LTS

Thank you. It was so refreshing to go from what we had been seeing to what we saw in the third. It pisses me off that the team has the potential to do what they do but so often don't execute. I was saying this at the time. If there was ever a time to go full bonkers on the bench that would have been it. The head shot was clear as day on the scoreboard. If they upheld the penalty and Granato began throwing sticks and everything else on the ice I would have contributed to the fine. The Karlsson "check to the head" certainly appeared to be a load of BS (on the incredibly too small scoreboard). So, I was all in favor of losing his absolute mind on the bench. I am glad they used common sense. It was noticeable tonight. It's what all players need to bring at the maximum level. VO's still ain't going to overwhelm us, but he's not completely useless. I have no voice, can't speak. Ask tomorrow. 🙂 Good. Because they deserved it and while I am normally more reserved, I was pissed off as a fan. It should not take the fans booing your sorry ***** to play hard and want to win. Tuch should know this best, along with Adams. This is a fan base that will respect you busting your ass and doing everything to get the W. Taking nights off and complaining? Not for us. Suck it up, play hard. I think they do care. I believe that. But you have to play the game knowing that and not just saying it. See above. They aren't. As a person who spends time analyzing pricing for products I so desperately want to know why they continue to price tickets so high when the barn isn't filling up. They need to create demand by lowering prices. Fill the barn, then, when people really want tickets, you can raise the prices. Do they not get a cut of concession sales? I'll never understand the pricing theory that goes into it. Don't encourage me to eat elsewhere before the game. Encourage me to eat at the game. Make me want to be there and spend money. Not just roll through the doors, watch a game, leave and then spend money elsewhere. The Pens fans were pretty quiet in the third. I will say this. Having the Pens in town on Thanksgiving weekend is a brilliant move to put butts in seats. There are so many youth hockey teams in town for tournaments with many teams coming up from Pittsburgh that you are absolutely guaranteed to sell some seats. ---- Overall the atmosphere of the game was worse than usual. Game play notwithstanding, the audio in the arena seemed to be turned way down. The between whistle and intermission host, whoever she is, was barely audible. The referees were barely audible. The music between whistles was turned down. Was it a reduced sensory night or something? It was like the producer of the MSG broadcast had nothing better to do so they destroyed the game broadcast. Who knows. Oh well. It was a W. Send down Levi.. ride UPL and Comrie for now. Get some forwards up. Ryan Johnson is doing just fine so feel free to sit Power a game or two. On to the next game!

This is one of the most boring games I've ever attended. This is uninspired hockey. At least act like you care. The only positive I have is that they are better than the band they have here. "Uncovered". The band is awful and makes me want to watch the Sabres instead. Back to the game. Lord help me.

I'll admit I tried harder than I should have to understand your response, but I still don't. I could infer a lot, but it's not worth it.

Quite an agenda there. I had typed up a long response but I really don't want to engage in a prolonged conversation. But pointing to ROR, Hall, and Risto as supporting evidence... whew. In fact I'd only look at Ullmark, Reinhart, and Montour as possibly supporting your points but even those are pretty cloudy. But, given that the owner hasn't shown he's selling the team... it sounds like you are going to be severely disappointed.

Well, it costs me too much money to get TNT so I decided to just buy tickets to this game. Not really. It represented an opportunity to take the whole family to the game. Curious though, how are the Sabres not wearing Black on Black Friday? Sigh. Benson is in. Go Sabres. It's all I can say. I'd like a win tonight while I am there. Hope they don't poop the bed.

Well, the decision has been made. So now I hope the kid can perform at a level needed to make the Sabres win. Not "help".. he has to make them win. Still interesting that they are keeping the assets in Rochester instead of bringing them up. Clearly they are happier with Benson's defensive play than Kulich's. That's all I can think of right now. I think the playoffs are a stretch unless they shake up the roster a bit and bring in at least 1 stabilizing veteran forward who can perform at a moderate level.

