Mango

Nobody cares about the check. The issue is that the other team took it upon themselves to yell at her all game because they didn’t want a woman in their league. Based on her resume she’s dedicated most of her life to this game, and is part of an athletic department that houses one of the premier men’s teams in the country. This isn’t about a woman. This is about a hockey professional being treated like crap by a couple of shirty (likely drunk) hobbyists. The problem is the people on the other team, not the person treated like poop.

I think some of the vibe here is that there are women who play hockey and that there are hockey players who are men, and the two are different. They are not. This woman has basically dedicated a good portion of her life and becoming a hockey professional. So maybe she is more of a hockey player than the bar league men are who played HS JV and picked it up again at 35. This one sounds like it crossed a line and is about far more than contact along the boards.

Some of the early Pegula years were uninspiring. I thought we might be in for a tough sled once Terry said something like "nobody has a monopoly on hockey IQ" when asked about secret meetings between him and Darcy behind Ted Blacks back. Like WTF is a Team President for if you are going to flip them off like that. Then there was the company wide presentation of "Maintain Family Lifestyle". Like people took screen shots on their phones. This was a slide that Kim Pegula presented to the Sabres org. Insane. We hired a soccer executive to coach during that time like he was some sort of John Wooden. Then we cut the scouting department. So what does that span? 8 years? That is my least favorite. This iteration of the org is the one I am by far the most disappointed in. I thought that even a broken clock is right twice a day (see the Bills), and maybe we were on the up and up. But we aren't. We aren't. It came crashing down this season when I realized we have a GM that 31 other owners in the NHL would not have hired to do the job, and the biggest thing in holding this team back is roster construction and leadership in the FO/org.

On top of that I don’t like his roster construction. I don’t trust him to do anything. I hope we sit tight and get a real hockey Gm or POHO in here before we start moving pieces that could actually be valuable. That said we’ll trade Mitts for 8 5’9 centers in the ECHL with great hands.

Honestly I’d rather MSG play the Rochester games. But yes, I’ll keep watching. You win this one Terry.

Very fair point. A better way of putting it is that almost immediately since Quinn came back he was one of our best and well rounded wingers. I think it would be a huge mistake for anybody to put Quinn on the trade block or plan on moving on from him in the near future. Would I give him the Power deal right now? Nope, nope, nope. But if he wanted to sign Sammy's deal at @4.2M x 7 years I would very seriously consider it. Even if he is permanently bitten by the injury bug, I think that is a valuable and tradeable contract. That would make him something like the 50th highest paid RW in the league today. That will only drop given the cap increases. This almost always works on XBox, sooo maybe trust me please.

I would hope it is obvious to everybody in the org that JJP and Quinn are on pace to be our best wingers and maybe our best forwards on the roster.

There are a lot of moving parts. Just in terms of guys we should lock into place the next 3 years in particular order Center Mitts and Thompson Wing JJP, Quinn, Tuch, Benson, Greenway I think Cozens is a bit of the key for who goes where and what we do after that. We don't have enough quality centers. His 23-24 season is a hype train running on fumes. He either needs to get it together or we need to try him on the wing. The issue with him on the wing is that he would be one of the highest paid RW in the league (11th). So if he isn't lights out there either his contract needs to go away. All this is wild speculation of his future, but it is an honest inventory of where he is today and where he needs to be tomorrow in order for this team to take a leap. I would quickly unload whatever I could from Skinners contract. Edit: This team could use an Adam Lowry clone or two. And in that scenario I like Robinson on this team.

If Levi can help the Amerks win the Calder Cup, I think that benefits both orgs, Levi himself, and a number of prospects.

At the moment I don't see Cozens value at C. The only success he has had this year has been being carried by JJP and Quinn. His 200 foot game stinks, and he is probably our worst forward in our own end outside of Skinner. Move him to the wing hopefully we can extract some value there.

Is Ruff a world beater? No. Is Ruff firmly in the "Hall of Very Good"? Absolutely For the same reasons I am pro McBeane I would be pro this move. Terry Pegula is an adminsative disaster who I have zero faith in ever making two good decisions back to back. I have said it a 100 times, he continues to hire yes men so he can meddle. It starts with Jerry Forton, whose brother in-law is the business man behind Pegula's empire, being on the bench early in Terry's ownership and progresses to Kevyn Adams. If Ruff can come in and make us the 6th seed year after year for eternity, sign me up, because as a business org we are the worst team in hockey for the last 13 years without him.

This is fair. I agree. JJP-Kulich/Krebs-Cozens it is.

There is a 92% chance we miss the playoffs. This season is all but done. Cozens has been abysmal at center. His only good moments are when JJP/Quinn are playing lights out. I am open to using Quinns injury to move Cozens over to the wing and giving Krebs/Kulich a go at C. Kulich aside, I wouldn't mind seeing JJP-Mitts-Cozens.

First and foremost his NHL game isn't great. Second, he needs some more playing time. The kid needs some work physically and mentally. His speech about how transcendent his 3 AHL games were to his NHL career showed me he isn't seeing the forest for the trees. 3 AHL games don't permanently change your NHL game. The fact that he thinks it did was a bit of a red flag for me. The sky is the limit for the kid. The best thing for the Sabres is to nail his progression so they get the most out of his peak as soon as possible. Hanging him out to dry behind a terrible defense because he is better than Comrie is the solution to bad coaching and bad mangement. But it isn't the best solution for taking a kid out of college and making him a tier 1 NHL starting goaltender.

