I don't want this team to win.

[darksabre]

I've been thinking about why I haven't been too wrapped up or high on the Sabres this year. Even now that we're in the playoffs and fighting to stay alive, I'm not stressed nor do I feel like I care at all whether they win or lose. And I think the problem is that I WANT them to lose.

 

I've grown tired of most of the players on this current team. They had their bright spot and it has long since faded, and with that bright spot they left behind their ability to inspire. How can you like a team when you don't want to cheer for the players on it? Dynamic players with heart, grit and skill capture the hearts and minds of the people who watch them. And this team has sorely lacked dynamic players for a long time.

 

Would I like to see them beat the Bruins? Sure, I'd watch it. But I think I would much rather see all these sad excuses for hockey players get blown out tomorrow. I'd like to see Boston crap all over them. A nice 8-1 trouncing to cap off a season mired in the fact that I'm extremely content with watching them lose.

[VansTheMans]

I've been critical of the Sabres squad since DB and CD left.

 

I ragged on them all year, waiting for them to collapse and firesale the roster.

 

But, once we made the playoffs, my feelings changed a bit. I was caught up in the moment. I opened up. I believed again. I gave it a shot.

 

Fast forward to now, and reality has set in.

 

This Sabres team just doesn't have the right stuff.

 

I'm still into it, and my heart is with the team. But I wouldn't be the least bit said if half of the roster was dumped in the summer for some fresh faces. Believe that. TC, Stafford and Pommers need to GO.

[Kristian]

 

Would I like to see them beat the Bruins? Sure, I'd watch it. But I think I would much rather see all these sad excuses for hockey players get blown out tomorrow. I'd like to see Boston crap all over them. A nice 8-1 trouncing to cap off a season mired in the fact that I'm extremely content with watching them lose.

 

Half of me completely agrees with this, simply because I want to see changes all over the line.

 

The other half tells me I HAVE to root for them, cause even if the Bruins bounce them in the first round, there won't BE any changes :(

[SwampD]

C'mon. They only need 15 more wins to get a Stanley Cup. Who cares that it took them from January 27 until April 10 to get that many?

[Kristian]

C'mon. They only need 15 more wins to get a Stanley Cup. Who cares that it took them from January 27 until April 10 to get that many?

 

And they have another 30 hours in which to "grow and develop".

[Derrico]

I've been thinking about why I haven't been too wrapped up or high on the Sabres this year. Even now that we're in the playoffs and fighting to stay alive, I'm not stressed nor do I feel like I care at all whether they win or lose. And I think the problem is that I WANT them to lose.

 

I've grown tired of most of the players on this current team. They had their bright spot and it has long since faded, and with that bright spot they left behind their ability to inspire. How can you like a team when you don't want to cheer for the players on it? Dynamic players with heart, grit and skill capture the hearts and minds of the people who watch them. And this team has sorely lacked dynamic players for a long time.

 

Would I like to see them beat the Bruins? Sure, I'd watch it. But I think I would much rather see all these sad excuses for hockey players get blown out tomorrow. I'd like to see Boston crap all over them. A nice 8-1 trouncing to cap off a season mired in the fact that I'm extremely content with watching them lose.

 

Your not a fan if you hope that your team loses in the playoffs. Being a Bills fan as well, yes I was cheering for them to lose the final two or three games because of the draft pick situation. In the playoffs, no way u cheer for a loss.

[Buffalo Wings]

Your not a fan if you hope that your team loses in the playoffs. Being a Bills fan as well, yes I was cheering for them to lose the final two or three games because of the draft pick situation. In the playoffs, no way u cheer for a loss.

So, what you're saying is you want them to win only if they're in the playoffs. If they're not in the playoffs, you want them to lose.

 

Isn't that the definition of a bandwagon fan?

 

:wallbash:

[Pville29]

Me too i don't want to see the sabres win they don't deserve anything except miller. You guys watch how boston won't be able to keep up with the pens or wash but the way it's going wash will face phily and pitts vs boston and the pens will have so much fun even with a bad goaltending from fleury they will still but the bruins to their place. How can the sabres even compete against the pens it's impossible

[theend]

Criticize Lindy, Darcy, Quinn, Golisano...and any and all players. Call for radical changes, call for players to be shipped out.

 

But say 'I don't want this TEAM to win'?

 

Bluntly, that effing sucks, and so does that attitude. There are problems with this team that are keeping them from winning. Harsh criticism is warranted. But not wanting your team to win is just out and out disloyal and wormlike.