Giving up? Giving up on what exactly? The Sabres have played 19 games to date. Tage and Quinn are out until at least January, so let's say Jan 6. The Sabres will have played 40 total games at that point. Nearly half the season. Tage wasn't willing the team to victory before his injury. Quinn will take time to get back up to speed. Giving up is doing nothing while waiting for two players to get back 20 games from now and hoping they make enough of a difference to offset the hole the team is in at that point.

If the Sabres have no other plans to do anything to this roster this year there is no point in having Benson burn a year of his contract, from a pure business decision standpoint. Personally, I would still send him down. He's not the answer to turn this team around this year. I wish he was. I really wish he was. I think he's going to make a massive impact to this roster within the next few years, but not this year. I'm not sold on more youth is the answer right now.

I wonder why you keep putting energy into this team given all of its transgressions. If I felt as negative as it appears you do in your posts I would just tune the team out for awhile and save my sanity. The team has regressed this year. It very probably has to do with the fact that they are a young team and they are not handling the expectations placed upon them. They are playing too tight. It could be that they just suck. The question is, are the players capable of playing better and the coaching staff is keeping them from achieving or is it that the players are not executing what the coaching staff expects? I'm not sure we know the answer to that. There's a ton of speculation here. It was the same coach that had them playing better last year. So why have they regressed? Perhaps he did. But it's hard to say that an alternate path would have been better. That's the luxury everyone here has. First, hindsight is 20/20. Second, we can all make prognostications as to what changes are correct but we all make those without any direct insight into the organization or the league itself. It's pure speculation and certainly when it plays out negatively as predicted the justification is there. He could have made the changes people thought and it could have still not worked out to be any better. When the Pegula family took over they tried all manner of quick fix solutions and they all failed. They've settled on a plan to build a team and by all accounts that was working. For that I am at least thankful. The quick fixes only burned out all talent from this organization. The fans will always have a shorter timeline than the organization because they continue to carry baggage of past management structures with them. That said, it's clear there are some changes that need to be made and the inflection point is upon us. They have to decide on Benson. That alone requires them to take action. They have to decide on how to ice 6 defense and 12 forwards. This 11+7 crap is no way to ice a team. They need to move some bodies. Whether that's moving some of the prospects for players who can definitively help the team now or moving some of the vets blocking the prospects so the prospects can help the team now. Something has to change. The risk with bringing MORE youth in is that it's already a very young team. The Sabres will be forced to make one of the less common December trades that helps the team turn things around. They aren't a team that will be able to wait for the deadline.

Do we blame them for SabreSpace drama and over reaction too? 🙂 In all seriousness, those who were on here posting "preliminary reports" should not do so unless they want to link to the specific source that was saying it. Situations like this can be serious and we've unfortunately all been witness to it. It's right to consider the possibilities of something like this but equally important to consider the probabilities and demonstrate constraint. If you don't cite a source then it might as well just be you posting it. There's no evidence it was actually said by anyone other than you or that you are not just playing the part of conspiracy theorist and fearmonger.

If sending Benson down brings up Kulich or Rosen would you change anyone change their mind? Although I think it would more likely be Biro that got brought up.. at which point I know, people want Benson here. Although Biro has more goals. 🙂

8?

Good 'ol Hockey Canada. The BEACON of integrity and great decision making.

Right, understand now. The problem with temporary ban or indefinite suspension is that they seem arbitrary. I know they usually have a clause "eligible for re-applying after 1 year" for example. I think he should be out of the league, complete some significant work on cleaning up his life, get off the alcohol, and then let it be possible for re-entry. I think it should be 2 years minimum assuming he's convicted. Under ANY circumstance he should not be eligible to return until he gets his life cleaned up. The hurdles are often not high enough, not just in sports.

You know it's not the coach who calls up a player right? He might have a say in it, but it's the GM.

