GAME DISCUSSION THREAD

[Ghost of Dwight Drane]

Me neither. Change can be good. Smart change is better. Change for change's sake is not good. Advocating change is just fine. Whether people share your draconian version of change is another thing--but no one resents it. Why would they?

 

DeLuca has seen his share of personal attacks, so did PA. I have seen some as well, but I instigate at times. Heck, Nfreeman has seen a crusade against him the past month, and I used to consider him a homer.

 

It's a can't win if you really hold this team to task and they play anywhere above horrible. The first half of the season Scott was nowhere to be found, and the majority of this board got along because there were few expectations. There would be 30-60 people on and game threads were 6-7 pages. Once the Pegula Prozac was distributed.....it became a whole different animal.

[wnyguy]

DeLuca has seen his share of personal attacks, so did PA. I have seen some as well, but I instigate at times. Heck, Nfreeman has seen a crusade against him the past month, and I used to consider him a homer.

 

It's a can't win if you really hold this team to task and they play anywhere above horrible. The first half of the season Scott was nowhere to be found, and the majority of this board got along because there were few expectations. There would be 30-60 people on and game threads were 6-7 pages. Once the Pegula Prozac was distributed.....it became a whole different animal.

 

 

Or was it more simply that the Sabres started playing exciting and winning hockey at about the same time? Look, pessimist or optimist we're all, in the end, disappointed again. And next season I'll put on my rose colored glasses and think there is no way we don't win the Cup.

[SDS]

DeLuca has seen his share of personal attacks, so did PA. I have seen some as well, but I instigate at times. Heck, Nfreeman has seen a crusade against him the past month, and I used to consider him a homer.

 

It's a can't win if you really hold this team to task and they play anywhere above horrible. The first half of the season Scott was nowhere to be found, and the majority of this board got along because there were few expectations. There would be 30-60 people on and game threads were 6-7 pages. Once the Pegula Prozac was distributed.....it became a whole different animal.

 

After doing this for 13 years, I rarely post for a variety of reasons. But I'm here, every day.

 

As an FYI, the gaggle you find kinship with drives as many people away as you think you attract. I know this because they tell me. I ask people why they leave and they respond with the fact they have no desire to read how much this team, from ownership to players, sucks on an hourly basis. No one really wants to read how Terry Pegula, sitting in the 3rd row of his suite, is setting the wrong tone.

 

So yes, DeLuca was left to rooting for Kovy all year, PA attacked Miller, Ruff and the fans on an hourly basis, Kristian has posted every day for 4 years that he doesn't like Tim Connolly and you sit back all day and think of metaphors/analogies/similies. The rest of us who stay are essentially numb to it all most days.

 

And this isn't to say the team shouldn't be criticized. X. is critical quite frequently, so is everyone. So am I. It's just that some present themselves in such a way as to question whether they really are fans of the team.

 

The postership got a boost when LGS shut their doors and we inherited posters like weave. Playoffs ALWAYS boost activity...

[Dave Dryden]

DeLuca has seen his share of personal attacks, so did PA. I have seen some as well, but I instigate at times. Heck, Nfreeman has seen a crusade against him the past month, and I used to consider him a homer.

 

It's a can't win if you really hold this team to task and they play anywhere above horrible. The first half of the season Scott was nowhere to be found, and the majority of this board got along because there were few expectations. There would be 30-60 people on and game threads were 6-7 pages. Once the Pegula Prozac was distributed.....it became a whole different animal.

I understand, and perhaps your generalizations are right. I can't speak for others, but at the end of the day I think we all want results. I hate to fu*&ing lose. I hate the feeling of losing far more than I like the feel of winning. The winning fades fast, the losing sticks with you for a long time. I hate that feeling. So I am never happy with losing, but I don't share the view that you always rip something apart and start over just because you did not end up where you wanted to. There are times when it is the right approach--like with the Bills or Bush Administration. I just don't think that's where the Sabres are at. But that doesn't mean I'm swallowing some pablum or am profoundly complacent. I think this team needs a vigorous scalpel, not a meat cleaver, to get to where they need to go. But I recognize others do not agree. But it's a legitimate debate, not that one side is stupid and happy with losing, and the other is bold and will settle for nothing but the best. It is much more nuanced than that in my opinion. And I'll know it when I see it if Pegula is fiddling while Rome burns, or making a bona fide attempt to fix the team's deficiencies--only time will tell.

