WTF is wrong with this team?

[LGR4GM]

How many players can we say so far this year didn't "show up" they way they were expected?

 

Bailey, Fasching, Baptiste, O'Reilly, Beaulieu, Antipin, Ristolainen, Eichel, Reinhart. Am I missing anyone???

Fasching and Antipin are exactly where I expected.

[bunomatic]

A lot of it is lack of chemistry. They are not a team, just a collection of confused people butting their heads again the wall.

 

May sound silly, but have they done any non-hockey team building activities? Things like that help people connect.

 

Perhaps the road trip out west will be a good thing to get them all on the same page

I don't know. The Jack and Sam bromance riding up on the bicycle built for two was a cool stunt that could easily be mistaken as a team builder. At least those two are close. 

[Pokey Jones]

Talk and debate and argue, this guy's bad, that guy's bad, it's his fault, no it's not it's the other guy etc etc but the truth is simpler: they are just not any good.

 

Just finished watching the Leafs Hawks game and it was very depressing. Everything you wished we were, everything you thought we'd be. Fast exciting game with teams that never quit. The centrepiece scores the winner in OT. 

 

We are SO FAR AWAY from even being close to these teams it is ridiculous. 

Another simple point of wtf's wrong with them.

 

Look at most teams that are improving or trying to improve. How many rookies or young former farm guys on their rosters from last year? Boston has 4 I think, Flyers have 3 or 4. Go around the league and see. Now look at our roster, where the only new bodies are cast offs and guys from trades. Antipin is the only one. Years of squandered and bad draft picks along with the lost lotteries gives you this, whatever this is. 

[Randall Flagg]

Talk and debate and argue, this guy's bad, that guy's bad, it's his fault, no it's not it's the other guy etc etc but the truth is simpler: they are just not any good.

 

Just finished watching the Leafs Hawks game and it was very depressing. Everything you wished we were, everything you thought we'd be. Fast exciting game with teams that never quit. The centrepiece scores the winner in OT. 

 

We are SO FAR AWAY from even being close to these teams it is ridiculous. 

Another simple point of wtf's wrong with them.

 

Look at most teams that are improving or trying to improve. How many rookies or young former farm guys on their rosters from last year? Boston has 4 I think, Flyers have 3 or 4. Go around the league and see. Now look at our roster, where the only new bodies are cast offs and guys from trades. Antipin is the only one. Years of squandered and bad draft picks along with the lost lotteries gives you this, whatever this is. 

Can you post this a few more times, in a few more threads?

[Pokey Jones]

A state of the (dis)union type post seemed appropriate for post 200. You can put it in ALL the threads if you want, cause really, there is nothing else to say. 

[Crusader1969]

Fasching and Antipin are exactly where I expected.

I think Bailey and Baptiste too. Neither were 1st round picks and both are only 22. There are lots of instances that it takes a player until they are 23 or 24 to hit their stride in the NHL. Arvidsson is a perfect example, he plays 3 years professionall, Has a few games with the preds but doesn't really score and then when he is 23 and in his 4th season he breaks out.

[SwampD]

I could use a little nasty. If this is uptempo, wide open hockey,… Its kinda boring.

[Randall Flagg]

I could use a little nasty. If this is uptempo, wide open hockey,… Its kinda boring.

I take it you're not going to be one of the posters that will continue to insist on unloading Kane at the deadline? 

[Crusader1969]

After Watching all the islanders goals again, there is no way that 82 should have been playing tonight in anything but the 6th D spot. He definitely needs to be taken off the PP unit. I'd almost take Gorges dressing over him at this point

 

Yes, I would have liked to see the Sabres fight through his mistakes but man they are egregious errors by him.

 

When Bogo returns, he has to be the odd man out.

[SwampD]

I take it you're not going to be one of the posters that will continue to insist on unloading Kane at the deadline? 

No chance.

[Randall Flagg]

No chance.

I'm still wishy washy about where I want him playing but Evander Kane will emerge from the twitter-induced nuclear holocaust and score 25 goals, skating hard every game. 

 

Especially after this start, I have lost all interest in letting him walk. 

