NHL Fire Sale: Roster Freeze Ends, 1pm eastern, 7/22

[Thorner]

5 minutes ago, Doohickie said:

I think it's more likely than most of us on the forum believe.

There's literally no reason for that to enter the prism of possibility at this point with the only data being: a team that finished last that's preparing to trade their two best players for, reportedly, futures. 

With that being all we have to go on, it'd only be blind optimism to think playoffs are more likely than "not at all likely as a base notion". 

13 minutes ago, Doohickie said:

Granato said something about "learning to win with the team you've got."  He doesn't put as much pressure on the players themselves, allows mistakes in the interest of development and learning when to take risks or not.  Basically Krueger didn't want them to take any risks so they always played back on their heals.  I think Granato's message will be to learn to play the right way and the winning will come.  Kind of like.... dare I say it.... "Trust the process."

Correct.  It's like love leads to great sex, not the other way around.

Right, sure lol 

[steveoath]

14 minutes ago, Doohickie said:

Correct.  It's like love leads to great sex, not the other way around.

You're doing it wrong 

[Doohicksie]

3 minutes ago, Thorny said:

it'd only be blind optimism to think playoffs are more likely than "not at all likely as a base notion". 

That's exactly what Buffalo fandom is based on.  Here, just have a little of this Koolade.

3 minutes ago, steveoath said:

You're doing it wrong 

If 37 years of great marriage is wrong, I don' wanna be right.

[Thorner]

Just now, Doohickie said:

That's exactly what Buffalo fandom is based on.  Here, just have a little of this Koolade.

The Buffalo fandom is simply Inevitable. 

It's the inevitable and accurate result of a team that's been this bad, for this long. 

[dudacek]

6 minutes ago, Thorny said:

Imagine how I felt then, arguing with you *against* Botterill, in the early days 

I think being a GM is a long-term process of getting your people and philosophies in place, then acquiring and developing talent. I’m always going to give a GM time to see how his moves unfold.

Even if they seem as stupid as auctioning off a franchise player at his absolute lowest value point.

[Thorner]

5 minutes ago, dudacek said:

I think being a GM is a long-term process of getting your people and philosophies in place, then acquiring and developing talent. I’m always going to give a GM time to see how his moves unfold.

Even if they seem as stupid as auctioning off a franchise player at his absolute lowest value point.

More than fair. I tend to develop perceptions pretty quickly based on listening to people talk a lot. 

I grew weary of Botterill pretty quickly. 

I can't listen to Kevyn Adams.

- - - 

I don't mind being wrong so I don't mind putting my perceptions out there pretty quick. I also think I'm a pretty good judge of character.

The great thing is, when it comes to this team, being "wrong" most often ends up in happiness. Win/win

Edited July 22, 2021 by Thorny

[inkman]

2 hours ago, JohnC said:

What expansion draft debacle are you referring to? The loss of Borgen who is a third pairing defenseman? If that has you in a state of despair then you are simply too fragile. 

Too many people are coming up with these exotic draft day scenarios. It's an example of one's imagination running amok. The Sabres are going to use the first pick in the draft to select Power. It will be an obvious decision that is also the right decision. 

I don’t know how to explain this any further but Will Borgen is the only player in the whole organization that played hockey the way it’s supposed to be played.  He the only one who hits (please don’t bring up Risto), fights and makes the opponent think twice before trying something cute. Is it too much to ask to keep the one freaking guy that did this stuff.  We are the laughingstock of the league.  Not just because we have bad players but we also have a team full of sissies.  They don’t hit, they don’t fight.  Other teams think it must be an exhibition playing Buffalo. 

[inkman]

3 minutes ago, inkman said:

I don’t know how to explain this any further but Will Borgen is the only player in the whole organization that played hockey the way it’s supposed to be played.  He the only one who hits (please don’t bring up Risto), fights and makes the opponent think twice before trying something cute. Is it too much to ask to keep the one freaking guy that did this stuff.  We are the laughingstock of the league.  Not just because we have bad players but we also have a team full of sissies.  They don’t hit, they don’t fight.  Other teams think it must be an exhibition playing Buffalo. 