[Ghost of Dwight Drane]

Or was it more simply that the Sabres started playing exciting and winning hockey at about the same time? Look, pessimist or optimist we're all, in the end, disappointed again. And next season I'll put on my rose colored glasses and think there is no way we don't win the Cup.

 

One in the same, but Pegula is a "get out of jail free" card for the polyanna crowd.

 

The 2nd half of the year was the most exciting time since '06, for sure. Maybe there will be some needed change, but so far all Pegula has done is to hand out bullet proof vests to the staff and tell Jerry Sullivan and DeLuca they're baaaaad boys.

[Knightrider]

Sabres stats for the series as taken from the 7 event summaries like link.

 

 

 

 

 

I was surprised Stafford led fowards in ice time.

 

 

We sure tailed off in the hitting dept, with the exception of Gerbe...

 

 

While Butler's giveaways were glaring, if he was a giveaway machine, he wasn't our best one. He wasn't even close.

 

 

Weber is the second coming of Jay McKee. ;)

 

 

When did Stafford put all those shots on net? I remember Gerbe's, and not Stafford for some reason.

 

 

Vanek might want to try throwing the puck toward the net more often. :death:

 

 

 

For all the constructive criticism he taken for his faceoffs, Timmy did pretty well.

[Dave Dryden]

One in the same, but Pegula is a "get out of jail free" card for the polyanna crowd.

 

The 2nd half of the year was the most exciting time since '06, for sure. Maybe there will be some needed change, but so far all Pegula has done is to hand out bullet proof vests to the staff and tell Jerry Sullivan and DeLuca they're baaaaad boys.

I don't think that's right. I think he has shown that he gives a sh*t about the players--former and current. I don't think the team felt that way towards prior ownership since July 2007. Or the way they handled Tim Kennedy. It was all just business. So you get paid whether you block a shot or not--since it's just business why get hurt?

 

When Pegula acted like he gives a sh*t, the players seemed to believe him. He ponied up for Boyes at the deadline to help. He cared about the players and their families. You block shots and get hurt to win for a guy like that-- not so much for Larry Quinn.

 

Attitude counts. But they need more talent. I agree the jury is out on that, but he has not had an off-season yet and to expect him to make a major makeover at this year's trade deadline is not reasonable, and not prudent either. He is a much better position to know now what they need. As I said before, only time will tell if he takes action as promised.

[Ghost of Dwight Drane]

After doing this for 13 years, I rarely post for a variety of reasons. But I'm here, every day.

 

As an FYI, the gaggle you find kinship with drives as many people away as you think you attract. I know this because they tell me. I ask people why they leave and they respond with the fact they have no desire to read how much this team, from ownership to players, sucks on an hourly basis. No one really wants to read how Terry Pegula, sitting in the 3rd row of his suite, is setting the wrong tone.

 

So yes, DeLuca was left to rooting for Kovy all year, PA attacked Miller, Ruff and the fans on an hourly basis, Kristian has posted every day for 4 years that he doesn't like Tim Connolly and you sit back all day and think of metaphors/analogies/similies. The rest of us who stay are essentially numb to it all most days.

 

And this isn't to say the team shouldn't be criticized. X. is critical quite frequently, so is everyone. So am I. It's just that some present themselves in such a way as to question whether they really are fans of the team.

 

The postership got a boost when LGS shut their doors and we inherited posters like weave. Playoffs ALWAYS boost activity...

 

X hates young girls in short hemlines and you hate Montador

[nfreeman]

I don't think that's right. I think he has shown that he gives a sh*t about the players--former and current. I don't think the team felt that way towards prior ownership since July 2007. Or the way they handled Tim Kennedy. It was all just business. So you get paid whether you block a shot or not--since it's just business why get hurt?

 

When Pegula acted like he gives a sh*t, the players seemed to believe him. He ponied up for Boyes at the deadline to help. He cared about the players and their families. You block shots and get hurt to win for a guy like that-- not so much for Larry Quinn.

 

Attitude counts. But they need more talent. I agree the jury is out on that, but he has not had an off-season yet and to expect him to make a major makeover at this year's trade deadline is not reasonable, and not prudent either. He is a much better position to know now what they need. As I said before, only time will tell if he takes action as promised.

 

good post.

[X. Benedict]

X hates young girls in short hemlines and you hate Montador

 

I happen to like the 49 and under crowd.

 

 

But I can go even younger...

