Craptastic.

[Taro T]

I don't think any of us are jumping off the bandwagon or predicting we'll miss the playoffs or something like that. For a lot of us, the problem is this - effort. They lost last night's game (and to a certain extent, the game vs. the Caps) because of poor work ethic/effort in all three areas of the rink; poor penalties; poor decision-making, poor passes....and it goes on and on.

 

Elite teams don't play down to their opponent's level - they make the opposition play a great game to beat them. If we are going to lose a game to a team that has a great game, or gets a couple bounces, or their goalie stands on his head to beat us - fine, I have no problem with that. But let's not act like the team play their hearts out and lost, or "if it weren't for the bad ice, bad refs or [insert excuse here] they would have won." For the second time in their last three games, they stunk - pure and simple.

 

And let's not over-simplify things, by saying this is just a momentary bump in the road, their record is so great or they have so many points, etc. Whether you want to admit it or not, these sub par efforts are a concern, since there is no telling if they can correct their mistakes before this becomes a full-blown losing slide; or if they have the character to realize that they need to play a full 60 minutes every night. After all, we won a bunch of games without playing even 30 good minutes of hockey, and I think it has gone to their heads a little.

 

We know they have the talent to dominate on most night, but to back that talent up with a so-so effort is maddening and completely frustrating.

Everything you said is correct. But my money says that this IS just a momentary bump in the road. This team showed a ton of character last year and they brought back essentially the same team with the same character. (2 side comments: I did not say grit, I said character, while this team plays a style that doesn't require / show a lot of grit; they do have character. And: Yes, McKee was always a character player and he's gone but Spacek doesn't hurt the team in that department; and while Grier and Dumont were both character players, Grier stunk for most of November and Dumont could turn it off at times as well.)

 

Until they demonstrate that they don't have character, I will believe it is there. As I stated in a different thread, losing to 2 "bottom feeders" could be a very good thing for them in the long run because it will show them that they do have to play hard the entire game. And this is something that Lindy can bring up at the right times: see, you guys aren't good enough to win on talent alone. The way they were winning some of their games appears to have allowed some bad habits to set in. But I believe this team has the character to realize that and elevate their game to where it should be. Better they lose a couple like this now before the team fully buys into an "Ottawa mindset" than believe they can walk on unfrozen water and have Atlanta or Montreal prove they can't in May.

 

Also, I fully expect this team to have 1 or 2 short losing streaks throughout the season. (Although I expect them to come against low level playoff teams, not low level teams.) They haven't even had 1 longer than 1 game to this point. This might have been the easiest hard knock lesson they ever get taught.

[LabattBlue]

I don't think any of us are jumping off the bandwagon or predicting we'll miss the playoffs or something like that. For a lot of us, the problem is this - effort. They lost last night's game (and to a certain extent, the game vs. the Caps) because of poor work ethic/effort in all three areas of the rink; poor penalties; poor decision-making, poor passes....and it goes on and on.

 

Elite teams don't play down to their opponent's level - they make the opposition play a great game to beat them. If we are going to lose a game to a team that has a great game, or gets a couple bounces, or their goalie stands on his head to beat us - fine, I have no problem with that. But let's not act like the team play their hearts out and lost, or "if it weren't for the bad ice, bad refs or [insert excuse here] they would have won." For the second time in their last three games, they stunk - pure and simple.

 

And let's not over-simplify things, by saying this is just a momentary bump in the road, their record is so great or they have so many points, etc. Whether you want to admit it or not, these sub par efforts are a concern, since there is no telling if they can correct their mistakes before this becomes a full-blown losing slide; or if they have the character to realize that they need to play a full 60 minutes every night. After all, we won a bunch of games without playing even 30 good minutes of hockey, and I think it has gone to their heads a little.

 

We know they have the talent to dominate on most night, but to back that talent up with a so-so effort is maddening and completely frustrating.

 

Excellent. Dave_B also made some good points in his response to this post.

[Bmwolf21]

Point taken, but in an 82 game season there are going to be stretches like this.

I don't disagree, I hold no illusions that the team will win 50+ of their remaining 54 games...I know there will be losses, but I expect that a team with this much talent at least shows up to play every night, and doesn't mail it in for most of the game, only to turn it on when "it really matters" (like they have done on more than a few occasions this year.) That's all most fans ask for, and I have no problem with asking that of the team.

 

Everything you said is correct. But my money says that this IS just a momentary bump in the road. This team showed a ton of character last year and they brought back essentially the same team with the same character. (2 side comments: I did not say grit, I said character, while this team plays a style that doesn't require / show a lot of grit; they do have character. And: Yes, McKee was always a character player and he's gone but Spacek doesn't hurt the team in that department; and while Grier and Dumont were both character players, Grier stunk for most of November and Dumont could turn it off at times as well.)

 

Until they demonstrate that they don't have character, I will believe it is there. As I stated in a different thread, losing to 2 "bottom feeders" could be a very good thing for them in the long run because it will show them that they do have to play hard the entire game. And this is something that Lindy can bring up at the right times: see, you guys aren't good enough to win on talent alone. The way they were winning some of their games appears to have allowed some bad habits to set in. But I believe this team has the character to realize that and elevate their game to where it should be. Better they lose a couple like this now before the team fully buys into an "Ottawa mindset" than believe they can walk on unfrozen water and have Atlanta or Montreal prove they can't in May.

