What did we do to deserve this?

[inkman]

9 hours ago, PASabreFan said:

Seriously. I wanna know.

Go look at BillsMafia on Twitter.  Incorrigible myopia.  Every week it’s 20,000 a holes jinxing the ***** outta my team. 

[nfreeman]

3 hours ago, Thorny said:

I agree with all this but as always, shudder at the bolded. People waiting for the/playing the "we just need to get healthy" card - don't bother. If you need a healthy roster to make the playoffs - you aren't going to make the playoffs. This is just how the league works - to be good you need to build a team inclusive of withstanding injuries that will arise. 

Pretty *decent* player, but if the loss of Mattias Samuelsson sinks your chances of winning, you didn't build a team with a very good chance of winning. 

Yes, even if you've also lost the great Jokijarju and are down, gasp, 2 roster players. 

Everyone has injuries. 

- - - 

We've never yet recovered from the decision to "build a good team for later, not now" ie the Tank. Still working our way out from that. I'm not saying the tank is the CAUSE of why we are bad - with good acumen the decisions of the tank could have been reversed already. But it created a high degree of difficulty, and...we haven't had that good acumen. At least not yet. 

All of this is reasonable. I would just point out though that the Sabres are a team very much trying to claw themselves out of a deep dark hole, and as such have very little margin for error/injury.  They needed a lot of things to go right for them this year to make the playoffs.  One of them was good health.  If you want to say their health has been average, I’ll take your word for it without checking, but average isn’t what they needed.

As for your broader point — that if you want to have a roster that is a high-likelihood playoff team or better, you need a deeper D group than the Sabres have, so you can withstand some injuries — I don’t disagree there either.  But I also think it’s not as simple as picking up 2 more quality D in aisle 4 at Wegmans.  I don’t think there were many, if any, good Dmen who wanted to join this team last summer who represented clear upgrades over the guys they have.

 

[Scottysabres]

The truth PA, is that we do deserve this. At least, those of us who have remained faithful to the team through it all. I have 2 childhood friends and a family member, all born, raised and have lived in WNY their entire life, from back in the late 60's to early 70's. Life long Sabres fans, until the past 5 years, 1 by 1 the chose other teams to cheer for, because they grew tired of a dead end organization.

It hurts, sure. But we deserve everything because we've remained fans of the team. You can always choose to cheer for other teams, homegrown hockey fans from WNY, as I eluded to, are doing so and have been for some time now.

Edited November 12, 2022 by Scottysabres

[Gatorman0519]

We tanked for McDavid and paid a steep price.  Coupled with continual inept drafting, player development and management, poof.... the worst drought in hockey history with no sign of it ending anytime soon.  Mind-blowing. Oh and lets carry an extra $20 mill to spend on some more depth and take a hard pass.  Smart asset management right there. So for now a great move by Dahlin and a nice shot by Tage is about as good as it is going to get.

Edited November 12, 2022 by Gatorman0519

[Thorner]

1 hour ago, nfreeman said:

All of this is reasonable. I would just point out though that the Sabres are a team very much trying to claw themselves out of a deep dark hole, and as such have very little margin for error/injury.  They needed a lot of things to go right for them this year to make the playoffs.  One of them was good health.  If you want to say their health has been average, I’ll take your word for it without checking, but average isn’t what they needed.

As for your broader point — that if you want to have a roster that is a high-likelihood playoff team or better, you need a deeper D group than the Sabres have, so you can withstand some injuries — I don’t disagree there either.  But I also think it’s not as simple as picking up 2 more quality D in aisle 4 at Wegmans.  I don’t think there were many, if any, good Dmen who wanted to join this team last summer who represented clear upgrades over the guys they have.

 

100% agree.

Aside from Reilly there hasn’t really been anything I’ve been harping on for adds. As mentioned, my point is merely that, IF the injuries have affected us more than other teams, it’s a symptom of our depth. There was no blame - merely expressing the idea that the results we are achieving are *about right* ie if you are waiting for the “ah, finally we are fully healthy” season, it’s not coming 

[Stoner]

2 hours ago, inkman said:

Go look at BillsMafia on Twitter.  Incorrigible myopia.  Every week it’s 20,000 a holes jinxing the ***** outta my team.

They did a great tiny desk concert on NPR.

[PerreaultForever]

Pat LaFontaine put a curse on them. 

We don't deserve it, but we have an owner who knows nothing about hockey constantly hiring inexperienced people and flipping the plan over and trying again and never handing the keys over to an experienced hockey guy(s) who knows what he's doing and isn't learning on the job making mistakes. 

The best players on this roster were acquired by JBot. KA flipped the assets Murray acquired for picks and prospects (Tuch excepted) that may or may not pan out. If they do, it'll be closer to being fixed, if they don't, it's just gone full circle and gotten us nowhere. 

If Pegula had handed this team over to somebody like Rick Dudley years ago we wouldn't be in this mess. 

