A Few Positives

[msw2112]

The losing streak was rough, but they certainly ended it in style.  While there are certainly many negatives about the Sabres, I'd like to focus on a few positives.  First, Quinn has been playing much better of late, so maybe he's worked through whatever mental issues he's been having.  Second, Kulich played his best game a Sabre last night.  He made several plays, showing both tenacity (which this team sorely needs) and goal scoring ability (which every team needs).  His quick release and hard shot could at some point be recognized as among the best in the league, once the rest of his game rounds out.  It's a rare talent and it was great to see it on display last night.  I'll add a third-star to Malenstyn whose speed and determined style has finally resulted in a couple of goals in recent games.  Happy Holidays to all!

Edited December 24, 2024 by msw2112

[Big Guava]

A little irritating the Sabres snap out of the long losing streak in a big way right before the holiday break and can't use it to build any momentum now since they are off for an extended period.

It's like anything that could go wrong or against them this year does.

[Big Guava]

A few other things...

This team is night and day different with Dahlin versus without him. If anyone is wondering who the MVP of the Sabres is, it's Dahlin without question.

Jack Quinn is quietly starting to heat up...3 goals in the last 4 games and he seems to be moving better and getting to the right places more often. His lethal shot starting to come back...expecting a big second half for him as his shooting percentage is less than half of his career average this season, I would expect it to continue to regress towards the mean.

Coming back from injury last year, Quinn was often times the best player on the ice for this team...seems like he is finally getting his game back...am excited to see how this translates the rest of the year.

Edited December 24, 2024 by Big Guava

[Wyldnwoody44]

I wonder if they were allowed to be more freestyle in this game? It could be the Isles just slept walked as I don't think this team is that good consistently. I also don't know if they're as bad as their losing streak. 

[Flashsabre]

 

[PerreaultForever]

4 hours ago, Wyldnwoody44 said:

I wonder if they were allowed to be more freestyle in this game? It could be the Isles just slept walked as I don't think this team is that good consistently. I also don't know if they're as bad as their losing streak. 

islanders were bad and not doing much, that's definitely true. Sabres played with pace and their shots were accurate and when they get open ice (which they did) they can be an effective offensive team. It's possible that after the Bruins game, where the Bruins played poorly but did take away a lot of the ice and made it tough to work through, they felt they had to come out even faster and harder expecting the same thing, and when they got open ice instead they just took over. It was overdue and inevitable to happen eventually. 

Chicago is a bad dump and chase team so if they play fast the winning streak can begin. 

[LGR4GM]

12 hours ago, Flashsabre said:

 

I'll have to look but I feel like most ppl here were like,  "hey! Adams actually made a decent trade"

[steveoath]

2 hours ago, LGR4GM said:

I'll have to look but I feel like most ppl here were like,  "hey! Adams actually made a decent trade"

Beyond the happy clappers, I think you’re right. Most had soured on Savoie. Seems like Covid bolloxed that draft/scouting/development. 

[Brawndo]

15 hours ago, Flashsabre said:

 

 

3 hours ago, LGR4GM said:

I'll have to look but I feel like most ppl here were like,  "hey! Adams actually made a decent trade"

 

36 minutes ago, steveoath said:

Beyond the happy clappers, I think you’re right. Most had soured on Savoie. Seems like Covid bolloxed that draft/scouting/development. 

This is knowing your prospects and more importantly when to move on from them 

[bob_sauve28]

20 hours ago, Big Guava said:

A few other things...

This team is night and day different with Dahlin versus without him. If anyone is wondering who the MVP of the Sabres is, it's Dahlin without question.

Jack Quinn is quietly starting to heat up...3 goals in the last 4 games and he seems to be moving better and getting to the right places more often. His lethal shot starting to come back...expecting a big second half for him as his shooting percentage is less than half of his career average this season, I would expect it to continue to regress towards the mean.

Coming back from injury last year, Quinn was often times the best player on the ice for this team...seems like he is finally getting his game back...am excited to see how this translates the rest of the year.

