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I know like all of us that this is a post out of disappointment. The thing about off loading UPL is the question of do we have a replacement for him that is any better? It would be easy to say yes but we really don't know. We can't even win with Lyon in the net because we are not scoring enough to support him. Because of that fact I am still fixated on our offense issues. Quinn is part of that. I don't know who decided he should play point on the power play but it was Skinner flashbacks. Its time to put 2 d men on the power play full time.

What the holy helll was Tage doing when he went into the boards backwards and collided with Quinn. That right there illustrates the lack of cohesion between players on this sad sack edition of how the world turns. I could not believe the disfunction.

100% True. But I feel they took this game lightly. I know how weak this club is emotionally and I know that they can be lazy group. Hence trap game.

The scoring drought is killing them now. At times last year and parts of this year it was the special teams. When it's neither of those, it's goaltending. When it's not goaltending, it's awful play of your defenseman. And if it's not that, it's injuries. A good sign of a bad team is when you poke one leak in the dam, another leak springs up someplace else. At some point, and I think most of us believe they are there, you need to build a brand new dam. And you need new engineers and workers to build it. I think most of us have a plan to make this team better. For me It starts with get rid of UPL, then bench or get rid of Quinn, And pray for no more injuries. You know what though? Maybe that allows them to be good enough to squeak into the playoffs. I see very little hope for this team sniffing a deep playoff run in the next... 3 to 5 years at least with the current roster and management? Unless they catch fire, and I mean immediately run off a 4 to 6-game winning streak, they have to start over. And starting over means really starting over. Brand new hockey people. Those hockey people are given power to make decisions. A coach that can hire his entire staff. Sure. Pegula is the owner so you run things by him, but he doesn't make decisions, he's informed of the reason why the hockey people are making the decisions they are. Really, what are most of us holding out hope for? That they can squeak into the playoffs? That they're the number eight seed with 95 points? That's the aspiration? That's not good enough, and they're not even close to doing that.

The "this is how we play" mantra from the Ottawa game lasted 3 weeks. The Sabres reality (at least until Benson and Norris are back to ice a top line) is the same as it has been. The standings today show the Sabres in last place in the East, having to jump the maximum 7 teams just to get to a wild card spot. And now is when their schedule actually gets difficult (on paper). The Death Star will be in range in 5 minutes games.

Tie his ass to the bench then

What he needs is to not play on a top line with 160 pound rookies.

That is literally what going to happen Saturday. They haven’t won in Raleigh since 2016.

The Sabres are making me not care again. This lasted for two games. The best part is, they should come out playing on Saturday,l like their seasons are on the line, but they are probably going to fall Flat on their faces

It’s too early for Scotch.

Thanks for reminding me about the UPL tripping penalty, which killed any chance of a comeback since we played 2 of the last 3.5 minutes in our end killing that penalty. That was dumb and dirty. It was childish and selfish. The Blues are a bad team and yet they knew how to finish a road game and preserve a shutout. Coaching matters. I just want to see if Colton Ellis can play in the NHL. Give him some games then decide on a #2. Why is this so hard?

There are no trap games for the Sabres. There are no should wins. Both of those terms assume the Sabres are the demonstrably better team, and they haven’t shown themselves to be demonstrably better than any other teams in the league in 15 seasons.

...and i didn't even start this thread.

Get your steps in and suck up leaves. Retired guys can relate.

Oh, I thought it was last night. Felt bad for you guys to have to watch that game last night.

Yes. Trap game. The Blues were playing bad, they were embarrassed the night before, so their coach took action. Montgomery said his players should be breaking other players legs to get to the puck first. He did not rest them, he skated them. Remember when Terry flew to Montreal, give his inspirational speech, cancelled the practice, and fly back to the big boat only to have his charges lose 5-1 to the Canadians? As I recall the Sabres cancelled at least two practices during that winless streak of 13 game (11 loses and 2 OTLs). Instead Montgomery skated his team in between a back to back. They worked on fundamentals, and then he benched two significant players. Put good ol' Joe Hofer in net, who knew he had a SV of 1.000 versus Buffalo, and who knew he would pitch a shutout? I did predict the Blues would try hard to slow the Sabres down, limit their scoring chances, control the neutral zone, and wait for the Sabres to leak. Looking at the Sabres depleted roster and all the factors leading up to this game, a Sabres let up was exactly what I expected from this group. The Sabres coaching staff was completely outmatched putting out a jumbled mess of forward lines and another night with a totally impotent PP. Remember that recent game on TNT? The praise that Ellis got, the positive vibes the Sabres created for one night with the National media. Fast forward to now. Since that night the Sabres have a bunch of "celebratory" OTL's that are keeping them alive for now. That Ellis kid has not played another minute since that night either. UPL is back and he is making a lot more clams than both Colton Ellis and good ol' Joe Hofer. That's the way it works in Sabreland.

well there goes that theory on UPL

UPL sucked but even if he was perfect that would have gotten us a tie game. This scoring drought is what is killing us. Very frustrating.

It actually takes a lot of talent and effort to be this bad for this long. Here's to you Terry, Kim, Kevyn...........!

I think you are giving too much credit to Adams having anything resembling a plan. He’s been winging it with terrible results.

I’m not saying I wouldn’t do it or it’s difficult but what do you propose the Sabres do with UPL? NHL contracts are guaranteed. So they’d have to find a trade partner or pay him $5 million to be Rochester’s goalie. I doubt anyone is going to trade for him and Pegula has demonstrated that he isn’t interested in paying people who aren’t with the team. Adams basically hitched his wagon the UPL, he may have to entice a team to take UPL by linking him with an actual asset to get a deal done. So do we want to give up Jiri Kulich to get UPL off the team? Just spitballing what I think would have to happen.

Generally I find myself on the optimistic side of things until it’s too late into the season and the writing on the wall is abundantly clear. This one we dominated the analytics, dominated the third period especially, had a lot of good chances and rung a lot of posts in a night where shots just weren’t falling. They’re still missing 4 guys out of their top 9 and are essentially skating an AHL roster in their absence. I tried sleeping on it, but with this one that stuff just doesn’t matter to me for some reason and feels and sounds like excuses. You’re playing a team among the basement on the NHL, on a back to back where both goalies played, and sitting one of their top players. If you truly want to believe that things have changed, that’s a “must win” game. I don’t care if shots just weren’t falling in this one, I don’t care that they won the analytic battle, I don’t care about the excuses. Getting shut out by a goalie coming in with 5 GAA and .830% is inexcusable. Tage & Dahlin desperately need to show up, all the smoke and rumors about this being unacceptable to them and the dire need to turn it around to keep them happy and here without another rebuild. The brutal fact on the team this season is that the secondary talent and the system has been there, we’re only 5-4-4 with .500 point % BECAUSE of them right now, not in spite of them. The stars need to start being stars, the hustle and secondary play has been there for this team to be successful. I guess there’s not much to do aside from wait and hope they find themselves in a (brutal at that) 4 game road trip. Oh, and let’s get UPL the hell out of a Sabres uniform and never back in one.

We'll tell you in a few weeks when it happens 😂

The palm trees and taxes tax is really the Sheevyn Tax(ation of Trade Routes). How much better off would the franchise be now if --- when Pegula wanted to cut costs --- he had brought in an experienced GM who said "I can save you some cash here and there, but we can win with Eichel/Reinhart/Dahlin/Thompson/Ullmark" instead of saying, "they're a rotten core, we need to remove top skill performers and build around the D-man who is only 20 years old."?