Sabres have done it! No longer last in Eastern Conference

[inkman]

16 minutes ago, OverPowerYou said:

Do we really want a top pick? Seems like our top picks aren’t really doing much other than Dahlin. We just trade them away 

I don’t care about draft picks any more. None of these kids are helping them make the postseason next year.  

[DarthEbriate]

If the season ended today, the Sabres would draft 9th.

[dudacek]

So sad looking at the standings.

How long have we waited for the Bruins to fall? And the Penguins joined them. And the Rangers fell apart.

And we sat on the bench and watched Ottawa, Montreal and Washington seize the opportunity.

What a waste.

[Weave]

Since the ‘15-16 season, the only 2 months the Sabres have a winning record are October and April.  October, when teams are waking up and feeling things out, and April, when we aren’t important to the teams in the playoffs.

 

Its on reddit so it must be true.

https://www.reddit.com/r/sabres/s/45GWdWJfXw
 

Edited April 7 by Weave

[Mr. Allen]

22 hours ago, inkman said:

I don’t care about draft picks any more. None of these kids are helping them make the postseason next year.  

While I’m not rooting for them to lose for a better draft pick, there’s one telling thing about your stance with this.  You’re old and impatient.  I get it.
But having good drafts are important for the future of any good franchise.  Especially one like ours where it’s difficult to sign free agents.  Maybe once we become a perennial playoff team that’ll change, but until then, we need to build through the draft.  

[pastajoe]

1 hour ago, Mr. Allen said:

While I’m not rooting for them to lose for a better draft pick, there’s one telling thing about your stance with this.  You’re old and impatient.  I get it.
But having good drafts are important for the future of any good franchise.  Especially one like ours where it’s difficult to sign free agents.  Maybe once we become a perennial playoff team that’ll change, but until then, we need to build through the draft.  

We don’t necessarily need to just build through the draft, but use the high draft picks and prospects to acquire veterans to blend in with the younger players. And the higher the pick, the better the potential.

[Mr. Allen]

53 minutes ago, pastajoe said:

We don’t necessarily need to just build through the draft, but use the high draft picks and prospects to acquire veterans to blend in with the younger players. And the higher the pick, the better the potential.

Of course.  But then you have to ask yourself, do you trust Adams to make that trade?  
I actually trust him to draft well.  He, and his team, have hit recently.  But we need 1-3 big trades to happen and I don’t trust this group to make the right decision.  

[Sabres73]

The TSN power rankings today have us shooting up to #16 overall in the league.

[Thorny]

5 minutes ago, Sabres73 said:

The TSN power rankings today have us shooting up to #16 overall in the league.

Stop the count 

!

[HumanSlinky39]

This organization's biggest problem is we're stuck in that hellscape where we're not bad enough to draft really high and blow up the front office, but not good enough to make the playoffs. The roster has enough talent to hover just below the playoff-level by year's end, but they are not good enough as a team to play at the level needed to get over the hump. In the macro, they're just good enough that KA can sell Terry on the never-ending "process" and bounce from year-to-year without significantly improving the roster to a level that they can finally get over the hump. Just kicking the can down the road every summer. He's hellbent on doing it with "his guys" when his guys have shown for 3-4 years that they are not good enough.

I had a twinkle of hope in early March when they were spiraling that maybe the implosion would be enough for Terry to recognize that seismic changes are needed in the organizational structure to move the team forward, but as has been their M.O., they start playing well when it's too damn late to matter. So, KA probably sells him on this late surge being them "figuring it out" and we just run it back yet again with only a minor addition or two.

A competent GM would recognize that we still have fatal flaws on this roster that cannot be fixed in house and would attack those gaps relentlessly in the offseason. A competent owner, a serious hockey organization, would recognize that the current GMs plan is not going to work and would move on. But again, this is not a serious hockey organization.

Edited April 7 by HumanSlinky39

[shrader]

The next step is to hack in and tamper with the lottery balls.

[DarthEbriate]

1 hour ago, Sabres73 said:

The TSN power rankings today have us shooting up to #16 overall in the league.

