nfreeman

To those brave optimists/defenders of the franchise here: I appreciate the optimism and the esprit de corps. And I agree that this team can't hang with a TB team that brings its A game (and started Vasilefsky, btw). But I go back to what I said yesterday in another thread: the Sabres seem to come out every game now and get utterly dominated from the opening puck drop, find themselves down 2-0 or worse early on, and then maybe kinda climb back into it, or not. Something is wrong, and it's not just talent or covid/injury absences (which every team is dealing with, btw). There are at least 20 teams in the NHL that the Sabres should be able to mount a competitive effort against -- but here we are, having lost 10 out of 11 at home and 23 out of 28 overall. I like DG, but I gotta ask: does anyone think their record wouldn't be substantially better with Bruce Boudreau behind the bench?

You are ignoring his injury to the point that this post is effectively #hammymath. He has ZERO goals and 11 assists in 18 games since returning from injury. If he can't shoot his shot, he's not a goal-scorer, and he's not going to get paid like one. This is fair, but again, it depends on his injury. If it doesn't improve this season, and the medical diagnosis indicates that surgery is needed -- there's a huge risk that he never gets it back. In that situation he might decide that guaranteeing himself $11MM is prudent. OTOH, if he starts to feel like his old self in the last month of the season, and the docs say he doesn't need surgery, then I agree he wouldn't accept that deal.

I get both the skepticism and the positivity. I like a lot of what I see from a bunch of the kids, not to mention major improvements from guys like Skinner and KO. OTOH, it seems like for the last 2 months, every time I've gotten psyched to watch a Sabres game, they come out flat and are down 2-0 or worse in the 1st period. Just gimme a stretch of 7 games or so where they come out flying (like at the start of the season) from the start of the game, aren't besieged in their defensive zone and win a few, and I'll be fully back on team sunshine and kittens.

I agree with this generally but, as to the bolded -- KA isn't going to overpay VO in order to get to the cap floor. I would guess that unless KO's shoulder improves this season and he starts firing his primary weapon at his pre-injury level, he'll end up at around $3.75MM x 3 years.

Yeah baby! Yeah!

McKenzie only had 1 catch -- it was a critical 3rd down late in the game when the Bills were clinging to a 13-10 lead. JA scrambled and then got it to McKenzie for the first down in the red zone. The replay sure made it look like he stepped out of bounds.

Well, I haven’t said any of that. What I do think is that JA hasn’t had nearly as good a season as he had last year (despite numerous thrilling moments, especially in the 4th quarter vs NE a couple of weeks ago, and him being a good guy generally and easy to root for) that the team is built around him, and, most importantly, that they cannot beat a good team in the playoffs unless he has a very good to great game. If he plays a playoff game like he played today, or against Jacksonville, or Indy, or almost any of their losses this year — they’re done.

I generally agree, but I wouldn’t call Vegas a small market.

I think I'd rather play the Chargers than the Patriots, but it sure would be nice to knock the Patriots out of the playoffs.

Holy mackerel that was a great pass to Davis though.

I wonder how the refs-conspiracy believers feel about McKenzie stepping out of bounds on that critical 3rd down completion? @SwampD

So that's 5 3-and-outs in the last 7 possessions. Yes Virginia, Josh has had a number of lousy games this year.

Very good point. I had forgotten about his UFA timing. You are correct that the Sabres are going to need to decide at the end of this season about him. If they don't agree on a long-term deal -- and I agree that VO probably won't agree to a long-term deal at, say, $3MM per year -- he's probably gone once he hits UFA in another year.

Diggs is so great.

If VO had stayed healthy this season and put up, say, 27 goals, while also showing the development in his overall offensive game that we've seen, I would agree with you on a $5MM per year deal. But the injury has robbed him of his money maker, and I can't see him getting a big contract unless and until he returns to form.

These violent delights have violent ends.

Well, you'll certainly get no argument from me as to Dahlin's offensive upside, which I think surpasses Power's, or his growth this year under DG. I just didn't think that Power was the kind of player who could put that much pressure on the opposing D (which is not as much as Dahlin can apply, but still potentially a high amount). That video made me think that the Sabres could have 2 guys with that kind of capability, which could be transformational.

Wow. That was a great video. Serious Nick Lidstrom-type Jedi offensive zone manipulation. I didn’t know Power had that kind of game. Now I’m pretty psyched.

I thought it was noteworthy because it was the first time I’ve seen VO or anyone from the Sabres admit explicitly that the injury has affected his shot.

Speaking of VO and his injury, here’s the Athletic from Friday:

I think most of the guys in the NFL are probably decent to good guys, but I also think the NFL has a much higher percentage of sociopaths than any other sports league.

Well, I agree about the overall environment, and I think KA does as well. I also agree with KA that the whole "guys who want to be here" factor is really important to developing that environment. I'd also argue against reading too much into ERod's good 33 games. I always thought he had decent skills and hockey IQ, but he's 28 and this is by far the most productive he's ever been. Plenty of guys have shown flashes on Pittsburgh or in similarly advantaged situations only to fall way off the next year.

I've always been a traditionalist on the dome/outdoor stadium issue, but I'm coming around to the idea of a dome -- although it seems unlikely that the new stadium will be a dome. Bottom line is that as discussed upthread, tickets, parking, concessions, etc are going to be really GD expensive at the new stadium. At those prices, they are going to have a hard time selling tickets to the December and late November games if the stadium isn't a dome. My vote continues to be to stick with the Ralph, but if there has to be a new stadium, I think I'd go with a dome.

This.

I think those prices will indeed come close to doubling. There will also be PSLs for season tickets and club seats. Perhaps most importantly, there will be many more club seats and luxury box seats. Those will represent more than a 100% increase when compared with the non-club/box seats they replace.