[TampaSabresFan]

We let Ullmark walk. That was a killer. He's dominating in net and leading the Bruins and all it took was a moderate contract to keep him. We've been through goalie hell since then and Comrie is not the answer. Relying on a 41yr old as your #1 is suicide and we committed it. It may be years before Levi is ready and UPL is not the answer either. We had the answer and let him walk.  With good goaltending this is a playoff team.

[John Tucker]

I only hope the ship gets righted before the franchise leaves town.  I’m beginning to have my doubts.  Growing up watching Perreault, Martin, Robert and the rest, I never could’ve fathomed this franchise would turn into the laughingstock of the NHL.  I’ll never transfer my allegiance to another team, I’ll simply stop watching hockey all together.  We’ve all said “win one before I die”… At this point in my life I’d take “make the playoffs again before I die”

[calti]

13 hours ago, Buffalonill said:

When we let both captains go that was the end 

that was the worst move in sabres history...tragic(on a hockey scale;)

 

[calti]

3 hours ago, Thorny said:

100% agree.

Aside from Reilly there hasn’t really been anything I’ve been harping on for adds. As mentioned, my point is merely that, IF the injuries have affected us more than other teams, it’s a symptom of our depth. There was no blame - merely expressing the idea that the results we are achieving are *about right* ie if you are waiting for the “ah, finally we are fully healthy” season, it’s not coming 

Injuries are rarely a good excuse. ..other than a top QB going down or a Dominik Hasek going down.

I think the sabres are gonna be OK.Headed in the right direction. But they cant wait forever.They need goaltending and a big scoring forward AND  a few tough grinding 2 way players  til we can call then a cup contender with a straight face.

Edited November 12, 2022 by calti

[Marvin]

1 hour ago, TampaSabresFan said:

We let Ullmark walk. That was a killer. He's dominating in net and leading the Bruins and all it took was a moderate contract to keep him. We've been through goalie hell since then and Comrie is not the answer. Relying on a 41yr old as your #1 is suicide and we committed it. It may be years before Levi is ready and UPL is not the answer either. We had the answer and let him walk.  With good goaltending this is a playoff team.

Welcome to the board!

[PerreaultForever]

2 hours ago, TampaSabresFan said:

We let Ullmark walk. That was a killer. He's dominating in net and leading the Bruins and all it took was a moderate contract to keep him. We've been through goalie hell since then and Comrie is not the answer. Relying on a 41yr old as your #1 is suicide and we committed it. It may be years before Levi is ready and UPL is not the answer either. We had the answer and let him walk.  With good goaltending this is a playoff team.

Everything except the bolded is true. 

[7+6=13]

We are a team absolutely trending in the right direction.   We are not the laughing stock of the NHL.  When we started hot we got plenty of accolades,  we've cooled off and that has stopped.  Very normal from a national perspective.   

What's also very normal is free agents want to either go to a winner or get the most money.  We've wisely chosen not to do the latter.  As we win, this will change. To win its got to come from development.  That means there will be inconsistent play.

It's hard to ask fans for patience but the mature ones know that's what's needed.  Its likely we're going to be good and there's good things to enjoy as we develop.   To think we're in the same mire we've been in is just not understanding what's happening. 

I get that it's frustrating but we're so loaded with prospects,  it's more likely we're going to be an excellent team.  The organization set themselves so far back from the possibility of developing that caused the prolonging.   Well we're here now, it's not the time to be at the low point.  

[Curt]

42 minutes ago, 7+6=13 said:

We are a team absolutely trending in the right direction.   We are not the laughing stock of the NHL.  When we started hot we got plenty of accolades,  we've cooled off and that has stopped.  Very normal from a national perspective.   

What's also very normal is free agents want to either go to a winner or get the most money.  We've wisely chosen not to do the latter.  As we win, this will change. To win its got to come from development.  That means there will be inconsistent play.

It's hard to ask fans for patience but the mature ones know that's what's needed.  Its likely we're going to be good and there's good things to enjoy as we develop.   To think we're in the same mire we've been in is just not understanding what's happening. 

I get that it's frustrating but we're so loaded with prospects,  it's more likely we're going to be an excellent team.  The organization set themselves so far back from the possibility of developing that caused the prolonging.   Well we're here now, it's not the time to be at the low point.  

This is where I’m at.

 

[freester]

I’m not convinced Ullmark would be doing any better this year with our injury ravaged defense. We need to trade a forward or forward prospect for a RD or RD prospect.  We don’t have defenseman in the pipeline and Ryan Johnson may not sign here. 

[Radar]

8 hours ago, PerreaultForever said:

Pat LaFontaine put a curse on them. 

We don't deserve it, but we have an owner who knows nothing about hockey constantly hiring inexperienced people and flipping the plan over and trying again and never handing the keys over to an experienced hockey guy(s) who knows what he's doing and isn't learning on the job making mistakes. 

The best players on this roster were acquired by JBot. KA flipped the assets Murray acquired for picks and prospects (Tuch excepted) that may or may not pan out. If they do, it'll be closer to being fixed, if they don't, it's just gone full circle and gotten us nowhere. 

