Marvin

Welcome back!

Agreed. Please help.

Considering how our offence is playing overall, the only truly valuable extra additions the Sabres could have made this off-season are a solid LHD so that Bryson would not be in the top 2 pairs when Samuelsson went down and another goalkeeper.

I wonder what the adjusted +/- would look like. For instance, Alexander Mogilny had his best scoring season in Buffalo. But in Vancouver and New Jersey, he became a reliable back-checker although he was scoring progressively less.

I can't trade the equivalent of 3 firsts unless I am getting a fully healthy Larry Robinson in his prime. Chychrun is good, but he is oft-injured and not as good as I would want at that price.

Bill Hoppe had this last night too.

2-6.

If they are good enough, it won't matter.

LHD to push Bryson out of our top 6 D is all I think is realistic.

I thought so too. The Rangers series proved it.

The time to hire Ruff was instead of Housley or Krueger. It's too late now. People forget how much Hasek covered for Ruff's inexperience when he started. Granato is learning on the job too, which is frustrating.

On goalkeepers: IMHO, it looks like his experience from Carolina biases him. He clearly does not value goalkeepers the way I do and it looks like moat of us do. As for not getting some well-considered veteran forwards, he clearly looked at how many youngsters he felt belong on the team and decided he wanted them playing rather than bring in someone new. It is on defence where I think he goofed this past season. He really over-estimated Bryson. He needed the analogue to Lyubushkin on the left side.

Or the first year of the Sabres.

Hinostroza's problem is that he has no chemistry with Mittlestadt and Olofsson.

Great. WGR and the NJD radio station are blocked online and MSG is blocked online. I need this thread to keep up.

Happy Turkey Day!

We keep a RB or TE in to help block and still Detroit gets pressure with 4. Meanwhile, with the injuries, we rush 6 and Detroit can man block. We need a BIG improvement in the OL for next season.

The Sabres also have the record for best winning percentage at Thanksgiving to miss the playoffs. The 2010-1 Sabres had the worst record at Thanksgiving to make the playoffs.

Well, this thread was timely.

People also forget how many injuries they had that season.

As my friend at NASA says, "bubble gum and hairpins."

The goal you are thinking of was Carolina's go-ahead goal. He looks deflated on the replay, but giving up? I don't see that at all. (All of Game 7 is on YouTube.) I don't know of anyone anywhere who thinks we would have swept Carolina without injuries. The fewest games I see people say with "ordinary" injuries is 6, like I do.

Yeah, that's more like it. Like I said, how is a team with THAT defence not blown out by an eventual Cup Winner if they would have won even without the Sabres' injuries?

Caveat: the under-rating of Carolina is not just in Buffalo, but league wide. Having said that, they were exceptionally lucky not just with their lack of injuries, but critical injuries to their opponents -- not just Buffalo. Does anyone beat Ottawa if Hasek does not get injured in the Olympics? The Habs were up 2-0 on Carolina before Koivu got injured. And you have to ask if Edmonton wins the Cup if their #1G is not injured -- in game 1 of the Final. And most fans besides Buffalonians think the Sabres win that series handily with just 2 of the D back from injury; many make the argument that just 1 would have changed the outcome of Game 7. However, sure we can make a very educated guess as to what could have happened. Carolina was missing their #3C, which washes with the Sabres missing Connolly. The Sabres were missing their #4D, Kalinin, the entire series. Their #1D in Tallinder was injured in Game 3. After game 2, their #5D in Numminen only played 1 period of Game 6. And then the nail in the coffin was their #3D, McKee, getting the stapf infection after Game 6. The analogue of that defence in Game 7 is Dahlin, Power, Lyubushkin, Bryson, Pilut, and Fitzgerald -- and saying Lyubushkin is the equivalent of Fitzpatrick is being pretty generous to Rory. If Carolina had been so good that they would have beaten the Sabres with no injuries, why didn't they blow the Sabres out in any of games 4-7? The Sabres were leading game 7 heading into the 3rd period, for God's Sake. That should never happen if Carolina were as good as you claim; it should have been a shooting gallery in the Buffalo end with something like a 5-1 final with Carolina floating through the 3rd period. And that does not even count that game 7 should never have happened if they had been that good. I literally can not think of any reason that the Sabres don't win that series in 6 if they only had been missing Connolly, Kalinin, and Numminen after game 3. Heck, I can make the argument that if the had had Connolly for the series, they beat Carolina even with the D injuries because he made that power play lethal.

What is different is that when healthy, the team actually has all NHLers in the line-up.