GDT: Bruins at Sabres. Oct 4 7PM

[JJFIVEOH]

1 minute ago, Jacque Richard said:

When you live here and been a fan since roger crozier. It’s crazy they can’t turn it around

I did live there for and been a fan since the early 80's. Does that count? ?

[Jacque Richard]

19 minutes ago, JJFIVEOH said:

I did live there for and been a fan since the early 80's. Does that count? ?

Tiny bit

Edited October 5, 2018 by Jacque Richard

[JJFIVEOH]

1 minute ago, Randall Flagg said:

Alright everyone, if JJ is happy with something a Buffalo team does even in a loss, it isn't as bad as y'all think it is. ?

Haha. Got sick of being optimistic. But this early in the season I don't go out of my way to blatantly pessimistic. 

[Randall Flagg]

The thing I noticed from Sheary is the same thing I noticed from Wilson. Without boatloads of talent, they know how to do effective hockey things in various situations, things that you pick up playing on teams like Pittsburgh. It's kinda cool. 

[Randall Flagg]

Also on Dahlin - there were about 10 little plays at the defensive blue line and down in the dzone recovering the puck and creating transition that no Sabre defender has reliably done in a decade. 

He will become everything we need from our defense.

[PromoTheRobot]

12 minutes ago, Kruppstahl said:

I'm a huge Red Sox fan.  They said that about the Red Sox for decades too.

Then they finally hired competent front office people, ceased engaging in racist player selection, and ran the team in a professional, shrewd manner...and a lot of success and multiple championships followed.

We aren't jinxed; we just suck.

 

Well did you think Botterill and Housley's pedigrees were suspect? I didn't. I don't think anyone here thought they were bad hires or done on the cheap like Ralph Wilson used to. That's what's so maddening. 

[Randall Flagg]

Just now, PromoTheRobot said:

Well did you think Botterill and Housley's pedigrees were suspect? I didn't. I don't think anyone here thought they were bad hires or done on the cheap like Ralph Wilson used to. That's what's so maddening. 

Maybe not you or that poster, but some people did. 

Not me, I was wishy/washy and uncommitted either way, but some people hated the hires for that reason

It looks like Phil chose to match Bergeron's line with Jack's. That's a no-no. None of the lines can really play defense super well, so if you stack one, you can't be sending them out against those guys. 

[CallawaySabres]

14 minutes ago, JJFIVEOH said:

I was fairly impressed with the way they played. At least for the first period and a half their north-south game was excellent, they were fast and they passed often without holding on to the puck too long.

This team isn't going to make the playoffs this year, but there will be a significant improvement. The game wasn't as lopsided as the score. There are 8 new players on the team with several players with very little experience. 

Listening to WGR, and the doom and gloom................. it's one damn game. If I need to hear this crap all season after a loss, I'm just going to shut off WGR all together. 

You better get used to hearing that crap because this team is still garbage. My kids wanted to leave after the 1st period AGAIN. This team is so goddamn boring to watch it makes me sick. I already sold my tickets for Saturday night without hesitating. They are literally unwatchable....again

[JJFIVEOH]

Just now, CallawaySabres said:

You better get used to hearing that crap because this team is still garbage. My kids wanted to leave after the 1st period AGAIN. This team is so goddamn boring to watch it makes me sick. I already sold my tickets for Saturday night without hesitating. They are literally unwatchable....again

I just don't think it's fair to be trashing a team so hard one game into the season. If they're not making some sort of progress by Thanksgiving, that's a different story. But............. it's one game. 

[apuszczalowski]

3 minutes ago, JJFIVEOH said:

I just don't think it's fair to be trashing a team so hard one game into the season. If they're not making some sort of progress by Thanksgiving, that's a different story. But............. it's one game. 

Usually your points valid, but this just looked like a continuation of last year. Many wouldn't care about a loss if the at least looked like they were getting g better. We have seen this show before.....

