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Kulich a healthy scratch?

San Jose can remake their blue line next offseason (3 players under contract and 1 RFA for next season). They'll have $54M available to spend. But, they watch the tape. Do they want to spend $8M on Power or use that money for other resources? Do they think Power is a D1/PP1?

Would be nice trade partner for Owen power I suppose if we don't wait too long.

Yep, I agree

Adams shipped out too much offensive firepower in an effort to bolster the defense, which he now touts as elite. A remotely competent GM would not have done this. If he was gonna make those moves like shipping out Peterka and Cozens and Middlestadt, the return would’ve needed to create an actual elite defense. A truly shut down defense with rock, solid goaltending and depth in goal. As OP stated goaltending hasn’t even been an issue—yet— but I don’t think any of us is overly confident in that situation. But what we have now is really just a middling D paired with a very mediocre offense. He has failed repeatedly to create a top line that can change games. I know that Cozens really fell off, but that is not rare for young players in this organization, so I’m not putting it all on the player. He showed at times that he could’ve been quite solid for us for a long time. Personally, I would not have paid him so early, but now look at our offensive output. It’s honestly just mind blowing that only three years ago we were a top three scoring team for a full season. Somebody corrected me if I’m wrong, but it’s at least top five. From there all you needed to do was use our extensive pipeline of assets and some future picks to bolster the defense and land somebody between the pipes that could carry the load as a true number one goalie. Putting all your eggs in UPL was a massive mistake. He has shown that he can be the real deal, but it’s only in flashes so that doesn’t actually help us. Another poster mentioned Silovs and how making a move for him last year made so much sense for us and the cost would’ve been VERY reasonable. I actually took notice of him too. I’m sure like many of you and saw what he did during that playoff run. He’s just not a smart GM. And although I’m still willing to give Owen power more time, because he really does probably need another couple seasons to see if he can be that guy, he is a miss as of right now and that is killing us. I think what bothers me the most is again the fact that we had the fire power and we had them rolling together really well, and we just completely blew that up. You didn’t need to blow that up in order to make our defense in goaltending situations better. I don’t see any way that he can turn this around. And it is disappointing that this team is as bad as many of us pretty much knew they were going to be, and whatever inkling of hope that we held is already gone after three games. Yeah they can start to play better and stuff like that and guys can come back, but this team is noticeably worse and lacking compared to even the last three iterations. just a completely sad situation for a once proud franchise

The only positive is that there are only 79 games left and not 81 right now like there will be next year. And thankfully, the Bandits are only about 2 months away from starting their season so we can focus on something meaningful after the Bills season ends in late January or February.

This

They've drafted better than us. Celebrini, Dickinson, Chernysov, Smith, Musty, Bystedt, Eklund. That's pretty dang good. Now they have Misa too.

What exactly do you think, with the same failed players, coaches and GM, will suddenly trigger a willingness to work hard and win? I genuinely would like to know? As @LGR4GM properly points out, Terry and his $ are focused elsewhere. It’s therefore unlikely Ruff, the coaches and Adams will be fired unless they lose 12 straight and maybe not even then. The soonish returning players aren’t really scorers. Benson alone what change the terrible offense. Kesselring won’t be enough to help the miserable D zone effort. What will convince these lazy players to play hard? Sorry, I went to the Bills/Falcons game last night and I’m in a terrible mood.

Yes but also not necessarily. If they are this bad for the remainder of October, they could be out of the race by early November. At least it would be a near insurmountable task to get there. Having a supposedly weak division this season may help.

The season is over by Thanksgiving, Canadian Thanksgiving.

Just saw this today. Sorry for delayed response. At least your son and his family hopefully can take consolation in knowing that dog that obviously had had a rough life got to know what it's like to be loved for the last 2 months of its life. My condolences to him and his family.

Well, it’s better to be bad at the start of a season than at the end. Still lots and lots of time turn this barge around

You have to be sure "the upgrades" don't have "no movement clauses" with BUFFALO on it. I'm betting, most anyone with some kind of seniority will have this. (can't blame them either. It is the one "not so secret" no one likes to talk about.)

If Josh Allen doesn't play like Superman and the bend but don't break defense doesn't get timely turnovers the Bills are in real trouble. Its been 5+ years of the same philosophy and they don't ever change anything except for a couple of bodies here and there. Its why the Chiefs always beat them in the playoffs. Chris Simms nailed it last season when he said the Bills defense is totally scheme based and they have no game wreckers to take over a game and when a team is ready for them they're in trouble. Example last year's Rams game and any of the Chiefs playoff games. Also they have no speed on offense. Why have that when you have a qb who can chuck it 70 yards easily. And the lack of a #1 receiver problem that they keep ignoring...