If Pegula had handed this team over to somebody like Rick Dudley years ago we wouldn't be in this mess. 

Agree. I'm still hopeful the owners stumbled on a good guy in Adams. He seems to have a plan and seems also to be a stable type to carry it out. Do wish he'd have done more about goalkeeper.

[Stoner]

Really?

I was talking about the difficulty of finding Lakeshore pumpkin with Thanksgiving bearing down on us like Milan Lucic.

[LTS]

15 hours ago, Thorny said:

https://www.tsn.ca/nhl/injuries

people can just scroll through and see for themselves - please, don't take my word for it 

I mean look at the Flyers, just for one

Almost every team has multiple significant injuries. This is just one of those things we always think we are more hard done by from because of our team glasses. It's just how it goes - we aren't special. 

Even the injury list is unable to go today. We're gonna need a replacement.

[Buffalonill]

12 hours ago, TampaSabresFan said:

We let Ullmark walk. That was a killer. He's dominating in net and leading the Bruins and all it took was a moderate contract to keep him. We've been through goalie hell since then and Comrie is not the answer. Relying on a 41yr old as your #1 is suicide and we committed it. It may be years before Levi is ready and UPL is not the answer either. We had the answer and let him walk.  With good goaltending this is a playoff team.

That was the breaking point ? He never accomplished anything in buffalo .

Did he ever take this team to the playoffs ? 

[Quint]

23 hours ago, grinreaper said:

Even though it is somewhat fantastical to go back 15 years to find fault I'm thinking that we fell on our (crossed) swords when Punch Imlach wasted a draft pick on Taro Tsujimoto. The Hockey Gods have never forgiven him and get a good chuckle over pucks going through/under the back of the net and such cries of protest as "No Goal". 

The drafting of Taro was a sign of the times. The #1 and 2 overall that year was Greg Joly and Wilf Paiement and there were 25 drafting rounds. Imlach may have been making a joke, but the joke turned out to be on the Sabres for going with the fictional Japanese player, who was drafted #183 in the '74 draft. Dave Lumley (2 Stanley Cups) was drafted # 199 and Stefan Persson (4 Stanley Cups) was drafted #214. 

[Stoner]

Everyone knows that Lorentz killing the bat began the curse, which will not be broken until he personally rehabs a sick bat and releases it where the bat's great to the 27th power uncle was slain. Fortunately that spot is preserved, and even has ice.

[jad1]

5 minutes ago, PASabreFan said:

Everyone knows that Lorentz killing the bat began the curse, which will not be broken until he personally rehabs a sick bat and releases it where the bat's great to the 27th power uncle was slain. Fortunately that spot is preserved, and even has ice.

Considering our luck, that rehabbed bat will start Covid 22.

[Thorner]

13 hours ago, TampaSabresFan said:

We let Ullmark walk. That was a killer. He's dominating in net and leading the Bruins and all it took was a moderate contract to keep him. We've been through goalie hell since then and Comrie is not the answer. Relying on a 41yr old as your #1 is suicide and we committed it. It may be years before Levi is ready and UPL is not the answer either. We had the answer and let him walk.  With good goaltending this is a playoff team.

Ya. To quote Lando, that lack-of a deal is getting worse all the time

8 hours ago, 7+6=13 said:

We are a team absolutely trending in the right direction.   We are not the laughing stock of the NHL.  When we started hot we got plenty of accolades,  we've cooled off and that has stopped.  Very normal from a national perspective.   

What's also very normal is free agents want to either go to a winner or get the most money.  We've wisely chosen not to do the latter.  As we win, this will change. To win its got to come from development.  That means there will be inconsistent play.

It's hard to ask fans for patience but the mature ones know that's what's needed.  Its likely we're going to be good and there's good things to enjoy as we develop.   To think we're in the same mire we've been in is just not understanding what's happening. 

I get that it's frustrating but we're so loaded with prospects,  it's more likely we're going to be an excellent team.  The organization set themselves so far back from the possibility of developing that caused the prolonging.   Well we're here now, it's not the time to be at the low point.  

Pretty much agree except for the bit you get into at the end about our prospect pool making it more likely we'll be an 'excellent' team. I think we are on the trajectory to likely being 'good' - excellent is the harder part and it's way too early to predict anything like that imo

[Sabres Fan in NS]

14 hours ago, TampaSabresFan said:

We let Ullmark walk. That was a killer. He's dominating in net and leading the Bruins and all it took was a moderate contract to keep him. We've been through goalie hell since then and Comrie is not the answer. Relying on a 41yr old as your #1 is suicide and we committed it. It may be years before Levi is ready and UPL is not the answer either. We had the answer and let him walk.  With good goaltending this is a playoff team.

Welcome !!

Sent you a beer.

I agree with a lot of this, but they don't think that Comrie is the answer.  They are banking on Levi, which is a good bet.  Comrie is the 2 year inbetween Ullie and Levi guy.  Anderson was never the #1 guy.