Mango

Terry has been kicking around Buffalo circles for some time. Well before he bought the Sabres. Jerry Forton's brother-in-law is Terry's business manager in oil and gas. Jerry has always been very plugged in in Buffalo, his wife is an event planner who has been managing all the Jim Kelly and Ryan Miller events for decades. The relationship goes so far back that I always assumed Jim Kelly's decade long blubbering before Ralph died about "assembling a buying group" was Terry Pegula. Terry is a trained in oil and gas, not in people management. There is this constant take that he must be good at business, or people, or whatever because he amassed fortune. He amassed fortune by finding natural gas. He has another business partner (not employee, but partner) who manages people, structure, etc.

Just turned the pregame on. Can somebody catch me up on WTF is going on with Marty’s hair? EDIT: I’m an idiot. It’s bald for bucks.

Probably but I was talking about this year.

Whenever Levi talks about his time in Rochester it is always "it was..." almost like it was temporary, a field trip, or beneath him. It is your team dude. I really like Levi, he is already one of my favorite guys in the system. But this has irked me on a few occasions. He does know he is going back down right?

There is a place for it. Coaches who make it their whole personality have a pretty short timeline with pretty drastic spikes of improvement then failure.

That is a pretty short timeline, a sign of effective and efficient coaching. Another plus 1 for keeping Donnie and Co.

Right. I was just putting it out there.

I am outside of Buffalo these days, but people should start brining Pegula signs to the games. Especially for games not on MSG where they are likely to get actual air time.

He’s watching all that video of this team trying hard.

I don't understand how anybody can say they are not. The Buffalo Sabres under Terry Pegula are the worst era of hockey for any franchise in the history of the NHL. Literally nobody has ever been worse. It isn't close. It doesn't stop there, the Pegula lead Sabres are amongst the worst run sports teams amongst the big 4 leagues in the US. That isn't hyperbole.

- Enough anger towards the Sabres may spur some additional spending on PSL's for the Bills? - The town could use more breweries, I drink more when I am sad, and I am more sad when I watch the Sabres. - Maybe we can reduce the fanbase just a little bit more so that the team can start playing in the Harbor Center. That would free up the calendar for KBC to make room for a 10 year Taylor Swift residency.

Speaking of, aren't him and Donnie due for another extension?

You know how the Dallas Cowboys are the butt of a lot of jokes because of Jerry Jones? That’s the Sabres. Except instead of being an OK yet dysfunctional team, they’re just not any good and don’t have any redeeming qualities.

They’ve been playing him at a 67 game pace since the new year. You would have to go back to 2018 to find a goalie who played more than that. There are only 3 between 2018-2024 who have played that much. It isn’t sustainable for most goaltenders. Let alone one who just found his pro game.

“You must not be watching, because if you actually watch us play you can see we are playing hard” Alex Tuch tonight, probably.

Under normal circumstances in most sports, including hockey, if a player as a 2 month long injury with surgery they normally don’t go from zero team participation, to 100% practice practice and playing in a game all within 24 hours. So for me this isn’t just about the last 10 games. It’s the timeline of injury, first practice, 100% practice, to playing in a game. Had Quinn come back two weeks ago and been skating with the team, sure, I get it. You can’t talk about Quinn playing the last 10 games without talking about the entire timeline. In that context I just don’t see the value for the player.

Oh totally, of course JQ wants to skate, compete, and play. I was mostly responding to the posts that said Quinn was playing because of some legitimate value add to his career. That these games would be somehow impactful to his progression. They won’t.

8-10 games before a 6 month break from regular season hockey won't make an impact on a player with 94 career NHL games. He may not even feel like he has his legs back underneath him before the season ends. My quick $0.02 is that this move is to help protect Donnie and Kevyn by trying to see if they can use Quinn to get as close to 91 points more so than they believe they are helping Jack out.

This whole thing started off by me saying that it would be nice if we could somehow acquire 1C and push Tage to the second line. Albeit super unlikely. You told me that Tage was a true 1C based on pay and ice time. Mitts had the highest TOI of all the centers, now his pay as the 35th paid center in the league is commensurate with his performance and there is nobody else on the roster? Did you just come around to moving Tage down the roster?

You said “paid like a 1C”. The “on this team must have been silent” I guess. $7M is dirt cheap for a 1C right now, decent for a 2C, and an overpay for a 3C across the league. But you likely already know that. Worth noting that until a few weeks ago there was another center on this team that was getting more TOI than Tage Thomson.

I think the talk is Savoie and Kulich project to the wing. Tages cap hit of $7.14M this year is 35th among all centers across the league. He is not paid like a 1C.

Hahaha. I was more talking about this seasons failures vs expectations. They can’t fall too far behind the 91 point mark of the leash gets very very short for this regime.

Also not a doctor.... But we see in all sorts of sports, hockey included, that guys generally take a bunch of limited or partial practices after long term injuries before being a 100% participant and even then it isn't uncommon to limit TOI. Maybe it is fine. But as a fan, compared to what we have seen in the past, it certainly feels like a bit of risk for no tangible reward for the player or the team. My tinfoil hat says that the org is starting to hear more noise from the remaining Sabres fans and are anxious to save themselves the headache by getting as close to last years 91 points as possible so that Adams stand at the mic and say "we were basically the same as last year, 2 points away from 91 is one game going the other way. I would say we learned and grew more this year than any other".

My unpopular opinion is to get a true 1C and move JJP and Quinn up and keep something like Benson/Greenway - Thompson - Tuch as our second line and let Cozens compete for the wing in the top 6. I also understand real 1C don't grow on trees and the Sabres won't/can't sign one.

This is totally fair, I am not going to die on this hill. At the same time I look at Ryan Johnson, Peterka, and Quinn compared to somebody like Cozens specifically and I like the formers games a lot more than I like Cozens at the moment. All 4 of the players mentioned are 22 years old, but the 3 I like spent significant time in the AHL/NCAA. Where as Cozens was drafted and a Sabre from day one. We are complaining about his game more than the others and defending it with his age. Similarly I really like Levi, but he needs more time to bake in the AHL. He still looks too frantic to me. I don't think the Sabres suck at developing players. There are certainly some great examples. But I do think that the narrative that letting them develop live from day 1 is the best thing for them is overplayed. Just because some guys figure it out doesn't mean it was the best or most efficient developmental process.