GDT: Sabres @ Red Bull Munchen 8:30pm CET, 7:30pm UK, 2:30pm ET NHLN, MSG-B

[Archie Lee]

25 minutes ago, nfreeman said:

My recollection is that Hutton, who was JB's big swing, stunk from the get-go.

Comrie had a few flashes (and to be fair, Hutton probably did as well), but certainly was a complete washout.  Probably KA's biggest individual failure -- both betting on Comrie and, as you point out, not fixing it earlier.

Hutton was a bigger fail, as he got a 3-year deal from Botterill while KA only gave Comrie a 2-year deal, but of course he ranks pretty low on the laundry list of terrible Botterill moves.

Hutton was amazing for the first 2 months and was largely the reason for the great start / 10 game win streak. He was out of his mind good for 8 weeks. Then…

[Crusader1969]

10 hours ago, PerreaultForever said:

I would suggest this is hard with a loser franchise. Start winning this year, play exciting and hard and then you have the time to introduce this. 

I saw part of an Utah preseason game and it looks like they will be trying to follow the Vegas lead and create a spectacle every night. Sabres could do that, but first they have to clean off 13 years of stank. 

 Wouldn't it be easier to create a section for stand and head when you aren't selling tickets and have a section that you could easily convert?

as for needing a winner, not sure about that at all.  TFC hasn't won in years and still the stand and cheer sections are full and boisterous 

 

[Crusader1969]

7 hours ago, Sabres73 said:

How about the fans organically start something themselves? Why do fans need their hands held to cheer?

That would be ideal but it isn't happening.  The only ones making noise at the KeyBank are the opposition fans 

how about SabresSpace picks a game and section to sit in and get it started? lol.  Sounds crazy but I doubt there are many more passionate Sabres fans than us.   

[Crusader1969]

6 hours ago, steveoath said:

From my outsiders pov, this seems to be the main difference between NA sports and over here in euroland. Due to football culture over here it’s almost programmed into fans. 
 

my local football team (stadium maybe had 1.5k supporters)

Glasgow clan: Arena holds 3.5k This is section N our noisy fans section. All fan led. 

 

Yea and no 

no because many MLS clubs (maybe all) have stand and cheer sections.  

yes, because in many arenas lower bowl sections are owned by businesses and have people attending to be seen, not to actually enjoy the game 

[Taro T]

52 minutes ago, Crusader1969 said:

 Wouldn't it be easier to create a section for stand and head when you aren't selling tickets and have a section that you could easily convert?

as for needing a winner, not sure about that at all.  TFC hasn't won in years and still the stand and cheer sections are full and boisterous 

 

Umm, you realize this isn't the '21-'22 season where they had some games with only 4k or so in the building?  The building is going to be 2/3's full on poor attendance nights and will have several SO's/close to SO's.

(If your 1st sentence was misunderstood, apologies.)

A few years back they looked into possibly reconfiguring the seating, particularly in the lower bowl, but they weren't really looking at SR sections.  The radical idea they were considering was converting the lower bowl between the BLs into high end "seating" where there'd essentially be high tops (similar to the bar area in the 200's behind the Sabres net) with full service for people that bought those seats.  Kind of a cross between the Panthers all inclusive packages between the blue lines in their lower bowl and that bar area.

Would be a little surprised if they ever actually went that route as there would be a LOT of current STHers displaced from their current seats and however they decided to reallocate seats they'd wind up with a LOT of unhappy customers.

[Doohicksie]

15 hours ago, Crusader1969 said:

why can't the Sabres organization attempt to create the type of atmosphere in their arena?

The Hurricanes did stuff like this the last few years (postgame team cellies, etc.) and have been widely panned for it.

I'd love to see it but it's hard to imagine it going mainstream.  I'd love to hear synchronized chant coming from KBC though.

[DarthEbriate]

The fans need to do it for themselves. Go with chant fliers, get up and sing. Others in the herd will follow (perhaps with some liquid courage).