Did I say banned for life? I don't think I did. If I did I certainly did not mean to. I thought my arguments have been solely about not wanting someone like that where I work or to work around someone like that. I feel like I even called out if a person in that situation goes through meaningful change they might eventually get to the point where I would want to give them a second chance. Note that I am saying *I* might want to... I fully accept others might do it sooner.

I guess you could say the Sabres are focused on D. Truth be told I cannot speak to how the Amerks are playing now but the prevailing trend is that the minor league team employs the principles of the NHL team to get youth acclimated to the way of playing. It's possible the Amerks are focused purely on the offensive side now. It's also possible they are just not that good at D. Although I feel like the AHL tends to have more goals scored overall as it's played more wide open. In the end, the Sabres aren't very good at D and from what I've seen in the scoring, the Amerks very much aren't. The other thing both teams have in common is that they struggle to keep a lead. No insight into that either.

His actions were not an assault on public security. They were allegedly an assault on his spouse. Banning him from the NHL demonstrates consequences to his actions away from the game. The criminal justice system can demonstrate consequences to his actions in the courts. I am in favor of revoking their ability to work for me or with me, yes. Everyone has their own standards. If someone else wants to give him a shot then that's great for them. If the person seeks help and turns their life around, then great. At some point if I were close enough to the situation, I might actually give them another chance. But this isn't about a second chance, this is about messing up your first chance. It takes a conscious decision to assault another human being especially how it was described. Some people get angry when they drink. Those people should be told that and they should stop drinking before their anger boils over. I've been WAY too close to that situation in my life. If a person who tends to rage when they drink won't stop drinking I'm 100% getting away from that.

Appert runs the system the Sabres want so the players get trained. It's systemic in the organization. Aaaaaand yep.

Yes. 100% of the time, every time, without question. It's not an athlete standard. I wouldn't work with someone who engaged in that behavior. If I was managing someone like that I would want them out from under me, out of the company. They are an HR nightmare waiting to happen. Do they work again? Not my problem. They can go get themselves all the help they need and hope someone gives them a chance. The fear of consequences should weight into decisions to engage in violence.

If someone demonstrates the potential to engage in that kind of behavior, do you want it in your organization? Not even just hockey. Cancel culture would be if he said something someone disagreed with. Assaulting another human being is not that. It's easy to discard and denounce people like that because they are scum. I think people should be better with their words and how they treat others, but words are just words. Physical altercations on the other hand are much more than that. They are a direct assault on the personal security everyone should enjoy. It is much harder to make a positive impact in the world. Most people prefer to look at others and analyze them and tear them down. Not many want to engage in introspection and apply the same criteria. I'm not going to make snide comments on Lucic because there is a victim in this scenario and making light of it, in my opinion, is disrespecting the other party impacted.

Very nicely done "typo". In other news.. I'll tune in.. but if they lay the egg and no effort, I'll find something more productive to do. It IS Friday night after all.

Clearly not, since the BS of HF Boards has been brought to us. There are no winners in this, only losers.

I know. I wasn't attempting to refute you either. Straight away I merely said that looking at records can be misleading. I think any fan scoffing at another team is just dumb. I would expect Buffalo fans to know this all too well. But apparently not. But I do dislike surface generalizations. When the team isn't doing well it's easy for people to come out of the wood work and begin pointing fingers. The Ducks are a team with nothing to lose. There were low expectations on them and that 100% factors into a team's performance. The Sabres are the opposite, they have a ton of expectation heaped on them and they aren't handling it. I don't make that statement to absolve them of their performance or make excuses. They are a team that needs to play far better than they are. Calling out their youth and inexperience is fair. Calling out their performance is fair. Calling out the lack of addressing goaltending and team defense is fair. There are issues to be fixed.

The gist of my point is that to you, it's the little things. I did not give it a second thought. Other thought of it differently. Each to their own and all, but it's not like there is some consensus opinion that Granato was wrong here. Some people are more attached to their Jump to Conclusion mats than a yoga instructor to their yoga mat. He said he would have more on Monday and he did. That's about as straightforward as one can get.