GDT: 1/25/2022 Sabres at Senators, 6 pm CT (that's 7 ET for you Buffalonians) MSG, WGR

[Slack_in_MA]

3 hours ago, LGR4GM said:

The wild swings in this boards feelings towards this team is something to behold. 

Win: the rebuild is working! Stay the course, playoffs next year!

Lose: Adams and Granato are idiots! This team is spineless and doesn't work hard! Can't wait to get Bedard in 2023.

AHL goaltending and a bad 5 minute stretch doomed a young team with talent issues. The lack of lineup consistency further adds to the issues. Moving on to .... oh oh no... we play Colorado next... Definitely not reading the dumpster of a game day thread that will be. 

I think our wild swings in feelings are pretty highly correlated to the equally wild swings in effort and performance from the team. At least mine are. 

[Radar]

8 hours ago, The Ghost of Yuri said:

Yeah, there's next year.  But right now?  It sucks.  Other teams are still playing but not the Bills.

But yeah, Allen is the best player to ever wear a Bills uniform.

Allen is a very good franchise quarterback. Best to ever wear Bills uniform? Let's talk about that🤔.

[inkman]

9 hours ago, Slack_in_MA said:

Like Joey Chestnut, people look at us and say "What a glutton for punishment".

 

I avoid these stupid eating BS exactly to not see images like this 

[Doohicksie]

1 hour ago, Radar said:

Allen is a very good franchise quarterback. Best to ever wear Bills uniform? Let's talk about that🤔.

Let's not.  I'm tired.  I need a break from the Bills right now.

[eman]

9 hours ago, pi2000 said:

This team plays with no structure, it looks like they're playing pickup.   

I get the idea they're young and Granato wants to give them some leash to be creative... but there has to be some minimal sense of structure for them to operate in.    I don't see it.

It won't matter how much talent they add if they're all playing as individuals.

To me, the jury is still out on Granato and his "style of play". Too many instances of lack of effort recently, and we have seen this under 2 previous coaches. As the above stated, regardless of the talent coming down the pipeline, you need real coaching to get anywhere, especially to counter strategies of the oppositions coaches. Don may be too nice of a guy. Don't like what I see. It's easy to blame the goaltending but in all honesty, Dell could have stood on his head, but when you don't score or only score 1 goal, you will lose the majority of your games. Houser was the only reason the Sabres beat Ottawa last game. This team is plummeting and I could accept it as I understand this is more or less a development year for the youth. However, I see no real structure or a hard to play Sabres team especially as of late. I am thinking the decent clubs that the Sabres defeated was largely due to the fact they took the Sabres lightly on that night. Being better than a Ralph Kreuger coached club isn't saying much. Ralph was one of the worst coaches.

 

[Pimlach]

6 hours ago, LGR4GM said:

The wild swings in this boards feelings towards this team is something to behold. 

Win: the rebuild is working! Stay the course, playoffs next year!

Lose: Adams and Granato are idiots! This team is spineless and doesn't work hard! Can't wait to get Bedard in 2023.

AHL goaltending and a bad 5 minute stretch doomed a young team with talent issues. The lack of lineup consistency further adds to the issues. Moving on to .... oh oh no... we play Colorado next... Definitely not reading the dumpster of a game day thread that will be. 

I get the talent issue, and I’ve been very vocal about the poor goaltending.  
 

They have a pattern of not showing up every few games.  That is not talent, it is almost like mental fatigue from losing and being out of playoff contention. Those are the games that bother me, such as last night. 
 

Next season Adams better address the goaltending and give this team a chance to break the losing mindset.  

[eman]

1 minute ago, Pimlach said:

I get the talent issue, and I’ve been very vocal about the poor goaltending.  
 

They have a pattern of not showing up every few games.  That is not talent, it is almost like mental fatigue from losing and being out of playoff contention. Those are the games that bother me, such as last night. 
 

Next season Adams better address the goaltending and give this team a chance to break the losing mindset.  

I do believe the Sabres have a gem in goal coming down the pipleine in  Devon Levi. It will take another couple of years but I do give KA credit for getting him. I believe this kid is the real deal. I will be following how he does in the Olympics playing for an NHL-less Team Canada.

[LGR4GM]

7 minutes ago, Pimlach said:

I get the talent issue, and I’ve been very vocal about the poor goaltending.  
 

They have a pattern of not showing up every few games.  That is not talent, it is almost like mental fatigue from losing and being out of playoff contention. Those are the games that bother me, such as last night. 
 

