ska-T Palmtown

@Thorner and @Stoner what a lively discussion! I wish the product on the ice gave a reason to be that passionate in a positive way. 😞 i'd STILL like to hear someone's opinion on the GM, HD in this case, tell a coach when and where to play a player - ie Cozens on the powerplay. The spending on the team is quite odd. One could reason, and I am not the first one to point this out, that some past free agent signings (Lieno, Hall) have given the owner pause on opening the purse for that purpose again. But, on the other hand ... handing Cozens and Power pretty huge money relative to any sustained performance indicates some sort of willingness to spend. Either way, all of this demonstrates that we, the faithful, need good hockey to distract us from all this. 🙂

Conspiracy theories are only meant to give a sense of space to a situation where people without good knowledge of a situation crave it. In this case, I have no idea how a hockey team should be run (both from watching the Sabres and from a lack of doing it myself). That can lead to an overwhelming sense of anxiety around that void, so I chose to believe that the owner can't get out of his own way. In the general sense, that happens a lot in the real world. People are often their own worst enemies for meaningful change and progress. Do I know he is doing it? Nah ... no way I really could. My personal sense of levity, snark, and tongue-in-cheek does not come across well on Le Interwebs - so when I say I "buy into the theory" it is more of a "yeah, sure ... why the eff not?" than most people may perceive. I don't wholly subscribe, either ... I posted a few weeks ago that based on the NHL's reported revenue for the Sabres, unless the team's non-contract overhead is $60M, TP is making money on this team. I don't think the theory of TP pinching pennies ($1M is pennies to his overall net worth) has much merit. Conspiracy theories are weird, though - because they often are used to fill gaps. My wife, who is very smart, for a long time thought there was "something to" some of the "jet fuel can't melt steel" garbage floating around about the twin towers. Until I, a licensed structural engineer, sat her (a chief marketing officer) down and explained how steel has a strength curve associated with elevated temperatures and it does not have to come anywhere near close to "melting" for it to fail under its original design loads, blah blah blah. In my heart of hearts, I know most of the theories about the dysfunction of the team are really just bunk and we are where we are because TP has not managed to hire the right person EVEN ONCE to help run this organization. But perhaps my dark corner seems safer? lol

I am well aware of your position on these topics, and rest assured that nothing I typed was meant to imply I would absolve GMHD of any applicable blame for the crap show we are currently forced to witness. Hiring a yes-man as a GM is a double-edged sword, ain't it? That individual needs to have a certain lack of drive so they don't question you ... but you have now doomed yourself to having to be involved or run the risk of a huge catastrophe if you needed to trust them with anything. If GMHD is letting TP wipe his butthole (toilet joke, love it!), then there cannot be any merit to the belief that GMHD is telling Ruff whom to play when. There likely isn't a GM in hockey that would assemble this roster, either ... at least not one with a job as a GM.

Damn you! Not exclusively what I meant, but what I typed, for sure. To be clear - despite the lack of evidence, I *do* buy into the TP is too involved conspiracy theory. With GMHD, I can't say I would even blame him, lol. I meant to say that I don't think Lord Pegs would allow GMHD to fire Ruff so soon. I am still curious about GMHD telling Ruff when and where to play Cozens ... I think it is all Ruff - he thinks he sees something and wants to be the master artisan that unlocked the potential. It is a fools errand, a tale as old as time itself.

"lose just as much as they win" implies 0.500 - which would be an improvement on their overall mark! 😉 The "meddling owner" trope has played out ad nauseum around here - but I would submit for your consideration, that if the GM is dictating to the coach how and when a player is being used, that is actually worse than the owner wanting to be involved in player acquisitions, etc. GMHD has no leverage over Ruff, there is no way TP would fire a coach in their first year - and if that 13 game losing streak did not do it, not much will. Until empirical evidence is submitted, I will not subscribe to "Adams is telling Ruff to give Cozens powerplay time". I won't do it. No.

I think there is some logic to Archie's argument. A decent veteran could see what Zucks did this year (pacing for his 2nd highest point total of his career - already with his 5th best season out of 14) and think they could replicate it. A solid steady vet is going to get 2nd line or higher minutes in Buffalo, they'd be lucky to sniff 3rd on most other teams. Meh, who knows?

The Mttis Smuelsson (removed the "a" ...see what i did there?) thread has been corrected to say he is not (yet) out for the season. FWIW.

Another Sabres thread, more continued obsession over their man-bits ... I swear it is impossible for some posters to not discuss the players' nether-regions. Most health-care plans have coverage for someone if you need to talk that out a little bit ...

