Jump to content

Recommended Posts

Posted

You think Crapahan has it rigged? I don't know who I dislike more - Shanahan, or his wimpy boss, Bettman.

Yes.

 

 

Tomorrow, there'll be an announcement from the league office that the Buffalo Sabres have forfeited their 1st pick in this years draft, because John Scott was on the ice in Sundays game against the Islanders.

Posted

That was a tough fight for Scott because he couldn't get good leverage on the short stocky player. He's like mini-me Georges Laraque. But Scott is the only one willing to take on anyone, especially Lucic and Chara. The problem is the league treats the Sabres tough guys like red headed stepchildren, while allowing Bruin agitators to get away with their cheap shots.

Posted

This guy goes down in Sabres history as the biggest bust ever, and should stand as a monument over Darcy's tenure here.

No question,totally agree but for a couple brief moments you could actually see that player there. Just more proof that he's an ass and must go.
Posted

I hate the idea of tanking and I don't think that's what they did--face it, this team wasn't going to win many games. But such a post would be silly. The point of tanking is to guarantee a top 2 pick, and the Sabres are guaranteed that.

This year can be forgiven because there was probably no "intention" at first to throw this season for a top pick going in. With the front office reshuffling and selling off the upcoming FAs it was inevitable that this team was going to be bad for the rest of the season so I don't see an issue with them being bad enough to get the top pick.

 

There should be a huge issue if this team decides to Tank next season in order to try and obtain McDavid.

Posted

There should be a huge issue if this team decides to Tank next season in order to try and obtain McDavid.

 

Issue with who? The Sabres need truly ELITE talent. They have zero elite forwards.

There's no easier way to acquire forwards than to draft them high. Especially for a market like Buffalo.

The team isn't going to be good enough to even contend for a wild card spot next season. They'll be lucky to even get out of the basement with effort, so I see no problem with them sticking there one more year.

Posted

Issue with who? The Sabres need truly ELITE talent. They have zero elite forwards.

There's no easier way to acquire forwards than to draft them high. Especially for a market like Buffalo.

The team isn't going to be good enough to even contend for a wild card spot next season. They'll be lucky to even get out of the basement with effort, so I see no problem with them sticking there one more year.

 

IMO the league should have a huge issue with it. Setting up your roster with the intent of finishing in last place should be penalized by the league IMO. It is bad for NHL fans in general and makes a mockery of the spirit of competition.

Posted (edited)

No question,totally agree but for a couple brief moments you could actually see that player there. Just more proof that he's an ass and must go.

 

Amen.

 

And part of me thinks he played like ass on purpose this year, solely to get bought out over the summer, so he can ###### off to another team.

 

Truly an ass.

Edited by Kristian
Posted

IMO the league should have a huge issue with it. Setting up your roster with the intent of finishing in last place should be penalized by the league IMO. It is bad for NHL fans in general and makes a mockery of the spirit of competition.

 

If the league ever decided to start punishing teams for tanking, it would make sense that they'd begin when the Sabres are doing it. Other teams have done it and it's paved their path to ultimate success. The lottery system is really as far as they can go with an anti tanking policy. The league should have zero issue with it.

Posted

IMO the league should have a huge issue with it. Setting up your roster with the intent of finishing in last place should be penalized by the league IMO. It is bad for NHL fans in general and makes a mockery of the spirit of competition.

So it's wrong to sell off players who have no intention of re-signing and to rebuild your team through the primary mechanism of team building, the draft? I ###### give up, Sabres fans aren't happy unless they can bitch and moan and feel slighted.

Posted

IMO the league should have a huge issue with it. Setting up your roster with the intent of finishing in last place should be penalized by the league IMO. It is bad for NHL fans in general and makes a mockery of the spirit of competition.

 

The league isn't going to come out and insult its own players. The players association would be all over it if the league admitted that 23 of their active players aren't good enough to have a positive impact on the game. The league will do nothing. Period. End of story.

 

The ONLY way they would do anything is if it came out that Nolan was informing players not to try and that he would purposely put players in situations to cause them to fail. The latter would also get the player's association angry.

Posted

The league can't possibly change how the draft seeding works. You can't outright accuse your member teams of tanking when they're simply using the rules the league provides. If you change the rules so that bad teams can't draft good players then bad teams never have the option of conducting a rebuild. You wind up with less parity and a league where dynasties rule.

