract -- network make most of their money is from the playoffs and not finishing the season would abrogate all of them. In particular, Rogers would love to renegotiate because they are losing so much money on the deal. The schedule that @thewookie1 gave is the one I heard about too.

10 March 1976. Buffalo 7, Pittsburgh 6. The Sabres used to have listings of greatest comebacks and greatest collapses in 1 game. I remember another game being listed under "trailed by 5 or more goals and won" too.

I was a kid. I didn't find out about this stuff until well into the 1980's when it came up on a broadcast.

Thanks!

I don't think that's happening. The NHL are not calling the extra round "playoffs." By negative inference, I assume that means that the round 1 losers will be part of the lottery.

I was at the 1980 game. The Aud was in full jingoistic fervour. That was fun.

Briere's goal in Game 6 vs. Carolina. There was still room on the believers' bandwagon, as RJ put it. Buffalo 8 - Philadelphia 0. Bias from losing to the Flyers in 1975.

Guys like that do play still in the NHL. I just don't have them at my fingertips any more -- unlike the 1970's, I don't have the line-ups for the entire league memorised. Ah, youth.

I love this game. I think you can watch this with Russian play-by-play out there if you so choose.

IMHO, that would be a reason to trade Ristolainen. Brings a new meaning to, "unsafe at any speed."

Showing my age and bias. IMHO, Ristolainen would benefit from having a partner like Tim Horton, Bill Hajt, or Mike Ramsey: a boring, heady player who learns his tendencies and how to compensate for them. He needed to not be on a tank team his early years and he needed to not be paired with defencemen as out of gas as Meszaros, Benoit, and Strachan or players his age like Zadorov during said years.

Yes.

Even if we leave aside 2C, JBottom's failures are legion: Benoit Pouliot, Nathan Beaulieu, Jacob Josefson, Seth Griffith, Remi Elie, Matt Hunwick, Conor Sheary, Vladimir Sobotka, Michael Frolik, Wayne Simmonds, Tage Thompson in the NHL, Casey Mittlestadt in the NHL. (I gave him a break with Jordan Nolan [Cup Winner], Carter Hutton [glue guy], Jimmy Vesey, Dalton Smith, Brendan Guhle + 1st for Brandon Montour, not moving Zach Bogosian sooner, Patrik Berglund, Colin Miller, Scott Wilson, the Marco Scandella trade, Chad Johnson, Justin Falk, and Taylor Fedun.) For three consecutive years, JNot has failed to have 12 NHL-calibre forwards and 4 full-time NHL-calibre centers on the roster the entire season. Rushing Cozens is eminently predictable. How can we realistically expect a decent bottom 9 without 4 centers and JNot's inability to craft that part of the roster?

It was the trend from the Goon Era through the Dead Puck Era. Until the 1993-4 Devils, defensive positioning was a lost art; the clutch-and-grab and hook-and-hold were the only way that most teams knew how to play defence. It got worse every year until the Great Lockout.

Zemgus and Larry would be better players without the tank - they were the top centres on that team on merit. Ristolainen would probably be much better too. They all would have benefitted from more time in Rochester. Then they could have made the NHL roster on a team where good performance was tolerated if not encouraged by the GM.

The GM doesn't deserve the playoffs as a reward for his work, regardless of what the fans and players deserve. Two consecutive years he has failed to find a 2C plus the Sabres don't have enough "good enough" players to compensate. Those are on him.

I saw these at a hockey camp in the 1970's

Yes, he does. Those were prime resources that he threw away, albeit for prime or seemingly prime returns. JBottom throws away less prime resources for lesser returns. Neither is preferable.

I was in grad school and never saw this game before. Thanks, Inkman.

Roger the Dodger's health issues were more important than most remember. Bromley's save percentage in 1974-5 was .873 while Crozier's was .904. Give Crozier a few more games and the Sabres are clearly at the top of the league. That changes three very important things: the Sabres have home ice advantage in the Finals, where they were almost unbeatable; the Flyers play the Canadiens in the Semi-Finals; the Sabres play the Islanders in the Semi-Finals. The Sabres were 0-3-1 against Philadelphia, 3-0-2 against the Islanders, and 4-0-1 against Montreal. According to numerous Flyers in interviews, the Forum was almost Philadelphia's version of the Spectrum for the Sabres. The Sabres are now a big favourite over a young Islanders team, even with rookie Billy Smith and a very good Chico Resch. The likely scenario is a Buffalo-Montreal final, with the Sabres again having home ice advantage. Sabres in 6.

Clearly, it was part of JNot's strategy to have about $30M free this off-season: It was when a lot of contracts JBottom inherited or acquired would expire and the only unacceptable contract which he did not create was Okposo. He has money for contracts for in-house RFAs and UFAs. He also has money to acquire a big ticket item from outside to boot. He has "his" coach broken in. IMHO, his primary goal the last 4 years was to clear the decks from the GMTM years and build the foundation HIS way. That doesn't excuse his performance and influence on the team's horrendous performance in the interim..

What do you get when you cross an elephant and a rhinoceros? Eliphino. That's what I saw.

There are a few places around town (Buffalo) which are doing curb-side haircuts where the barbers are in scrubs. I've passed them on Bailey a couple of times recently.