Taro T

Well, when you put it that way the Sabres are officially becoming the Gorton's Fisherman Era Aisles. Might as well bring back the Slug but in light blue and orange hues just because.

Well, don't forget, they ALSO canned the S&C coach. Now when you put those moves together ...

Sadly, no. Simply an observation that you're attempting to make lemonade out of this situation, but instead of water, lemons, and sugar you've also got the postgurgitated remanants of a dog's dinner added to the blend. Yum.

Mmm, lemonade. But why does it have a nutty aftertaste?

Wasn't sure if that should get the cry or awesome emoji; but went with the positive one.

Curious how Karmanos and Ventura react to the recent news. Guessing that it isn't THAT big of a deal if they bolt for greener pastures as having them in town for the last 4 or so years hasn't appreciably affected the results on the ice. But, still, expect their leaving would be another bad thing to happen in this "offseason of hope." Maybe they're cool with the changes. But, personally would expect they want to get closer to the GM chair themselves, not farther from it.

Why, Santy Claus, why? Why are you taking our tree?

That's what folks used to say about the Eulers. And then Draisatl fell to them and they won the lottery the next year. Nearly a decade later with those 2 in their primes, their team is actually pretty good finally.

But pretty sure it's also a page out of the Bills playbook. Could've sworn hearing that the Bills made changes there as well.

And Quinn being shopped makes little sense either at this point. (Though definitely not putting it past them.) Sell low isn't exactly a great way to build wealth.

Really hope Pettersson isn't this off-season's prize acquisition. Not that it's for certain that he can't get back to the form that got him that mega contract. Just because, THIS particular crew hasn't shown itself to be smarter than everybody else at this point, and THEM being the ones to say "we can fix him" when nobody else will do so doesn't exactly put forth the warm and fuzzies nor inspire confidence that they'll be right. Now if Bill Zito makes that trade, look out, it might just work. But lately, he HAS been smarter than most everybody else.

Personally will be a bit miffed if Byram is traded for another guy younger than himself. Because that was the biggest part of hating the Mittelstadt trade; we watched Mitts go through all the growing pains and once he was finally useful the Sabres traded him away for a guy that wasn't going to be REALLY useful for at least another 2 seasons. Well, we've made it through 1-1/2 of those seasons and now lets trade him in for a shinier model. As you say, it makes no sense if the goal is to win. IF the story of Byram packing up to move away is true; either management has told him he's on the way out (which would seem to be counter to getting the best deal for him) or as with Mitts they haven't talked contract with him at all (which would seem to run counter to Adams' mantra of "honest conversations). The off-season of hope is quickly dwindling away and there's still 8 teams that haven't reached the off-season. Oy vey.

Good point. Thinking about it a bit. Why would he (a guy who is an RFA this summer) already be packing his house up to move to a different city AT THIS POINT IN TIME. The draft is still more than a month away and FA doesn't begin until July 1. Personally can't believe that Adams will trade Byram at ALL costs especially if Byram is proclaiming he wants to be here (unlike a certain injured at the time C). Fully believe could be and to a large extent do expect he'll be traded. But the timing of this "announcement" seems to be amiss and more for clickbait on the day they've said that Adams is staying put in his current role.

What injuries have been factors in Power's play? He's had INJURY (singular) and hasn't played since sustaining said injury.

No, that isn't true. WHEN he traded for him, he saw him as Dahlin's partner. When Ruff showed up, he saw Samuelsson and Power as Dahlin's primary partners but he still put the 2 (Dahlin & Byram) together for a very long stretch of the season. Towards the end of this year Adams said something to the effect of he had no idea where Byram fit in best. That his opinion changed (likely in large part due to Ruff's input) doesn't mean he didn't have a plan when he traded for him. There are soooooooo many legit things to criticize Adams for; IMHO THAT isn't one of them.

So, this season's failure won't be anybody's fault because it took too long for Power to get back to form from the injury now that they'll only have 2 top 4 D-men? Lather, rinse, repeat. Some teams build rosters in the off-season, the Sabres build excuses.

No. Don't like the system. It's dumb. But these rocket surgeons that run the league are going to do whatever they want regardless how dumb it is. But, that said, making the system even MORE convoluted DOESN'T make it any better. It just makes it an even bigger embarrassment than it already is.

Because the NHL doesn't already make things convoluted enough; let's add 1 MORE level of complexity to something that should be really friggin' simple but the NHL CAN'T let things be simple. Not when there's a possiblilty of making them completely unfollowable. They aren't there YET (and even with your proposed modification they wouldn't be there, but they'd be heading in that direction) but give 'em time and more ideas like this and they'll get there. (Not meant for the snark to be directed at you; just the NHL and the stupid Sabres deserve the ire today.)

To answer the OP's original Q. Is it because Kim Pegula's favorite song is "Edge of 17" and we're ONLY 1-2 years away from being able to use THAT as the team's goal song and Terry wants to be able to give that to her as a gift soon? If not, got nothin'.

Yeah, sure it will be different if the results are essentially same. EVENTUALLY that'll be true, ..., most likely.

Oh, that absolutely seems to be the plan. Yeah, they swapped Cozens out but it was for another guy that's essentially on the same timeline. It's what we hear directly from people within the organization - the plan is good, it just takes time. That ISN'T the message Ruff puts out, but he's about the only one. Before "hearing" today's non-announcement announcement, was hopeful that we'd at least see Adams pulled out of a direct day-to-day hands on running of things and that Ruff's thoughts about getting the team a bit older were going to take hold. (Now, not overly hopeful they'll even have THAT level of a change in direction.)

The locker room comment was the final straw; but he wanted him gone because darn near the very 1st thing he did after signing a mega contract to be a leader of the Buffalo Sabres rebuild was get drunk and use his truck to create a new drive through at a Timmy Ho's.

Was it Adams' fault that Ruff didn't get to choose his assistants and Seth Appert was named the X & O's PP coach? And the corrolary, was it Adams' fault that Wilford was still running the D and PK? Was it Adams' fault that nearly all the eggs were placed in UPL's basket (will actually say that one is to large extent on Ruff, he was fully bought in on UPL on Day 1)? Was it Adams' fault the roster was the youngest in the league? Yes, this team MIGHT have everything come together and make a run to 100 or 102 points and an opportunity to compete in the playoffs. But, (and realizing a lot of stuff COULD happen at the draft, in FA, and through the off-season; and SOME changes will be made; that said) it looks like they're going to need goaltending to play much better than it did last year; Norris to stay healthy the majority of the year; Dahlin to stay healthy nearly the entire year; not lose Thompson and Tuch at the same time Norris is out; Kulich, Peterka, and Benson at a minimum to stay on their upward trajectory; Greenway to stay healthy; Zucker not to hit the age wall; bounce back seasons from Quinn and Samuelsson; AND Power not to be set back from the leg injury. All that happens and they get some puck luck (i.e., no game costing kneed in goals by a team you're chasing for a playoff spot) and they're in. Easy-peazy.

Minor quibble on the Bandits. Bandits were pretty bad in '16-'17. They got Josh Byrne with the #1 overall pick that year. They missed the playoffs again the next year but drafted Ian MacKay that year too. Since then, they've been a machine (barring a few mid-season stretches when either Vinc was out, they didn't have a guy to take faceoffs, &/or the D has been decimated) going to 5 consecutive finals and it likely would've been a streak of 7 straight but Covid cancelled 1 playoff tourney and 1 entire season after that.

No, it ain't awesome. But am tired of using the :cry: emoji.