ska-T Palmtown

Absolutely. I think the team will be weaker next year without Zuck, unless we find another mother zucker like him? I was thinking about Foligno in Chicago when I talked about vets coming in to help. By all accounts Bedard follows him around like a puppy dog - and Foligno had to know they were not going to win in the window he signed for.

I found out when I tried to go get a hair cut in the neighborhood adjacent to wrigley and it was a total mess with the game traffic 😞

The "we" was just meant to refer to the "general board sentiment", not purposely include anyone other than myself. The bold - great point and that is sort of another tick in the "it's the system" column, no? AKA, being asked to consider defense (or at least not just go for offense at all costs) is frying his brain?

Thinking a little more on this ... I am wondering if this sudden manifestation of 'The Yips' is actually the system. Just spit-balling here, but he gets in between the circles with the puck and knows he needs to make a 7/10 or higher move to get around a guy to get a shot ... but, in the back of his brain Lindy is telling him "if you cough this puck up, you better hustle your little butt back on D!" and that split second is enough to where he either bails or does indeed cough up the puck? We may also be falling for our own hype? Don't get me wrong, I think Quinn has oodles of talent, but we got ourselves all worked into a lather over <checks notes> a 40-point per 82 games pace from his rookie year. Right now, he would pace out for ~34 this year in 82 games, a mere 15% reduction in production. I will freely admit that I thought he had 60 points in him this year after the way he played post-injury last year (see long-winded rant a few posts ago). The second half to it - his hope-inspiring rookie year was with 68-point D-Co, not the current 41-point Cozens. Cozens drove "The Kid Line" and his struggles are bringing down everyone that plays with him so far this year. Hell, that was also the year of 82-point Skinner, 94-point Thompson, and 79-point Tuch which probably took A LOT of pressure off "the kids". So I guess "what happened" is that Jack has thus far failed to take the mythical "step forward", but we should not pretend he has regressed with any statistical significance. Plus, he had 8 points in 8 games in December, comprised of four 2-point games. He might be heating up? Figuring it out? Getting luckier? Sucking less?

It is crazy annoying! We should have had a never ending rotation of Zuckers over the past 5 years. Instead we got status quo vets like Girgs and Okposo, a vet without enough in the tank for the craziness he stepped into with E Johnson, and the incessant drumbeat of "No Blockers!! No Blockers!!" The one other vet we had around, Craig Anderson, did an admirable job of passing for a veteran backup and I would not be surprised if some of his savvy and veteran leadership helped UPL take the steps we have seen him take. Just imagine if we had that for JJP-Cozens-Quinn ... sigh. Some vets will do it just to be a part of mentoring the "next" kids.

I don't know why The Myth Of Jack Quinn's Recovery persists. The numbers and the fabled 'eye test' from last year - the time most immediate to his two recoveries contradicts this sentiment in every way. **Tears Achilles Tendon, owwie! comes back at the early end of the recovery window** Dec 19 - Jan 27: 17 gams, 12 points, or ~58 points/82 pace (better than his rookie year of ~40 pts/82gms) **Breaks leg, ouch! misses ~8 weeks** Mar 27 - April 15: 10 games, 7 points, or ~ 57 point pace (again, better than his rookie year) So TWICE last season he came back from injury and both times he was outplaying his rookie year numbers. The 👏 injuries 👏 are 👏 not 👏 his 👏 problem 👏 this 👏 year 👏. @PickaPecaPickles might be on to something about the style of play or trying to play responsibly.

After going a MONTH (including sitting some games) between points ... December was not bad - 8 pts in 8 games:

Does this happen to roughly correspond with Laine's return and subsequent powerplay clinic?

Currently the Otters are on pace to make the playoffs with 89 points. To get to 90 pts the Sabres need to run things out at 0.644 pts % ... easy, right?

I never understood that mentality. The goalie is part of the team. He made a lot of saves, but he had a clear view on most of them and the D did an almost decent job of clearing out rebounds. Kinda like the Lions game for the Bills, they gave up 42 points on D, but scored 48. Win and lose as a team. Simple.

I'd add that Reichel is ... there. Drafted 9 spots behind Quinn at 17th. Currently has a career pace of 27 pts/82. In his (and others') defense - they play on the Blackhawks with LESS support and talent than the Sabres have. Poor kids. Bedard's toe drag to snap shot move is insane. The real problem he is running into this year - really no one else on his line, let alone the team, to keep the other teams from just smothering him. He's got some pretty silky mitts, too.

and our heroic climb out of the basement has begun!

I texted my Bears-fan buddy before the game if we wanted to take the over or under on the 'Hawks outscoring the Bears 😄 I got to see the 5-min NHL.com package ... and I gotta say - I resented the ESPN guys for the "uh-oh here we go again" tone they took after the Hawks made it 4-2. Glad Tuchy shut them up. Hard. Fight, boys! Fight!

patiently waiting for the extended highlights package to drop on youtube ... 🕒

The hockey (TV) gods have spared me from this one. Even if it was on ESPN+ (which it is not) - the game would be blacked out due to me being in Chicago. Anyone wanna wager if the Hawks score more points than the Bears did yesterday? 🤣🤣🤣

Larkin for Lafferty straight up? 😉

Not disagreeing with you, at all. Just not sure what else to do, as a fan. I don't buy merch. I am no longer in Buffalo, so I don't go to the games. I have ESPN+ for other reasons, so I tune in from time to time. I am genuinely happy when they win and hope they win every time they step on the ice.

Yup, so true. This team is basically who we get, so I will be happy with every win and every bit of "growth" we see. As a fan, not sure what else to do?

While not likely, it is certainly possible. Work hard, put forth effort, win a few - that will at least get fans back to neutral.

The NHL does not consider this a 'losing streak' since we got points. Don't ask my why, they just do. If you are going for "winless" - not even close, the Jets had a 30 game winless streak. https://records.nhl.com/records/team-records/losing-streaks/longest-losing-streak-one-season Interesting fact, tho - apparently our very own Buffalo Sabres are one of only 3 teams in the "Loser Point Era" to have a losing streak of 10 or more games. AAANND, own the longest such streak ... 14 games in 2014-2015. Insane. 2014: I grabbed more games to show that the results DO show OT L ...so those 14 were in. a. row. All losses.

lol - i don't know. I'm mad at how the team has progressed so I angrily assume that everything GMKA has done is wrong 🙂

<in a sing-songy, told-you-so voice> Another reeeeaaaaaaaaason you don't let all your kids come up at the saaa-aaaa-aaaaa-mmmmmmmmmmmmme time!

Maybe he meant "no changes" before the freeze?

Has anyone else found this to be true? My wife and I make a comfortable living, we have no kids and two beautiful kitties. We are not fancy folks and we generally buy what we want for ourselves when we want it. I find it hard to make a good list for family for birthdays and Christmas. That said, I'd take the Bills getting the #1 seed in the AFC 🙂