Taro T

Based on how the team fared in its own end this past season with Granato's chosen D coach leading the efforts there, have no reason to believe the results would have been any better last season had Donny been retained. And Cozens and Quinn would've still been making the same idiotic clearing passes from just above the opponent's goal line to neither point man in particular had Donny been running the show as well.

Well, they lost 1-0, one of the best games they'd played all season, at home against the Wild for either the 1st or 2nd loss of that stretch. And Dahlin broke in the 3rd period of the Avs game they were up 4-1 at the time he left the game and when he was lost for the next 9 games they flat out collapsed without him available. BUT the statement had been they were dead BY Thanksgiving. That was not true. They were very much alive and had they not come up on a hot goalie and then had by far their best player miss 1/8th of the season (right on the back of having had their best F out for an extended stint as well), the wheels might've stayed on a while longer.

Overall, agree with this. BUT they were NOT dead by US Thanksgiving this past season. While they were out of a playoff spot by points, they were in one by points percentage. That the wheels fell off starting over that holiday break is also true. That's when 0-10-3 began. Which meant they were toast by Christmas.

Depends on whether they plan on actually playing him barring major injury issues at the S slot or if they plan on using him like they did with Hyde last year. Hyde never saw the field in any real way but was there as essentially another coach helping the young & new guys learn the system. He's going to the PS. If that's where he stays, am cool with it. They get 16-17 guys on the PS nowadays (getting the 17th PS guy depends on whether they have an international player or not) plus 53 on the active roster. Really don't have a problem with Coach Poyer using one of those 69 slots. Would have a problem with him starting week 3. Though him breaking Cheetah's wrist might be poetic/karmic justice.

Eh, eventually he'll retire. And then we'll be freed from her tyranny. 😉

Well, supporter implies a rationality. Fanatic implies an irrationality. At this point in time, other than @dudacek who's attempts at rationality actually hint at an irrationality 😉, can ANYONE here be labeled as fully rational? Sad truth is, we're FANS, not supporters. And though it was said of the Bills in the greatest football game ever played, am looking longingly towards the day the Sabres and their fans can have their own moment of "it is bedlam, it is pandemonium, it is fandemonium, it is fan-tas-tic." And know that should it happen at home, this kid will be there. (And after the fact, fully expect to have had 100k others there too; and heck, with the return of the party on the plaza; maybe we really will have 100k joining in the celebration in the moment.)

And the possibility of this happening is why it is so important to get Tuch inked to a LT deal. These players do seem to believe in each other (and have dating back to when that was a flat out unreasonable belief) and even if the season does go to heck in a handbasket again; that cloud might finally have the silver lining of a house cleaning in certain departments that seem relatively immune to such actions. So, with the key players believing in themselves, and everybody except Greenway and Zucker being closer to or actually in their primes, could see them being willing to stick it out and see if the new management team can get those 2-4 pieces this team needs to not only get back into the NHL but actually be in the mix for potential champions only a year or 2 further down the road (IMHO they need that baby step of rejoining the league before they can be towards the top of it; but that next step doesn't have to take long to make once the 1st has been taken). But if Tuch doesn't extend, if he's in wait and see mode, have to believe the other 2 are kind of wishing they hadn't signed the deals they did. Considering that Tuch has loved this team all his life, and this is his last opportunity to get an 8 year deal, it should be a no brainer. But they bringing the exact same brain trust (excepting for the addition of Kekalainen) kind of indicates there's a good chance the no brainer lies elsewhere.

Yeah, heading into this season, hope is as low as it's been on at least 4 occassions. When they went austerity after having only a couple of seasons before having had the 3rd highest payroll in the league; canning Muckler and effectively canning Nolan; trading away Peca and Hasek; and Black Sunday (which while it was devastating didn't feel quite like the others as they'd been so good the previous year and they still had (or should've had) Zubrus, Connolly, and Roy to man the top 3 C spots and they still had Miller. Yeah, they wouldn't be favorites to win but they still should've been good (guess not). 2 of those years, the team exceeded expectations. One is was as bad as expected and the other it was worse. Had they simply made a few FO and coaching moves, would be much higher on where they are now. How will it turn out? Well, still have tix because am still interested in watching it play out. Hoping for all our sakes this team plays well enough to get you bought back in.

Especially w/ the 2ndary depleted to start the year and the 2 DLmen out the 1st 6 weeks for stupidity, REALLY want McDermott and Babich to use an attacking D to both limit the time the DBs have to cover and to get the ball back in Allen's hands as often as is possible, whether that be by a 3 and out (which gives Josh a chance to build a lead) or by a miscue (which lets Josh keep pace and forces them to beat our D another time only to have Allen likely keep pace again if they're successful and gives Allen another chance to build a lead if they aren't). Doubt he does. But do know Harbaugh won't be expecting it should they actually go that direction.

