nfreeman

Well, as I said, I loved Briere and Bergeron has had a terrific career. I was responding to a poster who queried whether a true superstar -- not a true #1 C -- was required to win a cup.

I, too, liked Joker's game last night.

No argument that I'm old, but still. This isn't a teenage girl we're talking about, or a B side from a marginal Rush single -- this was a 32-ish woman, and it was Purple Haze. I'm entitled to expect her to be familiar with Stairway to Heaven, Sympathy for the Devil, Baba O'Riley and Purple Haze. Otherwise how can I trust her with anesthesia or sharp instruments?

I was at the dentist recently and as the nitrous was about to be applied, I said to the hygienist, "Excuse me while I kiss the sky" -- and got a blank stare. I said "please tell me you get that," and she said she didn't. Not as big a bummer as the dentistry itself, but still.

OK Mr. Grumpy. When I watch TT on the half-wall, I see him handling it very well, with the 2nd-best puck skills on the unit after Dahlin. The D can't just rush him and take it away, which isn't true of anyone else on the unit besides those 2. His shot is a major threat that bends the defense towards him and creates opportunities on the other side of the ice for guys like VO and (hopefully) Skinner. He's a key part of a surprisingly decent PP (#10 in the NHL in PPG). Briere is one of my all-time favorite Sabres, but if we're listing things we "need" to do, we should remember that he played 48 games in 2006. I don't think most hockey observers would've called him a "superstar" or a top-10 player that year. Maybe 2007 though. Similarly, Bergeron has been a terrific player, but again -- most hockey observers wouldn't call him a top-10 player or a superstar.

Good question. I think the 2006 Sabres could’ve won the Cup, and that team didn’t have a top-10 player. You could say the same of STL in 2019 (Tarasenko had 68 pts that year and I don’t think Pietrangelo or ROR is a superstar) and perhaps Boston in 2011, although I think Marchand is a top 10 player.

And this is my biggest concern -- that the stink of losing pervades the new generation just like it suffused Eichel, Risto and Reino and they give up on it getting better here and start wanting out too. It's at least as likely to happen as a major turnaround and it's a huge failure by KA IMHO. I'm not expecting it, but this would be great. And it would be nice for KA to show the fans that he cares about them by doing something like this (at the right price of course).

Assuming the Sabres don't end up with a "generational" stud C in the 2022 draft, I can see the Sabres having a bunch of pretty good #2/#3 Cs -- Tager, Krebs, Cozens and Mitts -- with an ongoing competition for usage and ice time. For the record, TT's emergence IMHO has been really something and a major accomplishment by DG. His line consistently creates chances and he creates offense by carrying the puck up ice, finding soft spots and firing both a huge slapper and a dangerous wrister. He has a very good sense for the offensive game overall. He's also pretty decent on the backcheck and has acquitted himself pretty well in Eichel's old spot on the left half-wall on the PP, including the 2-man game with Dahlin.

Boy, someone woke up on the wrong side of the yoga mat today.

@jsb slinging that sweet, smooth hopium. It'll ease your pain for a little while anyway.

Well, here’s an observation that has zero basis in reality.

It's hard to avoid that sinking feeling that today will be a classic Buffalo sports two-fer.

It has to be said: this was another stinker from JA.

The Bills are getting exposed on both sides of the ball today.

This is fair, but I don't think it's reasonable to be PO'd at the team (as the OP apparently is) for not seeing it the same way.

I haven't thought they would get to playoff bubble status, but I have thought that they could be competitive in most games other than against, say, the top 10 teams in the NHL, and that the games would continue to be entertaining throughout most of the season. If they lose 7 out of 9 regularly, though, they won't come close to that standard. Pass the hopium, bro! I need a taste.

Well, they’ve now lost 7 out of 9, and one of those wins was due to Toker standing on his head while his team got outshot 45-19. I hate to say it, but that is bottom echelon results. We could feel very differently about this team by Christmas.

@LabattBlue — you are certainly right to be dissatisfied with the team’s results since TP took over, but I can’t agree with your criticism of either the prices or the dynamic scheme. Their prices are among the lowest in the NHL ($17!!), and pretty much every team uses dynamic pricing. if you feel like the team isn’t good enough to earn your money, you’re more than entitled to feel that way, but it’s not realistic to expect NHL tickets at $25 each or whatever you have in mind that is appreciably below $58.

FFS. Dahlin is 21 and in his 4th season. His 1st 3 seasons were played for poor coaches and with a highly unstable organization, all during a very strange and tumultuous pandemic. He has nevertheless produced historic scoring numbers for a young defenseman and displayed offensive puck skills and instincts shared by only a few defensemen in NHL history. Does he get confused and beaten in the D-zone from time to time? Yes, indeed. Is he anywhere near the type of game-changing force we were expecting when he was drafted and the hockey intelligentsia was throwing around names like Orr and Potvin? NFW. (And this is yet more evidence that tanking is a stupid and low-percentage strategy, btw.) But still. Trading him for anything less than the next Eichel-type-unhappy-superstar-demanding-a-trade (sans the potentially career-killing injury) would be insane IMHO. Donnie Meatballs is going to coach him up and by the middle of next season he's going to start delivering on that promise.

FWIW, R2 had the 5th-most ice time last night among forwards and 3rd-most at even strength. I too like R2's game and think he would produce more with better linemates. I agree that his line has been pretty ineffective, but Hayden is barely an NHL player and is where O-zone possessions go to die. Separately, I only saw about half the game last night, but Cozens IMHO looks like he is getting better and more confident by the day. He made a couple of nifty passes in the O-zone that I hadn't seen previously.

@MattPie and @Thorny beat me to it. NHL .500 is an utterly meaningless stat (and I'd also note that the Sabres left the rink with a loss 2 more times than they left with a win, so I'd say NHL .500 is fundamentally inaccurate). DeLuca .500 is a very good shorthand stat, while points percentage is the most precise and accurate, although less useful IMHO because no one other than @Taro T is going to whip out the calculator and calculate points percentage while looking at the standings. Jeez. Someone got up on the wrong side of the bed. And Crosby is the farthest thing in the world from being a "punk" IMHO.

They're already 2 games below .500.

I didn’t like Green Knight at all. Just a bunch of gibberish pretending to be art. I also thought the Saints of Newark was pretty lousy. I thought the Bond movie was OK, but I find all of them more or less OK. Red Notice on Netflix was of a piece with most of their recent big budget action movies — stupid but briskly paced and reasonably enjoyable if you like that genre.

Out of those 9 NHL execs in the LeBrun piece, 6 of them referred to the injury in a manner that I’d say indicated it was a significant factor (recognizing that YMMV on that interpretation) and a 7th mentioned it as well. And LeBrun also said that 1 of the 3 teams at the end, Carolina, was likely only staying in the game in case the price fell to a bargain level. I think it’s pretty likely that only Vegas and Calgary were willing to take the full $50MM risk, and that everyone else was only interested if the Sabres kept at least $20MM or so via either salary retention or taking back bad contracts. As to your second point, I disagree that Eichel was asked to choose between his health and his livelihood. Fusion surgery is the prescribed approach by the substantial majority of the medical community. Taking that route wouldn’t have been sacrificing his health. And if he had taken the risk on the ADR — a risk that a very small minority of NHL teams were willing to take — and it worked, he would’ve been able to play hockey for millions of dollars. He has wanted all along for someone else to bear that risk.