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Stop making sense of the mess, a year or 3 yeah, I could agree, but if it hit double digits... Oy... Respect the opinion, but Fandom is at wits end. No offense.

Its not that I think they don't care. I just think they aren't good enough. Its not that I think Ruff is a bad coach, its just the things he is good at are not a match for this roster. He might be asking them to do the things they can't do. Its not that they totally don't have heart. If anything I think they have gotten better in that part of their game. I think its again, they aren't good enough. The roster isn't good enough, AND the parts that are good don't mesh well with each other. For me that is most of the failings of this team. IF they change the GM, coach, most of the front office, this team will not be good enough to go on a deep run magically. The new guys have to fundamentally change a large part of the roster. -Samuelsson should not have games where he is your best D-men when you have 3 other guys picked in the top 5 overall. -Tuch is a very good winger, but hes not a great one, is more of an analytics darling than how it translates on the ice, and I think he is STARTING to show a tiny bit of a sign of being past his peak because inconsistency is creaping into his game. -Tage is a premier goal scorer. Top 20 talent in the league. He cares, but his still set is NOT one where he can do it alone. He's not a superstar Alpha. -Dahlin is good, very, very good. But he isn't the McDavid of D-men. He's not a generational player. -Their goaltending is average (at best), probably below average. Every guy they have tried over the last few years. -I tried to convince myself Quinn was getting better. He's not. He's bad. A veteran journyman winger might not score as many goals (or maybe he would) but the team would be better with one of those guys instead of Quinn. He is a negative overall when on the ice. This team has some talent. They have some good pieces. But they have too few stars and no truly effective superstars. They aren't good enough, the roster simply hasn't been put together well.

There is another aspect to this systemic failure that I worry about: the persistent losing and being a part of an irrelevant team (from a player's perspective) having a demoralizing effect. I see it in the periodic spiritless play of Tuch, Dahlin and Tage and others. Players are not stupid. They can recognize what a quality organization is compared to a what a mediocre franchise is in the hockey business they work in. Unless they are stupendously obtuse (and they are not), they can recognize that they are stuck in a mediocre organization. You don't think that when they are watching the playoffs on their couches and see players they know participating in meaningful playoff games, they ask themselves: I would love to be on a team and be part of that playoff experience? I recognize that I often, to the understandable irritation of many, repeatedly blame this unreachable owner for the failure of this franchise during his ownership tenure. However, when a franchise has never gotten on a serious track yet continues to do what it has been doing without meaningfully attempting to get on another course, then that it is outright stupid and outrageous. This silent owner makes me angry. We deserve better.

It really annoyed me when Adams only got Timmins of all people and a minor league player for Connor Clifton PLUS what would have been the 39th pick (2nd round) in the draft. The Sabres are the 5th team Timmins has played for in the last 5 years. What could Adams have possibly seen in Timmins? Doesn't he look at past history?

Stay off the poppies , they are deadly

My apologies to Dahlin, he does have a heart, didn't mean to include him

Worst road team In professional hockey. Adams draft selections at forward so many gifs.

I wouldn't flame that, but it was FIRE.

If you want goals from Tuch and Thompson you have to play them together. They're the only ones that seem to have chemistry together. They can't seem to find it with anyone else. They should each be able to drive their own line but they can't. Put them together and at least have one good line.

As someone who as a towheaded 6 year child went to games in the '70 season, the Sabres first, this is deplorable. Not one player seems to care, I get running out the string, but this has been going for 14 years. Ruff is cooked, he'll never get another job at his age, the players know this. Adams is a total tool, he sees blue Sun and yellow skies and believes no one knows he is not all the great Oz, and the core just regurgitates trope lines about hockey. This team is the tin man without a heart, but doesn't seek a heart. A scarecrow who doesn't want a brain and a lion who doesn't seek courage, they see the flying monkeys and cower. Trade them all, and just start over. This team needs a Dorothy, the only one with balls. I for one embrace a tornado to shake things up, hell put the corpse of Margaret Hamilton in charge, it may at least scare opponents, she can fly in on a palm tree broom! Rant done, feel free to comment and flame me!

It's up to whether we believe he wanted to move or not. He said he basically was happy and didn't want to move. The future actions will tell us what he really thinks, but I'm not getting bent over it. I don't think he's a high profile player.. he was just a guy who was let go by a middling team. He had his moments, but it would be like Jordan Poyer not reporting in my mind. He's old and while he can help, he's not going to solve the problem.