I mean, that is just silly. Even the team that wins the Cup will lose 3-4 in a row. If we think (or know) players don't want to come here now ... wait until the team starts stripping letters over a 4 game losing streak, lmao. For Punchy and D. Moted - yeah, I know. I have been only able to read SS in chunks this week due to travel for work and when you read 2-3 pages of 3-4 threads in chunks, most of them come off as manic and a bit schizophrenic. There are plenty of "they need to do something, ANYTHING" comments (not necessarily from you two, specifically), so I think you have to see a wee bit of humor in "well, not THAT!" 🙂

Sabrespace: We MUST change the culture on the team!! raaaaargh! angry noises <team tries to make some changes> Sabrespace: I don't care. LOL

I mean, there is absolutely zero correlation there. Was the rest of the league afraid of the previous owner and two scant months into TP's reign, the rest of the NHL collectively "sensed" it was open season? Nearly every player on the roster was a holdover from the previous owner. TP is probably guilty of a lot and I think he deserves all the $hit he gets for the state the franchise is in, but it would be pretty hard to show that the Lucic hit was anything other than coincidence. Some players are just dirt bags. Even if we had peak Rob Ray, I think that scumbag still hits Tage the way he did. Getting in a silly little hockey fight is not going to deter the real goons from doing it. It happens over and over and over ... The real "losers" and spineless whatevers are the players that level dirty (or borderline dirty) hits on star players when that player is not looking or otherwise defenseless.

If you don't call them gutless pussies with no spine, rag doll *****, and any other tired worn out trope you muster, then you SIR, are not a true Sabres fan and are just as soft and weak as the team. You are doomed to spend your days cowering in dark corners hoping no one comes after you. /s It would be hard to agree with the bolded more than I do. Update, thanks to the post above mine for reminding, you must also so your fandom by insulting (and be oddly obsessed) with their man-parts ...

Dear lord ... if you omit the parts of this thread about the result, you'd think the Sabres lost by at least 5. Y'all need to take a deep breath and get a grip. With a few exceptions, the messaging on this board goes back and forth like a tennis match. "We need to learn to win!" ... they win "yeah, but not the way i wanted them to!" If you think this team are such "***** losers" and you are "***** done" ... then BYE! there's the log off button ... do it, I dare you. Oh, you're not done .. ok, lol.

I really hope the team took that ceremony with them. Rob Ray, for all his faults as a player and broadcaster is just a truly good human being who gives his all to anything he does. He bleeds blue and gold. There should not have been a dry eye on the bench and those kids need to watch that video about 500 times and really let it sink in. Buffalo is nuts for a guy with 40-something career goals because he left it all out on the ice each time he skated. Glad they won, hope they learned something.

Why on earth does NHL network have ANY interest in this game, tho?

lol, I saw it, too - but understood the typo and did not feel the need to make a fuss.

I guess that forces me to do other things tonight. Not necessarily a bad thing. Will definitely watch Rayzor's video, tho!

What makes me the most sad about the bad season is that it has kept some of the more thoughtful posters away for long stretches. I grow very weary of the endless "gawd we suck" posts that contain no real thought. Do we suck? Sure do! I'd still rather have some thoughtful posts going back and forth about what the means and waxing poetic on how it came to pass or how it shall one day end ...

I just have so much trouble grasping the whole concept of why the Sabres need to be cheap. From a CNBC article: If the Sabres have an estimated revenue of $169M ... assuming 30% taxrate for corps (?) = $118M. Their player payroll is ~$73M this year ... They have almost no debt, where in the ever living FERK is the remaining $45M going???????? Granted my analysis is very crude, but I don't buy for one second this franchise is losing money ... Last year they had a confirmed revenue of around $159M. The concept of a billionaire try to save a few $M here and there on his favorite toy, while his other sports team makes money so fast he can't even count it just seems way way way off. I know most of the board is convinced, based on rumor, speculation, and pure disbelief that anyone could run a franchise this poorly, that T-Pegs has some sort of internal cap. I whole-heartedly disagree. I think the far more likely scenario is that he has asked GMKA to be "smart" with the money and GMKA is playing the "I need cap space to sign all my awesome young kids to contracts" game.

That's really an awesome journey - and in all sincerity, I am happy for you. Mental health is so much more important that most of our society will admit. I did my own work after a deployment and a divorce. And luckily for me, wife #2 is the most emotionally intelligent person to ever come into my life. I am actually very grateful for the joy and hope the Bills have given me since The Drought ended. Each post-season is a crazy and fun journey and I look forward to going on a dozen more with JA17!

maybe tage is feeling better?

hatttttttttttttttttie

lol - I am glad my comment was met with some humor in return. It just amazes me how damaged we are ... seconds after the Sabres score a slew of "they'll blow it" comments flood in. 😞

This fanbase is damaged, lol

Apparently I am going to go see NIN in August.