[Pokey Jones]

We look like we will be so bad we will have to unload him because 1) you can't count on him being this good on a bad team AFTER he signs a big contract and 2) he won't want to sign with us long term anyway.

 

Honestly, we are so bad any player who willingly wants to sign a long term deal with us is probably motivated more by money than by winning.............wait a minute......oh crap. 

[SwampD]

I'm still wishy washy about where I want him playing but Evander Kane will emerge from the twitter-induced nuclear holocaust and score 25 goals, skating hard every game. 

 

Especially after this start, I have lost all interest in letting him walk. 

Also, this myth that the NHL is trending speed, mobile D, fast, fast, fast, blah, blah, blah. 

 

That's just because the teams that happen to be winning currently are playing that way (I actually thought that Nashville was the faster team, but the Pens won cuz they were just tougher). 

 

But everything is cyclical, and there will (hopefully) be a team comes along and wins by being physical, and then the NHL will trend that way.

 

I would love to be the team that bucks the trend and plays physically and slows other teams down and beats them into submission.

[Randall Flagg]

Also, this myth that the NHL is trending speed, mobile D, fast, fast, fast, blah, blah, blah. 

 

That's just because the teams that happen to be winning currently are playing that way (I actually thought that Nashville was the faster team, but the Pens won cuz they were just tougher). 

 

But everything is cyclical, and there will (hopefully) be a team comes along and wins by being physical, and then the NHL will trend that way.

 

I would love to be the team that bucks the trend and plays physically and slows other teams down and beats them into submission.

I can't say I feel the same way :lol: I wanna be the Harlem Globetrotters. Or, the Chicago Blackhawks, anyway. 

 

That said, who'd have thought last fall that you and I would be chilling in our polish porches calmly at the 0-3 start while Sabrespace burns down around us??

[Kruppstahl]

I could use a little nasty. If this is uptempo, wide open hockey,… Its kinda boring.

Kinda boring?  This hockey is f-ing unwatchable.

 

I'm trying to watch the game right now on the DVR, knowing the score.  Kane just scored his first goal in the 2nd period...

 

There is something wrong with this team that greatly transcends early-season rust.

 

They look lost, the overall talent level of the squad is low, and we seem slow.  Passing is horrific.

 

No heart, no jump, no grit.

 

And before I could finish typing this post, NJ has just scored a shorty.  Again! 

 

Now 3-1 NJ, 14:00 left in 2nd.

 

I'm already wondering if Housley is going to get fired mid-season or what.

I hope there is some kind of plan for this show.

[SwampD]

I can't say I feel the same way :lol: I wanna be the Harlem Globetrotters. Or, the Chicago Blackhawks, anyway. 

 

That said, who'd have thought last fall that you and I would be chilling in our polish porches calmly at the 0-3 start while Sabrespace burns down around us??

:lol:

[Thorner]

You are right, I've been saying 2018/19 season for a long long time

If the Sabres really are who they look like through the first 3 games, Casey Mittelstadt really would have to be the stuff of legend to spark a turnaround.

 

I don't think anyone else new potentially playing here next year has the ability to have a substantial, record-changing impact. Guhle, Asplund, Pu - they won't be impact players their first year, if they play here next year. MAYBE Nylander, if he breaks out in the A this year.

 

I suppose Dahlin might :lol:

 

Other than that, the major progress needs to come from the current group of Sabres. That's why the start is concerning.

[Randall Flagg]

I'm pretty convinced that ROR, Okposo, Eichel, and Reinhart aren't what they have been through this 3 game stretch. I've seen worse 3 game stretches from each of them. They're all young besides oldy pants Kyle. I'm also pretty convinced we won't average 1.333 short handed goals per game against for the rest of the season. 

I don't know how good we'll be when these flukes even out, and they will, but we aren't this bad. 

[TrueBlueGED]

I'm pretty convinced that ROR, Okposo, Eichel, and Reinhart aren't what they have been through this 3 game stretch. I've seen worse 3 game stretches from each of them. They're all young besides oldy pants Kyle. I'm also pretty convinced we won't average 1.333 short handed goals per game against for the rest of the season.

