In The Buff

pretty thorough list. I guess i'd add that the length of time the Sabres have been bad, some 15 years now & counting? Its another reason in & of itself for why we wont be better this year... its our momentum or trajectory we've been on for 15 years.... with the losing now ingrained into our culture. However i do deep down think we could be a couple points better on the season this year, 'could' being the key word. But thats not a lot to hang you're hat on & a couple points isnt the meaningful improvement we all yearn for. But after 3 consecutive seasons at falling deeper in the standings, we at least need to stop going backwards for a start.

lets be real, we know why they're not coming here. Tourism in general to the US is down across the board. Not just from Canadians but from the world in general. As an aside, the US for the 1st time i can recall is on pace to have net negative migration. Meaning more people are leaving the US than entering it. Which puts the US in league with nations such as Syria, Sudan, Pakistan, China. Not nations one would typically expect the US to be joined with but here we are. As for how it impacts our region, i hope the small business owners can weather the storm. Canadians are vital to our region & economy & they are our friends. At least we'll have less Leafs fans in the crowd, but this isn't the way i wanted that to happen. I wanted us to beat them consistently on the ice. Where their fans got sick of making the trip, just to watch the Leafs lose again. Sadly that's not the case.

the bigger they are, the harder they fall? Size can be an asset for sure, but its not the size of the dog in the fight that matters, but the size of the fight in the dog. we could use some dogs out there... How many on that list would we say have that characteristic?

seeing the comparisons people are making with Byram & Montour just makes me die a little inside. It just reminds me of how terrible we've been with building this team & our asset management. Because we had Brandon Montour, we traded a 1st rd pick & Guhle for him. But then we had Montour play on his offhand side, which likely had a part in Montour's decreased offensive production, so we cut him loose to Florida & traded him for a 3rd rd pick. Great asset management there. Brandon's point totals doubled his 1st season with FLA & then doubled again to 73 pts the following year. The Sabres drought continued & the Panthers with Reinhart, Montour & Rodriguez are now back to back Cup champs. And now after another offseason with minimal moves to improve the team, now we're hoping we've found another Montour with Byram? Well what if we have? What difference would that make since we had the real Montour & bungled it badly? The issues that plague this team are still present, whether Byram becomes better or not. But this spinning around in circles & never moving forward is just really grating to the soul. As an aside: for the power play it makes total sense to put 2D & 3F's out there. Especially with our D whose strengths are their offensive contributions as opposed to their actual D. I really hope we see them try it this year. 14 years of no playoffs, what do we have to lose?

everything you've said was said about the BILLS during their epic drought. And the new GM & coach turned everything around by having a plan on how to do it & executing on it. The BILLS success didn't come over night. But thru smart drafting & adding certain role players, they were able to turn the team into a perennial contender & destination. The same thing could happen to the Sabres, there's nothing preventing that from happening other than the guy whose been running the show hasn't been able to execute a successful plan to win games. His name is Kevyn Adams. He seems to feel that he needs palm trees to turn this thing around. The BILLS didn't need any excuses.

we go from only bringing in LHD's to only bringing in RHD's. That's progress isn't it?

is there an option for what is hope? I think many fans are just numb to the Sabres at this point. I know I am. Sure i always hope for some success but its in the same category as hoping for a winning scratch off ticket. You know you're likely not gonna win anything but deep down you still hope you get a winner.

I for one think it goes without saying that we'll have a lot less Canadian's buying tickets. Buffalonians dont want to buy tickets for the games, I can't see Canadians wanting to anymore than us. Beyond the tariffs, with the images of immigration agents locking people up & sending them to places unknown, how much value would going to a Sabres game bring versus the risks or costs that a Canadian must consider coming over the border? Wouldn't it just make sense many would say its not worth it? Heck there's a patriotism angle to it as well, where if i were a Canadian, i wouldn't want to come here after how we've treated them. 35% less might be undercutting it. But i suppose we won't know the real impacts until the season comes about.

Hey man, nice shot Amerks have some juice in their step tonight. Winning the 1 on 1 battles. Getting to the open pucks 1st. Getting physical as we see right now too

figured i'd share a link to the game in case anyone needs it. Since its on youtube i figured it was safe to share 3-2 Amerks 😛

yeah, Mister Roberts. Good memory!

the only Staal i want to see with the Sabres is an empty one when nature calls after drinking too much beer.

I too have serious doubts. I know much has been said about it already in the past but he just plays so small in net. Levi may be able to mitigate it thru his athleticism in the AHL but when he plays versus high end skill guys in the NHL, who can pick the top corners with consistency, i just fear his lack of size in the net will be a detriment to him. I know there are other goalies his size who have found success, but those would be the exceptions & expecting Levi to also be 1 of those seems like wishful thinking. Time will tell & i hope he succeeds but from what ive seen in his limited time here, i havent been able to get as excited about him, as i have with other goalie prospects in the past.

