The NHL Athletic Players Poll

[PerreaultForever]

4 hours ago, Thorner said:

Hahhahhh told you Winnipeg was even worse

8 playoff appearances 

Winnipeg is cold and in the middle of nowhere so it's no surprise. If you noticed Calgary and Ottawa also got on the list so the Canadian thing is real. If McDavid wasn't in Edmonton they'd be on the list too. The big 3 Canadian cities are of course different as they all have positives. 

Losing does matter though, hence Anaheim and San Jose as well. For Buffalo it's no surprise, it's hard to escape a 13 year losing streak and no signs of getting out of it. 

[Second Line Center]

8 hours ago, EM88 said:

I agree with others that its primarily the losing keeping players from here.

 

Then why is Winnipeg number 1?

[Second Line Center]

I think Buffalo is a harder sell bc of its organization’s reputation getting worse once ROR, Samson, and Eichel left.  
 

I'm sure every player in the league has heard what a dysfunctional mess we are.  
 

But it was easier for Adams to say taxes and palm trees.  
 

[mjd1001]

3 minutes ago, Second Line Center said:

Then why is Winnipeg number 1?

Coldest city to live in (its going to be -20 this week and that isn't all that rare for winters), long flights wherever you need to go. Lack of a major city within hundreds of miles.  

Winnipeg just has a combination of other factors that no other city has. Winning can't overcome all of those things, and they win the regular season so they are better than Buffalo there, but they don't exactly have a stellar record of contending to cups, with early playoff exits most of the time.

 

[shrader]

I’d love to see these responses broken up by nationality. I wouldn’t be surprised if it’s more American guys voting for Buffalo and more Canadians voting Winnipeg. 

[EM88]

9 hours ago, Second Line Center said:

Then why is Winnipeg number 1?

Winnipeg crosses some lines that other cities do not. 

It is a sliding scale, there might be times in players mind that one thing can push their thoughts on an area over the line from a yes to a no. Buffalo is viewed as having cold winters, high taxes, and not a lot of culture and nightlife. But compared to some cities, the winters aren't that much worse, the low-ish cost of living and housing makes up for the high taxes, and you are very close to Toronto for the nightlife.  So the winning and losing culture has a big impact on how much a younger player wants to be here.

For those living there who like things like culture, events, concerts, night life, I think Winnipeg is the farthest from any metro area of over 1 million people. With Winnipeg being as small as it is, it does not have a lot of those things itself. Even Calgary and Edmonton are almost double the size of Winnipeg.

Also the weather. I hear it is by far the coldest city to live in of anywhere in the NHL including Edmonton and Calgary, although Edmonton is close. You have a wife and kids and sure, you get to leave on road trips. But for them staying home its not optimal. Winnipeg has plenty of days in the winter with daytime high temperatures around 0F and it can get down to -20 or -30 below. 

Look at next week there. Monday and Tuesday  are supposed to have daytime high temps of -5F and lows at -25F.  

Edited February 6 by EM88

[kas23]

One interesting thing is what was not said. No one brought up how Eichel was treated or how we don’t treat players well. I know you can’t prove a negative, but if that was said, it’s a much more worthy quote than the tired reasons of “no playoff in forever”, “taxes”, or “all they do is lose.”  

[Pimlach]

8 hours ago, Second Line Center said:

Then why is Winnipeg number 1?

Cold and in the middle of nowhere and Wives.  

8 hours ago, Second Line Center said:

I think Buffalo is a harder sell bc of its organization’s reputation getting worse once ROR, Samson, and Eichel left.  
 

I'm sure every player in the league has heard what a dysfunctional mess we are.  
 

But it was easier for Adams to say taxes and palm trees.  
 

add Montour, Ullmark, and many more ... 

4 minutes ago, shrader said:

I’d love to see these responses broken up by nationality. I wouldn’t be surprised if it’s more American guys voting for Buffalo and more Canadians voting Winnipeg. 

Doubt it.  This is the media age and players know what's going on in Buffalo.  Hard sell to Europeans, Russians and North Americans. 

The shame is that a competitive and hard working team would be revered in Buffalo.  They wasted a generation of Sabres Mafia and that has consequences. 