That was a super crazy nice shot from Quinn. Also, Cozens had a great game, also. Two nice apples. Hope he is ready for a strong second half to lead us back into playoff race. 

[SABRES 0311]

On 12/24/2024 at 9:33 AM, Big Guava said:

A little irritating the Sabres snap out of the long losing streak in a big way right before the holiday break and can't use it to build any momentum now since they are off for an extended period.

It's like anything that could go wrong or against them this year does.

Building momentum? They just lost 13 in a row after a terrible start to the season. Our top six all play one line higher than they should. Momentum is not in this roster’s vocabulary.

The only momentum will be from the train carrying players out of Buffalo at the trade deadline.

 

[Big Guava]

14 minutes ago, SABRES 0311 said:

Building momentum? They just lost 13 in a row after a terrible start to the season. Our top six all play one line higher than they should. Momentum is not in this roster’s vocabulary.

The only momentum will be from the train carrying players out of Buffalo at the trade deadline.

 

 

They were in a playoff position prior to the skid with a winning record coming off a 3 game winning streak on the West Coast. Let's not try and write revisionist history now.

Edited December 25, 2024 by Big Guava

[SABRES 0311]

3 hours ago, Big Guava said:

 

They were in a playoff position prior to the skid with a winning record coming off a 3 game winning streak on the West Coast. Let's not try and write revisionist history now.

They were in a playoff position in multiple seasons. 

[Sidc3000]

3 hours ago, Big Guava said:

 

They were in a playoff position prior to the skid with a winning record coming off a 3 game winning streak on the West Coast. Let's not try and write revisionist history now.

History means nothing at this point. They destroyed it in less than a month

[Pimlach]

Hockey gets harder after New Years.  Hockey gets even harder in March. 

The Sabres should be able to improve and move up the standings but any thought of this roster playing .700 hockey and making the playoffs is not realistic. 

If they can just play .600 from here on out that would show some of the improvement we were looking for. 

I am trying to be realistic. 

[Stoner]

52 minutes ago, Pimlach said:

Hockey gets harder after New Years.  Hockey gets even harder in March. 

The Sabres should be able to improve and move up the standings but any thought of this roster playing .700 hockey and making the playoffs is not realistic. 

If they can just play .600 from here on out that would show some of the improvement we were looking for. 

I am trying to be realistic. 

If they do that, they're gonna run everything back. I mean, they probably will anyway. I'll be rooting more L L L L L L L L OTL (cackling) L L...

[JP51]

1 hour ago, Pimlach said:

Hockey gets harder after New Years.  Hockey gets even harder in March. 

The Sabres should be able to improve and move up the standings but any thought of this roster playing .700 hockey and making the playoffs is not realistic. 

If they can just play .600 from here on out that would show some of the improvement we were looking for. 

I am trying to be realistic. 

this is precisely correct... they are not built for the type of hockey played as we get closer to the playoffs... .anything over 500 hockey from them would be shocking and clearly show some improvement. 

[Wyldnwoody44]

Positives... I worked overnight and went skiing today. 

We also didn't have to watch them for a week or so, that's a positive 😉

[Pimlach]

1 hour ago, Stoner said:

If they do that, they're gonna run everything back. I mean, they probably will anyway. I'll be rooting more L L L L L L L L OTL (cackling) L L...

They will run most of it back anyway so you might as well root for wins and hope that the Core group grows up fast.  
 

With KA at the helm they will pretty much stick to the guys he signed as core, and with most of his prospects.  He won’t be able to make a big trade or sign big name UFAs so it will take “more time”.  

[ska-T Palmtown]

8 hours ago, Pimlach said:

They will run most of it back anyway so you might as well root for wins and hope that the Core group grows up fast.  
 

With KA at the helm they will pretty much stick to the guys he signed as core, and with most of his prospects.  He won’t be able to make a big trade or sign big name UFAs so it will take “more time”.  

Yup, so true. This team is basically who we get, so I will be happy with every win and every bit of "growth" we see. As a fan, not sure what else to do?