They have several high-end talent players who are still young. But the issue is that they don't apply it. And it's not even the dreaded inconsistency of young players. Peterka was inconsistent until last season - this season he's gone. Quinn isn't inconsistent, he's disappeared from who he was as a rookie. Power isn't inconsistent -- he's good in transition offense, and maddeningly passive in his own zone. Benson is talented and a pest, and not playing. Byram is talented, but not a stud. In the AHL, their high-end talent is basically Helenius and Mrtka. And maybe Östlund.

He ain't spending ***** until his precious football stadium is built. That's taking in all his liquid capital.

The season may be realistically over by HALLOWEEN vs. the normal Thanksgiving timeline.

Realize we like to point out Adams obsession with tinkering at the edges, but he has actually made changes higher up the ladder. Mittelstadt (top 6) out for Byram (top pair); Cozens (top 6) out for Norris (top line); Peterka (top line) out for Kesselring (top 4). Zucker brought in as a FA (top 9 many teams, top 6 here). Savoie (prospect) out for McLeod (top 9 on many teams, top 6 here). It's not that he doesn't address needs higher up in the lineup; it's that he's not good at addressing them and the whole is less than the sum of the parts. He also never is the one sending out multiple parts for the best player in the deal. They have prospects that could be NHLers that will never get legit looks in Buffalo because there isn't room for that many kids getting brought in at the same time making the team even younger. Murray also missed on many of his swings; but at least he was pretty much looking to land the best player in any particular deal. Don't know if it's because Pegula won't let him bring in salary or he simply doesn't know how to put together a package a rival GM would accept for a top player or an offer a top FA would accept; but he never looks for that deal that brings the Sabres the clearly best player in the deal. Yes, Norris is clearly better than Cozens; and he demonstrated that in 2 of the 4 games he's played for the Sabres. Sadly, getting 4 games when the other guy is playing in 30+ skews that one the wrong way too. Am ready for this entire crew making decisions to get sent packing (still expect Karmonos and the guy he brought in could be good, but we don't really get to see it) and a new crew brought in. But they need to be allowed to take an occassional swing for the fences or we'll be stuck where we are again. This team isn't too far off if the coaching and a few spots are upgraded. Make this current nightmare end and don't take an intentional step back while doing so.

I keep hearing about all the young talent on this team. Hoppe wrote about Buffalo's "high end talent and depth." Where? Who? Doesn't every team have some appreciable talent? It's the NHL.

and shockingly goaltending isn't the problem.

The problem is that firing all of these people now would require a big cash investment in buyouts and new hires, something they almost certainly have not budgeted for given the way they've been running the operation. Terry is just letting this thing drive on autopilot off a cliff - he does not care about you or me.

This is the most likely outcome. But there's a part of me that remembers O'Reilly. If Tuch says the wrong thing or looks like he's lost the love (thus far he hasn't - he still says he wants to be here), then Terry's purse strings tighten up instantly. He traded ROR before that bonus kicked in to avoid paying him. He could flip on a proverbial dime and demand Tuch gets moved. Sadly, through 3 games, one of their best players has been in full self-preservation mode. He should be playing like mad in a contract year --- but he isn't which leads me to believe he's really isn't interested in the open market, just in getting the deal done with the Sabres. He doesn't look like he's auditioning for the league. He looks like he's settling in and waiting out the Adams Gravy Train payout.

That’s definitely possible. I think this bye week brings changes to the Sabres, Bills, or both.

I like Doan but we should have guys like Doan in our farm system. We spent time developing Peterka, and he turns out better than Quinn or Cozens, and now he is gone simply because he was smart enough to want out. At least they got Kesselring and hopefully he really is a top 4. All this obsession with Adams working on the bottom 6 and 4th line is a problem. Fix the talent on the top 6. They overrate their young players. They are now counting on Quinn/Benson/Kulich to emerge - that is not a sign off a playoff ready team. Their best forward is Thompson and he plays put of position because they don't have good centers. Norris was a gamble that is probably going to fail. The next best is Tuch and he looks lost. He is coming off his best season and has no contract. He appears torn between his internal desire to play at home and his real knowledge of how bad of a decision that will be for his career. Can Zucker can play top 6 on Florida, Vegas, Avs? No. Zucker is a valuable guy, a middle 6 that can move up if needed, and we need his vet savvy, but he and McLeod are 3rd line players. Lyon is playing well but pretty soon he will buckle under all the games, all the losing, and the pressure of playing in a rotten culture. Adams is over his head, but Terry likes him and trusts him.