Next season Adams better address the goaltending and give this team a chance to break the losing mindset.  

You know how many teams in an 82 game season have games they don't show up for? 32 teams. 

In Dec 1 Colorado lost to Toronto 8-3 and then later that week lost to Ottawa 6-5. They almost lost to Phoenix in January but won in a shootout. 

But here we are again with loser mindset garbage. They lose because they aren't good and have ***** goaltending and only 3 decent defenders on a team where the forwards have been 25% injured or worse the entire season. 

[Zamboni]

6 hours ago, LGR4GM said:

The wild swings in this boards feelings towards this team is something to behold. 

Win: the rebuild is working! Stay the course, playoffs next year!

Lose: Adams and Granato are idiots! This team is spineless and doesn't work hard! Can't wait to get Bedard in 2023.

AHL goaltending and a bad 5 minute stretch doomed a young team with talent issues. The lack of lineup consistency further adds to the issues. Moving on to .... oh oh no... we play Colorado next... Definitely not reading the dumpster of a game day thread that will be. 

I’ve seen this for years. And you’re right, It’s something to behold. For some it’s the definition of “being a fan” I guess. Everyone is different.

[Pimlach]

27 minutes ago, LGR4GM said:

You know how many teams in an 82 game season have games they don't show up for? 32 teams. 

In Dec 1 Colorado lost to Toronto 8-3 and then later that week lost to Ottawa 6-5. They almost lost to Phoenix in January but won in a shootout. 

But here we are again with loser mindset garbage. They lose because they aren't good and have ***** goaltending and only 3 decent defenders on a team where the forwards have been 25% injured or worse the entire season. 

I can see exactly why the Sabres lose.  Looking at the roster, this season had bottom 5 written all over it, but it didn’t have too.  

I’ve been in St Louis following the Blues.  They have been consistently good for a very long time, sometimes even in the very top tier.  They won a cup just a few years back.  A winning mindset, setting high expectations, a strong work ethic - this is not garbage and it’s not something you turn on like flipping a switch  

Bad games happen.  82 games seasons will have ups and downs.  Injuries happen.   Your Colorado example doesn’t hold up.   They still lead their division and their conference.  They had a few bad nights over a 7 week period.   They don’t play effortless and uninspired hockey every 3 games like the Sabres do.  
 

These clunker games the Sabres have come up far too frequently.  I get the talent issue, but I don’t like the effort. If they can’t get up and compete for Detroit and Ottawa that is a concern.  

Edited January 26, 2022 by Pimlach

[nfreeman]

12 hours ago, PASabreFan said:

Mrs. nfreeman puts the wine glass on the bedside table and snuggles close to her husband, running her hands through chest hair that would raise Tom Selleck's bushy left eyebrow. nfreeman stares at the ceiling playfully, then breaks into a big smile. At that very moment, a red light flashes from across the room, accompanied by an old-timey ah-ooga, ah-ogga. "Sonofabitch," he mutters, immediately throwing off the silk sheet and climbing out of bed. As he hustles toward the phone, he looks down and considers approaching middle-age. Gravity is not his friend. His mood does not improve. After picking the earpiece off the antique phone stand, he cranks the handle and leans into the microphone (it's Brooklyn). "Yes?" The Mrs. curses loudly. "They wrote what?!" A wine glass is picked up abruptly and put back down in a huff, chardonnay instantly staining mahogany. "I'll log in right away, sir."

She didn't take my name, and I don't have much chest hair.  But the rest of this is spot on.

[eman]

11 minutes ago, Pimlach said:

I can see exactly why the Sabres lose.  Looking at the roster, this season had bottom 5 written all over it, but it didn’t have too.  

I’ve been in St Louis following the Blues.  They have been consistently good for a very long time, sometimes even in the very top tier.  They won a cup just a few years back.  A winning mindset, setting high expectations, a strong work ethic - this is not garbage and it’s not something you turn on like flipping a switch  

Bad games happen.  82 games seasons will have ups and downs.  Injuries happen.   Your Colorado example doesn’t hold up.   They still lead their division and their conference.  They had a few bad nights over a 7 week period.   They don’t play effortless and uninspired hockey every 3 games like the Sabres do.  
 

These clunker games the Sabres have come up far too frequently.  I get the talent issue, but I don’t like the effort. If they can’t get up and compete for Detroit and Ottawa that is a concern.  

and a decent coaching staff! Let's not forget that.