[Weave]

Aaaaawwwww.... SDS thinks of me. :wub:

 

Well now, this was a most entertaining and enjoyable read this evening. Is every offseason this entertaining?

 

I'm not convinced of anything with Pegula yet. Call me cautiously optimistic. We'll see what July 1 brings.

 

I have to say, I hope the 3 home games in April turn out to be worth the lost draft picks. I was one of the folks along with DeLuca that took quite a bit of abuse in the days leading up to the deadline over the idea of moving assets for tradeable picks. I enjoyed the run, and enjoyed the playoffs. But my gut tells me it postponed real change by a couple of years. I hope team MGT proves my concerns unfounded in July. But given the amount of cap space consumed by our top 6, I'm not confident.

 

And holy cow is this place a rollercoaster of emotional blather right now. I'm counting the days until we can get back to rational, intelligent conversation again. :bag:

[Taro T]

...

 

It happens for 29 teams every year.

And further on that thought, there are AT LEAST 10 teams that will wait more than 2 DECADES to hoist the cup again/for that 1st time.

 

IF a championship is the ONLY thing it's about, you'd better become a Wings fan or switch sports to something that doesn't have 30 teams. (Bandits anyone? ;))

 

I really want to see the Sabres hoist the SC, but since February, I'm not just hoping they'll do it I'm expecting they will, AND I'm expecting the ride will be enjoyable regardless of whether it's 3, 6, or 10 years out. (My guess is w/ the goal being 3, 6 sounds about right.)

 

I DO NOT agree with the premise that this was a great ride and that it was an amazing, enjoyable back half of the season. This was another average, mediocre Sabres team in the end. So what if they went on a tear after New Year's? They put themselves in that position by performing so terribly BEFORE New Year's. We're supposed to be impressed? The NHL regular season is, after all, probably the most meaningless of the four major sports. If you can't get into the NHL playoffs, you really have a pretty lousy team. Sneaking into the playoffs in the final week of the season is UNIMPRESSIVE to me. (And that is NOT the same thing as advocating for winning the President's Trophy).

Personally, I'd say it's either MLB or NBA that has the most meaningless regular season. The regular season used to matter in MLB (you played at least 2x more games than any other league and you had to WIN your division to go to the post-season; I'm not certain why they still bother w/ 162 games when you still let a wildcard in and they've won it all). I don't follow pro hoops (at least not since '78), but it seems that the talking heads can usually narrow the finalists down to about 2 teams from each conference prior to the 1st tip off in November. With that the case, why do the Clippers even bother showing up?

 

Is Carolina a 'pretty lousy team?' Personally, I think we'd've seen a 7th series end up going 7 games had they beat out the Strangers. Last year, they had to extend the regular season to a final shootout to figure out the last 2 seeds and the team that snuck in AFTER the regular season was scheduled to be done found themselves in the Finals. Had the Strangers found a way to get 1 more point last year, there would absolutely have been a different SC Final and there would still only be 2 teams to ever come back from 3-0 (heck that might have given Chicago all it needed to get over the hump this year as I just couldn't see that happening 2 years in a row). The regular season WAS important last year. It was this year too. Had the Sabres been able to swap spots w/ the Pens, I could definitely see them beating the Bolts and Filly's random goalie generation probably would have cost them 1 more game.

 

What really matters -- for players and coaches alike -- is the PLAYOFFS. What players can do in the post-season is what's important. For example: does it matter that Stafford had 30 goals (all scored in, like, 14 games) when compared to his playoff numbers? He was David Copperfield in round one, disappearing from the score sheet. Brad Boyes was a joke, afraid to go to the front of the net except for his tap-in meaningless goal when the Cryers were already in mid-celebration. I don't want to hear any more garbage about Connolly and Pomminstein getting hurt, thereby putting a big dent in our penalty killing capabilities. They are part of the failed core of this team and, if it were me, both of them would go.

 

I join those who believe the veteran core of this team is NOT good enough. Most certainly, we do not have true goal scorers and definitely no game changers. Say what you will about Briere, he scores in the playoffs. They're not looking for him to backcheck, to be physical, to kill penalties. He scores BIG goals. Some guys have the knack. Most do not. We don't have anyone with the knack any more, not since Briere and Drury both left. And, the truth is that Briere also has a strong supporting cast around him. How many of our guys are driving into the crease from all angles like Briere does in the playoffs, knowing he'll likely get nailed? Call him a goal-hanger. Fine. He's a goal hanger who SCORES big goals. We let a guy who shows up in the playoffs go and kept the pretenders.