[Taro T]

11 minutes ago, DarthEbriate said:

The fans need to do it for themselves. Go with chant fliers, get up and sing. Others in the herd will follow (perhaps with some liquid courage).

But the Events Crew needs to help too.  There have been several (not hundreds, but several) times that the crowd would get a chant going, there'd be a whistle and either the organist would overwhelm the crowd or the speakers would start blaring something else.  They need to be cognizant when the building is getting charged organically.  

(Realizing sometimes they're contractually required to run something (like the casino sponsored gambling segment); but that's not always the case.)

[PerreaultForever]

2 hours ago, Crusader1969 said:

 Wouldn't it be easier to create a section for stand and head when you aren't selling tickets and have a section that you could easily convert?

as for needing a winner, not sure about that at all.  TFC hasn't won in years and still the stand and cheer sections are full and boisterous 

 

Ya maybe. I don't know the dynamics of the Buffalo city these days but I suspect there's a contingent of die hard hockey fans out there who find tickets a little too expensive but go to sports bars and watch games with their buddies. Boisterous working class types. I think that likely still exists. If they were even semi organized they could get groups like that in with fan club type things and discounted prices but Pegula doesn't seem to be overly interested in that sort of thing. He'd rather sell one over inflated priced ticket and have an empty seat beside it rather than two half price tickets with seats full. 

[DarthEbriate]

15 hours ago, Taro T said:

But the Events Crew needs to help too.  There have been several (not hundreds, but several) times that the crowd would get a chant going, there'd be a whistle and either the organist would overwhelm the crowd or the speakers would start blaring something else.  They need to be cognizant when the building is getting charged organically.  

(Realizing sometimes they're contractually required to run something (like the casino sponsored gambling segment); but that's not always the case.)

I’m guessing they’re all more focused on their own work list.

Coming back from the 2nd period TV timeout? Time for “everybody clap your hands”. 

[Sabres Fan in NS]

22 hours ago, Taro T said:

It worked briefly with Hutton, until injuries doomed that attempt to find gold in a pyrite mine.  So, naturally, they HAD to take another crack at it.

Not that upset that they tried to find gold in the pyrite mine; more upset that when it obviously didn't happen they didn't move on from the pyrite they'd mined.

Are you talking about Sutton ??

[Taro T]

37 minutes ago, Sabres Fan in NS said:

Are you talking about Sutton ??

Not sure if anybody noticed, but Hutton falling apart coincided almost exactly with that Tredavious White Louisiana School of Goaltending skit.  Correlation, not necessarily causation.  But, just sayin'.

[PromoTheRobot]

18 hours ago, PerreaultForever said:

Ya maybe. I don't know the dynamics of the Buffalo city these days but I suspect there's a contingent of die hard hockey fans out there who find tickets a little too expensive but go to sports bars and watch games with their buddies. Boisterous working class types. I think that likely still exists. If they were even semi organized they could get groups like that in with fan club type things and discounted prices but Pegula doesn't seem to be overly interested in that sort of thing. He'd rather sell one over inflated priced ticket and have an empty seat beside it rather than two half price tickets with seats full. 

The league has something to say about ticket prices. Besides, didn't we try that idea when Rigas owned the Sabres? Didn't they just give Sabres tickets away back then?

[LTS]

I'm confused. The last time the Sabres fans collectively chanted the team got mad and would not salute the crowd. Do we want to fire the coach already?

 

[Pimlach]

23 hours ago, Thorner said:

It’s funny that we thought because he hadn’t managed to play in the nhl very much in a decade that meant he was an un-mined potential avenue for success 

Wait .... What happened to Thorny?

What's with the Joe Pesce avatar? 

 

[Pimlach]

5 hours ago, Pimlach said:

Wait .... What happened to Thorny?

What's with the Joe Pesce avatar? 

 

So you are Thorner?  Not Thornsie?