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My vote for the Sabres-flavored sitcom is Arrested Development - "Now the story of a family that lost everything, and the one son who had no choice but to keep them all together" Yeah, Kevyn - keep 'em all together....in hell. ....but I'll be watching. It's not like I have anything better to do. Must Tie.

Hope is always present, but this team has found ways to feel sorry for itself for years and Adams loves himself built-in excuses. Hope I’m wrong, but I expect this team to fold like cheap tents in the face of adversity as they have for years now.

And here we are. Last year, Dahlin's injury ended the season. This year, can Lyon, Ellis, Kesselring, Timmins, and Doan -- the new guys -- help raise the team up to play at a higher level when they're missing their best? (I'd add Danforth. And Norris! Can't forget Norris. But at the moment, they're unavailable to help.) The season stands upon the edge of a knife. Stray but a little, and it will fail, to the ruin of all. Yet hope remains...

When dealing with difficult personal matters, work can sometimes be a refuge, and sometimes a weight.

I was mocking Pegula and being sarcastic, but you raise an important point here. Unless it’s actually one of those younger guys, I don’t think they have that maniacal vocal leader. Tage and Tuch are too used to being passengers on this team and have been since arriving. This team has needed a boombox throwing, get in your face after a loss or lazy practice leader since Drury.

Yes, it pretty much has to be right now. They have been hit with injuries and all of that, but lots of teams go through injuries and hold it together. They are young, but some of the young guys have played a lot of NHL hockey. Like Bissonette said the other night, the Sabres have a tendency to go into a lull and play lazy hockey. They do this all too often and it just kills them. Which gets us to the tireless topic of holding each other accountable for their part. With Dahlin out who will be the vocal leader? They need a maniac kind of player in that room.

If the wheels fall off on this road trip, and they come back with two or fewer points from the next four games, I think it’s time to have a real conversation about direction. This season has been wrecked by injuries. The forward group wasn’t deep to begin with, and now the defense is missing its top guy for a meaningful stretch. At some point, we have to stop asking this group to be something it isn’t and start thinking about next season. A new GM and a new coach will be coming in. It might be the right time for a clean reset — moving on from the last ties to the Eichel era. And I’m not talking about a blatant, recognizable tank where you gut the roster. I mean making smart moves that position the team to finish as low as realistically makes sense. Why? Look at who drives elite teams in today’s NHL: Celebrini Bedard Eichel McDavid MacKinnon Two key points: These guys were drafted at the very top, not 8th–12th. They don’t take long to make an impact at the NHL level. If this team were to land Gavin McKenna, there’s a real chance he becomes their best player within two seasons. That’s how you turn the corner. So yeah — if things spiral: Listen on Tuch and Power if the returns align with a reset (and especially if Power plays well enough to maximize value). Explore deals that bring back players with upside and compete — your “Josh Doan” types. Play UPL the majority of the starts. Let Rasmus take whatever time he needs. If that means the full season, fine. Make sure no one comes back from injury early. Protect Norris and any core pieces dealing with nagging issues. Bottom line: Don’t force a doomed playoff push. Do what positions the franchise to finally get the elite, game-changing player it has been missing for 15 years. Not a tank — a strategic reset with purpose.

I think Adams should be fired. I like this current team, from what very little we've seen of them being somewhat healthy. We haven't seen this particular team, fully healthy (starters), at all. I believe there's reason, that I could really like this team. Complete? Certainly not, but there's a good bit of hope. Fans are fickle, emotional, ill informed, smart, irrational, witty, dumb, astute, loyal, customers, disloyal, compassionate, hateful, harmless, and generous. Fandom is a blessing and a problem. A few of my favorite posters agree and disagree sometimes. They've even done that in this thread. I know I've aggravated several of you, I'll call ya, mostly negative posters. I don't really care, because you aggravate me too. I say that in the least aggressive tone possible. I challenge or needle the nauseous repetitive negativity. I also feel the need to call out the hypocrisy. You negative posters can dish it, but you can't take it.