 

I don't believe in tweaking this lineup. I think we make four or five BOLD moves this off-season. On my list of players who are expendable (in no particular order):

 

Pomminstein Roy Niedermeyer Grier Connolly Stafford

 

I give Boyes one year to show he was worth acquiring because he deserves one full season on the team to prove it. Otherwise, yet another Darcy bust. If he looks like he did AFTER scoring a few goals when he first got here, then he goes on the list, too. Vanek could be very, very good with the right players around him. Could be. I don't blame Miller in this whole thing. By and large, he was easily the main reason we went to seven games. To see it differently is insane. If we had the Philly three-headed goalie monster in our net, it was over in four.

 

I give the team credit for really playing hard in the playoffs. In my view, effort was not the issue at all. We stood up physically with the Cryers for the whole series, which I never thought we'd do. We just do NOT have the horses Philly does. It might have been over in four if the Cryers didn't have such a roller-coaster situation in goal. Reputations are made in the NHL Playoffs, not during the regular season. I will not celebrate "mediocrity" and say, "Oh, look at the promising young talent we have for the future." That's for teams who get knocked out in the first round. And for every one of those guys, we have another who comes up small in crunch time. We need more guys who come up BIG during crunch time. Period.

 

Agree with me or not, thanks for letting me purge this rant.

I don't know that the bolded is quite accurate. The forwards the Sabres have COULD be game changers (heck Kaleta scored the only goal in the 1st game, and Ennis scored in OT on a play started by Niedermayer; both game changing plays that came from these forwards), the issue is, as others have mentioned they have a lot of support guys that could thrive off the 1st line but they don't have that #1 center to let them be where they could thrive.

 

They showed in the new year that they can compete but aren't quite there. 1 - 3 players could be all it takes to push them to the level they need to be at. Other than Richards (who will be heavily courted) I don't know that the guy they need is available. But these guys aren't that far away. Perhaps it's in the semantics and we're actually on the same page, but I see bringing in 1 or 2 players to be a 'tweak.' But it could be a stunning tweak. And I don't see 4-5 major moves in a single off-season. Had they been as bad as Filly was in '07, I could see 4-5 major moves. This team isn't that far away and the FA classes are far sparser this year (or so it seems).

[Taro T]

Aaaaawwwww.... SDS thinks of me. :wub:

 

Well now, this was a most entertaining and enjoyable read this evening. Is every offseason this entertaining?

 

I'm not convinced of anything with Pegula yet. Call me cautiously optimistic. We'll see what July 1 brings.

 

I have to say, I hope the 3 home games in April turn out to be worth the lost draft picks. I was one of the folks along with DeLuca that took quite a bit of abuse in the days leading up to the deadline over the idea of moving assets for tradeable picks. I enjoyed the run, and enjoyed the playoffs. But my gut tells me it postponed real change by a couple of years. I hope team MGT proves my concerns unfounded in July. But given the amount of cap space consumed by our top 6, I'm not confident.

 

And holy cow is this place a rollercoaster of emotional blather right now. I'm counting the days until we can get back to rational, intelligent conversation again. :bag:

I'm more interested in seeing right now what happens at the draft. Only 1 team will end up w/ Richards on 7/1. The draft is where most of the off-season wheeling & dealing takes place.

 

Under the former regime, Darcy did a decent to good job of bringing in players. The problem was, it was always a (at best) 'Darcy, you can bring 1 in, but you've gotta let 1 go as well.' Now he doesn't have to give up a similar asset to pick one up. Let's see what changes there, if anything.

 

Draft picks (almost always) are 4 or so years out before they help you out. There seems to be a lot of young talent in the pipeline. I'd prefer to have kept most of the current assets (though there were 1 or 2 that I wouldn't mind having seen replaced ;)) even if it's just the 7 extra games we got to watch this spring rather than what a great 3rd round pick will be in 4 years is what they really amounted to in the end (that and the cash & cap space that gets freed up when a UFA walks away). If they see that really intriguing guy in the 2nd or 3rd, they still have enough assets around to make a run @ that pick.

[Ghost of Dwight Drane]

Forgive me for not seeing the specific context...