The team no one wants to play in the playoffs!

[matter2003]

26 minutes ago, shrader said:

The next step is to hack in and tamper with the lottery balls.

if they get some hot ring girls up there with the lottery, I'll volunteer to let them tamper with my balls...you know...just for good luck! 😂

[Kristian]

One thing that might get overlooked, is that we went from being a terrible home team to a decent one with a winning record, this year. Unfortunately, we became absolute ***** on the road, losing roughly 65% of all games.

We’re also 4-1 in the shootout.

Edited April 8 by Kristian

[zow2]

6 hours ago, Kristian said:

One thing that might get overlooked, is that we went from being a terrible home team to a decent one with a winning record, this year. Unfortunately, we became absolute ***** on the road, losing roughly 65% of all games.

We’re also 4-1 in the shootout.

I'm clinging to the fact that they finally figured out how to protect home ice going forward.  Seeing them play well in the last third of the season while our peer teams are crumbling gives me a little hope.  When it comes to signing free agents, the finish to the season may show other NHL players hesitant to sign with Buffalo that this club can make a big leap with the right D-men and goalie.  

[dudacek]

On 4/7/2025 at 5:46 AM, Weave said:

Since the ‘15-16 season, the only 2 months the Sabres have a winning record are October and April.  October, when teams are waking up and feeling things out, and April, when we aren’t important to the teams in the playoffs.

 

Its on reddit so it must be true.

https://www.reddit.com/r/sabres/s/45GWdWJfXw
 

The facts might be true, but underlying conclusion that they only get hot when it doesn’t matter is false.

• Sabres are currently on a streak of 7 wins in 8 games.
• They also had a streak of 7 wins in 9 games in November
• And another of 6 wins in 7 games sandwiched around the 4 Nations in February.

Last year they rarely put together lengthy runs. But the one they did have was a 6 of 8 run in late February.

The previous year is the one probably responsible for setting up this meme: 7 of 9 to finish strong and just miss the playoffs.

The ironic thing there is the meme kinda falls apart because they were in a playoff race and the games did mean something.

And their best streak that year was 8 of 9 to finish December.

So 6 recent streaks like this and only one of them in garbage time?

Of course nobody will remember this because it’s not a good story.

 

 

[Weave]

14 minutes ago, dudacek said:

The facts might be true, but underlying conclusion that they only get hot when it doesn’t matter is false.

• Sabres are currently on a streak of 7 wins in 8 games.
• They also had a streak of 7 wins in 9 games in November
• And another of 6 wins in 7 games sandwiched around the 4 Nations in February.

Last year they rarely put together lengthy runs. But the one they did have was a 6 of 8 run in late February.

The previous year is the one probably responsible for setting up this meme: 7 of 9 to finish strong and just miss the playoffs.

The ironic thing there is the meme kinda falls apart because they were in a playoff race and the games did mean something.

And their best streak that year was 8 of 9 to finish December.

So 6 recent streaks like this and only one of them in garbage time?

Of course nobody will remember this because it’s not a good story.

 

 

The Sabres were out of it in February.  Those games were pressure off games.

November is more compelling.  But we know how epic that collapse was.

[LGR4GM]

It doesn't matter to me when they win or lose, just that the lost too much to make the playoffs. If that happened in November or March, IMPO it doesn't matter. Adams needs to aggressively fix defense and goaltending. He won't do either. 

[dudacek]

I think the boundaries are arbitrary and the meme is a defence mechanism.

Just like that other meme we used a see a lot of when there was still hope around here: “if you take out (insert ***** streak here) we’re actually (insert optimistic spin here).

Losses are losses. Wins are wins.

It’s not when or how, it’s how many.

Edited April 8 by dudacek

[Thorny]

3 hours ago, dudacek said:

The facts might be true, but underlying conclusion that they only get hot when it doesn’t matter is false.

• Sabres are currently on a streak of 7 wins in 8 games.
• They also had a streak of 7 wins in 9 games in November
• And another of 6 wins in 7 games sandwiched around the 4 Nations in February.