 

I don't know how good we'll be when these flukes even out, and they will, but we aren't this bad.

This is essentially where I'm at, though I do have real concerns about Okposo sooner than later.

[jahnyc]

I don't think the overall talent is particularly strong and the pipeline should be be more developed and promising at this point.  The team tanked and does not have as much to show for it as they should.  GMTM traded away a lot of picks and players and I don't think the returns were as significant as they could have been.  So now we have a poorly constructed team with young players that are not developing (Reinhart), veteran players that already seem to be in decline (Reilly and Okposo), and players with bad contracts (Moulson, Bogo and Okposo).  The season is just starting, so there is hope that things will improve, but I am not feeling optimistic.  We have Jack, and that is foundation type player, but we need more talent and will have salary cap constraints in the future.

[Thorner]

I'm pretty convinced that ROR, Okposo, Eichel, and Reinhart aren't what they have been through this 3 game stretch. I've seen worse 3 game stretches from each of them. They're all young besides oldy pants Kyle. I'm also pretty convinced we won't average 1.333 short handed goals per game against for the rest of the season.

I don't know how good we'll be when these flukes even out, and they will, but we aren't this bad.

 

Right. This is where the turn around would need to come from.

 

It is funny that we are talking about Eichel this way, when if he played out the year exactly like this, he's paced currently at an 82 point season. We do truly expect a lot from him. The nature of his place within the franchise.

Edited October 10, 2017 by Thorny

[Taro T]

I'm pretty convinced that ROR, Okposo, Eichel, and Reinhart aren't what they have been through this 3 game stretch. I've seen worse 3 game stretches from each of them. They're all young besides oldy pants Kyle. I'm also pretty convinced we won't average 1.333 short handed goals per game against for the rest of the season.

I don't know how good we'll be when these flukes even out, and they will, but we aren't this bad.

 

And if Moulson isn't in the lineup, at the end of the 2nd PP of the 2nd either they are only down by 1 or very possibly tied. Should that happen, as bad as the 1st was, it's a brand new hockey game AND they're only averaging 1.0 SHGA/gm. :doh:

 

Right now, their PP which was the best in the league last year is far & away the worst. (Even if somebody else is technically clicking at a higher rate 4 SHGA have been killer.)

Edited October 10, 2017 by Taro T

[shotgunner]

I think what ROR said after the game applied to pretty much everyone:

 

"I don't even know what I was doing. I was invisible out there... most of the time I was just skating around"

 

That's what I saw, too. 15 even play tonight?

[Bluto]

I don't even know what to think at this point...I don't care bout new systems, these guys look like they have never even played hockey before.  What system tells you to pass the puck directly to the other team repeatedly and then ignore basic fundamental hockey on odd man rushes against?  

 

By far the best player in the first 3 games has been the one everyone seems to want to get rid of in Evander Kane.  

 

None of what we have seen in the first 3 games has to do with system it has to do with guys having their head up their @ss...

 

These players should be embarrassed for receiving a paycheck for what they have been doing.  Time to grow up.

 

They don't appear to be upset or embarrassed at all.  Hockey games in Buffalo have become just entertainment and not a competitive sport!

Hockey in Buffalo is just an entertainment venue.  Like a movie or a night at Shea's.  It's not a sport anymore. 

[Pokey Jones]

Also, this myth that the NHL is trending speed, mobile D, fast, fast, fast, blah, blah, blah. 

 

That's just because the teams that happen to be winning currently are playing that way (I actually thought that Nashville was the faster team, but the Pens won cuz they were just tougher). 

 

But everything is cyclical, and there will (hopefully) be a team comes along and wins by being physical, and then the NHL will trend that way.

 

I would love to be the team that bucks the trend and plays physically and slows other teams down and beats them into submission.

Not true. The way they call the penalties now and the way they enforce the rules doesn't allow much in the way of intimidation, there's nothing cyclical about it, it's been slowly going that way for quite a while like it or not. Sure, if you are fast enough you can try to shadow a star player and you can annoy him, maybe even throw him off his game, but the fast teams will win in the playoffs now.