[CallawaySabres]

12 minutes ago, JJFIVEOH said:

I just don't think it's fair to be trashing a team so hard one game into the season. If they're not making some sort of progress by Thanksgiving, that's a different story. But............. it's one game. 

This is not just one game, nothing has changed and it's boring as hell. This is not a team flying around, making hits, and missing on a ton of opportunities, this is a team that has ZERO identity for the 5th year in a row. I didn't see any positives tonight, I did not see any glimpses of hope for the future....I saw exactly what Housley saw and for all I know, maybe he IS the problem. If this team is looking like this 10 games from now, he's done.

This is no longer acceptable and that entire game experience sucks just as bad as any of the previous 5..or 6 or however many years ago. I scheduled a client trip to NYC a month ago and it just so happens to be this coming Tuesday in NYC (Yankees vs Red Sox). I don't even like baseball but I sure as hell can't wait to experience the electricity running through that fan-base. I would say the Sabres arguably have the worst atmosphere in the entire NHL.  

It is not one game, it is one big mess.

[Randall Flagg]

We have a bunch of defensemen who, athletically and physically, belong in the NHL. They can keep up, they can check the strongest guys in the league. 

However, our only good hockey-playing defenseman is the 18 year old kid, and maybe Scandella if he can settle into a lesser role. If you want to see what I mean by that, watch the Sharks' third pair, not the obviously elite guys, just the guys behind them who can play the game too and not just be there to some degree of effectiveness. You will see them do things you would never imagine any Sabre defenseman not named Dahlin capable of regularly doing. 

I don't mean this to be a reactionary take from this game - the reason I'm choosing to say this now is because everyone is angry, and when they aren't, implying things like "McCabe isn't a good hockey player" gets a lot more flack than it probably does tonight

[Iron Crotch]

47 minutes ago, PromoTheRobot said:

Well did you think Botterill and Housley's pedigrees were suspect? I didn't. I don't think anyone here thought they were bad hires or done on the cheap like Ralph Wilson used to. That's what's so maddening. 

I liked the Housley hiring because I figured he'd bring Nashville's system to Buffalo. At the time I was a Preds season ticket holder, so that sounded good to me. Both he and Botterill were rookies in their respective jobs with no track record of success or otherwise. So, everyone around here just assumed they were up for the job since we didn't like their predecessors (although in retrospect, this team was marginally better with Bylsma as head coach).

At this point after two straight rookie GMs who were/are seemingly just guessing at what to do, I'd like someone who has done the job before and has shown at least some level of success somewhere else. Botterill took over this team and did almost nothing two off-seasons ago to make it better. He seemingly spent more time signing guys for Rochester than for the Sabres. His one season as GM, we were dead last in the NHL by a wide margin with a massive -80 goal differential. This summer he again just tinkered a little bit while selling two of our only proven assets (O'Reilly and Kane) for more picks and prospects and a few useless JAGs (plus Skinner). That's just not going to do it for a fan base that's been told to "be patient" for the better part of a decade. Every GM we bring in can't spent three years removing the prior GMs players and then tell us to expect a "slow, methodical" rebuild. We're rightfully impatient at this point and we're voting with our wallets. The boos tonight were warranted, as were the large number of empty seats.

I get that it's only game 1, but to me I just don't see enough veteran talent on this roster to be anything other than a bottom-third team again.

Edited October 5, 2018 by Iron Crotch

[SwampD]

Meh. Coulda been worse. Coulda been 7-0.

 

We were Samsom finding the five hole and ERod lifting it an extra inch away from this being a game.

I really like watching Dahlin. He's gonna be good. He already kinda is.

I thought Mittlestat gained confidence and got better as the game went on.

Risto looks better.

We'll have some stuff to cheer for.

[Randall Flagg]

2 minutes ago, SwampD said:

Meh. Coulda been worse. Coulda been 7-0.

 

We were Samsom finding the five hole and ERod lifting it an extra inch away from this being a game.

I really like watching Dahlin. He's gonna be good. He already kinda is.

I thought Mittlestat gained confidence and got better as the game went on.