Last year they rarely put together lengthy runs. But the one they did have was a 6 of 8 run in late February.

The previous year is the one probably responsible for setting up this meme: 7 of 9 to finish strong and just miss the playoffs.

The ironic thing there is the meme kinda falls apart because they were in a playoff race and the games did mean something.

And their best streak that year was 8 of 9 to finish December.

So 6 recent streaks like this and only one of them in garbage time?

Of course nobody will remember this because it’s not a good story.

 

 

Most relevant has always been that is hasn’t mattered, not that it couldn’t have 

the meme persists because it’s never been accompanied with an actual good team. Even if it takes time and hindsight to reveal that fact as true.

the continued insistence of putting value in these stretches in the moment is what’s tiring. Like right now. The stats from these games mean nothing 

demonstrably. As you point out: we see it in short stretches fairly frequently. Because it’s an 82 game season and that’s how math works in large numbers 

[Thorny]

3 hours ago, LGR4GM said:

It doesn't matter to me when they win or lose, just that the lost too much to make the playoffs. If that happened in November or March, IMPO it doesn't matter. Adams needs to aggressively fix defense and goaltending. He won't do either. 

Right - the fact they accomplish these things when the games “matter”, too, yet consistently miss the playoffs is precisely the point 

2 hours ago, dudacek said:

I think the boundaries are arbitrary and the meme is a defence mechanism.

Just like that other meme we used a see a lot of when there was still hope around here: “if you take out (insert ***** streak here) we’re actually (insert optimistic spin here).

Losses are losses. Wins are wins.

It’s not when or how, it’s how many.

It’s not a defence mechanism, it’s Pavlov’s dog 

[dudacek]

Not trying to trigger anyone here, but I think these wins do matter.

Not in the macro front office planning sense of a “hey, maybe we aren’t so bad” course correction.

But in the micro dressing room sense of “winning matters, winning needs to matter, and players need to feel some sense that there is a path available to get there.”

I think about sports psychology, about the “Dahlin’s gonna want out” fears, about “kids can’t develop in a losing culture” worries.

Wins are the balm.

[LGR4GM]

13 minutes ago, dudacek said:

Not trying to trigger anyone here, but I think these wins do matter.

Not in the macro front office planning sense of a “hey, maybe we aren’t so bad” course correction.

But in the micro dressing room sense of “winning matters, winning needs to matter, and players need to feel some sense that there is a path available to get there.”

I think about sports psychology, about the “Dahlin’s gonna want out” fears, about “kids can’t develop in a losing culture” worries.

Wins are the balm.

Winning matters but them winning now as opposed to winning in November doesn't matter IMPO. They still missed the playoffs and we have watched the heroic run to whatever place 5 or 6 years now and IT NEVER carries over. If they are good next year it won't be because they won some games at the end of the season, it might be because they learned how to win, but winning now versus November is whatever. At least in my opinion. 

[Archie Lee]

15 minutes ago, dudacek said:

Not trying to trigger anyone here, but I think these wins do matter.

Not in the macro front office planning sense of a “hey, maybe we aren’t so bad” course correction.

But in the micro dressing room sense of “winning matters, winning needs to matter, and players need to feel some sense that there is a path available to get there.”

I think about sports psychology, about the “Dahlin’s gonna want out” fears, about “kids can’t develop in a losing culture” worries.

Wins are the balm.

Every young team that finishes at the bottom of the standings for a period of time and then becomes good, at some point starts to consistently win more than it loses (stating the obvious here). My guess is that it is sometimes the case that the pendulum permanently swings late in a last losing season.  Maybe this is that last losing season.  Adams and Ruff have combined for only 3 winning season in their last 15 seasons in their respective roles (5 seasons for Adams, the last 10 as a HC for Ruff). They are not a pair that I would advise betting on.

[Archie Lee]

Interestingly, Leone in Rochester has been clear in stating his view that the development of young players is best served by winning. It is too bad that the GM did not take that attitude 2-3 seasons ago.