Sabre The Cup

Man some fans on this board were REALLY wrong just a month ago.

The day I hear the Sabres spend to the cap is when I’ll believe they’re serious about having a good team. Can you even imagine Brandon Beane needing to spend below the cap?

I’d keep it. It could be worth a lot of money one day.

Just jumping in to say I agree. Anybody defending perfectionism doesn’t know what they’re talking about. I read Bills boards after big wins and there’s always people who need to start threads about Curtis Samuel or something else which is similar to a beautiful person looking in the mirror for any blemish they can pick at because they’re single (or didn’t win a championship yet). Buffalo fans don’t know what championship winning looks like. It looks like always getting the W at the end of the day no matter what adversity that was thrown at you. They have difficulty understanding the up and down cycles of life and appreciating resilience more than flashiness. It’s a game and you win it by always getting back up, learning the lesson, and growing. The trophies come when they come, not when you think they should. This Sabres organization is at the beginning of their healing stage. My eyes are also telling me that this team is better than their record. These things balance themselves out. These fans are deeply wounded, don’t know what winning looks like, and don’t know the difference between a major issue that must change and a bump that needs to be overcome. But that’s why they’re fans and not the men in the arena.

I’m all aboard the Greenway hype train. No need to pump the breaks. He’s been a late bloomer but he’s been slowly emerging. Ruff is the perfect coach for him. He has playoff warrior written all over him. Jim Cramer says Buy. Buy. Buy.

It’s clear that without Kyle Okposo the Florida Panthers are just lost.

There can still be truth to this rumor. It’s not like we landed a big fish.

Good trade. THIS is the type of deal we should be doing.

It means they were aggressive for the wrong players. We need to find unheralded guys on other teams and 2nd tier prospects we believe in. Those players you don’t need to try so hard to acquire.

It’s a vicious cycle. Adams overvalues his prospects because he can’t get good players (and inexperienced negotiators are either too reckless or too scared and Adams always seemed the latter). Teams can’t trade their good players to the Sabres because of NTCs. It’s a situation where to get good players the Sabres must overpay in trades, but instead overvalue their prospects. To get good FAs they must heavily overpay but have been cap strapped with bad contracts like Skinner and Okposo and Pegula can’t spend to cap on two sports teams. Furthermore, if the Sabres are not blackballed by GMs, they are likely blackballed by agents and players who strongly influence GMs. To get out of this mess the Sabres need to play moneyball and get REALLY GOOD at identifying diamond in the roughs during the draft and on other teams they can get cheap and have no say on where they get traded. This requires elite scouting and analytics departments, better than other teams. In PSE’s infinite wisdom, they cut these departments to the bare minimum meaning that we actually have bottom tier departments in these areas. Another thing required is a VERY savvy GM (like a Beane) who can turn water into wine, has a good relationship with other GMs who will help him, etc. What we have is the most inexperienced front office exec in the league who everyone knows is a Pegula puppet. Basically, this is an extraordinary disaster. Ruff is a (time limited) step in the right direction but we’re going nowhere until we get a great GM and throw millions into our scouting. Fellas, we are not just the worst run organization in sports, but so historically bad that books can be written on everything we do wrong. Sell the team or stay out of the front office, Pegula.

Or my favorite: ”Who are they supposed to trade for? Nobody is available.” Nobody ever seems to be available for Kevyn Adams. Might as well hold all prospects one more year!

The guy can’t identify the diamonds in the rough we need. He can’t negotiate with other GMs to get what he wants. He has almost no front office experience. His press conferences and interviews are pathetic. Just get this guy out of his misery already. Enough of this “wait and see” crap. Nothing worse than people who need a year to “see what happens” when the ones who have good instincts saw it years ago.

The Sabres organization seems to struggle with their pro scouting. Look, pure strategy here. You have the most undesirable team in the league and no veteran who can help your team wants to come here. What’s the solution? Moneyball. Not necessarily advanced stats, but an eye for diamonds in the rough you can get for a 4th round pick from some teams roster. Same with 3rd tier free agents. It’s clear that Adams doesn’t have an eye for that. Darcy was good at that, though he had his ceiling.

I guess. What are they going to say when asked those fluff questions? That storyline was written the moment he was traded.

I don’t hate the guy but I do feel like he strained our salary cup for half a dozen years before having a PR resurrection as a “great leader” on a team that folded every year before missing the playoffs. He sure as hell never took a pay cut, like a Von Miller. He then gets traded to the cup winner where he contributes little, gets benched, gets another PR storyline, and then his team wins. Peca I would’ve felt happy for if he won a cup. Hasek I kinda felt happy for in that it legitimized his legacy. But not Okposo. This “great leader” wins the cup as a hanger-on.