Sabres have done it! No longer last in Eastern Conference

[MattPie]

On 4/7/2025 at 3:12 PM, HumanSlinky39 said:

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.

Hear me out: what if we trade out a bunch of guys of picks and upcoming prospects, be terrible next year and get a great pick, something, and then the cup will be paraded in front of City Hall? It just might work.

[dudacek]

14 minutes ago, LGR4GM said:

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. 

Yeah, I pretty much agree with this, certainly the bit about we should not expect it to carry over.

Not sure that I did a good job of nailing the distinction, but the bold comes close to what I was trying to get to. 

I do believe both winning and losing can become a habitual, so when you're trying to turn a lumbering disaster like this around, wins are always preferable.

[Thorner]

Whether or not the “pendulum has shifted” is far less relevant than their willingness to bet on it, in spite of countless evidence to the contrary. The critical error is acting like it’s not a manual transition and decision: the first time the pendulum swing will be real is when they approach the offseason as if it is not 

you can hope for the best but you can’t plan for it: if they address the roster reflective of statistical likelihoods that it hasn’t turned a corner, they’ll go a long way towards ensuring that it did

They shape the narrative from here: that’s the catch

whether or not the corner was turned is both Schrödinger’s cat, and paradoxical: it can be either, we haven’t chosen yet 

Edited Tuesday at 07:32 PM by Thorner

[Mr Peabody]

Is the “sudden” winning a result of Lindy adapting to the team’s skill sets?  Their recent play reminds me of the way they played two years ago (but with more forward talent on this roster).  DG got axed by changing his system and trying to put more emphasis on defense.   Lindy started off even worse trying to implement his system.

 Common denominator is poor special teams play and a need for a couple big, strong defensemen. 

Edited Tuesday at 08:50 PM by Mr Peabody

[zow2]

The winning is nice. Some people think there’s a carryover in NHL hockey from one year to the next.  There’s not. There’s no momentum gained if winning and no momentum lost if losing a lot. Im pretty sure the Canadians and Sens finished last and second last in the Atlantic division last season. they both sucked and finished behind Buffalo.  Now they are playoff teams. The Sabres seem to make this overly complicated.