GDT: Colorado Avs @ Buffalo Sabres 12/3/24 --7 pm MSG

[#freejame]

14 minutes ago, SwampD said:

I was actually impressed by the fans that showed up last night. The were chanting “let’s go buffalo!!” They tried. It wasn’t until the Sabres filled their diapers that they turned on them and booed, and justifiably so.

I sure hope the players don’t take away the post game salute to punish us again because of it. /s

The arena was buzzing in the first. My dad and I were talking about splitting seasons between intermissions. 

[DarthEbriate]

The looming question for me from this game is...  how bad is Dahlin's injury?

Because Byram has looked fine with Dahlin (lots of players do). Byram and Power together as the top pair for any stretch of time? No. No, no. no no no.

[inkman]

21 hours ago, inkman said:

They have lost almost every big game they’ve had the last 3 seasons unless the Golden Knights are in town.  Whatever the opposite of clutch is these guys have in droves.  Like serious Small D Energy.  

Teenie weenie weenies 

[Jorcus]

A few comments on last nights game. I think the 3 top issues last night were lack of shut down D in the third period, crappy power play again, and not scoring on breakaways. 

Ok 4-1 lead going into the third. What should you do? If you can do a rewind to the Dallas stars game you would see for most of the period the Sabres got pucks deep used 1 speedy forchecker to tie up the pucks in the corner and try and gain control in the O zone to chew clock Get a shot on goal go to the face off dot and do it again. No more than 2 deep behind the goal and the rest of the team disrupts outlet passes. It bothers me they have not been adjusting their game to the score and I just don't know why that is happening. It might be the line juggle where guys just don't know what the other guy is doing. This has to be fixed.

On the power play. Can someone explain to me how the concept of the 2 deep drop off attack is supposed to work? I think the the puck carrier (Dahlin) is supposed to skate into the defending forward and drop the puck back using his position to block that player from going after the new puck carrier. What I see is Dahlin beating that guy to get behind him and then dropping the puck back. This makes the new puck carrier have to beat the guy all over again or worse risks a turnover. Power seems to get the concept a little better and will keep going if he beats the first attacker which is what Dahlin should do. 

Breakaways, Some bad luck last night by the overall average seems to be very poor. Tuch had a rolling puck, Peterka was out of gas and got caught, NAK had a good try but could not finish. The team has to do better on those. 

 

[inkman]

1 hour ago, Pimlach said:

I am devastated.   

I don’t view this team any differently than yesterday. They’ve proven to us who they are.  Spineless losers. 

Edited December 4 by inkman

[DarthEbriate]

5 minutes ago, inkman said:

I don’t view this team any differently than yesterday. They’ve proven to us who they are.  Spineless losers. 

The only reason there was any hope yesterday is because of Colorado's criminally bad starting goaltending. 

Now, if the Avalanche hadn't traded for Wedgewood a few days ago and Annunen comes in... maybe the Sabres win 7-5 anyway. But even in that situation, it wouldn't have changed the fact that once the Avalanche woke up and said, "we need to start skating on offense and defense", the game was over.

[Mustache of God]

10 hours ago, Wyldnwoody44 said:

Best part of the game was hanging with @Mustache of Godand friends during the 2nd.... And through the 2nd.

 

Got back to our seats in the 3rd to watch the fall of Rome, the Sabres went all Pompeii on their season. 

It really is sad, we should be more irate or upset, that was a colossal fail, first time in team history they lost a game at home when up by 4; 2nd time ever in team history (other being a road game in the 80s in Calgary) 

But we won't hear a peep out of Pegula, hey Terry, go home, take care of Kim and F*CK off kindly. 

I bet Adams has that stupid Chipmunk smile up in his box, dome freshly waxed waiting to announce we traded for a 5th liner, probbaly giving Terry a nice Handy under the conference room table, I mean why else would that moron be in every video. 

I hope that this game causes such a sharp drop in attendance that a move will be forced.

Agreed to the bolded! We didn't even make it back to our seats for the 3rd, we just half-watched the collapse from the lobby, and none of us even cared that much, that's how far gone we are as fans. 

Hopefully last night becomes some sort of rock-bottom moment where something clicks within the team and they turn things around. I am not hopeful that will actually happen since this is the 10th "rock-bottom" moment they've had in the last decade and they somehow manage to continue digging deeper. 

Hopefully Pegula fires Adams and that starts a change.

[Believer]

15 minutes ago, Jorcus said:

A few comments on last nights game. I think the 3 top issues last night were lack of shut down D in the third period, crappy power play again, and not scoring on breakaways. 

