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The viewership numbers show that this small market could easily support a top-flight team with a big payroll, well-compensated staff and hockey ops, and average to a touch above ticket prices. Instead, this market would rather watch tv. That’s solely on the owner and his pathetic choices and EEE.

It reminds me of the question I posted in the complaint thread on Thursday.

Cue up the classic “We will continue to look at anything that will make our team better but we are very happy with where the roster is right now” quote and call it a summer.

But I am also attempting to show Buffalo is still a strong hockey market. It really is. The fact that the TV ratings are consistently high shows that. It is no doubt aided by no NBA and no MLB in Buffalo - so it is a unique market that also has an international component to it that is not factored into the TV numbers but could be included in home attendance.

This team is going on 3 failed rebuilds under Pegula. Not being one of the best 8 teams in your conference 14 straight years is absurd. Nothing they have done this offseason is pointing to them being serious about changing that. The whole “bring everyone back because they are under contract for one more year” mentality after years of failure is the biggest sign that Pegula is not serious about winning or is so clueless on how to win that he needs to go.

True, just answering the question posed to me.

My "humorless post" was the gif, and only the gif. Your responded to me was that you cannot trade a player for money, which is only partially correct, and it tells me you misinterpreted the gif by taking it literally. BTW - Cash can be included in trades, but not cash only. Your 👎response was to a gif that you did not fully understand, you could just admit it and move on. After I explained it to you could just say "thanks for the clarification". Instead you call it humorless, and maybe it was to some or most here, but you are consistent is taking shots. I get that you don't like me, so be it. You can always not respond.

One person to watch is Tuch. If he decides not to sign another contract this season it will be very troubling. It will let everyone know that he is riding out his contract and considering better options.

Even in the best run franchises, the hockey people are going to make misjudgments on personnel decisions. It's the nature of the business. In the end, it's the body of work. As you point out, squandering a first round pick on Lehner, a player who turned out to be very troubled, was one of the big miscalculations. Murray was good at blustering but wasn't too adept at doing the day-to-day work required to build a successful franchise.

Never brewed as there are just so many great beers available now that I couldn't justify the setup. However, I would like to have a go a making mead. Golden Hive kits seem like a reasonable starting point.

Your last paragraph's point that this fervent market has been squandered is what has been so galling about the Pegula ownership. As an out-of-towner, I watched a Buffalo Bandit game on TV. The arena was filled to capacity and the fans were rocking the place. They were having a marvelous time. I said to myself that if Pegula was wiser in how he managed the hockey franchise, the building would be filled on a regular basis. It's really embarrassing to see the Toronto fans take over the arena when they play us in Buffalo. The irony is that if the owner knew what he was doing, he would be making money instead of worrying about losing money. He's a good example of being penny-wise and dollar foolish. It need not be that way.

prepare yourself. It's coming.

I would be heartbroken if that ends up the case. Dahlin is the reason I chose to follow the Sabres.

Murray made many mistakes but you can boil it down to a few huge ones. 1) drafting. Our Nylander vs. their Nylander pretty much sums up the difference between Buffalo and Toronto 2) trying to build a forward group and thinking D wasn't necessary. I mean who can even remember who he had on D and JBot basically inherited a D with who? Bogo as our best D? It was laughable how bad that D was. and 3) putting all his faith in a psycho goaltender. Otherwise, Leafs had Marner, Nylander, Matthews and brought in Tavares. We had Reinhart, (our Nylander), Eichel and brought in O'Reilly. If you swap Nylanders I actually like our group better and those 3 have all shown they can win. The rest of the roster however, pretty much garbage.

You’re not exactly going out on a limb there. When the drought has been here 3x as long as Adams, why would anyone stop at Adams?

Don't you think Buffalo has been fringe playoff for the past three off seasons (counting this one)? Yet there was a portion of last season when the Sabres were last in their conference and the solution was said to be in the room. What is the media pundits agenda with regard to the Sabres? And don't say more clicks because that pretty much applies to every story on every team in every league. Agree on (E), the divide between the haves and the have-nots. One solution is to take away the no trade/ no movement clauses. Which will probably never happen. More food for thought. I got this from Google AI List of Stanley Cup finals viewership by metro area: Data regarding specific Stanley Cup Finals viewership by metro area is not always readily available in a comprehensive, publicly released list. However, some individual ratings for specific markets have been released, especially for regions with a strong hockey following For example, data from STLtoday.com shows the following television ratings for the 2024 Stanley Cup Finals: West Palm Beach, Fla.: 6.9 Miami: 6.2 Buffalo: 5.4 Pittsburgh: 4.2 Las Vegas: 3.5 Detroit: 3.4 Minneapolis: 3.3 Fort Myers, Fla.: 3.3 Boston: 3.3 Denver: 3.1 It's important to note that viewership can fluctuate depending on various factors, including the teams involved in the final, the networks broadcasting the games, and the overall sports landscape at the time. For example, the 2025 Stanley Cup Final, shown on cable channels only, saw lower U.S. viewership compared to previous years when some games were broadcast on over-the-air television. Any way you want to slice it, the Buffalo hockey market has been getting a big disservice from their teams ownership. At some point being just happy to have a team will go away.

Krebs is considerably better than Kozak.

I often make last minute decisions to go to shows, especially if I go on a ticket resale site and see someone dumping one seat cheap. Such was the case with the Pixies in Boston tonight. They are playing the MGM Music Hall which is embedded in Fenway Park, which is also hosting some big country show tonight, so it's going to be a zoo on Lansdowne Street tonight.

Looks like New Years Eve in Dallas for me again.

The Sabres have too many bottom six players. Krebs can be replaced with Kozak. I’d trade Krebs and throw in Samuelsson to get out of his contract, and make room for Ryan Johnson.

The difference is that when Toronto got Matthews they were more successful in adding talent around him. After the Sabres got Eichel they were not very successful in bringing in enough support players to maximize his talents. And the same roster building failures can be applied after using a high draft picks to acquire Dahlin and Reinhart. The Sabres squandered the significant assets they had on hand.

I’m an unabashed Krebs fan. I think he will be a Yanni Gourde / Alex Killorn middle-6 glue player for a really good NHL team one day.

Kulich/Thompson/Benson played well in general. Östlund and Rosen I think were a factor of easy minutes. They both have a higher skill level than the guys they were playing against and were concentrating on no-mistake hockey

Yes. That's exactly where we are at. We are on an icy and snow filled road without snow tires. Slippery and dicey situation that calls for luck beyond one's control.

In my opinion its Pegula.