Just in case y’all forgot 

 

[LTS]

The heads are saying that the deals Seattle had were to pick players and trade them.  We know Pitlick is being traded.  I wonder if Borgen is one of those players as well. 

Certainly seems like picking 14D was only because they had deals in place to convert some of them via trade.

[Radar]

1 minute ago, inkman said:

I don’t know how to explain this any further but Will Borgen is the only player in the whole organization that played hockey the way it’s supposed to be played.  He the only one who hits (please don’t bring up Risto), fights and makes the opponent think twice before trying something cute. Is it too much to ask to keep the one freaking guy that did this stuff.  We are the laughingstock of the league.  Not just because we have bad players but we also have a team full of sissies.  They don’t hit, they don’t fight.  Other teams think it must be an exhibition playing Buffalo. 

Agree we need to replace that physicality and suspect we can. I just think they have better value in trading Risto. Protecting him made asset management sense.

[inkman]

Just now, LTS said:

The heads are saying that the deals Seattle had were to pick players and trade them.  We know Pitlick is being traded.  I wonder if Borgen is one of those players as well. 

Certainly seems like picking 14D was only because they had deals in place to convert some of them via trade.

As president of the Will Borgen fan club, I don’t think any team thinks much of him.  Because they actually already have players that hit and fight. Unlike our team of cream puffs. 

2 minutes ago, Radar said:

Agree we need to replace that physicality and suspect we can. I just think they have better value in trading Risto. Protecting him made asset management sense.

They should have traded Risto before the expansion draft. Problem solved.  Adams thinks he’s getting a kings ransom for one of the worst dmen in the league. 😤

[Second Line Center]

10 minutes ago, inkman said:

Just in case y’all forgot 

 

 

 

Yea I've slept on this and I was of the opinion yesterday that we didn't have to lose Borgen it seemed they weren't picking expiring contracts...

Now I'm actually ticked off and think it was really really bad management.

Sorry it's just a fact.  Risto should have been unprotected.

And they would have took Miller - far more preferable.  Maybe Gus.  I keep forgetting Miller was an expiring contract to. 

Edited July 22, 2021 by Second Line Center

[Derrico]

56 minutes ago, New Scotland (NS) said:

Hyman for 8 years is pretty dumb, I think.

I'm an enormous Hyman fan but I agree with this.  Hyman is a sneaky good player but based on age that is far too long.

[Radar]

22 minutes ago, inkman said:

As president of the Will Borgen fan club, I don’t think any team thinks much of him.  Because they actually already have players that hit and fight. Unlike our team of cream puffs. 

They should have traded Risto before the expansion draft. Problem solved.  Adams thinks he’s getting a kings ransom for one of the worst dmen in the league. 😤

Agree. I posted days ago the best way to go would trade Risto to protect Borgan. There must be a reason it wasn't done before the expansion draft.

[Taro T]

22 minutes ago, LTS said:

The heads are saying that the deals Seattle had were to pick players and trade them.  We know Pitlick is being traded.  I wonder if Borgen is one of those players as well. 

Certainly seems like picking 14D was only because they had deals in place to convert some of them via trade.

 

Can't see Borgen being a guy that somebody else wanted bad enough to have worked out a deal w/ Seattle to grab him for them.  Might be off-base there, but just don't see it.

But maybe they expect to trade 3 or 4 other D-men & then Borgen has a shot at being top 8.

 

Expecting the lack of Seattle trades is more of Botterill once again overvaluing his hand and having been able to convince Francis that his position was correct.  And that a fair amount of the talk from the talking heads about how many deals Seattle will soon announce is them trying to save face from being pretty much dead wrong about pre-draft moves.  We'll see about that soon enough.

