ska-T Palmtown

The Jests are practically guaranteed to hit 14 years this year before the Sabres do ... so for a few months, we won't hold the longest active playoff drought in major North American sports!! Odd that the NFL is the only one that does not include any teams from our pals to the North ...

Agreed ... although that is a SUPER low bar - lol. And while there is little doubt that Kulich's play passes the eye-test far more than Quinn's, the score sheet is not much different for the two of them. But, as @mjd1001 was pointing out, Quinn is actively hurting us most nights, where maybe Kulich is helping a little. Sad state of affairs, to be sure. I think where my head is at - we have kept kids up before because they have "looked good". Cozens, Quinn, Benson, JJP (?), Power, pretty long list, really ... and it is pretty apparent most of this board thinks they are not fully NHL caliber, yet. Or at least not for what is being asked of them. It would be WAY different if the average age (swap out an NHL game experience number, if you wish) of our forward group was 28 and someone went down and we brought Kulich up. Same on D ... There is something missing. I still bristle (or are my feather ruffling? 🙂 ) at "real men", "soft", "country club" and other terms that sound like old men standing on their lawn yelling at clouds ... but honestly - maybe they are right and I am just a snowflake genX/millennial cusper who is weak and soft? 🤷‍♀️

I was slicing open a package from up North and out slid a pretty cool autographed Jiri Kulich hockey card that I got at what I think of as the "Sabres discount" on ebay and I had to come back and find this post/topic. The fact that we have a lineup stuffed to the gills with young lads is why I get pretty agitated about keeping Kulich up any longer than necessary. And, as much as I love Benson (I really do!), a better organization would have sent him back to the WHL last year. Why? Because he would not have been able to beat out a "rostered player" definitively at camp. The way the team is playing this year - no need for Kulich to stick around and get this stank on him.

I just watched that Dion Dawkins hype video over in the Bills thread ... made me so incredibly happy! Then sad that the Sabres may never know the pure unadulterated joy that Buffalo sports fans feel when their team wins. Then joy again when I thought about how awesome Dion is!

Crap - I actually meant to go back and delete my post since I was totally thinking of the wrong play. Pimlach set me straight. I think it was pretty weak that no one responded, although I may quibble with whether or not that should have been Quinn or not. (Agree with the bold) I actually agree with you that I went a little "keyboard warrior-y" in my response, and I'll own up to that. I thought your post calling him a "coward" was kinda over the top, but in turn I also went over the top. The internet, amirite? I think it is easier to disagree in-person and in real time, honestly. We'd be at a bar, you'd say "Quinn is a coward", I'd say "aw, c'mon man - that's a bit harsh" you'd say "nah - he shoulda at least whacked him" and i'd say "meh, maybe?" and we'd move on. Probably sitting at home gives one way too much time to think of a response. It seemed like such a personal attack on Quinn's character versus his play, that it definitely elicited a strong reaction from me. Calling him a coward came across as attacking him, not his actions, and it seemed wrong to me.

Balls, I musta been thinking about a different hit? I still don't think "a soft coward" is the correct label for a player on the receiving end of such a play - but I now strongly agree that the lack of response by the team is sadly telling. They are a bi-polar team in that regard ... there have been a few games this year where every sideways glance has been met with a slash, hack, or other nastiness ... and other games where "meh - better skate to the bench" was the answer.

As @Pimlach pointed out in his response - in no world (my words) is it cowardly to get knocked down by a clean body check and not try to go after the guy. The original comment called the recipient, Quinn, a soft coward for taking the hit and not retaliating. That is just preposterous. That no one on the Sabres attempted to lay a clean shoulder into Marcus ... that is fair game. **I would give you a "red x" for misunderstanding that the original comment was direct at Quinn, but a "green check" for the observation about the team ... so they cancel out i guess, lol

It's really just that calling a professional athlete that got knocked down by a good clean check a "soft coward" is peak pathetic internet keyboard warrior nonsense. Normally I enjoy your remarks, even if I disagree - but that comment was bleh.

Yeah, the call on Cozens was borderline horseshite. Way worse (for the game and in terms of blown calls) than the "icing".

Yeah, even when he was here and had practically no one to pass to, the could still thread the needle backwards without looking. I might be in the minority, but I hold no ill will towards young Jack. He hurt his neck and wanted to chose the option that gave him the best chance of being 100% again. The team blocked it. Total d1ck move by the team, so he left. Turns out, based on his play since returning, he was right. Shocker. (something something something body autonomy)

The key, as the Bills showed, is to be up by more than one score - then there is pretty much nothing the refs can do about it. 🙂

Well, US Thanksgiving was yesterday - and by point %, they were in a spot ... so there is that. And this is from the article ESPN published last year about historical "US Thanksgiving" Standings. so between 3-5 teams in a spot drop out each year. Last year in the East, only Detroy-it dropped out and the Aisles hopped in. There's one. In the West, St. Louis and Seattle were replaced by Eulers and Preds. So, three total - the trend holds. 18% of the Turkey Day teams fell off. I don't see the data for previous years and I am way too lazy to look, but what is interesting is that all 12 of the top 3 teams in each conference stayed that way, but 3 out of 4 (75%) of Turkey Day WC teams fell out. So ... maybe it is best if we pretend they were not in a WC spot on Turkey Day? lol. **After actually reading the article, not just looking at the chart - in the time frame covered it was VERY common for division leaders to fall out. 14-15 and 16-17 both saw the top FOUR teams in a top 3 spot in their division all miss! A third of the non-WC teams in a playoff spot on US T-giving missed the playoffs! Wild. (Yes, Buffalo was on of those teams 😞 )

lol - alright ... without the context of regulation v OT loss, I will concede they were sorta right. I lost track of my original b1tch about people calling it a "loss" and in my mind switched to them calling "over" - which I think is more accurately what people were doing. I guess the abject negativity got me feeling a little feisty? PS - no fair actually reading my other posts!

Not atol. The Sabres were down 2-1 with over 12 mins to play and people were calling the game "over" - getting a point from an OT loss is not in any realm the same as the game being over at 2-1. C'mon. I mean. Come. On.

Maybe I was Idemo in some sort of fever dream? All the whiney crap about "no effort" ,etc etc etc - the Sabres were one failed to lift backhand from Tage away from the extra point ... oh well. Before the morality police show up - I am not gate-keeping anyone's reactions; merely commenting on how this team has everyone's emotions going all over the place like a yo-yo. Sheesh.

Benny with 2 apples 🙂 🍎🍎

I stand by my statement and all you negative folks can suck it!

Well ... 3-1 is certainly worse ...

hahaha - a little adversity and this board folds like a wet paper tower. We need some grit around here. Some effort. Some jump. But seriously, calling it a loss with 12 mins left is pretty sh1tty ...

You could see that goal coming ... in honor of cozens taking the penalty, the PK'ers decided to chase all over the ice and leave a guy wide open far post ... sigh

A good powerplay right now would be swell.

sick move by Quinn, draws the penalty.

LMAO at this thread ... game can't start soon enough!

I'll take the "L" on this one ... I watched less than an actual minute of live game play ... and it was the 4 v 1. The boys could feel I was watching and got nervous. My bad.