Ok 4-1 lead going into the third. What should you do? If you can do a rewind to the Dallas stars game you would see for most of the period the Sabres got pucks deep used 1 speedy forchecker to tie up the pucks in the corner and try and gain control in the O zone to chew clock Get a shot on goal go to the face off dot and do it again. No more than 2 deep behind the goal and the rest of the team disrupts outlet passes. It bothers me they have not been adjusting their game to the score and I just don't know why that is happening. It might be the line juggle where guys just don't know what the other guy is doing. This has to be fixed.

On the power play. Can someone explain to me how the concept of the 2 deep drop off attack is supposed to work? I think the the puck carrier (Dahlin) is supposed to skate into the defending forward and drop the puck back using his position to block that player from going after the new puck carrier. What I see is Dahlin beating that guy to get behind him and then dropping the puck back. This makes the new puck carrier have to beat the guy all over again or worse risks a turnover. Power seems to get the concept a little better and will keep going if he beats the first attacker which is what Dahlin should do. 

Breakaways, Some bad luck last night by the overall average seems to be very poor. Tuch had a rolling puck, Peterka was out of gas and got caught, NAK had a good try but could not finish. The team has to do better on those. 

 

I do. Coaching.

What are Ruff and Appert telling players on the bench?

The meltdown occurred over the last 30 minutes of play.

There was plenty of time to adjust.

 

 

[Pimlach]

4 minutes ago, inkman said:

I don’t view this team any differently than yesterday. They’ve proven to us who they are.  Spineless losers. 

I reached a point yesterday were I have lost faith in this group.   The good ones are now infected.  

I will stop with the playoff talk.  I don't see it happening.  

I will still follow them.   I don't even care if they fire Adams or not, it doesn't matter.   I just want Terry to sell the team and to start over.  

Praying that local interests can pool together and buy the team, or at least buy 51% of the team and run a program dedicated to pride, and winning, and to excellence. 

Rename the Buffalo Sabres, the Buffalo Bisons.  Bring back Red, White, and Blue colors.  They would have to get rid of the vintage Pepsi cap, put a charging Buffalo logo on with the same vintage lettering.  

 

 

I want new ownership and the Bisons back.  

[Pimlach]

30 minutes ago, Jorcus said:

A few comments on last nights game. I think the 3 top issues last night were lack of shut down D in the third period, crappy power play again, and not scoring on breakaways. 

Ok 4-1 lead going into the third. What should you do? If you can do a rewind to the Dallas stars game you would see for most of the period the Sabres got pucks deep used 1 speedy forchecker to tie up the pucks in the corner and try and gain control in the O zone to chew clock Get a shot on goal go to the face off dot and do it again. No more than 2 deep behind the goal and the rest of the team disrupts outlet passes. It bothers me they have not been adjusting their game to the score and I just don't know why that is happening. It might be the line juggle where guys just don't know what the other guy is doing. This has to be fixed.

On the power play. Can someone explain to me how the concept of the 2 deep drop off attack is supposed to work? I think the the puck carrier (Dahlin) is supposed to skate into the defending forward and drop the puck back using his position to block that player from going after the new puck carrier. What I see is Dahlin beating that guy to get behind him and then dropping the puck back. This makes the new puck carrier have to beat the guy all over again or worse risks a turnover. Power seems to get the concept a little better and will keep going if he beats the first attacker which is what Dahlin should do. 

Breakaways, Some bad luck last night by the overall average seems to be very poor. Tuch had a rolling puck, Peterka was out of gas and got caught, NAK had a good try but could not finish. The team has to do better on those. 

 

Nope.  

Top 3 issues that the TEAM is missing: 

1.  A brain

2.  A Heart

3.  The nerve.  

 

[mjd1001]

4 minutes ago, Pimlach said:

Nope.  

Top 3 issues that the TEAM is missing: 

1.  A brain

2.  A Heart

3.  The nerve.  

 

4.)  2 forward to replace Quinn and Cozens on the roster

[EM88]

Just now, mjd1001 said:

4.)  2 forward to replace Quinn and Cozens on the roster

A poster brought up the play of those 2 in a different thread I just read.  Yes, a firm agreement on that. They both played a terrible, terrible game defensively last night positionally that led to a couple of the Colorado goals. 

Cozens is not producing to expectations, his contract, or his position on the roster.  Quinn is a black hole right now.  When you have those 2 making clear and obvious mistakes with the positioning on the ice its a major issue.  As said previously when you analyze the first 2 Colorado goals scored it is the 2 of them that made very large mistakes.  The Sabres would not have looked good, but they would have likely won last night had it not been for the bad decisions made by Quinn and Cozens there.

[Pimlach]

6 minutes ago, mjd1001 said:

4.)  2 forward to replace Quinn and Cozens on the roster

They need more than that.   

[Ogelthorpe]

Send Cozens down! No team is claiming him with that 7 million a year albatross contract.  

