ska-T Palmtown

The thing that has stuck out to me the most in the very good games of the 4 Nations tourney ... how effing good the forward groups are at playing defense. The US PK and 6v5 against Canada were freeze frame CLINICS on how to aggressively defend while maintaining positional accountability. Whether at even strength, PK, or the dreaded extra attacker, Buffalo's forwards seems to consistently chase the puck too much and pick the worst times to do it. I have a very strong suspicion that the Sabres could acquire the much desired two "shut down D" and unless our forwards learn their GD d-zone responsibilities, the overall team D would not improve that much. Teams have learned if they overload the Sabres down low, (pick a forward, they all do it) will leave the zone too early or stay too high and they will eventually find a way to force Power (or any other whipping boy) to try to cover two players at once. The biggest thing a defender had to do in front on the net is tie up the other player's stick. It is that simple. Forget all this old-school BS about clearing the front and "put him on his arse", sure those are nice - but control the stick, control the player. If a defender has to keep their eyes on TWO players on opposite sides of their body, they are at such a disadvantage in terms of how to do that. If the opposing team has three players in front of the net and the Sabres only have two either a forward has completely blown their assignment or they are "strategically" trying to cut off a pass (zone concepts and "overloading" the puck in the d-zone seem to be quite in right now). I just don't think it is fair to evaluate any of Sabres D-men completely on this team with such a poor defensive set of forwards.

Connor McDavid is such a whiney little b1tch. Doesn't even acknowledge the crowd as he is named 3rd star. Show some class, you a$$hat.

The only thing I ever had against Sid is that he never played for the Sabres. The guy is a beast on the puck, seems to pass THROUGH actual people, and can score a top shelf goal on a one-handed back hand flip (which unfortunately happened against Buffalo). He is the epitome of "makes others around him better". Signs team friendly deals because he wants more cups. And his edge work redefined hockey skating. Any hate against Sid is misplaced.

Have you tried restarting? hahaha ... I'll see myself out 🙂

And are also shut out due to not having Russia as one of the 4.

What if he can't remember how to play with really good teammates? 🤣 ESPN got RIGHT to it ...

Only the NFL can pull off the consolidated networks move. There are fewer games, it is that simple. Football on Sundays and Mondays (and most people are begrudgingly used to Thursday now, too). That is why the NFL can command premium dollars from the big networks. It is just so easy as a fan to figure out. MLB, NBA, NHL - too many games to get a major $$ consolidated deal. That and WAY too many bleh games (ie - Sabres) on national broadcasts. ESPN+ carrying most of the games is the closest thing to hockey broadcast heaven there is ... unless you are local, then just eff right off with that, lol. Who even knows how much money ESPN+ even pays to carry those games? The NHL should be crawling so far up Terry's arse about icing a better produce because even when they are bad, the Sabres still post solid viewership numbers. We'd have to dig up some old stone tablets from the last time they were good, but I am sure everyone in Bedrock had them on back then! I don't follow the other two (MLB and NBA), but from some very brief googling, they seem to be in the same boat. Infinite amounts of small regional broadcasts and way too many games to get mega deals to broadcast all the games. Such is life, I guess?

I would bet that his salary is pretty well in line, if not low, with 1st line wingers who can put up 40-50 goals. At least he is not making EP40 money ...

TF games are you watching? (assuming he is playing and not hurt) Greenway skates through people at a fairly regular pace.

I don't think it is fair to assess either goalie at the NHL level until the Sabres learn how to play defense.

WA(R)R - wins above relative replacement?

because KC fans are stupid ***** who can all ***** off?

Yeah, he already did that by selling a chunk of the Bills for nearly a billion dollars. Forbes estimates that in 2023 the Bills had a net operating income (so, after all expenses) of over $100M. The "he saves $8M in Sabres cap space to pay for the new stadium" is also kinda absurd. The numbers are off by orders of magnitude.

@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 ...