 

The league has no choice but to deny the existence of tanking in order to maintain the reality of how the system works to serve bad teams. Tanking might be a tangible strategy, but the league itself cannot admit that it happens.

Posted (edited)

Before reading the thread: Good game. Nice to see the fans and the players into it. Young D corp was fun to watch.

 

Tyler Ennis, wowza. I was wrong about him earlier this year when I was counting him out for the future. Ennis was slippery around the boards, he was gritty, and he was setting up his line mates left and right. Great game.

 

Mitchell is fast and tough. I wouldn't mind him on the 4th line next year. It was nice to see his hard work rewarded with a goal today.

 

Pysyk was very solid and smooth today. Ristolainen had some trouble in his own end but looked great in the offensive zone. I'm fine with them both being in the AHL for the start of the next season, but Pysyk is definitely already an NHLer. McCabe is looking steadier than his first couple games, and played well with Pysyk. I was glad to see him calm down a little bit and not majorly interfere with everybody.

 

I think Deslauriers will grow into a good 3rd liner. He had some decent mitts on display today, and not just when he was punchisizing people. I haven't seen enough of him to have a good read on his hockey smarts, but he seems to make the simple play and go hard.

 

Matt Ellis scored 4 goals this year?!?!?!

 

Hank has proven that he can still play hockey at an NHL level. But he can not skate at an NHL level. I'd rather look to another vet with more left in the tank next year. Love him, though.

 

Good game for the last of the year, too bad those dirty Crylanders got us in the shootout.

Edited by qwksndmonster
Posted (edited)

This year can be forgiven because there was probably no "intention" at first to throw this season for a top pick going in. With the front office reshuffling and selling off the upcoming FAs it was inevitable that this team was going to be bad for the rest of the season so I don't see an issue with them being bad enough to get the top pick.

 

There should be a huge issue if this team decides to Tank next season in order to try and obtain McDavid.

 

You honestly don't think there was an intention to throw the season? Combining offseason rhetoric with the moves starting at last year's deadline, I don't know how anyone can conclude anything other than they intended to tank this year.

Edited by TrueBluePhD
Posted

You honestly don't think there was an intention to throw the season? Combining offseason rhetoric with the moves starting at last year's deadline, I don't know how anyone can conclude anything other than they intended to tank this year.

 

Selling off expiring contracts for draft picks is normal for any team not making the playoffs, and the rhetoric was an honest evaluation of the Mess that Darcy Built. I think rebuilding is normal for most sports teams; deliberately finishing last is a different story.

Posted

Selling off expiring contracts for draft picks is normal for any team not making the playoffs, and the rhetoric was an honest evaluation of the Mess that Darcy Built. I think rebuilding is normal for most sports teams; deliberately finishing last is a different story.

 

Trading a 1st line player with over a year left on his deal is not standard operating procedure for a team missing the playoffs, however. Neither is making no attempt to improve the roster in the offseason. Neither is trading a top-4 Dman (Sekera) with a cap friendly contract and two years left, at the draft. The Sabres absolutely intended to lose, and lose hard. I'd argue that, given the goals, this past calendar year has been Regier's most competent effort since 2006.

 

Tanking is intentionally losing games to finish last. No one did that. If by tanking you meant an honest to god stripping of team and rebuild, that's what the sabres did.

 

They're both tanking: the former is tanking by the players/coaches, which nobody advocates, and the latter is tanking by management, which as you said is precisely what happened.

Posted

They're both tanking: the former is tanking by the players/coaches, which nobody advocates, and the latter is tanking by management, which as you said is precisely what happened.

 

Yep. Zero players tanked. Some players played their guts out. The front office devised and executed the plan, which was to maximize return for expiring assets. This had the fortunate, necessary, expected, and probably planed side effect of causing the team to maximize its draft position.

Posted

I think the league could say our tanking was purposeful with a good deal more certainty if we had kept RR and DR. Firing them alone shows that we weren't standing for the abysmal play on the ice

This topic is OLD. A NEW topic should be started unless there is a VERY SPECIFIC REASON to revive this one.

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Restore formatting

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

Loading...
×
×
  • Create New...