Worst Season Ever

[SwampD]

You never want to time a market, but PA’s question was absolutely valid.

Was this the worst season in Sabres history.

I vote yes.

[Weave]

The seasons we chose to lose on purpose are my all time lows.  It's still unconscionable to me that we lost on purpose.

[SwampD]

2 minutes ago, Weave said:

The seasons we chose to lose on purpose are my all time lows.  It's still unconscionable to me that we lost on purpose.

What’s amazing is that the hockey this year was worse.

[BfloSabresFan]

To set up perspective, I've been a fan since I was a kid, the early 80's.  I had to vote yes.  Never have I been so uninterested in a Sabres team because of the play on the ice and the results.

[Sabel79]

This is a purely subjective exercise, and as such any answer given is going to be an opinion, albeit with varying degrees of reasoning behind it.  YMMV, but here goes mine: 

I'd say yes but with an asterisk.  I have never not cared about this team, found no reason to watch or follow up in any way, or indeed considered liking basketball as hard as I have since about the time the team got shut down for COVID in February, or whenever that happened.  That timing is somewhat significant, as I'm unable to sort out how much the general dumpster-fire state of the world in general colors my personal experience there.  I'm betting rather a lot, but if all things hockey were the same and, you know, everything else were not so existentially bleak, my opinion might be different. 

The tank years were at least interesting; I found it easy to engage even if what was going on was a abomination.  Perhaps the immediate aftermath of Adelphia's demise and then league ownership, running straight up to the '04 lockout was as dire, but a year without hockey followed up with a couple really good seasons might take the edge off that.

[msw2112]

There were unquestionably portions of this season where the team was unwatchable.  I stopped watching.  That said, after Grantao got the young guys going and even the veterans playing better (Reinhart, for example), the team was watchable and competitive and gave some hope for the future.  I'd equate the first 2/3 of this season with the Rolston era and call them the worst periods in Sabres history.

Edited June 14, 2021 by msw2112

[Indabuff]

1 hour ago, Weave said:

The seasons we chose to lose on purpose are my all time lows.  It's still unconscionable to me that we lost on purpose.

The fact that the team has nothing to show for (imo) from the seasons they lost on purpose is the bigger kick in the d**k to me.

Edited June 14, 2021 by Indabuff
The ***** synonym made it through, sorry. 2nd edit: the word that rhymes with Dallas was censored but the D word wasn't, haha.

[Gatorman0519]

1 hour ago, Weave said:

The seasons we chose to lose on purpose are my all time lows.  It's still unconscionable to me that we lost on purpose.

we were going to be really bad by defacto... The old core all left and we needed a rebuild anyways.  So even if we went all out we still likely were bottom 5 imo.

Edited June 14, 2021 by Gatorman0519

[PerreaultForever]

idk. they're all bad last few years. This, the tank, last year because of the expectation of being better, the complete collapse after the hot start that year, all of them suck. The dull apathetic hockey at the start of this season certainly in the running though. Sad we have this thread at all. 

[JoeSchmoe]

I enjoyed watching the emergence of Mittelstadt and the ATM line in general, the turnaround by Dahlin, and the respectable play by the prospects on D.  The Houser and Tokarski stories were fun. 

This team was a goalie and a division change away from being a playoff team. 

[TheAud]

1 minute ago, JoeSchmoe said:

I enjoyed watching the emergence of Mittelstadt and the ATM line in general, the turnaround by Dahlin, and the respectable play by the prospects on D.  The Houser and Tokarski stories were fun. 

This team was a goalie and a division change away from being a playoff team. 

So basically if Ullmark doesn't get hurt and England fares better in the War of 1812 and Buffalo ends up as part of Canada, and we're a playoff team? Awesome. 

[SwampD]

2 minutes ago, JoeSchmoe said:

I enjoyed watching the emergence of Mittelstadt and the ATM line in general, the turnaround by Dahlin, and the respectable play by the prospects on D.  The Houser and Tokarski stories were fun. 

This team was a goalie and a division change away from being a playoff team. 

I really hope that you and nobody else thinks this is true.

[SwampD]

This is the first season where I was able to watch certain games, and actively chose to not watch.

