Report Sabres preparing for An Additional Top Ten Pick

[Weave]

You’re doing God’s work, Thorny.

 

And LOL at my iphone attempting to autocorrect God with Hodgson.

[Doohicksie]

1 hour ago, Brawndo said:

Agree wholeheartedly. Even The Media’s Most Adamant Anti Tanker Mike Harrington said on a Podcast yesterday that the tank should have worked 

"should have" implies it didn't.

[DarthEbriate]

49 minutes ago, Thorny said:

My goal was to get to Hollywood so I could become the next Jason Statham. I cut ties with everyone I needed to, sold all of my possession for money, quit my job, and moved there. Even shaved my head bald! I didn't become the next Jason Statham once I got there, turns out I didn't have enough talent. But the strategy worked, I got where I needed to be: the bottom of the standings  I acquired a moderately priced living arrangement! I just couldn't navigate the waters of Hollywood once I got there, though.

The strategy was smart though, and the right one. I'm sure of it.  I made it to the location I set out for. Turns out it didn't guarantee anything on it's own, who knew. 

Did you have the accent? I think it's the accent. I don't think it's the shaving-of-the-head to hide a receding hairline. This from someone with eyebrows... or digitally removed eyebrows, depending on when you look.

6 minutes ago, Weave said:

You’re doing God’s work, Thorny.

And LOL at my iphone attempting to autocorrect God with Hodgson.

He tampered in Hodgson's domain.

[Thorner]

7 minutes ago, Weave said:

You’re doing God’s work, Thorny.

 

And LOL at my iphone attempting to autocorrect God with Hodgson.

[Thorner]

4 minutes ago, DarthEbriate said:

Did you have the accent? I think it's the accent. I don't think it's the shaving-of-the-head to hide a receding hairline. This from someone with eyebrows... or digitally removed eyebrows, depending on when you look.

He tampered in Hodgson's domain.

Not having the receding hairline may have been what did me in

now that I think of it. my accent is flawless

Being only 5'9 with little muscle mass couldn't have been it. No way. 

[Brawndo]

44 minutes ago, GASabresIUFAN said:

Who is really blaming Sam and Jack for the team's failings?  

Twitter and Social Media.

Post Game Callers on WGR

Callers to Regular WGR Shows.

 

 

 

[Brawndo]

11 minutes ago, Doohickie said:

"should have" implies it didn't.

Harrington is one of many who cannot separate the tank from the rebuild though. 

[Zamboni]

And a very very small handful of posters here as well.
Blaming one or two individual players on the failure or success of a team sport is… shortsighted, illogical and in my opinion, ignorant. 

[Weave]

15 minutes ago, Brawndo said:

Harrington is one of many who cannot separate the tank from the rebuild though. 

Well, one certainly dictated the other. 
 

Those of us that can’t separate the two recognized that the thoroughness of step 1 required an unlikely level of success in step 2.

[The Jokeman]

1 hour ago, Thorny said:

Should I post the results after said tank?

The intention isn't to prove that a tank COULD NOT have worked, full stop (or that a rebuild wasn't necessary) - it's just to point out that, well, it didn't. It didn't work. The strategy failed - the modus operandi didn't end with "acquire Jack Eichel, mission accomplished". It was to both acquire that player and build around them. Unless you want to argue that being unable to build sufficiently around him had literally zero to do with the means undertaken to acquire him, (and the *mentality* required to obtain him, and what that might imply for how the rest of the roster would be treated AFTER the acquisition) I'd say the whole Op failed. 

To me the degree of difficulty of said plan was unquestionably upped do to the means of implementing said plan. 

We haven't even gotten into how anointing Jack the "savior" may have burdened him mentally. Any and all responsibility attributed to our best player was exponentially increased due to it not only being asked of him, but specifically required in the conception of that plan. 

- - - 

In short, try to land on a ridiculously difficult runway by choice, and it's a failure of both execution and decision making

Part of the reason the tank failed was we never found a goalie, which we still haven't. Ullmark might be good enough yet not sure I give him top 15 money just yet. I mean how many points did we lose because Lehner couldn't stop a shootout goal? That said the tank was designed for McDavid moreso Eichel. That said not sure even McDavid do us any better as guys like Okposo and Bogo not living up to expectations. 

[The Jokeman]

 

23 minutes ago, Brawndo said:

Twitter and Social Media.

Post Game Callers on WGR

Callers to Regular WGR Shows.

 

 

 

To be fair Sam and Jack are two of the better players we've had through this whole tank situation. The problem was other guys didn't step up or got jettisoned out of there too quick and didn't get fair compensation for moving on from them (see ROR and Kane). Yet until we find a bonafide top end goalie we're not going anywhere. 

[Crusader1969]

12 minutes ago, Weave said:

Well, one certainly dictated the other. 
 

Those of us that can’t separate the two recognized that the thoroughness of step 1 required an unlikely level of success in step 2.

completely don't agree with this.

The Tank and the rebuild are completely separate. The Tank succeeded, they got Jack and Samson and a bunch of draft picks to help them build around them.

  Who knows where this team would be if they kept their 3 2015 1st rounders?  

 

[GASabresIUFAN]

37 minutes ago, Brawndo said:

Twitter and Social Media.

Post Game Callers on WGR

Callers to Regular WGR Shows.

 

 

 

So idiots.