 

[Stoner]

1 minute ago, Pimlach said:

Cold and in the middle of nowhere and Wives.  

add Montour, Ullmark, and many more ... 

Doubt it.  This is the media age and players know what's going on in Buffalo.  Hard sell to Europeans, Russians and North Americans. 

The shame is that a competitive and hard working team would be revered in Buffalo.  They wasted a generation of Sabres Mafia and that has consequences. 

 

Sabres Mafia? Please, no.

[Pimlach]

22 minutes ago, Stoner said:

Sabres Mafia? Please, no.

Yes.  Something like it would have happened if they had a contending team over the years.  The younger generation is creative like that.  

There have been several times in Buffalo Sports history when the Sabres were more popular than the Bills.  

Edited February 6 by Pimlach

[JohnC]

2 minutes ago, Stoner said:

Sabres Mafia? Please, no.

What do you have against broken tables? 

What do you call someone who is willing to break his back diving on a table to get a yuk from a drunken crowd? Fat and stupid!

[Stoner]

15 minutes ago, Pimlach said:

Yes.  Something like it would have happened if they had a contending team over the years.  The younger generation is creative like that.  

There have been several times in Buffalo Sports history wear the Sabres were more popular than the Bills.  

Could be a good discussion. I just don't like the name. I don't even like the Sabres' attempt to make fetch happen... SabreHood.

[LabattBlue]

2 hours ago, Stoner said:

Could be a good discussion. I just don't like the name. I don't even like the Sabres' attempt to make fetch happen... SabreHood.

Sabrehood fits perfectly for the social media twit who runs the account.  I know it is common among the social media accounts for all teams, but I find it cringeworthy when I see the players referred to by their nicknames on the accounts, as if the social media person is “one of the boys”.  
 

Example….Happy Birthday Clouder!🤮

[Jorcus]

3 hours ago, shrader said:

I’d love to see these responses broken up by nationality. I wouldn’t be surprised if it’s more American guys voting for Buffalo and more Canadians voting Winnipeg. 

Also Winnipeg is one of the hardest places to fly back to Europe from but that is also true for a number of other cities.

Edited February 6 by Jorcus

[Thorner]

14 hours ago, mjd1001 said:

Coldest city to live in (its going to be -20 this week and that isn't all that rare for winters), long flights wherever you need to go. Lack of a major city within hundreds of miles.  

Winnipeg just has a combination of other factors that no other city has. Winning can't overcome all of those things, and they win the regular season so they are better than Buffalo there, but they don't exactly have a stellar record of contending to cups, with early playoff exits most of the time.

 

It’s mostly cause I live here 

[Thorner]

5 hours ago, EM88 said:

Winnipeg crosses some lines that other cities do not. 

It is a sliding scale, there might be times in players mind that one thing can push their thoughts on an area over the line from a yes to a no. Buffalo is viewed as having cold winters, high taxes, and not a lot of culture and nightlife. But compared to some cities, the winters aren't that much worse, the low-ish cost of living and housing makes up for the high taxes, and you are very close to Toronto for the nightlife.  So the winning and losing culture has a big impact on how much a younger player wants to be here.

For those living there who like things like culture, events, concerts, night life, I think Winnipeg is the farthest from any metro area of over 1 million people. With Winnipeg being as small as it is, it does not have a lot of those things itself. Even Calgary and Edmonton are almost double the size of Winnipeg.

Also the weather. I hear it is by far the coldest city to live in of anywhere in the NHL including Edmonton and Calgary, although Edmonton is close. You have a wife and kids and sure, you get to leave on road trips. But for them staying home its not optimal. Winnipeg has plenty of days in the winter with daytime high temperatures around 0F and it can get down to -20 or -30 below. 

Look at next week there. Monday and Tuesday  are supposed to have daytime high temps of -5F and lows at -25F.  