I think you are inferring that the move to Utah was the difference. I think the move to Utah was coincidental. The team had talent, what it lacked was belief that it's ownership believed in them and they were in a stable franchise. You don't have to move a team to create that atmosphere but in Arizona they very clearly did. After decades of floundering in and around the city of Phoenix it was clear Arizona did not want to support a hockey team. The government basically rejected the hockey team. That's not the same in Buffalo. Buffalo is not a big city, but it is very much a hockey city. Buffalo draws Toronto and Canadian fans in masses. The league loves this and it helps any owner as well keep the barn full. I don't think they would want to move Buffalo, they do however want to have an owner and an area that its invested in the team. Moving the team away from Canada would eliminate that. There's a reason hockey has failed in Atlanta. The fair weather cities need to have a competitive team or they lose people in a heartbeat. Recall the Florida Panthers attendance when they were bad? I don't believe the Sabres will move if they get sold. It could happen. Pegula could also create a winning franchise. I'm not putting the odds on that. All I know is that the current path sucks and the trend has proven that he's doing something wrong in operating the franchise.

Totally agree. From whatever the players said about him before he was fired, it was evident they liked playing for him. Granato had to coach with an even worse goal tending situation than what we have now. I don't think he even had UPL step in until the very end of his coaching tenure here. I have always believed that Granato was fired as a scapegoat just so KA could keep his job. No, it wasn't Granato's fault, Kevyn, it was your fault and you should have been fired back then for so many reasons, but most importantly for never getting us the obvious missing link, a goalie.

😅 I really get a kick out of your colorful and descriptive narratives (see bold). Even though the GM has done another poor job in the off-season, I do think this roster is better than their record and I expect more from them. Dahlin and Thompson are vets now and I expect more from them. Injuries aside, last place in the conference is a huge underachievement for this roster ,and it says something bad about the coaching staff, and it also points to internal leadership in that locker room. It may not be a playoff roster, mostly due to goaltending, but they should be in the thick of the race and instead they are starting a free fall. When you are in last place the big test is always the next game. They need to find a way to win the next game.

So you’re saying they are consistent

If you watched that game and didn't predict that outcome I'm not sure what to say. My son was like, should I start UPL tonight for fantasy? I laughed. That's vintage Sabres.. a whole lot of almost and then whoops, in our net.

If they are going to pause the game on a challenge then just don't require a challenge and instead have the off-ice officials confirm every goal. I can live with confusion over "what is goalie interference?" but doubling down by penalizing a team when it's clearly a vague area is just stupid. If the purpose of the league is to "get it right" then just "get it right" as best you can. If they don't want to do that then just stop replays overall and be done with it. I'm good on the off-side because that is pretty straight forward, but goalie interference is a gray area they don't seem to be able to define.

Of the 2 choices posted, I would definitely choose #1 because if we sneak into the playoffs, only to get swept in the first round, which is exactly what would happen because this is not a team built for any kind of playoff type action, then we're stuck with KA & the coaches for who knows how many more years.

Time to stop experimenting with lines and let our top lines build some consistency and confidence together.

They have to do something. It is very unfortunate that Thompson and Norris have not been together long enough to have developed chemistry by now, that first game together was more like everything Norris did turned to gold. In the two road games it looks like the two players are unsure. Even the D-zone breakout are bad. Benson is not as noticeable playing with these two guy right now. I would consider moving Zucker into the top 6 because he seems to know how to play with just about anyone. Tuch had another bad turnover for a breakaway goal. That is two bad giveaways for goals in recent games, plus his failures to clear pucks on a PK in Philly lead to a critical goal against. Tuch is not right either but I agree that he does know how to play with Tage. It is now up to Lindy to find the right combinations. He has the following centers: Tage, Norris, McLeod, Östlund, Kozak (injured?), and Krebs.

I'm not just on upl. Our other two goalies aren't playoff caliber either, along with half of the rest of the team. Ka continues to make a mess of the total lineup. One step forward two steps back

Will Adams ever address the media again as Sabre GM? What could he possibly say?

It is obvious that this isn’t going to work. This team isn’t good enough. They can string 2 impressive games together and people think “they might be finally taking a step” well the next step is always backwards. Adams and crew need to be replace now. Do a real search and bring in the best front office people available and let them figure this mess out. This is another bottom 10 finish incoming and nothing that shows the future will be any brighter