PASabreFan

It seems to me KA believes he can rationally control the progress of the Buffalo Sabres. That, in Darcy's lexicon, there is "continuous improvement." The beauty and wonder we are missing while waiting for E3 to full take effect in 2027 is the running outside on a warm spring night to shout your glee to the heavens after an OT win... Then stopping and hearing peepers and believing they are Sabres fans. My friends, we were absolutely robbed of this, and their hands are still in our pockets. It is criminal.

Your theories on economic and effective? Is Gallifrey near the arena?

The sequel. It's a prequel, of course. After the incredible box office and streaming success of Ogre: Alien Killer, Ogre and Lucic: The Beginning is a flop. It predictably traces the early lives of Ogre and his nemesis, who had sent his son to earth to torment the humans in their foolish athletic endeavors. Ogre battles many demons through a long career in a devastatingly difficult trade, all the while suffering this haunting feeling that he would one day be part of some even greater, epic struggle. The film begins with 18-year-old Ogre, already bald as a cue ball and jacked as *****!, making love to his high school sweetheart in a meadow in Elma. Things are proceeding apace until a searing pain enters Ogre's glistening dome. He has to extract himself from the proceedings. Now on his back and staring at the clear blue sky (scenic director was not from WNY), an extreme closeup shows that Ogre's pupils are pinpoint. Rapid cuts show a flashforward to Ogre being grasped, fondled, molested, controlled by dozens of slimy appendages as he is lowered into a vat of fake butter. Suddenly his pupils widen again, the torment over. He turns to his girlfriend, and their eyes instantly lock. In unison, they shout, "Let's make popcorn!" Super fast cut to the opening credits. Storm clouds, flashes of lightning, stock footage of UAPs over the ocean, into the ocean... Black screen. GODD Productions... Mainly, the movie is panned for its ending. The director returns to the original pavilion scene. Nothing is resolved, really, and the movie is mocked for a cameo appearance by Jason Alexander's George Constanza, who, having collaborated with the aliens, urges them to dip Ogre again and snorts. As the camera leaves the arena and rises, showing the exact same lake scene as in the original, Ogre is heard to exclaim, "Look over there, it's Rick Jeanneret!" The aliens in unison click and clack: "No way! Where!" Ogre cackles, and there are heavy footsteps, the unmistakable footsteps of steel toed boots, pounding toward the Rob Ray Exit. Oh yeah, there's going to be a sequel. But someone else needs to conjure it up. I have to go to work.

Narrator: The year? 1948.

Final scene. After a valiant, two-hour battle to survive, with an alien kill list as long as a car rental agreement, Ogre is inescapably trapped in the bedraggled pavilion of the arena, down by the ticket office. He smiles a wry smile, then from the depths of his bowels comes a guttural scream... EEEEEEEEEEEAT MEEEEEEEEEEE! The alien leader Lucic smugly nods and gestures for the giant tub of artificial butter they found in a concession area as he scurries toward the human "terrorist." Then speaks in alien click clack. Translation: Dip his bald head! Camera pulls out of the arena and rises. The Cheerios plant is burning. The lake is an eerie orange. The skyway of course stands. Oh yeah, this one is going to have a sequel.

Along the lines of how such advanced beings could face plant in the desert... Why would they eat us? Certainly they went plant-based many millennia ago.

Well yeah. Why do you think my mother was protesting?

What if their snack is calves? We did. I and my family saw one around dusk on a hot summer night in 1980. We lived below a cemetery. I spotted a triangle of lights and heard a low humming sound about 200 yards up the hill. We went into the backyard, and to my mom's frantic protestation, my World War II combat scout father walked up the road alone to find out for sure. He didn't come back for a good while, and it was almost dark. We were scared. Were the lights moving now? Was the sound more high pitched? My dad emerged from the darkness and flatly announced, "It's a dump truck. They're working on the road."

Is it possible to love too much?

Yeah but I suspect it was you who cracked corn.

I disagree that young players are necessarily on board. These are professional athletes who aren't naive kids. Some of them might be more calculating than you think. I wonder what you'll say if he doesn't? Both are dumb questions. Yours is probably more offensive.

The bolded needs to be talked about more.

7 weeks later...

Any "shouting down" of the poster was pushback against the idea that only age and inexperience makes the Sabres a development squad. It's also a GM who won't try and make the playoffs and a coach who won't pull the goalie because... Why? Because it'll be good for the kids to try and tie the game at even strength? Until shown otherwise, the vaunted culture in Buffalo still has nothing to do with winning. Going with a rookie goalie is Exhibit Y. Don't gaslight me. What's changed since 2014? The Sabres have gone from trying derive some future advantage by losing to trying to derive some future advantage by not trying to win. I'm over it... And yes the posts. But I'm not going to quit. I did quit on the Bills and certainly regret it.

Novikov eh? Awesome.

Either it's about winning or it's not.

The rents went out of town. Too bad about Aunt Cheryl.

And that's why I say that if the Sabres miss the playoffs, there won't be much static from the fans. There will always be reasons they missed despite KA's heroic efforts.

And we loved it. Until we didn't.

You vowed to be the first expansion team to win a Cup. I don't understand the slow roll thinking. It's not a predictable straight line at a 45 degree angle. No reason the Sabres couldn't make a run next spring. I'll say it again... It's sports! You gotta live it! Or love it

And they did not lead the team into the playoffs.

