Marvin

Just a bit of pushback on collecting picks: Recall that XGMTM squandered picks getting Bogosian, Kane, Lehner, and O'Reilly. Recall that XGMJB drafted fewer than 1 player per round and wasted a 1st trading away Brendan Guhle. At least GMKA actually has been collecting and using his picks. Is his process excruciatingly slow given our current drought? God, yes. But as of now, it does seem to be working. It is clear that he needs to get some defencive depth and better goaltending. I do fear that he is willing to go the 6-headed monster route and expect someone to get hot in the playoffs like Cam Ward did.

This is up to GMKA and Mike Bales. If GMKA is thinking about it, he then needs to consult the goaltending coach to see if what ails Petersen can be fixed. Personally, I would rather give Subban and Houser a chance instead.

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?