GDT: Lightning @ Sabres 7pm ET, Jan 11th 2022, msg-b wgr espn+

[Radar]

2 hours ago, nfreeman said:

To those brave optimists/defenders of the franchise here:  I appreciate the optimism and the esprit de corps.  And I agree that this team can't hang with a TB team that brings its A game (and started Vasilefsky, btw).

But I go back to what I said yesterday in another thread:  the Sabres seem to come out every game now and get utterly dominated from the opening puck drop, find themselves down 2-0 or worse early on, and then maybe kinda climb back into it, or not.

Something is wrong, and it's not just talent or covid/injury absences (which every team is dealing with, btw).  There are at least 20 teams in the NHL that the Sabres should be able to mount a competitive effort against -- but here we are, having lost 10 out of 11 at home and 23 out of 28 overall.

I like DG, but I gotta ask:  does anyone think their record wouldn't be substantially better with Bruce Boudreau behind the bench?

I don't.

[Dreams Burn Down]

2 hours ago, nfreeman said:

To those brave optimists/defenders of the franchise here:  I appreciate the optimism and the esprit de corps.  And I agree that this team can't hang with a TB team that brings its A game (and started Vasilefsky, btw).

But I go back to what I said yesterday in another thread:  the Sabres seem to come out every game now and get utterly dominated from the opening puck drop, find themselves down 2-0 or worse early on, and then maybe kinda climb back into it, or not.

Something is wrong, and it's not just talent or covid/injury absences (which every team is dealing with, btw).  There are at least 20 teams in the NHL that the Sabres should be able to mount a competitive effort against -- but here we are, having lost 10 out of 11 at home and 23 out of 28 overall.

I like DG, but I gotta ask:  does anyone think their record wouldn't be substantially better with Bruce Boudreau behind the bench?

Honestly, I don't believe that even the ghost of Toe Blake could do anything with the current roster, even when fully healthy.  I do know one thing.  This team was what was advertised during the 5-1-1 start.  They were fast, hungry, and simply outworked other teams.  I understand injuries and COVID, I get it, but it doesn't excuse the lack of effort I've seen since.  They're not fast and high energy.  Not by a mile.  To be frank, in any other season, their play looks like they've given up on DG and are trying to get him fired.

[Thorner]

20 minutes ago, Dreams Burn Down said:

Honestly, I don't believe that even the ghost of Toe Blake could do anything with the current roster, even when fully healthy.  I do know one thing.  This team was what was advertised during the 5-1-1 start.  They were fast, hungry, and simply outworked other teams.  I understand injuries and COVID, I get it, but it doesn't excuse the lack of effort I've seen since.  They're not fast and high energy.  Not by a mile.  To be frank, in any other season, their play looks like they've given up on DG and are trying to get him fired.

Aren't some elements of effort a zero-sum game? In that the scale comprises 2 teams? It seems likely to me that the Sabres "better effort" early on was more a product of the leeway other teams were granting the buffalo sabres during an early season time frame where other teams aren't out to "prove to the world it's different now!" like the Sabres, than it is indicative of the effort specifically dropping off. 

When the good teams begin to close in the walls around us, there are less places for us to quickly hustle to 

Edited January 12, 2022 by Thorny

[SabresVet]

3 hours ago, LGR4GM said:

We didn't even make it 41 games before the problem was "granato" 

No one's arguing DG is the only one or thing at fault right now.  That's just a hyperbolic assertion.  

[DarthEbriate]

4 hours ago, FogBat said:

So, IOW, RJ kinda embellished what happened.

BTW, I hated hearing Bogo’s name being mentioned last night during the PBP

RJ is great, isn't he?   🍺

With Dunleavy, we wouldn't have even known anything had happened.

[BuffalOhio]

On 1/11/2022 at 8:30 PM, Huckleberry said:

At least 6 of these players won't be with the team next year, 7 if they don' t take hinostroza back.

That would be a mistake.  He's been a bright spot and has speed which this team sorely lacks.