I give you April 3, 2007. --- The Sabres' Turn Crosby Era coming, but this moment belongs to Buffalo April 3, 2007 PITTSBURGH — Sidney Crosby struck iron. So did Dmitri Kalinin. But Kalinin's shot hit the right post and went in. Crosby's deflected off the crossbar and bounded away like the Easter Bunny. Sidney Crosby grimaced on the bench. So did Thomas Vanek. But Vanek's scowl, the result of painful back spasms, was at least part smile, coming minutes after his 40th goal. Crosby's, the result of a tweaked ankle, was all Advil. Sidney Crosby lost his helmet. So did Ryan Miller. But Miller's lost lid came seconds after stealing a goal off the stick of Crosby, a defining moment in the game. Crosby's doff came during an early squirmish with Derek Roy, a frustrating moment of many for The Precocious One. Those are the thumbnail photos of the Sabres' 4-1 victory in the Igloo on Tuesday night. The poster-sized enlargement of the state of the Eastern Conference can be illustrated by two more images: Miller's face sprouting a playoff beard. Crosby's as smooth as a baby's bottom. With the regular season all but over, it should have been apparent to most who watched Tuesday night's game — well, maybe not those Versus announcers — that although The Crosby Era in the NHL will arrive soon enough, The Buffalo Era is dawning first. The Penguins might be this season's version of the 2005-06 Sabres, but the Sabres are Version 2.0. Prevailing at the site of the franchise's first big win — in their first game in the NHL back in 1970 — the Sabres clinched both the Northeast Division championship and the regular-season Eastern Conference title. To accomplish two of their preseason goals, they had to beat back a team of young guns, like themselves, who were trying to cut to the front of the line. The Sabres said not so fast. It took clutch goaltending, balanced scoring, stout defensive play and extraordinary penalty killing to do it. It took a playoff effort. The balanced scoring came from a defenseman and three different forwards, while the penalty killers, led by Chris Drury, negated all eight chances for the fifth-ranked Pens power play. But Miller vs. Crosby was the most intriguing matchup. Crosby was all alone at the right post on a first-period power play, but Miller played shortstop and gloved down a pass before it landed on Sid's stick in shallow left field. A little later, Crosby worked himself into that same open space but lifted the puck over the Buffalo goaltender and off the crossbar. Crosby's misery was just beginning. Actually, after taking a bad penalty in the first period and failing to knock Dainius Zubrus into the Pittsburgh Hills in the second, Crosby was quiet until the first minute of the third period. The Sabres led only 2-1 at the time, and Crosby tested Miller twice in a matter of just a few seconds. On his way to his 38th win of the season, Miller passed the test, then aced it at midperiod when Crosby, his team by then trailing 4-1, had designs on getting the Penguins back in the game. Crosby teed one up from the right circle, just 20 feet out, but Miller got his glove up while going down into a reverse snow angel, snaring the last of six shots on goal for Crosby. Miller wasn't busy — the Sabres allowed only 17 shots before taking a 4-1 lead — but he made the timely big save, including a flashing right pad stop on Jordan Staal not long after Pittsburgh had tied the game at 1 in the first period. Pittsburgh, with everything to play for, took its run at Buffalo. With a swagger and a stutter-step, the Sabres did what Zubrus did when Crosby tried to make him a permanent part of the Penguin bench. They stepped aside. Crosby came up empty again, and so did the Penguins. Vanek stepped aside, too, sending two Pens into a hilarious Keystone Kops collision, on Derek Roy's goal. Lindy Ruff ducked a puck sent into the bench in the opening moments of the game and with equally perfect comedic timing taunted the shooter. This was a fun game to watch. Unless you were standing behind the Pittsburgh bench. Pens' coach Michel Therrien said that his team had a bad day, insisted "these things happen." The Versus crew thought Pittsburgh was "flat." That's a coach protecting his team and the league's broadcaster protecting The Franchise. A "thing" didn't happen to the Penguins — a more experienced, more balanced and flat out better team did. Mark Recchi, who scored a disputed goal in the first period, making the win that much more satisfying to paranoid Sabre fans, took a different tack, calling the loss a "wakeup call." While the Penguins are looking to kick off the blankets, the Sabres are already on their happy feet, snooze buttons hit for the last time. They're in the bathroom, taking one last look in the mirror, seeing absolutely no reason to shave. The Buffalo Sabres are getting ready. This is their time.

I'm kinda surprised we haven't had more discussions (or any?) about the value of individual players improving year to year vs. the value of collective (team) growth. In my mind one playoff round trumps one year of development during a regular season. WHEN the Sabres make the playoffs, you know what the major storyline is going to be: do these guys know how to play in the postseason. That's really why I think if I'm KA I risk losing some trades, giving up some of the future to get this team into the postseason next spring.

POTY

Are they being optimistic? I think I want an analyst to deal in realism. Probably splitting hairs. I can deal with optimism. I actually am still optimistic that this franchise is destined to win a Cup. The short term makes me very skeptical though. Dudacek's 2027 lineup haunts my dreams. Gaslighting is my biggest issue. Please don't tell me how successful Adams has been. Not yet anyway.