Dave - I agree with you that this is likely a momentary bump in the road, and guys like Drury, Briere & Teppo will likely start policing the lockerroom to make sure everyone gets it and gets their heads straight.

 

But while there are a lot of guys with character on this team, I have to wonder if a handful of them are guilty of getting a little complacent, given their updated contract situations and the team's salary cap situation (most of the guys are, for the most part, safe on this roster - they won't be moved nor pushed for ice time by younger guys); and given the team's hot start, when they could do no wrong; and the press anointing them as the team to beat. Again, I hope the veteran guys light a fire under their butts and get them in line so the team can maintain its focus.

 

To be honest, my biggest fear is that they do continue to cruise through the regular season, and become infected with the President's Trophy syndrome, and get bounced early in the playoffs by a hungrier team who had to fight their way into the postseason.

[Taro T]

I don't disagree, I hold no illusions that the team will win 50+ of their remaining 54 games...I know there will be losses, but I expect that a team with this much talent at least shows up to play every night, and doesn't mail it in for most of the game, only to turn it on when "it really matters" (like they have done on more than a few occasions this year.) That's all most fans ask for, and I have no problem with asking that of the team.

Dave - I agree with you that this is likely a momentary bump in the road, and guys like Drury, Briere & Teppo will likely start policing the lockerroom to make sure everyone gets it and gets their heads straight.

 

But while there are a lot of guys with character on this team, I have to wonder if a handful of them are guilty of getting a little complacent, given their updated contract situations and the team's salary cap situation (most of the guys are, for the most part, safe on this roster - they won't be moved nor pushed for ice time by younger guys); and given the team's hot start, when they could do no wrong; and the press anointing them as the team to beat. Again, I hope the veteran guys light a fire under their butts and get them in line so the team can maintain its focus.

 

To be honest, my biggest fear is that they do continue to cruise through the regular season, and become infected with the President's Trophy syndrome, and get bounced early in the playoffs by a hungrier team who had to fight their way into the postseason.

Actually, the way how the Sabres contracts are set up with fairly large raises for several of them later on in the contract make them very movable. If they go to a team that is tight on the salary cap, that team will be paying them more than the hit they put on the team's salary cap. How that would fit into the Sabres salary cap situation wouldn't necessarily be clear, but a big money club with a lot of $'s and limited in what they can spend by the cap would not mind picking up a $3.5MM player for a $2.8MM cap hit. (Note: the numbers I just used are fictional to keep from picking out any one particular Sabre for the example.) If the Sabres could get say 2 #1's for a winger, trading the winger would help down the road and with the cap this year as Paille or Stafford or some other cheaper player gets inserted into the lineup for a higher priced one.

 

I would be more worried about them going into cruise control mode if they were playing 20 minutes of hockey and beating the Cats 2-1, than them playing 8 minutes of hockey and having their lunch handed to them. Beating ALL the teams they are definitely supposed to beat and then losing due to a bounce or a bad call (or whatever excuse they want to use) to the good teams that they should beat more often than not would have a greater likelihood of creating that "cruise control attitude" than getting thumped by a bad team IMHO.

 

I think we're pretty much in agreement on this, but just looking at it from different perspectives (kind of a glass half empty vs. half full sort of deal, but not quite).

[Bmwolf21]

I think you're right about the "saying the same thing but in a different way" statement.

 

My point about the salaries and the complacency was this - for a few guys, they fought to make the team last year and generally got paid as 1st-year players; once they "proved" themselves and the Sabres saw that they could lock them up and avoid arbitration, whatever - most of them got nice 3-year deals and those guys are now virtually assured of spots on this team. So I think some of them have a false sense of security that they won't get bumped for playing time or shipped sent to Rochester (trades are always possible, but I don't think any of them are thinking they'll be moved.)

 

I think the team did go into cruise control mode for a while there, when they were going through the motions for a period or two and then turning it on in the 2nd - the Boston game was probably a contributing factor - and lately there doesn't seem to be a lot of urgency coming from the boys in B&G...

 

That's why I think it might behoove Lindy - if it is cap-possible - to bring up a couple guys for the next couple games and give a couple guys a healthy night off - maybe Kotalik and Novotny, for instance - to shock some of the guys into action.

[Taro T]

I think you're right about the "saying the same thing but in a different way" statement.

 

My point about the salaries and the complacency was this - for a few guys, they fought to make the team last year and generally got paid as 1st-year players; once they "proved" themselves and the Sabres saw that they could lock them up and avoid arbitration, whatever - most of them got nice 3-year deals and those guys are now virtually assured of spots on this team. So I think some of them have a false sense of security that they won't get bumped for playing time or shipped sent to Rochester (trades are always possible, but I don't think any of them are thinking they'll be moved.)

 

I think the team did go into cruise control mode for a while there, when they were going through the motions for a period or two and then turning it on in the 2nd - the Boston game was probably a contributing factor - and lately there doesn't seem to be a lot of urgency coming from the boys in B&G...

 

That's why I think it might behoove Lindy - if it is cap-possible - to bring up a couple guys for the next couple games and give a couple guys a healthy night off - maybe Kotalik and Novotny, for instance - to shock some of the guys into action.

Funny that you mention the Boston game. About 3 minutes before the boys started the comeback, I made some sort of comment to the wife that I was unhappy they were going to lose to those bums (who have since picked their play up a lot) but it might be a good thing in that it would get them to remember they need to play the 60 minute game regardless of the competition.