[Realist]

Half of me completely agrees with this, simply because I want to see changes all over the line.

 

The other half tells me I HAVE to root for them, cause even if the Bruins bounce them in the first round, there won't BE any changes :(

Exactly, everbody knows there will never be any significant changes. Regier is quite happy with his team and how he built it up from the farm team, we'll never see any big changes.

[LabattBlue]

I've grown tired of most of the players on this current team. They had their bright spot and it has long since faded, and with that bright spot they left behind their ability to inspire.

I don't want them to lose, but the part of your post I quoted above is exactly the way I feel about this team.

[weehawk]

I think this track of thought is too late. Once we made the playoffs, Darcy's and Lindy's jobs were secured. The team will make minor personnel changes in the off-season and will be back almost intact next year. I'd love to see a roster bomb dropped, but I think the only way it was going to happen was with no playoffs at all. Going out in the first-round is not going to drive major roster changes.

 

You can hear the excuses already. Vanek and Hecht injured and bad refereeing. Here's an upcoming Darcy quote...

 

"No major changes needed. We'll tweak the roster a bit and bring up some youth. Otherwise we're ok."

 

BTW, you NEVER root for you team to lose in the playoffs. No matter what good you think may come of it.

[static70]

Rieger really screwed things up. Now they must be fixed, and not just for the playoffs, but for a championship.

[Mbossy]

I don't want them to lose. I'm going Friday, I'll be loud and cheering on my team.

 

But you betcha, if they are down by more than two late in the third the Daarr-cee Daarr-cee chant is coming out.

[Sam Williams]

I've been thinking about why I haven't been too wrapped up or high on the Sabres this year. Even now that we're in the playoffs and fighting to stay alive, I'm not stressed nor do I feel like I care at all whether they win or lose. And I think the problem is that I WANT them to lose.

 

I've grown tired of most of the players on this current team. They had their bright spot and it has long since faded, and with that bright spot they left behind their ability to inspire. How can you like a team when you don't want to cheer for the players on it? Dynamic players with heart, grit and skill capture the hearts and minds of the people who watch them. And this team has sorely lacked dynamic players for a long time.

 

Would I like to see them beat the Bruins? Sure, I'd watch it. But I think I would much rather see all these sad excuses for hockey players get blown out tomorrow. I'd like to see Boston crap all over them. A nice 8-1 trouncing to cap off a season mired in the fact that I'm extremely content with watching them lose.

 

It all comes down to heart... If you don't have it , you don't have it.

[Canadian Sabre]

Our supposed "main guys" are too inconsistent, anybody who can't see that must be blind or too ignorant to admit it. I'm not a big stat guy, but here is one that makes me cringe:

 

Regular season point totals:

 

Roy-69

Connolly-65

Pominville-62

 

After the first four games of this series, those three players have a combined three points. Pathetic.

[Sam Williams]

Our supposed "main guys" are too inconsistent, anybody who can't see that must be blind or too ignorant to admit it. I'm not a big stat guy, but here is one that makes me cringe:

 

Regular season point totals:

 

Roy-69

Connolly-65

Pominville-62

 

After the first four games of this series, those three players have a combined three points. Pathetic.

 

I'll just say this .... As the management insists on this team getting smaller , and smaller... our prospects of winning the cup get smaller, and smaller.... This isnt 2006 ... that strategy has been obliterated by bigger, hungrier teams.

[FearTheReaper]

I'll just say this .... As the management insists on this team getting smaller , and smaller... our prospects of winning the cup get smaller, and smaller.... This isnt 2006 ... that strategy has been obliterated by bigger, hungrier teams.

 

:thumbsup:

[FearTheReaper]

I agree with Darksabre completly.

 

I dont want this team to win right now, maybe its just blind hope that being eliminated so easily might wake Darcy up.

 

Ryan Miller will be the Vezina winner, and there isn't more than 5 players beyond Myers who haved showed any value, heart, or urgency. Its pathetic, and i feel so bad for Miller. He wants to win so bad, and his worthless teammates are just out there for the money.

 

There is too much comfort between the players and management, and the Roys, Staffords and Pominvilles know it. They know there not going to be moved. So why put it all on the line? There going to get paid regardless of there results.

[Pville29]

Criticize Lindy, Darcy, Quinn, Golisano...and any and all players. Call for radical changes, call for players to be shipped out.

 

But say 'I don't want this TEAM to win'?

