dudacek

Falling down the fringes of the standiings In serious disorder An unmitigated horror In between the Blackhawks And where Coyotes roam Watch the play, it all seems so one-sided Giveaways provided Results seem pre-decided We get detached and all divided As they get trapped inside their zone Nowhere is the dreamer Or the hopeful so alone Sabres fans On the internet Trying to forget You get numb or you get out Sabres fans From the basement bars Calling WGR Be numb or be cast out Any big win might help to smooth The unattractive truth But the Sabres have no charms to soothe The hopeless dreams of you Drawn like moths, we drift into Sabrespace The timeless old attraction Trying to find some passion Arguing about Granato's night Just to feel we have some might Some would trade the kids for aging stopgaps Or lose the race to tank To wash off that Sabre stank And start to dream of someone To end this hopeless blight Somewhere out of a memory Where RJ screams "Now do you believe?"

The 2021 Russian haul was 3 years away from Buffalo at the earliest without this. We're a long way away from knowing how, or if, this will affect them.

I think Krebs is a poster child for Donnie's "be fearless and I will forgive your mistakes" mantra. Cozens makes as many turnovers IMO, but skating the puck into defenders tends to be less glaring and more forgiving than blind high-risk passes. Granato seems to think the balance will tilt to the positive over time. Just because it worked for Dahlin and Thompson doesn't mean it will work for everyone, But Krebs is more than two full seasons behind those two and Cozens isn't much further ahead. it's hard to watch sometimes.

i think my point stands: I'm not comparing how the teams finished so much as I am what they looked like when the season started. With the exception of Olofsson, nearly every turd in the box Donnie was handed has met or beat expectations, some of them significantly.

I think you're basically saying "whatever, Granato's taking a 65-point team to 65 points." I'm saying i don't know that this was a 65-point team Let's compare the Oct. 1 2021 roster with Oct. 1 2013 rosters and how they projected at the time without the benefit of hindsight. Hodgson Mittelstadt Moulson Skinner Ennis Olofsson Leino Okposo Girgensons Cozens Stafford Thompson Foligno Hinostroza Ott Caggiula Flynn Asplund D'agostini Bjork Mcormick Ruotsalainen Scott Hayden Ellis Eakin Myers Dahlin Ehrhoff Miller Tallinder-Butcher Pysyk Jokiharju Weber Hagg McBain Bryson Ristolainen Samuelsson Miller Anderson Enroth Tokarski Is the Sabres starting roster this year appreciably any better than the team that put up 52 points a decade ago? I'd say the skaters look pretty close given where they all were at that moment in time, but the goalies should have given the 1st tank team a 10-point advantage. https://www.hockeydb.com/ihdb/stats/leagues/seasons/teams/0000332013.html https://www.hockeydb.com/ihdb/stats/leagues/seasons/teams/0000332021.html

I think that's like saying Jack Eichel isn't a good leader because the Sabres never made the playoffs when he was captain. And *****, spoilers

Distance yourself from your Sabre fandom and look at the roster at the start of the year: 4 goalies, none of whom was an NHL regular even as a backup, or was coming off seasons that had given any indication they were ready for an NHL job. 2 talented and unproven kids who had scored 18 goals and played 113 NHL games combined over the past 2 years as your top 2 centres, backed up by a gangly 23-year-old winger who had scored 18 career goals and a veteran many considered the worst regular in the NHL. A veteran leadership group up front consisting of a pair of veteran wingers who had been paid $30 million to score a combined 32 goals over the past 2 years and were generally considered among the worst contracts in hockey, plus a 10-goal Sabre lifer who missed the entire previous season, and a PP goal scorer who many considered a one-trick pony unlikely to produce away from Jack Eichel’s passes. An elite talent on the blueline coming off a year where he regressed at both ends of the ice who many were questioning as being even “good” let alone a 1st-pairing player. And a supporting cast consisting of unproven youngsters and minimum-wage castoffs. On paper was that actually better than even Arizona, who they are ahead of by 8 points? I mean, I had hopes for some of these players, but that’s all they were was hopes. The track record for our roster going into this year was certainly worse than anyone other than Arizona.

i think there is definitely a lot of truth to this. I also think that it’s pretty hard to pick a worse roster in the league, as of Oct. 1, without a helluvalot of Okposo/Skinner/Dahlin/Mittelstadt/Thompson/Cozens projection that was largely undeserved given what we’d seen over the past 2 years. Who, on paper, had a worse group of goalies, starting six on defence, or centre spine?

I evaluate him mostly by how I perceive the players to be developing. How I perceive team culture, and 'wins vs. perceived roster talent' are also factors. I think the latter doesn't get enough attention around here. Seriously, we talk a lot about the minor league goalies we started the season with, but what about the rest of the dog's breakfast he was handed? Donnie was given a team that had two 20-point forwards on it. Two! Okposo/Mittelstadt/Cozens/Thompson/Skinner/Dahlin/Jokiharju had 39 goals combined last year. And those were the best players Adams gave him. The man is a ***** saint.

An NHL hockey coach smarter than half of Sabrespace? Nah, couldn’t be 😜

I feel like I wrote this. Could not agree more. I hope Donnie is able to adapt when today becomes the focus of the franchise, but for right now he is doing the job being asked of him with insight and class.

Attendance listed at 10,775. Is that a season high?

Do you think the fans will wish him well? I’m not so sure.

Eichel was also captain. Peca also left the team on bad terms. Personally think the salute thing is overdone. Video tributes for traded players should be reserved for the types of players who get their jerseys retired and have special relationships with the fans - Ray Bourque back to Boston kinda thing. Guys like Eichel and Reinhart, nothing wrong with putting their face on the scoreboard during a TV timeout, politely saying ‘thanks for the six years” and moving on. Think that’s what they did for Risto. Nothing wrong with treating them like any other opponent and ignoring them either.

18th and 29th on the all-time Sabres points list, 52 and 41 on the all-time games played list. Ruutu, Kotalik, May, Connolly, Audette, Campbell, Myers Mckegney, Peca are peers in terms of games played. Best comparables in terms of position, longevity and production are probably Eichel (355 points in 375 games) to Hawerchuk (385 in 342) and Reinhart (295 in 454) to Audette (297 in 451)

Could someone actually be below Ristolainen?

Oh god…

That’s a helluva chintzy call given the way this game has been officiated.

The Sabres defence as a whole is defending very well today. Need some offence.

Mule has a ways to go, but he can execute simple stick and body defensive plays better than any young defencemen we’ve seen here in a long time.

Damn, Drew Doughty looks like he’s still got it tonight.

Asplund and VO tend to play too much For Your Eyes Only.

This is already the best broadcast of the year.

Brent Peterson killed a lot of penalties but didn’t score many goals. Grier?

Has Power’s play slipped at all, or just his production? One would hope that the disappointment of the Olympics and the WJCs might fuel the desire for a great Frozen 4 run, but the investigation into Michigan has to put some oil in those waters.