[LGR4GM]

16 minutes ago, Pimlach said:

I can see exactly why the Sabres lose.  Looking at the roster, this season had bottom 5 written all over it, but it didn’t have too.  

I’ve been in St Louis following the Blues.  They have been consistently good for a very long time, sometimes even in the very top tier.  They won a cup just a few years back.  A winning mindset, setting high expectations, a strong work ethic - this is not garbage and it’s not something you turn on like flipping a switch  

Bad games happen.  82 games seasons will have ups and downs.  Injuries happen.   Your Colorado example doesn’t hold up.   They still lead their division and their conference.  They had a few bad nights over a 7 week period.   They don’t play effortless and uninspired hockey every 3 games like the Sabres do.  
 

These clunker games the Sabres have come up far too frequently.  I get the talent issue, but I don’t like the effort. If they can’t get up and compete for Detroit and Ottawa that is a concern.  

I don't agree. You are seeing a team that lacks talent get beat because they lack talent and the top guys can't go 100% all the time every game every shift. They have effortless games as you call them because there isn't enough talent to make up for an off night. They could have won last night but between the skinner no goal and tage missing an empty net coupled with Dell being trash and throwing a trash hit, that took them out of the game. 

Oh and as far as injuries happen, Colorado is a hell of a lot deeper so your counter point is the weakest part of your entire argument. 

HEY LIGER! Injuries happen to everyone! ... yea well when Colorado has an injury they have depth to replace that player, when Buffalo has an injury we get... Hayden and Eakin... oh joy. 

Again, this board will swing back the other way with the next win and talk about how awesome the Sabres will be soon. Recency bias is the drug of the moment. 

[Norcal]

Picked a good one to miss apparently 🤷‍♂️

 

[SwampD]

12 hours ago, pi2000 said:

This team plays with no structure, it looks like they're playing pickup.   

I get the idea they're young and Granato wants to give them some leash to be creative... but there has to be some minimal sense of structure for them to operate in.    I don't see it.

It won't matter how much talent they add if they're all playing as individuals.

It’s funny, though. I think they play with more structure against better teams that also have that structure.

That gives me hope.

[pi2000]

8 hours ago, LGR4GM said:

The wild swings in this boards feelings towards this team is something to behold. 

Win: the rebuild is working! Stay the course, playoffs next year!

Lose: Adams and Granato are idiots! This team is spineless and doesn't work hard! Can't wait to get Bedard in 2023.

AHL goaltending and a bad 5 minute stretch doomed a young team with talent issues. The lack of lineup consistency further adds to the issues. Moving on to .... oh oh no... we play Colorado next... Definitely not reading the dumpster of a game day thread that will be. 

Hold up.  

They just got blown out by Ottawa.   OTTAWA.   

And it wasn't even close, giving up 47 shots, 11 high danger chances at ES and generating only 4 of their own.

Outshot 36-20 at ES. 

Are you saying Ottawa is that much more talented than Buffalo? 

BUF was supposed to be a free wheeling team under Granato, the shackles came off when Kruger was fired, yet they rank DFL at generating high danger chances per game and 10th worse at suppressing high danger chances.     

At some point the finger has to point at the coaching staff... they're not improving as a team.     They look disorganized and lost out there, last night some players seemed to just check out after they got down a few.     

Do better.

[JohnC]

1 hour ago, LGR4GM said:

I don't agree. You are seeing a team that lacks talent get beat because they lack talent and the top guys can't go 100% all the time every game every shift. They have effortless games as you call them because there isn't enough talent to make up for an off night. They could have won last night but between the skinner no goal and tage missing an empty net coupled with Dell being trash and throwing a trash hit, that took them out of the game. 

Oh and as far as injuries happen, Colorado is a hell of a lot deeper so your counter point is the weakest part of your entire argument. 

HEY LIGER! Injuries happen to everyone! ... yea well when Colorado has an injury they have depth to replace that player, when Buffalo has an injury we get... Hayden and Eakin... oh joy. 

Again, this board will swing back the other way with the next win and talk about how awesome the Sabres will be soon. Recency bias is the drug of the moment. 

I'm not making excuses for the Sabres. It is just painfully evident that there simply isn't enough talent on this roster that would give this team enough margin of error when things go wrong or injuries are sustained. Your examples of Skinner's goal being waved off and Tage missing an open net are good examples where the tenor of game could have been much different. And if you overlay our goaltending inadequacy on top of our manifest deficiencies then what is occurring shouldn't be surprising. 