 

Bluntly, that effing sucks, and so does that attitude. There are problems with this team that are keeping them from winning. Harsh criticism is warranted. But not wanting your team to win is just out and out disloyal and wormlike.

 

I'm not saying i want them to lose because i'm disloyal or anything it's just that i (and i said I) take those lost really personal so instead of blowing up on every one around me i would like them to take a step back so they can move forward in the future. They not going to be able to win cause they need to fix something up so i would rather see them fixing the problem right now than playing with that poison that's killing them slowly

[carpandean]

Two things:

 

(1) I will never want them to lose in the playoffs. If they don't lose 15 more times (three-in-a-row to start), then I will be able to live with whatever changes they make or don't make in the off-season.

 

(2) They have their excuses for this series - though, they don't hold water, especially since their opponent was already missing their best player (non-goalie, of course, as with Buffalo) - so a loss here won't help the cause. If they squeak by Boston and get destroyed by Pittsburgh with everyone back, then that might.

[theend]

I'll just say this .... As the management insists on this team getting smaller , and smaller... our prospects of winning the cup get smaller, and smaller.... This isnt 2006 ... that strategy has been obliterated by bigger, hungrier teams.

 

But they aren't insisting on getting smaller. People just think that because of Kennedy, Gerbe and Ennis. But Gerbe was drafted in 2005 when that system was working. Ennis was drafted later, in 2008, but can you really argue with how well he's played?

 

And, for clarity, in the past three drafts, of the 22 players drafted, only 3 are under 6'0" (and one of them is Ennis, and another is 5'11"). Drafting and building takes time, so we have a small team right now because that was the direction that was working two years ago. It's not anymore, and the movement away from these players is already underway.

 

Now if Darcy goes out and tries to bring in Gionta or someone of the same ilk, then yeah, that's different.

[Derrico]

So, what you're saying is you want them to win only if they're in the playoffs. If they're not in the playoffs, you want them to lose.

 

Isn't that the definition of a bandwagon fan?

 

:wallbash:

 

No, I cheer for this team every game where the team has a chance to make the playoffs/in the playoffs. Call me a bandwagon fan if you want but it doesn't seem like much sense to watch a team that mathematically has no chance. To me, you always have to back them when the games matter. Look at the Sabres and Bills the past ten years, do you really think by them losing game 5 anything is going to change with management/rosters? You may as well keep on going/watching games or just quit, everyone has that right. To hope for a loss to change things....well you'll be waitin a long time....

[shrader]

But they aren't insisting on getting smaller. People just think that because of Kennedy, Gerbe and Ennis. But Gerbe was drafted in 2005 when that system was working. Ennis was drafted later, in 2008, but can you really argue with how well he's played?

 

And, for clarity, in the past three drafts, of the 22 players drafted, only 3 are under 6'0" (and one of them is Ennis, and another is 5'11"). Drafting and building takes time, so we have a small team right now because that was the direction that was working two years ago. It's not anymore, and the movement away from these players is already underway.

 

Now if Darcy goes out and tries to bring in Gionta or someone of the same ilk, then yeah, that's different.

 

And the Rivet trade and Montador signing, the only main additions from outside the organization point against the idea that they're getting smaller and smaller as well.

[FearTheReaper]

But they aren't insisting on getting smaller. People just think that because of Kennedy, Gerbe and Ennis. But Gerbe was drafted in 2005 when that system was working. Ennis was drafted later, in 2008, but can you really argue with how well he's played?

 

And, for clarity, in the past three drafts, of the 22 players drafted, only 3 are under 6'0" (and one of them is Ennis, and another is 5'11"). Drafting and building takes time, so we have a small team right now because that was the direction that was working two years ago. It's not anymore, and the movement away from these players is already underway.

 

Now if Darcy goes out and tries to bring in Gionta or someone of the same ilk, then yeah, that's different.

 

Drafting players that fit the mold of the current NHL is all well and good. And i uderstand that Darcy is taking steps in that department. The problem with this is that its going to take 2 to 3 years for these biggers prospects to develop. If this is Darcys plan for filling that void, then were all going to be waiting quite some time for the team to make noise in May. And with our current roster, we cant afford to wait that long for top tier contention.

 

What bothers me is that Darcy doesn't / hasn't doesn't use(d) other resources to bring these larger players in here. I believe that the team needs some mid aged, and or vet, presence, with size, in the lapse of time its going to take for these prspectss to mature into NHLers.

 

And again, with the current contracts to the bust players,(Pominville NTC :oops: especially), there is no room to make it happen. Thats the problem, there aren't many ways to fix it.