I cant help but think that i wish we still had Cozens. Not so much for what he brings on the ice, but simply to still have him as a potential trade piece for someone who could actually be useful. KA trading Cozens for Norris, a player who costs more & doesn't play at all, has seemingly put us in a worse position. At least before you could still trade Cozens. Wtf are we going to do with Norris if this is par for the course for him (which given his injury history it has been)? I just don't understand why KA thought taking on this much risk was a wise idea. Surely there was an option available that wasn't as much of one? So on 1 hand I'd like to see major changes but at the same time, change for the sake of change isn't always a good thing... in fact it could make your situation worse... like this Norris deal is looking like right now. I pray Option #3 is what takes place, as it all starts at the top & unless we improve there, we'll likely not improve elsewhere.

this onslaught against Canada should sadden us all. And if we don't like what is happening, we all need to make our voices heard... because it could get far worse & none of us should want that. But its impact on season ticket holders will depend largely on how far our very stable genius of a President takes it. If things stay similar to how they are now, perhaps we'll just see a 10%-25% reduction. That number will increase as the severity of actions increase. But... Since Trump hasn't taken military force off the table & how there are some in his team that would support it... If we saw American armored columns cross the border, they would be met on the QEW with Javelin missiles. Canada is well armed & just like the American people, they would not accept losing their sovereignty to an invader. We will not be welcomed as liberators thats for sure, because we would be the illegal imperialist aggressor. We would be Russia invading Ukraine... except in America's case, invading her closest ally. So if that all sounds insane, i'm glad you still are thinking rationally. But if this occurs, season ticket numbers would obviously tank. Along with whatever remained of our dignity.

As for Karmanos in Pittsburgh, look at it a different way: What benefit can there be to our team, for our Assistant GM not being in Buffalo? Now what benefit could there be if he were in Buffalo? See what is easier? Their offices could be in eye sight to one another, randomly bouncing ideas & questions at each other thruout the day. Even assuring both are on the same page etc. After missing the playoffs for so many years, having 1 of your more seasoned hockey guys work in the building, just seems to make more sense than him being off site. Just like how maybe its not ideal to have the youngest hockey team in the league, year in & year out. These are anomalies that are self evident & i dont know how much of an impact its made on our specific situation, but i know for sure they haven't been a net positive to us. Perhaps these are 2 simple things we can change that help improve our team in the process

Is the team headed in the right direction? How would we even determine that? Team points per season? 2022 - 91 pts 2023 - 84 pts 2024 - 76 pts (projected) So very clearly we can see the team is going in the wrong direction. Not ideal for a GM on year 5 of his tenure. I was gonna say rebuild but i cant even say thats what this is anymore. I would expect more personnel changes this offseason than in past ones. There just seems to be too much pressure on our front office to do more than it has. However its anyone's guess if they'll actually improve us or not. Fingers Sabres crossed

Sabres lose their 6th in a row. Senators, how did they do? Sens down 3-1 with 10 minutes left in the 3rd, come back to win in OT vs the Rangers. Dylan Cozens had an assist, 9 hits (a career high) & was named the games 3rd star. I didn't see much of the Sabres game, how did Norris look out there?

the feeling when you realize you're hitting the F5 key to see the return for Jokiharju. How good could it even be? 😂

Adams is someone had to do it. You sir will be the 1st Adam's is methodical in his quest to build a contender. Piece by piece. Year by year. The journey continues...

all we have so far

Marchand got traded to Florida. No info on the return for Joker

the money Pegula would get from the sale would be a nice consolation prize for him. He promised Hockey Heaven but gave us Hockey Hell & in the end he'll be rewarded with millions

on top of that, what gets me is say we do decide to keep Byram & we give him a new contract. You have a large percentage of the salary cap being spent on defense, where you're paying top dollar for offensive minded defensemen... all meanwhile your defense sucks. This whole fixation on having offensive minded Dmen doesn't seem worth its cost if they can't defend well. For a team thats in playoff contention, sure it makes sense to want to have more offense from your back end. A Byram or Power might be that missing piece. But for a team like us, does it make sense to pay a premium on Dmen because they can score 10 goals a year? Or would it make sense to use that money on a forward who can put up 20-30? I realize this is simplistic in thought but its like we're constructing our roster in reverse. We're paying our D to play offense & as a result both our offense & defense suffer as a result. As it seems theres little thought put into how this team is constructed, with not much balance to anything.

I'm hoping this team has grown since November, when Cozens said that they thought their next game would be easy. Hopefully they've figured out that winning in this league is never 'easy'. You need to do the simple things right & compete hard. Winning 5 in a row would be a nice turnaround for these guys