shoretalk

Totally agree ... never liked this jersey (I own one of course haha) but it represents some of our best teams. I think it would be perfect as our third jersey but the blue and gold truly represent who the BUFFALO SABRES are!

He's -29 ... who would think he would or should be coming to the Sabres with our overload of D?

And, now we approach the end of the mystery ... will the Buffalo Sabres of 2021-2022 be competitive under Don Granato? As frustrated and angry as I have become with the team that I have cheered on since the opening puck drop, I realize that this year's team has no connection to the non-compete teams that our former captain led onto the ice. When my football team hired an unknown assistant coach and someone who had never been a general manager I was skeptical after nearly two decades of losing but as we know that newbie coach and GM are now established as two of the best; we can only hope that GMKA and Coach Granato have what it takes to build a team we can once again find some collective pride in because since the firing of Lindy and the embracing of tanking the blue and gold have only frustrated and angered most of us. I love Cozens' competitiveness! Dahlin will no longer be handcuffed and punished by a coach who never should have been associated with an NHL team. We have what appears to be a solid D corps in the making. So, let's hope from the very first puck drop until the final horn that this year's team is skating hard and playing to win every single game. We know that we are at a turning point and we are all out of patience but I will be watching this exhibition game where my team will be made up primarily of players bound for Rochester but another hockey season has arrived and that is good!

It's frustrating looking at this team because so many of them took a ride in almost every game. To give Jack credit, he called himself out in this conversation especially related to the last few games so its clear he is aware that he is not always at full speed and I think that the culture around him has impacted his play because its difficult to play hard when no one else cares. The team still has "key" veterans who played on a team designed to tank including its captain. When you play to lose how do you change your mindset back to trying to win every game. The very first step in changing the culture is changing the team leadership beginning with the C's and A's (Actually, starting with the coach but we are talking passengers now.). The on ice "leadership" group were the first passengers most nights. If the coach is retained then his first post season announcement should be that the 2017-2018 Sabres will no longer have the old players wearing the letters. If McDavid can captain the Oilers into the playoffs while a Gionta leads a team with alleged talent to a worse record than the previous year who is the better captain? The players on a team that need to "inspire" and/or kick butt are those whose sweaters have the letters on them. This year's lie down for at least 20 minutes almost every night problem starts with those guys. Gionta and his Assistants should have been screaming at those who slept with each shift but most nights they were either dozing or moving rather slowly on ice. It's tiring listening to the GR "Instigators" defend the old vets on the team when the vets on the team are the ones who should be changing the team's culture and giving more than 100% to teach the young guys. And, to have a coach who admits he is harder on the young guys rather than the vets who are laying down is just not acceptable when those vets are the ones whose non-play is leading to losses. So, he cuts Jack's shifts, sits Sam on the bench, forces Jake to watch the game, reduces Kane's time but he rewards the older guys. Even these last few games he didn't play our future young players instead choosing to keep the non-caring old slow guys in. If NHL rules allowed it I'd name Lehner captain because he holds nothing back wanting to win! We need a captain who plays both by example but also by screaming after every loss that is caused by the boys in blue and gold!

A petition is unfortunately a joke not that this is a case where the fan base has figured out something that ownership is ignoring. Darcy has been given the opportunity to build a team several times over and the results are there in black and white. Darcy Regier's teams not only do not compete for the Stanley Cup but they rarely compete to make it to the playoffs. His evaluation of players for this team have resulted in our coaching staffs (I am not absolving them but Lindy was already fired and again it should have been a clean sweep on that day because Lindy could only try to coach the uncoachable players that Darcy has given to this team) being left with players that do not like to work hard ... players that give up when they are faced with a must game ... players who do not understand that getting the puck on net is how goals are scored ... defensive players who play skate around like they are trying out for Dancing with the Stars rather than playing defense ... and the offenses go on and on. If Darcy is not fired then the only thing that will work is a mass cancellation of season tickets ...