Risto looks better.

We'll have some stuff to cheer for.

If I could pick one poster to watch games with in person it'd totally be you in that porch thing you have 

[TrueBlueGED]

44 minutes ago, Randall Flagg said:

Maybe not you or that poster, but some people did. 

Not me, I was wishy/washy and uncommitted either way, but some people hated the hires for that reason

It looks like Phil chose to match Bergeron's line with Jack's. That's a no-no. None of the lines can really play defense super well, so if you stack one, you can't be sending them out against those guys. 

It's amazing for me that Housley did the other coach's job for him. 

[darksabre]

12 minutes ago, SwampD said:

Meh. Coulda been worse. Coulda been 7-0.

 

We were Samsom finding the five hole and ERod lifting it an extra inch away from this being a game.

I really like watching Dahlin. He's gonna be good. He already kinda is.

I thought Mittlestat gained confidence and got better as the game went on.

Risto looks better.

We'll have some stuff to cheer for.

I think you and I saw the same positive things, but for me the glaring omission is Jack. He was largely missing from the game in any positive respect, which at this point should not be the case. I should never walk away from a game thinking that Eichel didn't do his job. 

[SwampD]

8 minutes ago, Randall Flagg said:

If I could pick one poster to watch games with in person it'd totally be you in that porch thing you have 

?

I'm in. I'm out here right now watching Philly thump Vegas.

Yes, it sucked we lost. Yes, it was made worse by the fact that we didn't even score. And yes, it was awful that Jack was,… well, awful (at least for him, cuz he still created a lot).

But I saw a lot of good hockey plays that I haven't seen in awhile. They'll get better.

1 minute ago, darksabre said:

I think you and I saw the same positive things, but for me the glaring omission is Jack. He was largely missing from the game in any positive respect, which at this point should not be the case. I should never walk away from a game thinking that Eichel didn't do his job. 

Yep. It's a real problem. But this happened last year. He had to be reminded how good he is and take charge of the ice. He's still so young and kept differing tonight. I still think we need one more true veteran stud to make this team really solid.

[Randall Flagg]

3 minutes ago, SwampD said:

?

I'm in. I'm out here right now watching Philly thump Vegas.

Yes, it sucked we lost. Yes, it was made worse by the fact that we didn't even score. And yes, it was awful that Jack was,… well, awful (at least for him, cuz he still created a lot).

But I saw a lot of good hockey plays that I haven't seen in awhile. They'll get better.

Yep. It's a real problem. But this happened last year. He had to be reminded how good he is and take charge of the ice. He's still so young and kept differing tonight. I still think we need one more true veteran stud to make this team really solid.

I'd be watching that, but NHLTV says that since I buy NHLTV because I don't want/have/can't afford television, the games that are on television in my area are not shown on NHLTV. 

[darksabre]

1 minute ago, Randall Flagg said:

I'd be watching that, but NHLTV says that since I buy NHLTV because I don't want/have/can't afford television, the games that are on television in my area are not shown on NHLTV. 

You could just pay a few more bucks a month to solve that problem... 

[SwampD]

3 minutes ago, Randall Flagg said:

I'd be watching that, but NHLTV says that since I buy NHLTV because I don't want/have/can't afford television, the games that are on television in my area are not shown on NHLTV. 

 

1 minute ago, darksabre said:

You could just pay a few more bucks a month to solve that problem... 

I wouldn't. Not only is it not that great of a game. It's also Philly.

[Randall Flagg]

2 minutes ago, darksabre said:

You could just pay a few more bucks a month to solve that problem... 

I legit have no idea how. 

Some basic tv package that has NBCSN?

I'm still probably not interested though. At that point I should just shut everything off and do my homework or some sh*t

[Andrew Amerk]

This thread is possibly more depressing than being at the actual game was. 

[GASabresIUFAN]

That was depressing.

[stenbaro]

Before the game started I found Bogosian's favorite spot on the bench..Keeping it nice and warm.....