[Justin C]

I know it can’t happen because of contracts/salary cap, and because Adams has no spine, but I would just love for the scene from Moneyball to play out today. The scene where Brad Pitt walks in and just starts trading players.

[mjd1001]

3 minutes ago, Pimlach said:

They need more than that.   

I truly think that if Quinn and Cozens did not play at all this season, and instead the Sabres inserted 2 $3-4m per year vets that played decent positionally and were career 10-15 goal scorers, I think this team would have won a couple more game and would be in, or very near, a playoff position now.

The goal is not to slide into the playoffs and then lose and be out in a week. So yeah, the team 'needs' more than just those 2 being replaced.

But they are taking up minutes, offensive zone starts, PP time and not producing, basically at all.  In addition, they are both turning into massive liabilities without the puck. Replacement level guys (competent journeyman 3rd line guys) would be better for this team at the moment.

[Thorner]

3 hours ago, Eli Cash said:

It’s a great point.  The Bills are doing well because the people that should be making football decisions are the people that are making football decisions.  Sabres will not be relevant until there is a massive overhaul in structure.

I cannot imagine Santa will be leaving a lot of Sabres merchandise under the trees this year.

 

Adams makes decisions. They just haven’t been good. 

 

I’d argue Harrington has gone off the rails with this 

not spending is *irrelevant*? What are we even doing here. Is this the sort of leeway the team gets? 

[Ogelthorpe]

21 minutes ago, Thorner said:

I’d argue Harrington has gone off the rails with this 

not spending is *irrelevant*? What are we even doing here. Is this the sort of leeway the team gets? 

It's irrelevant because one 8 million dollar player is not fixing this team. Nor are two 4 million dollar players

[That Aud Smell]

Yeah, I mostly despise Harrington, but he's got a point here.

Also - and not sure if it was observed upthread - but there is something (viciously) poetic about a MacKinnon-led team exposing this Sabres team as the Avalanche did. 

There is no bigger, harder motherfu**er in the NHL than MacKinnon. You could see it last night: He kicked things into another gear and brought his team along with him.

[Ogelthorpe]

Was offered freebies for this game. My response, "No thank you" . Best decision I have made in awhile!🤣

[DarthEbriate]

The poster says the $80 million payroll is irrelevant. Harrington still says it's irrelevant. ... Are they in agreement?

The Sabres are irrelevant to the other teams of the league.

[PromoTheRobot]

16 hours ago, PromoTheRobot said:

Don't score too much too soon. They pull the goalie and the new guy will shut you out.

I should have made some bets.

[Thorner]

17 minutes ago, Ogelthorpe said:

It's irrelevant because one 8 million dollar player is not fixing this team. Nor are two 4 million dollar players

That’s not how this works.

the Adams regime was borne out of the desire to fix the terrible team culture. Point out the board member who disagreed that was necessary. We are still under the agreement the culture was a significant issue affecting performance, correct?

It defies the limits of credibility to suppose the *clear* refusal of the organization to prioritize winning wouldn’t have an affect on the players. On the team, on the culture. This imbibes the psyche of the players who make up the 80 million we do spend.

On a less important, but still important side note: It’s also incredibly rich to read about how an $8 million dollar player “wouldn’t make a difference” when the line re: making the playoffs might be (currently is) like a couple points. Rich, because all I’ve heard around here was how Jack Eichel didn’t do enough for what we paid him, didn’t put the team on his back, and now we/you want to pretend the output of an 8 million dollar play is “irrelevant”?

- - - 

This (way too young) collection of players hasn’t played under a legitimate expectation of winning since being assembled. 

it’s a f*cking problem, and now you’ve seen it manifest. I’ve only been harping on it for 4 years around here  

14 minutes ago, That Aud Smell said:

Yeah, I mostly despise Harrington, but he's got a point here.

Also - and not sure if it was observed upthread - but there is something (viciously) poetic about a MacKinnon-led team exposing this Sabres team as the Avalanche did. 

There is no bigger, harder motherfu**er in the NHL than MacKinnon. You could see it last night: He kicked things into another gear and brought his team along with him.

He absolutely does not have a point 

 

The failure to spend among the teams actually trying to win in this league is equal parts cause, and SYMPTOM

Edited December 4 by Thorner

[That Aud Smell]

12 minutes ago, Thorner said:

He absolutely does not have a point 

The failure to spend among the teams actually trying to win in this league is equal parts cause, and SYMPTOM

I didn't say he had a good point. 

Just that there's a point to be made about the decisions Adams made to lock in a slew of very young players and rely on them to carry the load.

[Thorner]

2 minutes ago, That Aud Smell said:

I didn't say he had a good point. 

Just that there's a point to be made about the decisions Adams made to lock in a slew of very young players and rely on them to carry the load.

Ya that’s fair too