Taro T

Don't see him as lacking hockey sense, at least not significantly. He gets to way too many pucks to believe he doesn't understand the game. His issue is his hands are trash & he realizes that.

That could very well be a line next year, but unless there are 2 lines ahead of it, it is going to struggle. The next couple of years, that line could be interesting.

Sorry for your loss. Never easy to put a pet down. Glad you found some solace from the dog owner. For whatever it's worth, it does seem that you were right about it "being time." Your taking Gus to the vet very likely was what let him know it was OK to move on. Though you may not have been there at the exact instant he crossed over, he knew you were there with him & for him. Truly hope you can look back on the 1st 18 years you had him. They surely are fond. Hope they bring you peace.

The hope is that Adams realizes that without actual GOOD goaltending the team's development will suffer and that quality tenders will be between the pipes next year. The fear is that they don't want to take themselves out of the '23 draft stud lottery as all the D that fit in their plans are at least 2 years shy of entering their prime & all the F's except Mittelstadt (who isn't there yet either) & Olofsson that are in the plans are at least 2 years out from their primes as well, so the goaltending will be similar to what they have now next year. The coming off-season will be telling. Hate that this club always makes themselves at least 2 years away from relevancy.

In person, no. Even as bad as the end of the Detroit game went, it was still fun to be at. Ask again after this weekend on that front. 😉 On TV yesterday, they had moments in the 2nd & 3rd that were fun, but the 1st was nearly unwatchable. They aren't nearly deep enough to overcome more than 1 or 2 injuries. And young teams shouldn't have more than that really but yet, here we are.

True.

Yes, Adams has come across as professional throughout these past few months. And one other point, the 2 BIG moves that Adams made last season both were supposed to bring leadership in addition to increasing the skill level. He personally knew Staal having been a teammate & Krueger knew Hall well and had him playing at a high level in Edmonton. That he saw flaws in the leadership & took steps to address them while keeping the core intact speaks well of him. And it gets back to chicken & egg. Eichel wanted to stay if it would be in a winning environment & Adams acknowledged the obvious talent these guys possessed and that under the right conditions it might work.

To the questions regarding Eichel's mindset, don't have those answers. Maybe he'll go into greater depth on those after he's had his surgery. Yours is not the only opinion that has changed as new info has come to light. Personally, had never heard via reliable sources that Eichel wanted out, that he did want out unless they were trying to win has now come out, and considering the source it is credible. Still stand by the information provided by others not on this board that indicated Adams had issues w/ some of these leaders. The info that has come out though Gionta and Rivet support the info from those conversations. Again, now see it as chicken & egg. You don't. That's fine.

They have definitely fallen into more of a hang back & let the shot go from the point mentality since the WC road trip than they were playing before that & last night's game was the most obvious example of it. But a bit of that was likely a respect for the opponent. If they start running around pressuring like on the 1st Bertuzzi goal on Friday, Ovi would've gotten that dozen some were hoping to see. When playing lesser opponents, hopefully they get back to the pressure. Sounds like Granato wants that. Pretty sure that was coaching. Granato is OK & actually encourages guys to go to the net before the pucks ready to go there. Bylsma & Krueger definitely didn't. Can't say anyone but Reinhart on the PP did it consistently under Housley. Like that they do it now. Though even that they were getting away from until last night.

Bummer. Liked the little guy. But with both Power & Johnson presumably on their way soon & Bryson establishing himself, he could easily find himself the victim of a numbers game once again.

To the bolded in the 1st post, why do you assume Adams had no idea nor inclination to trade Eichel & Reinhart when he took over? He'd been in Buffalo since retiring & had worked inside the Sabres & along side the Sabres during that entire time. He had opinions about them before being named GM. And pretty much everything he has said since being named GM has touched on character. Still say Eichel's interviews put the idea of moving on from Jack & Sam into the chicken & egg basket. Eichel didn't want to be part of a rebuild, Adams didn't want leaders that weren't fully bought in. As to the other bolded, not saying that the front office was purged for a rebuild, there was a huge financial component to it, but it definitely signaled a retooling. And pretty sure that Eichel, per his own words, saw that retooling as a 1st step towards a rebuild and expressed his dissatisfaction with that. Which again brings us to the chicken & egg question. Did the GM who had issues with the character of his young leaders 1st want them gone or did those leaders want to lead an exodus out the door? Turns out it was way more mutual than yours truly realized. But make no mistake, Adams was far more in the Gionta camp than you are acknowledging. And 2 or more people can each independently arrive at an idea. (The reason Watson & Crick share the Nobel prize for the identification of DNA is they each independently came up w/ the idea & the research 1/2 a world away from each other.) After Botterill was gone, Eichel went to the team with an idea. He probably had thought of that before & it also almost assuredly wasn't the 1st time it broached Adams mind either. Now, why it didn't go further then will likely be debated here well into the 2030's, there are a lot of possibilities, several of which likely factor in including (but not limited to) the Pegulas not wanting to give up on the sunk costs in their young core due to the fact that almost all the fans costs were emotional investments & having Jack & Sam walk could gut attendance; Eichel was coming off a leg injury and the offers for Jack might have had an injury discount, Adams didn't have a front office to bounce the trade proposals off and a decision that big is best made when there are more than 1 set of eyeballs reviewing it (McDermott traded away from Mahomes and waited a year to draft his quarterback after Beane was brought in), presumably the entire core would be out if that new direction was chosen & there wasn't enough bandwidth to pull the entirety of that one off during a pandemic (kinda stretching w/ that one 😉 ), etc.

He didn't specifically say it was Adams saying that, but he'd "heard" the team was thinking of rebuilding, so he went to the "team" and said he'd be unhappy w/ going in that direction. But, it was pretty obvious that when the very 1st thing Adams does, on his 1st day, is fire most all of the front office that something ain't right in the state of Denmark.

Games usually take ~2:40 to play from beginning of the broadcast in real time. This one barely went 2:30; so they're getting more efficient? 😕

Of course it's fluff. But some of us don't need to see Cozens slammed another time. These pinheads select "Toyota Big Saves" from the opponent's goalie, too. Sorry, want the homering from the crew. We get it. They're bad. But at least pretend they did something well.

Miller Time. Too bad they were down by 3.

Is anybody else annoyed Ray keeps trying to make Wilson seem like a good guy? If he calls him Tommy Wilson just 1 more time ...

Is anybody else annoyed when the "Gerber Collision of the Game" highlights a Sabre getting blown up? Guess so.

After scoring himself, on the 2nd chance he gets the puck in the net.

To the bolded: IF they were rebuilding. Saying you don't want to go through a rebuild is much different than saying "trade me right ####ing now" (now, hang up).

No. Murray really wanted both O'Reilly & Lehner. He also was on record stating that at best 1/2 of the draft picks would make it, so it was his job to figure out which guys would make it & trade the rest. He also had no problem trading extra bodies to make sure he got his guy due to the 50 player limit.

It doesn't matter where the Sabres are in the order if they are the only team making a claim. Seattle doesn't want to lose him for free to anybody, not just the Sabres. But knowing the Sabres want him back is why they won't waive him down. Others might put in a claim, the Sabres almost definitely will.

And don't expect it to work the day you sign up for it. It took a day for mine.

Or a week later. October 23.

Probably a day or 2 after the Habs game.

If you are full season STHers, you should've received an e-mail w/ instructions for how to activate the free subscription. Your account rep can help you through it. As stated above, they offered that because they weren't ready to be able to honor Sabrebuck payments when the season opened.