[DarthEbriate]

5 minutes ago, The Jokeman said:

To be fair Sam and Jack are two of the better players we've had through this whole tank situation. The problem was other guys didn't step up or got jettisoned out of there too quick and didn't get fair compensation for moving on from them (see ROR and Kane). Yet until we find a bonafide top end goalie we're not going anywhere. 

This. Goaltending is the #1 issue since the rebuild started. Lehner/Johnson was a solid tandem for a team not ready to compete. Then Lehner couldn't stop a shootout attempt for anything. Then JBott signed Carter the Hutt and the rest was history. Hutton had 2 good months (Nov 2018, Oct 2019) in his three seasons here, and otherwise he pretty much hung the team out to dry 4 times out of 5. Yes, I know that innumerable other factors contributed. But we saw it the last two seasons as Ullmark solidified his game. This year: Ullmark, average-to-good starting goalie, had this team hanging around .500 in arguably the strongest division top-to-bottom. We'd still have missed the playoffs: fine. But when Ullmark played, we were in the games.

[DarthEbriate]

 

39 minutes ago, Brawndo said:

Twitter and Social Media.

Post Game Callers on WGR

Callers to Regular WGR Shows.

1 minute ago, GASabresIUFAN said:

So idiots.

Don't sell us SabreSpacers short. 🍺 We can be idiots, too, when we put our minds to it. Myself more than most.

[Brawndo]

34 minutes ago, GASabresIUFAN said:

So idiots.

I never said it was the Smart Segment of Buffalo Sports Fans 

[inkman]

1 hour ago, Weave said:

You’re doing God’s work, Thorny.

 

And LOL at my iphone attempting to autocorrect God with Hodgson.

Can’t spell Hodgson without God son. 

[PerreaultForever]

7 hours ago, Brawndo said:

Other NHL GMs have proven capable in building a balanced roster, something that GMTM, Botterill and so far Adams have proven incapable of. 
 

The complete lack of success that the Sabres Organization has had isn’t on Eichel and Reinhart. 
 

A Tradition like no other Buffalo Sports Fans blaming the good players for the teams sucking. 

You can spin that as a narrative but it's not true for me. I never blamed Perreault (even though he did slack some nights) nor Peca or Drury or Briere or Hasek or whoever from the past. Turgeon was a slacker and the LaFontaine trade was a huge win. To me, our current so called stars are in the Turgeon boat. 

I'm on the record not being in favour of the Skinner signing. My call every year is for mid level free agents not stars. I'm totally on board with building a balanced roster, but if you dump all your money on stars who cannot lead and do not win, it'll be a disaster. However you want to categorize these guys (put the blame on the team breaking them or them failing doesn't matter) either way they're broken and they are thus part of the problem. 

4 hours ago, LGR4GM said:

A major reason you watched mildly competitive hockey down the stretch was because Sam Reinhart ascended to center and improved the team. 

playing for a contract/trade.  He's had chances to shine before. Where was the leadership when we needed it??????????????

[woods-racer]

2 hours ago, Brawndo said:

Harrington is one of many who cannot separate the tank from the rebuild though. 

I can sympathize with that. Have we not been in a continual tank for 10 years? Did they not just get the 1OA?

The rebuild officially starts with me with a competent front office, till then we are still intentionally tanking.

[Curt]

3 hours ago, GASabresIUFAN said:

So idiots.

A not insignificant segment of the overall population.

[Crusader1969]

1 hour ago, woods-racer said:

I can sympathize with that. Have we not been in a continual tank for 10 years? Did they not just get the 1OA?

The rebuild officially starts with me with a competent front office, till then we are still intentionally tanking.

would selling off Eichel, Samson and Risto qualify as "Tank re-loaded - Shane Wright Edititon"?

 

[Hoss]

7 minutes ago, Crusader1969 said:

would selling off Eichel, Samson and Risto qualify as "Tank re-loaded - Shane Wright Edititon"?

 

Depends on the return but if this team only gets futures and decides to forego competing for another era they should fold the team.

[LGR4GM]

10 minutes ago, Crusader1969 said:

would selling off Eichel, Samson and Risto qualify as "Tank re-loaded - Shane Wright Edititon"?

 

Tank 3: Tank Hard with a Vengeance 

[Brawndo]

7 hours ago, Weave said:

Well, one certainly dictated the other. 
 

Those of us that can’t separate the two recognized that the thoroughness of step 1 required an unlikely level of success in step 2.

That’s the thing, a competent front office easily pulls off Step 2 even with the gutting that occurred with the Tank. 
It still would have taken the better part of Three Seasons, but towards the end of Jack and Sam’s ELCs the team could have been competitive. 
 

The Blueprint sent out by the Sabres bragged about the all the picks they had in the First And Second Rounds. Those were supposed to be the building blocks the team was built on. We all know what happened with most of those picks. 

Spending around one million dollars on an analytics department that would have helped to find quality players to fill out the bottom six roles. It would help with drafting, it would help the GM not to make stupid trades and decisions. 
 

 

[DarthEbriate]

4 minutes ago, Brawndo said:

The Blueprint sent out by the Sabres bragged about the all the picks they had in the First And Second Rounds. Those were supposed to be the building blocks the team was built on. We all know what happened with most of those picks. 

They became Deslauriers and Fasching.  *zing*