 

But by any standard you have to admit that you have a bleak perspective that is long on analogy: waste, dying, nuclear meltdown, another year squandered (just in this post)... :beer:

 

 

I'll take it on face value. If that's what you see that's what you see. Waste, dying, nuclear meltdown, another year squandered.

 

It happens for 29 teams every year.

 

That's the biggest loser excuse of all. That's Darcy talk. "You need to let the market find itself and not make any rash decisions. Then maybe you get lucky and win."

 

Bull####!!!

 

 

I'm involved in a sport where there are 35,000 horses born every year, and only 1 wins the Kentucky Derby. You get 1 crack at it. Guess what....when I evaluate potential talent, I don't care about the numbers. You use what you know, what you feel, and believe you are going to give yourself the best shot possible to succeed with that particular animal. Just as in hockey, sometimes you are limited by a checkbook and you look for 4th liners at a bargain to go with franchise players.....but you work hard, and find a few that you really have confidence in and you go after it. And when you surround yourself with good people.....you are going to get the job done at some point....or at least have a heck of a good time trying.

 

You see me as negative on a HOCKEY BOARD, because for as long as you've "known" me, the team that I care about has been chasing it's own tail and I feel things could have been a lot better along the way. I have no real control over the situation....and that is the frustrating part, especially when I see the solution as being somewhat simple. All I can really do is not spend money or not pay attention. I like sports too much to not pay attention, so as long as I follow this team and still care, I'm going to observe and report.

 

This isn't a lottery ticket....it's the NHL where if you are better than everyone else and have just a little bit of luck, you will eventually win. If Pegula thinks he has the right people in place to get it done, then God Bless.

 

Beliefs are in your mind.....Reality is hoisted 7 weeks from now.

 

Put that on a T-shirt Ted Black.

[X. Benedict]

I'm more interested in seeing right now what happens at the draft. Only 1 team will end up w/ Richards on 7/1. The draft is where most of the off-season wheeling & dealing takes place.

 

Under the former regime, Darcy did a decent to good job of bringing in players. The problem was, it was always a (at best) 'Darcy, you can bring 1 in, but you've gotta let 1 go as well.' Now he doesn't have to give up a similar asset to pick one up. Let's see what changes there, if anything.

 

Draft picks (almost always) are 4 or so years out before they help you out. There seems to be a lot of young talent in the pipeline. I'd prefer to have kept most of the current assets (though there were 1 or 2 that I wouldn't mind having seen replaced ;)) even if it's just the 7 extra games we got to watch this spring rather than what a great 3rd round pick will be in 4 years is what they really amounted to in the end (that and the cash & cap space that gets freed up when a UFA walks away). If they see that really intriguing guy in the 2nd or 3rd, they still have enough assets around to make a run @ that pick.

 

Good stuff. I'm actually thinking that this may be the year that the draft has a lot of movement of players and lots of teams reworking cap room. And July 1st will be a dud.

 

The irony is that as soon as we have an owner willing to play big on the UFA market we have a crappy UFA market. (Why couldn't this be 2009 with Gaborik, the Sedins, Hossa, and Cammalari available? Rats :lol: )

[SwampD]

It sure would be nice to be that 1 team just once in my life time.

 

There is a board-wide resentment towards those of us who advocate change. As one of those that advocates change I have to ask a simple question. Why all the excitement over Terry Pegula? If this team is so close to being a contender and is well run and well coached what difference can he really make? There seems to be a great deal of hypocrisy among the masses since Pegula became known.

In my mind, Pegula is the only thing to be excited about right now. So far we are hearing the exact same things that we have been hearing at the end of every season for that last half decade. "Great young talent", "they're only going to get better", etc, etc, blah, blah, blah.

 

Five years ago, the great young talent that we were so excited about turned into the core that we have no faith in now. Pegula's enthusiasm is the only thing different this off-season. Let's hope it's enough.

[X. Benedict]

That's the biggest loser excuse of all. That's Darcy talk. "You need to let the market find itself and not make any rash decisions. Then maybe you get lucky and win."

 

Bull####!!!

What excuse? I wasn't making a market argument...simple math...29 teams out of 30 lose.

I'm not asking you to like it.

 

The metaphors were yours. At least I thought. Sorry if I misquoted. I'm not asking you to be happy or different...I accept it.

