All Activity

Bringing back royal blue?

This is a great write up. The Bills drought felt way more hopeless than comical... especially because there were only 6 teams per conference allowed in for the entirety of their dry spell. At no point during the drought--aside from the very beginning when Bledsoe was at QB and they came up a game short vs the Steelers--did it feel as if they were better than 10 other teams in the conference. In the NHL though, half the teams make the tournament. Simple odds would seem to dictate that at some point over a decade and a half, you're going to be hanging around the middle of the bell curve long enough to catch a break and land the 8 seed. It's actually quite a remarkable statistical feat... to the point that it makes me wonder if we're "in for a penny in for a pound." As I've said in other posts--if this is a tear it down to the studs and then build it back up rebuild, then might as well see it through.

I'm trying to think of a list of 10 good moves they made and all I can come up with is the Risto trade and maybe trading for McLeod.

Don't be so sure about Philly. I mean probably, but Ersson can be better than UPL and Vladar can be as good if not better than Lyon. Problem they've had is the 2 Russians were awful and Ersson got burned out. Ersson with a lighter workload could be better than UPL. The possibles are all possibles except for Silovs. I really like him and think he might be pretty good. Other teams would say the same thing you say about Gibson about UPL. I think the bottom line is IF goaltending is the key factor to making the playoffs we won't.

Oh no I'm sure he will score some. Might even have a high scoring stretch, but I don't think anything will be radically different from what we've already seen from him in Ottawa. Oh I know. I like Kulich. Always have if you've noticed, and as usual I do think we are rushing him.

That was,…

ROR Would’ve made no difference either way the team was set up imo

Bump. Sure we got some venting here

ROR trade was so bad imo. I ain't sayin I'm a genius, but 2+2 is on my mind.

Do I think the Sabres make the playoffs this coming season? No. Do I think Adams has made the team better overall in his tenure? Also no. But it is too soon to write off the 25-26 season. Some core players could take a solid step forward in their development. But I consider the division and some points that will be available throughout the season. Florida will coast to the playoffs. The Leafs may be a one-line team now, which can always fall apart if folks get injured but not too injured to LTIR for reinforcements. Boston will likely decide to tank by December. Detroit could as well. The Habs are prime candidates to regress a bit in the standings (and still improve overall). The Sabres could (very, very very unlikely) find themselves competitive for an 8 seed through no fault merit of their own.

If Luukkonen can't recover his second-half of 2023-24 self, then yes. Lyon will give you solid backup numbers, but that's better than Luukkonen has been with the exception of that one half-season (December/January excellence, and otherwise fairly consistent). A point on that consistency in 23-24, Luukkonen had a quality start rate of 67%. He was consistently solid, a few duds, and two excellent months where the team should have won more games. Thus far it appears to be the anomaly, however. But if he can be that goalie again for 50 starts.... Hope is the best strategy in the history of ever.

Ralph Krueger on the list because that killed any chance of winning with Eichel and Reinhart. I'm not clicking on some nonsense that even lists Kane in the top 10. Sounds lazy.

.... and 3 inexperienced GMs later the product is still unwatchable. How does the rebuild go if someone like Dale Talon had been hired to replace Regier instead of the 3 stooges?

You forget, the tank began with an EXTREMELY experienced GM. And he got canned shortly into the tank because he put an absolutely unwatchable product on the ice.

Hmm. Now there's an interesting question. Are Kulich and Doan at a similar point in their development? Only thing I'll add now is Doan is 2yrs older than Kulich. April 04 v. February 02.

I was hoping the wordly @Sabres Fan in NS had posted to solve my Lusks Mystery. Alas, no. My friend, see my video post above and tell me what the bloody Hell the man said, and what it means.

The worst move wasn't the decision to tank, but Pegula's decision to bring in un-proven talent to run the team without having a experienced professional to guide the raw GM's. All of the issues stem from 3 rookie GMs with Adams being the worst of the bunch and that is saying something.

Yes, but they do

I would care a lot more about line combos if the coaches weren't crap. Truly is an off-season with next to zero excitement

Probably

Close. The one WORST move of the drought was the decision that there would be "suffering." It ALL rolls down from there.

There is ONE worst move. There are not ten. The move was naming Eichel captain instead of O'Reilly. Everything else, even including goaltending, flows from that. Once seasoned hockey players saw that the team was in the hands of a fool, it was over.

Was unsure where to put this: Found out today the Sabres built a 1mil sauna in the locker room for Eichel during that scramble to placate Eichel. Was honestly not surprised