[pi2000]

1 minute ago, Taro T said:

 

Can't see Borgen being a guy that somebody else wanted bad enough to have worked out a deal w/ Seattle to grab him for them.  Might be off-base there, but just don't see it.

But maybe they expect to trade 3 or 4 other D-men & then Borgen has a shot at being top 8.

 

Expecting the lack of Seattle trades is more of Botterill once again overvaluing his hand and having been able to convince Francis that his position was correct.  And that a fair amount of the talk from the talking heads about how many deals Seattle will soon announce is them trying to save face from being pretty much dead wrong about pre-draft moves.  We'll see about that soon enough.

IMO the lack of trades was because teams learned a valuable lesson from the Vegas draft... not to give up futures to protect exposed players.

[Second Line Center]

2 minutes ago, Radar said:

Agree. I posted days ago the best way to go would trade Risto to protect Borgan. There must be a reason it wasn't done before the expansion draft.

 

If it's players coming back that would have to be protected.    

That's all I got.  

I'm just convinced the return on Risto is going to be a pick and a meh prospect. 

Making losing Borgen unnecessary. 

We'll just have to wait and see how this all plays out over the next few months - and it could be that regarding Eichel, Sam, and Risto.    

[Taro T]

4 minutes ago, pi2000 said:

IMO the lack of trades was because teams learned a valuable lesson from the Vegas draft... not to give up futures to protect exposed players.

That's definitely a significant part of it.  But can't help but believe that another non-insignificant portion was Seattle overvaluing their hand.  And Botterill has a reputation for doing that.

[irregularly irregular]

2 hours ago, LGR4GM said:

Culture creates winning. Winning doesn't create culture IMO. 

Culture creates winning. Winning sustains and strengthens culture. IMHO

[Sabres Fan in NS]

5 minutes ago, Let's Go B-Lo said:

If you are already the last team in the league, are you really tanking?

Correct.

There is absolutely no need for the Sabres to __________ (I can't bring myself to say it)

[WildCard]

 

[LGR4GM]

1 minute ago, WildCard said:

 

Here we go... 

[JohnC]

1 hour ago, inkman said:

I don’t know how to explain this any further but Will Borgen is the only player in the whole organization that played hockey the way it’s supposed to be played.  He the only one who hits (please don’t bring up Risto), fights and makes the opponent think twice before trying something cute. Is it too much to ask to keep the one freaking guy that did this stuff.  We are the laughingstock of the league.  Not just because we have bad players but we also have a team full of sissies.  They don’t hit, they don’t fight.  Other teams think it must be an exhibition playing Buffalo. 

Success is predicated on talent and not thuggery. If you don't understand why the Sabres are a bottom feeding team then you haven't watch the games closely enough. We simple don't have enough talent to match the opposition. Thuggery doesn't compensate for its talent deficit. Adding more talent to a this roster does. What's obvious is obvious. Old time hockey is part of the dinosaur era of hockey. That pugilistic period is long gone. Get with the modern times and stop pining for the game that no longer exists. 

[inkman]

Just now, JohnC said:

Success is predicated on talent and not thuggery. If you don't understand why the Sabres are a bottom feeding team then you haven't watch the games closely enough. We simple don't have enough talent to match the opposition. Thuggery doesn't compensate for its talent deficit. Adding more talent to a this roster does. What's obvious is obvious. Old time hockey is part of the dinosaur era of hockey. That pugilistic period is long gone. Get with the modern times and stop pining for the game that no longer exists. 

I don’t care.  I want my team to entertain me.  Give me blood. 

[JohnC]

2 hours ago, Doohickie said:

I retract my previous comment. I'm getting off that same horse and quickly riding away on my own horse.  

Just now, inkman said:

I don’t care.  I want my team to entertain me.  Give me blood. 

Switch to MMA or wrestling. You'll get plenty of blood that gets your juices going.