Kristian

By which time Thompson and Dahlin will want out just like Jack, and who can blame them? Of the three I mentioned, one has a cup, and the other two have never seen the playoffs. Don’t think they won’t be thinking about just that, if this team misses the playoffs. Again.

Any day now…..

I don’t see him adding anything to this squad. He’s close to washed-up, and I can’t remember the last time I batted an eye when he had the puck.

True, but I’m counting pre-season. I refuse to believe this team is 100% healthy for even one official game this year.

I hate this deal already, “odd man out” will sort itself out three games in….

I don’t know. I demand another thread to decide! 🤣

While Dahlin is certainly the better player now, I think Power will benefit from turning pro onto a team way less dysfunctional than the team Dahlin was thrown onto. Good grief, imagine being an 18-year old no. 1 pick playing on that Sabres team?

NHL referee : Hold my beer.

Lose the instigator penalty. Way too many douchebags getting away with cheapshots, because people are punished for stepping in. Also, it’s never called right anyway.

I’m still furious with Brian Holzinger going for a half-hearted sticklift on Brett Hull, instead of just crosschecking him into next week.

Certainly was a thing of beauty to see the Sabres tearing up the league, the moment he left.

Yeah, I was pumped for that trade too, but what a disappointment he turned out to be. And he turned into one of MY favorite trades - Gratton for Danny Briere. Man, when Darcy was on, he was ON.

Could be you’re right, I never followed the Isles that much. Still though, let’s say he doesn’t get traded or held out as an RFA, it’s not far fetched to say we could’ve gotten 3 maybe 4 good years from him still. One things for sure, the 2001 team would never have lost to the Pens, had we had Peca on the team, instead of him sitting out. Connolly never really became what his talent warranted. Injured a lot, and too much of a party freak. Taylor Pyatt probably got the best of that deal, and quietly developed into a solid defensive forward after some pretty rough years initially. Shame.

I disagree. He was a beast in 2002 until Darcy *ucker took out his knee in the playoffs. Had a career high in points, and was on a loaded Canada olympic roster in Salt Lake. All of this was post-Buffalo. After that knee incident, I agree - It was downhill.

Peca. I hated the penny-pinching, the hold-out, and I hated what we got in return. And once both Connolly and Pyatt actually turned into NHL players, one got hurt and the other was allowed to walk as a UFA. Sure, Tim scored a few highlight-reel goals, but I would take Peca’s highlight-reel hits any day. Worst. Trade. Ever. Damn, I’m getting angry just talking about it…

Actually, Miller broke his thumb and Biron played 35 games that season. I’d be willing to give him credit for that year too.

Any NHL team that dresses UPL or Comrie is either : A. An NHL team that has Dominik Hasek or Martin Brodeur in their prime. B. A team likely to miss the playoffs.

Of course JBot deserves his share of the blame, but seeing as JBot was hired by the owners, I’ll put most of the blame there. The fact that Krueger has had a sniff of success in tournament hockey shouldn’t, by any standards, make him so much as interview for an NHL head coaching gig. Terrible hire by JBot, and terrible move by Pegula to sanction it. I know, I know…. Owners shouldn’t meddle, but this one was atrocious.

It’s neither Vegas or Seattles fault that we have an owner who hires soccer managers to coach pro hockey teams.

One or two good years are not going to make players want to come here, that’s the stench I speak of. Media and the likes have all agreed for years that Buffalo had lots of talented players, yet we still found ways to finish dead last in the league. Is there improvement? Certainly seems so, but even two good years followed by another sub-par performance will have everyone going “here we go again”, I guarantee you that much. Look - We sucked! A lot! For an extremely long time. It’ll take more than 2 seasons to remedy that. I’m not saying it’s as bad as two years ago, I’m saying that when you’re laughing stock of the league for 8+ years, becoming a reputable organisation again simply takes time. An don’t say we weren’t the laughing stock of the league, cause we certainly were.

The Sabres haven been a joke pretty much since Pegula took over. It’s the place where careers go to die. Everyone knew this. Looks like this may have changed now hopefully, but it’ll take at least 4-5 years of relevance to get the stench out of the of walls in the Keybank Center. The Sabres did this to themselves. Blaming ex-players is understandable, but the real issue here is Terry Pegula making one terrible hire after another.

Sure, if you believe he should post a shutout every night. It was a fluke deflection off his d-mans stick, it didn’t even go short side, but found a way through his pad and his arm, so you can’t fault his positioning either.

It got deflected off the D-mans stick, and made him look foolish. If Hill doesn’t make 2-3 out of this world stops last night, it’s a 6-2 rout.

Matthews - Zero goals in the five biggest games of his life.

Toronto losing in the 2nd is fun. Sabres making it to the post-season would be more fun.