In fairness to Quinn (shakes like Lurch, uuuuuggggggghhhh) on the cheapness. Need to remember this building was built at a time that the Knoxes were slowly bringing the Criminal on as a minority partner to help with cashflow issues as expenses were increasing exponentially and though the Knoxes were rich, they weren't THAT rich. So, that explains getting essentially a duplicate of the Staples Center but with blue seats instead of purple and only 1 ring of boxes instead of 3 and no full ring video message board. That board that goes all the way around now didn't come in until Golisano bought the team. But Quinn's disdain for the "commoner" was evident in items such as his insistance on using metal bars at the front of the 300s rather than glass like there was from day one in front of the 200s and the boxes. "Glass is unsafe for the 300s" was the arsehole's reasoning. But yet, somehow it's perfectly safe with the metal posts coming out of the concrete up there held in by welded wings off the posts. The metal bars lasted until the team's 1st extended road trip. When the team was back, fans came back to the newly installed glass that still had metal posts coming up to partially block the view of roughly every 3rd person in the 1st or 2nd row of the 300s. It was also his decision to just have handicapped seating be considered good enough by sticking those wheelchair bound behind those sitting in the 1st 2 rows of the 300s every so often. So, after a lawsuit that he lost, they started blocking off seats in the 1st 2 rows of the 300s so that those that were wheelchair bound wouldn't have their views obstructed when people stood up. Heck of a job there, Quinny, heck of a job. Wouldn't put it past him to have been the impetus for buying substandard pulleys to raise and lower the scoreboard resulting in the famous videoboard crash postponing a Bruins game back in the day. Hey, we saved a few bucks and insurance covered the replacement of the jumbotrons, so all good, right? He was given an edict to build the barn cheaply; and he got 'er dun.

Maybe. He played Briere at C for years even though he was better suited as a W in his own end. Expect the preference is to keep Thompson at W, but could see him move back in a pinch. If he does move back to C would expect to see him teamed up with someone like Tuch that is defensively responsible and oftentimes is the 1st F back into the zone. Similarly to how Briere played with Hecht and then as a Phlyer with the one we try not to speak about here.

How about instead of gold, red, blue, and orange they go with gold, red, blue, and black? Not sure where you'd have the 100 level split between red and gold; but expect black works better than orange and it fit with the historical blue & gold and red & black.

Bite your tongue. Foligno was BORN a Sabre. He hasn't been there 20+ years yet, it just SEEMS that way. He'll always be a Sabre IMHO. Even though his brother was never officially a Sabre, will give him partial credit as one too. That whole family is Sabres. Even their sister is a Sabre. 😉

Am slowiy coming around to being optimistic about Norris and Thompson being paired together. Still not sure about how having the 2 shoot first players together will gel, but they will likely predominantly have Dahlin on the ice with them, and that is one very good playmaker that could be feeding the puck to either.

Part of the reason the building has always been a bit on the quiet side, even when it was packed and the fans were into the games, is the ceiling is REALLY high up relative to where the seating bowls stop. IMHO, a big part of the reason for this is the same company that designed the old Staples Center in LA with its 3 levels of luxury boxes also designed the MMArena. It was a cookie cutter design and came cheap - a hallmark of Larry Quinn's direction. And the original horrible color scheme in the building is courtesy of Dougie Moss's girlfriend. The current color scheme is actually a significant upgrade over what they started with, sadly. As for whether there will be upgrades or not to the building, know for a fact that they were looking at some very radical revisions to the building back prior to covid hitting. How serious they were about the revisions, don't know. But they did spend money on the studies. Would agree that a new building likely isn't in the cards anytime soon. Caveat to that belief, if the pipe burst is indicative of the overall state of the plumbing (and maybe even the electrical, HVAC, structure, etc.) in the building, they may have no choice but to do a new building sooner than later. Thaaaaaaannnnnks, Larry. But hey, you got the buidling constructed on time and under budget. Who cares if the darn thing falls apart within 40 years? Heckuva job there, Quinny.

Yup. "Classic" lines have a scorer, a playmaker, and a forechecker on them. And on good teams, at least two of the top line's players can typically take on more than one of those roles.

The way it makes sense is if Allen both likes and trusts him. We know he likes him. Does he trust him in crunch time to make the big catch? This kid doesn't trust him in that situation, but don't have a say in the matter. Personally, would rather they keep Shavers (even though his and Gabe's roles wouldn't be identical) if it came down to 1 or the other.

Beating a dead horse, but "practice repititon" is the concern. Haven't been to a team practice since Krueger made TC a closed door affair. Have been to over well over 100 games since that time and have watched several 100 in that time frame. With that stated, if you do dumb things in practice, you'll do dumb things in games. They do dumb things in games and the people running practices are the same ones that ran them in the past. So, so, so truly wanted at least Wilford, Appert, and Ellis relieved of all duties.

Not takin' the bait. 😉 Will suffice it to say, am getting tired of cramming 10 gallons of stuff in a 5 gallon bucket and then coming back again to do it all over again. Lather - rinse - repeat.

No.

No, the survey was apparently 1-5. 1 - 5 goes F, D, C, B, A. At least when non-English majors are setting up the scale. This one was clearly set up by English majors or some other mathphobes. In some categories a C- was a 3.0 and in others a C was a 2.8. In one, a B- is a 3.2 and a C+ is a 3.5. If the rules to Calvinball could be converted to math, we're witnessing it. 😉 And they didn't "receive the lowest grade possible on this scale." That apparently would've been a 1.0. They received a 2.0. Which was the lowest grade of the 32 rated team front offices, but it was not the lowest grade possible on the scale.

And again, had they simply replaced the coaching staff (or significant parts of it) would be very bullish on the team's chances to have turned the corner. But they've played such a fundamentally flawed game the past 2 years when they theoretically were going to play NHL defense, just have a hard time believing the improved maturity will overcome the rest of what they're dealing with.

Figured that probably was the case, but didn't think of that until after having hit the post button and didn't feel like editing it. Cool.

As @JohnC said, the grades themselves were inflated. There was/is a very strong argment that they should've received failing grades, not the lowest possible grade they could get and still pass.

Seems about right. Get how those outside this fanbase could give them a little credit for draft and develop. But absolutely no idea how they can say there are 6 teams that manage the cap worse than the Sabres. Leaving millions in cap space every year to vaporize into the ether every time the RS comes to a close is NOT good cap management. It's actually amazingly bad cap management.