 

I'm involved in a sport where there are 35,000 horses born every year, and only 1 wins the Kentucky Derby. You get 1 crack at it. Guess what....when I evaluate potential talent, I don't care about the numbers. You use what you know, what you feel, and believe you are going to give yourself the best shot possible to succeed with that particular animal. Just as in hockey, sometimes you are limited by a checkbook and you look for 4th liners at a bargain to go with franchise players.....but you work hard, and find a few that you really have confidence in and you go after it. And when you surround yourself with good people.....you are going to get the job done at some point....or at least have a heck of a good time trying.

 

See, you enjoy it.

 

You see me as negative on a HOCKEY BOARD, because for as long as you've "known" me, the team that I care about has been chasing it's own tail and I feel things could have been a lot better along the way. I have no real control over the situation....and that is the frustrating part, especially when I see the solution as being somewhat simple. All I can really do is not spend money or not pay attention. I like sports too much to not pay attention, so as long as I follow this team and still care, I'm going to observe and report.

I'm certainly not chasing you away.

 

This isn't a lottery ticket....it's the NHL where if you are better than everyone else and have just a little bit of luck, you will eventually win. If Pegula thinks he has the right people in place to get it done, then God Bless.

 

I think it is the hardest major professional team sport to win.

Beliefs are in your mind.....Reality is hoisted 7 weeks from now.

 

Put that on a T-shirt Ted Black.

 

Someone will win. I will be watching. Who do you think it will be?

Whoever you think it will be, chances are you're wrong. That's the beauty of it.

[Derrico]

Aaaaawwwww.... SDS thinks of me. :wub:

 

Well now, this was a most entertaining and enjoyable read this evening. Is every offseason this entertaining?

 

I'm not convinced of anything with Pegula yet. Call me cautiously optimistic. We'll see what July 1 brings.

 

I have to say, I hope the 3 home games in April turn out to be worth the lost draft picks. I was one of the folks along with DeLuca that took quite a bit of abuse in the days leading up to the deadline over the idea of moving assets for tradeable picks. I enjoyed the run, and enjoyed the playoffs. But my gut tells me it postponed real change by a couple of years. I hope team MGT proves my concerns unfounded in July. But given the amount of cap space consumed by our top 6, I'm not confident.

 

And holy cow is this place a rollercoaster of emotional blather right now. I'm counting the days until we can get back to rational, intelligent conversation again. :bag:

 

I'm not sure I'd call that cautiously optimistic lol.

[Weave]

I'm not sure I'd call that cautiously optimistic lol.

 

I'm cautiously optimistic that I'll wake up tomorrow too but until it actually happens I'm not convinced that will happen either.

 

Said another way, I believe our chances that "good" change will happen under Pegula are greater than they have ever been under Rigas or Golisano. But right now we have sound bites and apparent enthusiasm. Come September I'll have the evidence I need to be convinced one way or the other.

[Stormin Norman]

 

Personally, I'd say it's either MLB or NBA that has the most meaningless regular season. The regular season used to matter in MLB (you played at least 2x more games than any other league and you had to WIN your division to go to the post-season; I'm not certain why they still bother w/ 162 games when you still let a wildcard in and they've won it all). I don't follow pro hoops (at least not since '78), but it seems that the talking heads can usually narrow the finalists down to about 2 teams from each conference prior to the 1st tip off in November. With that the case, why do the Clippers even bother showing up?

 

Is Carolina a 'pretty lousy team?' Personally, I think we'd've seen a 7th series end up going 7 games had they beat out the Strangers. Last year, they had to extend the regular season to a final shootout to figure out the last 2 seeds and the team that snuck in AFTER the regular season was scheduled to be done found themselves in the Finals. Had the Strangers found a way to get 1 more point last year, there would absolutely have been a different SC Final and there would still only be 2 teams to ever come back from 3-0 (heck that might have given Chicago all it needed to get over the hump this year as I just couldn't see that happening 2 years in a row). The regular season WAS important last year. It was this year too. Had the Sabres been able to swap spots w/ the Pens, I could definitely see them beating the Bolts and Filly's random goalie generation probably would have cost them 1 more game.

 

 

I don't know that the bolded is quite accurate. The forwards the Sabres have COULD be game changers (heck Kaleta scored the only goal in the 1st game, and Ennis scored in OT on a play started by Niedermayer; both game changing plays that came from these forwards), the issue is, as others have mentioned they have a lot of support guys that could thrive off the 1st line but they don't have that #1 center to let them be where they could thrive.