Darcy Regier and Lindy Ruff is the best pairing Pegula has ever had with the Sabres. The team was right to move on. It’s insane they haven’t been able to hire anybody better for either role in 10 years. I wonder if Lindy has enough trust from Pegula to be POHO and get the rumored “no meddling” clause?

I think it is likely that video sessions spend a lot of time lighting Cozens up. He moves up and down the roster more than just about anybody on the team. He gets Quinn/JJP to try and recreate last year. Then he gets Skinner/Tuch because they have been our best wingers at times. Sometimes he is moved all the way down the roster. Sometimes I feel like I am taking crazy pills because the line up seems dedicated to "getting Cozen's going" instead of putting Cozens where the roster best fits. I would give him a go at RW with Tage and see if he can get going there since he is too stubborn to get off the boards in the defensive zone. If not I would likely move him down to the 3rd line, maybe even on the wing, and let him live there until he gets his game right. He has been given all the training wheels possible. Throw Mitts in with JJP/Quinn. Hell, if we are going to sacrifice JJP's and Quinns game to get one player up to snuff we might as well try Kulich there and move Cozens to wing on the third line. If we are going to bench Benson and put Okposo on the first line, might as well try this.

I agree with this. In regards to Skinner, I feel like him hitting the breaks is what he decides to do. Whether he is coached that way, I don't know. But he basically goes "meh, I don't do this" It is pretty reliable behavior. Everybody can try and adjust. As for Cozens, it often looks like he is paralyzed by indecision so he circles around and when in doubt chases. Who knows where Cozens could end up. So nobody knows how to cover for his dumb ash.

It isn’t just a goal issue. I wish he was just “bad in the defensive zone”. But it’s like he actively has no idea where he is supposed to be so he just skates in circles. Like, Skinner doesn’t play defense. That’s a problem, but he knows how to play hockey and is trying to play the fast break/actively deciding not to play defense. Whereas Cozens looks totally lost in the defensive zone. Cozens is being carried by JJP and Quinn at the moment. I think it’s time to push him out to the wing, give him less responsibility, and see if he can be a productive top 6 RW. We have a million center prospects, I’d give it a whirl. The season is lost.

Here is a bonkers stat. Before Terry bought the Sabres the franchise had the 4th highest point percentage in the NHL at .553. That’s from a teams inception until 2012. I since Terry bought the team they have had the worst point percentage from 2012 until today and have plummeted from the 4th most winning franchise to 14th. If you took the point percentage from Scotty Bowman’s 10 most successful years. Not consecutive years. Just cherry picked his best 10, his point percentage would be .693. If the Sabres linked the best years from the best hockey coach of all time; Bowman run starting next October would take the team 10 YEARS to get that point percentage back to the pre Pegula era. It is more or less impossible for Terry to fix this franchise in the time it took him to break it. The Sabres should have to have the greatest run with the greatest coach the league has ever seen.

The sad part is, I think Terry is a very involved owner, and Adams is basically the de facto POHO. That is the whole reason we are in this mess. Terry is too involved. I hope Terry either: 1. Sells the team to somebody who is committed to keeping the franchise in Buffalo for eternity. 2. Relinquishes control of the org to a true POHO and stays in Florida for eternity. EDIT: That said, I am hoping that the talk about Adams not reaching out to Mitts, and Granato not being fired are because the plan is to move on from Adams when the season is over.

Trade Mitts because we hope that Cozens might be equally as good in 3 years? It doesn't make a lot of sense to me, both are young. One is much better than the other today on a team that needs more players like Mitts. Agreed. I also don't think the decision is looming in the immediate future. But I also think you have to find a way to keep Mitts. At the moment I think this team can make it all work and keep Mitts on a long term deal. But they are going to have to start making some hard decisions afterwards. The 2025 offseason will have JJP, Quinn, and Levi come due (RFA), and if freeing up Cozens $7M per year helps keep all those guys I think it is a slam dunk. Cozens will has another year/offseason to burn brighter. For reference, Cozens $7.1M cap hit would make him right around the 11 highest paid RW in the league. Right now that winger money is better spent on JJP than it is Cozens.

My opinion on Levi has nothing to do with UPL or Comrie. Making decisions for Levi based on the talent or lack there of in the big club is the problem. The best thing for Levi is to be in Rochester. I don’t care if we only have a 50 year old Marty Biron on the roster.

He should stay down for the remainder of the year. I LOVE Levi. But he may never be the goalie we want if we don’t take some ownership of his progression. Depending how that goes I might still be in favor of bringing in another goalie next year to pair with UPL and letting Levi continue to marinate with some spot duty next season.

And Levi was just sent back to Rochester. It’s the Uppie show.

This season is by far the biggest gut punch. This year was the year we were supposed to start some sort of positive trajectory and we didn’t. In regards to the NFL, it’s just easier. It’s a couple months and you reserve Sunday at 1pm. You almost never have conflict. Hockey you have City Council meetings, or kids TKD practice. Maybe a date night with the misses or a work event. It’s unpredictable. Different days and different times. When your team is bad it takes a lot of effort to carve out time for every game.