My goodness, all this talk about needing to know he’s ’the guy’, bothered by using initials instead of his name, etc. These, to me, are signs of a mentally fragile player. You want to be recognized as ‘The Guy’? Play better. Much better. Sincerely, JOP (because it doesn’t bother me one bit to be called that)

Perhaps there are additional reasons he went back to Sweden. There almost certainly are additional considerations that went into the calculation. His seeming inability to focus on his job 100% while he's performing it almost definitely being part of that calculation. BUT to try to say (or more accurately, imply) those other reasons trump the reason that is the elephant in the room seem to be disingenuous.

The answer is in the room, gentlemen. In. The. Room.

Hmmm, another bad choice and contract, should I be surprised PASabreFan ? You have been beating this drum longer than any others here and I just want to say that I believe you have been right. While I probably should just comment on UPL discussion to stay on topic, this really has been the story of the whole Pegula saga, Poor decisions, contracts. handling Just a few snippets that predate current GM and his coaches, Christian Erhoff - Buyout Ville Leino -Buyout Evander Kane Ryan O'Reilly -Traded Kyle Okposo - Kept Jeff Skinner - Buyout (Not sure if this is Ka's start but he is responsible for below) Cozens - Showed the $$$ again, traded Samuelson, Power, $$$ Maybe UPL - The what to do,, The bad trades of the good players now on other teams.... The only constant through all of these poor decisions is you Terry Pegula, please just give up either decisions or ownership for the Hockey Hell you've managed to create.

Will the NHL implement a mercy rule?

You know what they say about assuming. There could be career-related reasons on top of his concern for her, for example. Maybe he understandably has some mental health issue. Maybe one of the 'rents is sick. No one knows what's in his head. The group think is on here, as usual. Don't be that nail that sticks up.

There is no reason for Adams to overthink this. Of course, it would be nice if we were working with a larger sample size for Ellis. Has an NHL GM ever done more contorting to keep a goalie who his coach, evidently, doesn't have enough confidence in to play? If Adams ever gets himself to a point where he can make an actual decision, and if that decision is that UPL can't be in the NHL any longer, then just waive UPL (assuming there are no trade options). Just tell UPL he is being waived and if he clears he can find a nice place to live in Rochester until he is needed in the NHL; he wouldn't be the first grossly overpaid AHL goalie. - Lyon and Ellis in the NHL - Levi backed up by UPL in the AHL - Georgiev told to go home and find himself a team in Europe that the Sabres can loan him to - Ratzlaff and Leinonen in the ECHL

The glass shattered on the floor and we're all bleeding out from stepping on the shards.

Ah, thought you were going for something Sabre related for the assumption. Yes, we have all "assumed" he decided to go back to Sweden to be with his fiance while she recovers from about as major a form of surgery as exists. We've certainly gone out on a limb on that one.

What else would he be doing?

I assumed everyone knew. That he's going back to be with her.

So, what is that "major assumption being made?"

This will be the first game of the year that turns into a background game, put it on the TV and focus on other things instead of full attention on the game. Missing half the roster including Dahlin, this one will get ugly quick and is the first game of the year I’m fully expecting a brutal beatdown. I have no interest in wasting 3 hours of life solely invested in this one. Going to be an unfortunate week of hockey on the road trip. Optimistically if we can survive the week with 4 points in the 4 games, hopefully we come out on the other end with a (more) healthy lineup and still within striking distance instead of burying ourselves with a 4 game losing streak. Go Sabres

Interested to see how the lines shake out tonight. Either way, this has butt whooping written all over it

Every coach says this because it is true for most players. Unless you have a really great shot, or you and your linemates can get the goalie out of position, the goals come from the dirty areas. True.

He’s very consistent. Once in a blue moon he has a stinker like all goalies have, but he’s a steady force between the pipes. The four gosls against last night look bad at first glance, but he had zero chance on two of them and he made a bunch of key saves to keep them at four.