 

They showed in the new year that they can compete but aren't quite there. 1 - 3 players could be all it takes to push them to the level they need to be at. Other than Richards (who will be heavily courted) I don't know that the guy they need is available. But these guys aren't that far away. Perhaps it's in the semantics and we're actually on the same page, but I see bringing in 1 or 2 players to be a 'tweak.' But it could be a stunning tweak. And I don't see 4-5 major moves in a single off-season. Had they been as bad as Filly was in '07, I could see 4-5 major moves. This team isn't that far away and the FA classes are far sparser this year (or so it seems).

 

Good points all. And a respectful rebuttal at that. I think we've seen where dramatic changes have had an adverse impact - cummulatively Drury, Briere, Campbell, and Dumont might paint the picture. I'd like to think we can plug in these types going forward. After all, Darcy's the one who got them in the first place.

 

Thanks for a good discussion!

[rickshaw]

As soon as Labialette talks about getting rid of Danny, I'll start thinking about having him back. I don't see that as being high on his or Holmgren's lists.

 

PS congrats on your Nucks. Burrows was pretty damn certain that he'd be talked about 1 way or the other, wasn't he?

 

I do want to be very clear, The Sabres are my number one team. But being born in Vancouver and living in BC my whole life, the Canucks are my 1A. I wanted the Sabres to beat Philly and I'm bumbed, especially since they had game 6!! But the Canucks win over the Hawks was huge on many levels. Now that I don't have to worry about my teams meeting in the Finals, I can focus on the 'nucks. I hope they win it all.

 

As for our Sabres, I'm so happy to have an owner like Pegula. Vancouver has an owner passionate about the Canucks and the Sabres have an owner passionate about the Sabres. It's a good feeling.

[Kristian]

Forgive me for not seeing the specific context...

 

But by any standard you have to admit that you have a bleak perspective that is long on analogy: waste, dying, nuclear meltdown, another year squandered (just in this post)... :beer:

 

 

I'll take it on face value. If that's what you see that's what you see. Waste, dying, nuclear meltdown, another year squandered.

It happens for 29 teams every year.

 

I beg to differ.

 

Out the 29 teams who don't win the cup, several make changes. Some change coaches, others move players, some are sellers looking to rebuild, others adjust to become more succesful and perhaps get "over the hump".

 

Then there are the 6-7 teams who do nothing, except let a few free agents go bring up a few kids to play or sign a 30-something low-priced veteran or two. The Sabres are one of those teams.

 

My point is, other teams seem to be in motion. Some get better, some get worse, but the Sabres seem to be standing still, waiting for their fabled core to become superstars during every off-season.

 

And that doesn't happen to 29 teams every year.

 

*edit

 

I am not of the "only the cup counts" crowd.

 

I was very entertained in the early games of the series, by the Sabres stepping up and playing a physical game against Philly. Much more enjoyable to watch than some of the 1-0 chess games, although wins are wins, and there's no debating that.

 

That said, this team's issues have been glaring for most people for years, yet nothing has been done to adress it.

 

I don't need a cup to be entertained, but it's obvious that while beating the league senseless the second half of the season, to sneak into 7th is fun to watch, I'd much rather have them cruise in at 6th through a full seasons plus .500 hockey.

 

Watching the same show over and over gets tedious, especially if it wasn't all that great to begin with.

 

Time to either get real good, or get real bad so we get a shot at the lottery. This middle of the pack stuff gets you nowhere, and it's not all that exciting to watch either, which is my biggest beef.

[K-9]

I do want to be very clear, The Sabres are my number one team. But being born in Vancouver and living in BC my whole life, the Canucks are my 1A. I wanted the Sabres to beat Philly and I'm bumbed, especially since they had game 6!! But the Canucks win over the Hawks was huge on many levels. Now that I don't have to worry about my teams meeting in the Finals, I can focus on the 'nucks. I hope they win it all.

 

As for our Sabres, I'm so happy to have an owner like Pegula. Vancouver has a Vancouver owner who will do what it takes, and now finally, we have one too!

 

Pegula is from Vancouver? Who knew.

 

Seriously though, I'm rooting for the 'Nucks at this point as well.

 

GO SABRES!!!

[spndnchz]

I'm not sure what I hate about this team. I need to pick a few things and run with it.

[rickshaw]

Pegula is from Vancouver? Who knew.

 

Seriously though, I'm rooting for the 'Nucks at this point as well.

 

GO SABRES!!!

 

 

i re-read that line i wrote. yikes. poorly written but now, fixed!!!