The season still has a long way to go. But if the GM doesn't act with urgency this offseason in addressing the goaltending position, and if he doesn't make enough moves to strengthen glaring weaknesses, he is going to set back his own rebuild. The direction of this rebuild has been set. It needs additional action to give it a boost. A passive mindset by the GM is going to further erode and already eroded fanbase.  

[Thwomp!]

17 hours ago, Norcal said:

 

Quite the honor, I'm sure??? 

[Pimlach]

2 hours ago, LGR4GM said:

I don't agree. You are seeing a team that lacks talent get beat because they lack talent and the top guys can't go 100% all the time every game every shift. They have effortless games as you call them because there isn't enough talent to make up for an off night. They could have won last night but between the skinner no goal and tage missing an empty net coupled with Dell being trash and throwing a trash hit, that took them out of the game. 

Oh and as far as injuries happen, Colorado is a hell of a lot deeper so your counter point is the weakest part of your entire argument. 

HEY LIGER! Injuries happen to everyone! ... yea well when Colorado has an injury they have depth to replace that player, when Buffalo has an injury we get... Hayden and Eakin... oh joy. 

Again, this board will swing back the other way with the next win and talk about how awesome the Sabres will be soon. Recency bias is the drug of the moment. 

We all understand the talent issue.  I want to see more effort and urgency when we play the Detroit, Ottawa, and New Jersey, these are teams that are rebuilding with us.  Talent is not the problem when we play any of them.   

Yes, the goaltending was bad yesterday but we got shut out by Ottawa and we looked bad doing it.   Just because we had a goal called back does not mean we turtle and stop attacking.  

I don't think I get overly high on this teams occasional wins, but I am sick of losing and I want Adams to make this team more competitive next season,  Step one -  before he brings up 4 rookies, is to get better goaltending.   

Edited January 26, 2022 by Pimlach

[LGR4GM]

6 minutes ago, Pimlach said:

We all understand the talent issue.  I want to see more effort and urgency when we play the Detroit, Ottawa, and New Jersey, these are teams that are rebuilding with us.  Talent is not the problem when we play any of them.   

Yes, the goaltending was bad yesterday but we got shut out by Ottawa and we looked bad doing it.   Just because we had a goal called back does not mean we turtle and stop attacking.  

I don't think I get overly high on this teams occasional wins, but I am sick of losing and I want Adams to make this team more competitive next season,  Step one -  before he brings up 4 rookies, is to get better goaltending.   

I'd agree with the bolded. 

I really believe Adams is going to roll with UPL next season. 

[Norcal]

54 minutes ago, Thwomp! said:

Quite the honor, I'm sure??? 

On a team full of em

[Doohicksie]

6 hours ago, LGR4GM said:

You know how many teams in an 82 game season have games they don't show up for? 32 teams. 

In Dec 1 Colorado lost to Toronto 8-3 and then later that week lost to Ottawa 6-5. They almost lost to Phoenix in January but won in a shootout. 

Here's an extreme from the 1997 Western Conference Finals, Games 4 and 5 of a series that went 6 games, so you can't say either team was a bottom dweller:

 

[Taro T]

4 hours ago, Pimlach said:

We all understand the talent issue.  I want to see more effort and urgency when we play the Detroit, Ottawa, and New Jersey, these are teams that are rebuilding with us.  Talent is not the problem when we play any of them.   

Yes, the goaltending was bad yesterday but we got shut out by Ottawa and we looked bad doing it.   Just because we had a goal called back does not mean we turtle and stop attacking.  

I don't think I get overly high on this teams occasional wins, but I am sick of losing and I want Adams to make this team more competitive next season,  Step one -  before he brings up 4 rookies, is to get better goaltending.   

 

Really think last night's debacle was a combination of a low talent team with a goalie that everybody, including them, knows isn't capable of performing at this level consistently getting robbed early, followed by missing a wide open net, followed by a couple of bad goals that were breakdowns that the goalie didn't come close to even bailing them out (if the game were filmed in the old 4:3 format, not sure he'd've been in the frame on either 😉 ) that just simply didn't have the energy to get back into it.

They knew they should've been up 2-0, but all played like Mittelstadt wasn't the only one coming back from abdominal hernia surgery after they saw that not only couldn't they buy a break but the "usual" Dell was between the pipes too.

Expect they'll be better against AZ, but unless Anderson is between the pipes in Denver & playing like he did in October, might skip the Avs game.  THAT could be uuuugggly.