[Sidc3000]

17 hours ago, ska-T Palmtown said:

Yup, so true. This team is basically who we get, so I will be happy with every win and every bit of "growth" we see. As a fan, not sure what else to do?

And that’s what management is betting on. Fans being happy with whatever they put on the ice and they have been pretty damn successful 

Edited December 27, 2024 by Sidc3000

[PerreaultForever]

On 12/26/2024 at 8:22 AM, Pimlach said:

Hockey gets harder after New Years.  Hockey gets even harder in March. 

The Sabres should be able to improve and move up the standings but any thought of this roster playing .700 hockey and making the playoffs is not realistic. 

If they can just play .600 from here on out that would show some of the improvement we were looking for. 

I am trying to be realistic. 

It does, but it might not. We are bad enough that I suspect we will be the trap game for many a team and we will be taken lightly and we will face back up goalies and mediocre efforts on many a night. This might give us the illusion that we are getting better as it has done in other years late. 

We might go .500 but even if we win 2 out of every 3 it won't be enough. A small winning streak here will just give false hope and maybe make Adams not get anything for his deadline UFAs. 

A better plan (which won't happen) will be admitting they blew it this year, make bold moves, big trades, and a different plan for next year. Some sort of claim that we have learned and we will get it right now. That is assuming Pegula does not do a mass firing and then it's obviously a reboot. 

I mean wouldn't it be great if instead of talking about Palm trees and whining about what couldn't get done Adams came out and said "I made some mistakes but I've learned from them. We got the mix wrong but we're going to fix it. Next year this will be a different team. The losing will stop." Wouldn't that be great (even if it's bs)?

[Archie Lee]

34 minutes ago, PerreaultForever said:

It does, but it might not. We are bad enough that I suspect we will be the trap game for many a team and we will be taken lightly and we will face back up goalies and mediocre efforts on many a night. This might give us the illusion that we are getting better as it has done in other years late. 

We might go .500 but even if we win 2 out of every 3 it won't be enough. A small winning streak here will just give false hope and maybe make Adams not get anything for his deadline UFAs. 

A better plan (which won't happen) will be admitting they blew it this year, make bold moves, big trades, and a different plan for next year. Some sort of claim that we have learned and we will get it right now. That is assuming Pegula does not do a mass firing and then it's obviously a reboot. 

I mean wouldn't it be great if instead of talking about Palm trees and whining about what couldn't get done Adams came out and said "I made some mistakes but I've learned from them. We got the mix wrong but we're going to fix it. Next year this will be a different team. The losing will stop." Wouldn't that be great (even if it's bs)?

I agree with the bolded. Today though, I would say there is a substantially better chance that the lesson Adams learned is to not set any expectations re: playoffs. My bet would be that Adams believes, or will at least claim to believe, that too much pressure was placed on the team by making this a “win-now” year and that he should have stressed trusting the process over arbitrary outcomes. The reset will be to remove winning and playoffs as the standard and simply focus on gradual development and improvement, with there being no timeframe for an outcome that results in making the playoffs. This will, of course, be ridiculous. But I think there is a far greater chance, that the lesson learned is not that the roster was constructed wrong but rather that it was too soon to place any expectations for winning on this group of players. 

Edited December 27, 2024 by Archie Lee

[thewookie1]

On 12/26/2024 at 12:16 PM, Stoner said:

If they do that, they're gonna run everything back. I mean, they probably will anyway. I'll be rooting more L L L L L L L L OTL (cackling) L L...

Then stay silent about it; there’s zero assurance they’ll change anything regardless of finish

[ska-T Palmtown]

2 hours ago, Sidc3000 said:

And that’s what management is betting on. Fans being happy with whatever they put on the ice and they have been pretty damn successful 

Not disagreeing with you, at all. Just not sure what else to do, as a fan. I don't buy merch. I am no longer in Buffalo, so I don't go to the games. I have ESPN+ for other reasons, so I tune in from time to time. I am genuinely happy when they win and hope they win every time they step on the ice.