And what I chose to do was not in the least interesting. I simply chose to not watch and be bored.

Worst. Season. Ever.

 

[JoeSchmoe]

I'm saying our division was the best division in hockey. I think you put any of the other 7 teams in other divisions and you'd be surprised to see how good they'd do.

Look at what NYI did to the superstacked cheating Lightning today. 

[SwampD]

1 minute ago, JoeSchmoe said:

I'm saying our division was the best division in hockey. I think you put any of the other 7 teams in other divisions and you'd be surprised to see how good they'd do.

Look at what NYI did to the superstacked cheating Lightning today. 

A close 2 to 1 win? Our division was not the best.

[JoeSchmoe]

Just now, SwampD said:

A close 2 to 1 win? Our division was not the best.

No. They beat the Stanley Cup champions that were cheating by hiding 18M of salary on the IR. 

And at different points in the season, Pitt, Bos, Wash, and even NYR all had stretches where they looked even better than the Isles.

[SwampD]

2 minutes ago, JoeSchmoe said:

No. They beat the Stanley Cup champions that were cheating by hiding 18M of salary on the IR. 

And at different points in the season, Pitt, Bos, Wash, and even NYR all had stretches where they looked even better than the Isles.

None of that has anything to do with the fact that the Sabres season was the worst hockey any of us have ever had to watch, ever.

[JoeSchmoe]

13 minutes ago, SwampD said:

None of that has anything to do with the fact that the Sabres season was the worst hockey any of us have ever had to watch, ever.

Sure it was tough during the winless streak, but once they started sitting the dead weight in favour of the younger kids I was looking forward to every game.

During the tank, there really was no reason to watch your team suck on purpose.

[bunomatic]

2 hours ago, Weave said:

The seasons we chose to lose on purpose are my all time lows.  It's still unconscionable to me that we lost on purpose.

We didn’t lose on purpose. They lost on purpose. Ownership and management. It was out of my control. Once ownership made the decision to tank the fans were along for the ride regardless. Fans may have cheered for or against it but it is on the morons in charge. This ownership has been an absolutely pathetic placeholder of this franchise in every way. One day it will be in someone else’s hands and we can only hope they bring respect back to the brand because the Pegulas have failed in that regard. Anyways thats my rant. Not directed at you weave These owners piss me off.

[SwampD]

8 minutes ago, JoeSchmoe said:

Sure it was tough during the winless streak, but once they started sitting the dead weight in favour of the younger kids I was looking forward to every game.

During the tank, there really was no reason to watch your team suck on purpose.

I can respect this answer. 

I still think this season was worse. And that is sayin' something.

[inkman]

It was the worst season available 

[SABRES 0311]

This season wasn’t the worst for me.  The only reason is because they sucked consistently.  The hope ran out once we identified our offseason acquisitions weren’t going to do much.  Every time RK used false positives after a loss was like nails on a chalkboard.

The demoralizing part is I have no hope for next year.  Likely because I read too much speculation of who is leaving and how management runs the show.  I’ll watch as many games as I can but keep this thread open for the 2021-22 edition.

[sabremike]

There's a great chance the Eichel trade is to hockey in Buffalo what the Ron Francis trade is to hockey in Hartford.

So yeah, this is the worst.

[nucci]

9 hours ago, JoeSchmoe said:

I enjoyed watching the emergence of Mittelstadt and the ATM line in general, the turnaround by Dahlin, and the respectable play by the prospects on D.  The Houser and Tokarski stories were fun. 

This team was a goalie and a division change away from being a playoff team. 

No

[bob_sauve28]

10 hours ago, SwampD said:

I really hope that you and nobody else thinks this is true.

I believe it. We had the worst goalie play I have ever seen this year. Look at the teams left in the playoffs now, all have superior goaltending. We have Jack, Sam, Victor, Casey, Tage, R2, *Skinner* and perhaps Asplund and even maybe Cozens that can score over twenty goals. The defense is young but coming along nicely. 

 

I bet any good coach would love to take over this team as long as good goaltending was available to back stop it. Yes, they should be in the running for the playoffs if they solve the disastrous situation in net.