It’s been cold this month but our winters don’t have the bite of legend anymore, snow doesn’t even start till Christmas, and our summers are as good or better than anyone’s 

But, at the end of the day, players DO want to come to winnipeg significantly less than buffalo - and the rub is that it has not been too much for them to overcome, at all. And therein lies the mechanics by which Adams’ excuse making disintegrates 

Edited February 6 by Thorner

[Thorner]

3 hours ago, LabattBlue said:

Sabrehood fits perfectly for the social media twit who runs the account.  I know it is common among the social media accounts for all teams, but I find it cringeworthy when I see the players referred to by their nicknames on the accounts, as if the social media person is “one of the boys”.  
 

Example….Happy Birthday Clouder!🤮

Preach 

[KC Scouts]

Its obvious to me....didn't need a player poll to confirm for me that

1) The losing, the futility, dare I say the "California Golden Seals of the modern day NHL" impression we give off drives them away

2) The lack of money spent on anything regarding the organization

3) Players talk when they leave, everybody knows what a sh** show we are internally

However:

By the same token, if we ever get around to changing those things (Ha Ha Ha), word gets around fast 

[John Tucker]

"Hockey Heaven" to "Hockey Hell" in a heartbeat

[WhenWillItEnd66]

If they would have won 1/2 of the 13 losing streak we would be in the playoffs. This team is close to being there. A physical defensive Dman and a power physical forward vet and they are there i think

[Stoner]

1 hour ago, WhenWillItEnd66 said:

If they would have won 1/2 of the 13 losing streak we would be in the playoffs. This team is close to being there. A physical defensive Dman and a power physical forward vet and they are there i think

Yeah but they also lose 2/3 of one of their three game W streaks and 1/2 of their four game streak. Nuts.

[Thorner]

1 hour ago, WhenWillItEnd66 said:

If they would have won 1/2 of the 13 losing streak we would be in the playoffs. This team is close to being there. A physical defensive Dman and a power physical forward vet and they are there i think

That’s not how “close” works

If you give 13 points to any team they’d be right there

it’s a 13 point deficit racked up over 53 games. So, essentially equivalent to 20 points over a full season. 

Edited February 7 by Thorner

[Stoner]

4 minutes ago, Thorner said:

That’s not how “close” works

If you give 13 points to any team they’d be right there 

 

Also what does "right there" represent? Squeaking into the playoffs? To be followed by a civic parade and that extension to Year 20 @SDS told us about?

Meanwhile the dude who took five years to accomplish this trivial task is the guy who's supposed to get us to the avowed goal of winning a Cup. How many frickin years does he get to do that?

Edited February 7 by Stoner

[Thorner]

3 minutes ago, Stoner said:

Also what does "right there" represent? Squeaking into the playoffs? To be followed by a civic parade and that extension to Year 20 @SDS told us about?

Meanwhile the dude who took five years to accomplish this trivial task is the guy who's supposed to get us to the avowed goal of winning a Cup. How many frickin years does he get to do that?

That’s what I mean. I don’t think people understand what “bare minimum” expectation is, or they just don’t care. We said MAKING the playoffs this year was the mandate because anything a modicum short of that is an absurd, gargantuan fail on the part of Adams’ plan. Making it in year 5 isn’t good, it’s terrible. Being very generous to say that should avoid firing.

But they are *13 points* (over only 53 games!!) SHORT of an unmissable goal? 

exceptionally far 

Edited February 7 by Thorner

[JP51]

On 2/5/2025 at 11:46 PM, mjd1001 said:

Coldest city to live in (its going to be -20 this week and that isn't all that rare for winters), long flights wherever you need to go. Lack of a major city within hundreds of miles.  

Winnipeg just has a combination of other factors that no other city has. Winning can't overcome all of those things, and they win the regular season so they are better than Buffalo there, but they don't exactly have a stellar record of contending to cups, with early playoff exits most of the time.

 

I agree... Winnipeg winter is in a way different catagory than Buffalo winter... less snow way more frigid life threatening pipes freezing temps.... I can see not wanting to deal with that winter if the team isnt a contender... I dont see them as a contender  nor near a hockey hub... think travel from Buffalo to Boston, NY Long Island, Montreal, Philly, Toronto, even Ottawa and DC.... these are 1 hour flights... or 90 minutes drives...  Travel from Winnipeg has got to be a bit more difficult... not saying that gives us palm trees... but travel is easier...