Randall Flagg

This tweet from The Charging Buffalo happened as soon as the trade came through, and was posted here. It was without any Sabre-bias, based on everything we knew about the guy from watching him, from Pens fans, from his situation, and from our situation, and from the context of the trade: "Guys,Matt Hunwick isn’t actually gonna play for the Sabres. 7th D, tops. Maybe even a buyout." Everyone would have agreed with this at the time. I guess this qualifier is always needed now, but this is not a guarantee that he can't surprise and play decent for us, and no take I will ever post has that guarantee. But we've learned nothing new about Hunwick, haven't seen him play a lick of hockey, and have completely shifted our view of his role on the roster based on posters being grumpy with our defense.

I mean even when the Sheary trade happened it was understood that Hunwick was a cap dump which let us get a guy with more ES goals than any Sabre but Eichel over the last two years for a 4th round pick, and now he's a shrewd addition that will make us better? I GET that maybe he performs better than Gorges, but this possibility being the default take blows my mind! I'm done ranting now. I should also probably leave this thread alone because I get the sense the negativity bothers people.

And maybe Hunwick is better than Falk and Sobotka is better than Nolan, but it is nothing short of bizarre that players who have literal months and months of fans on their message boards begging their team to dump these guys, that it becomes the minority extreme view when literally only two of us (True and I) aren't fawning over how great our depth looks with them added. I respect Weave and his takes to death, but that I get comments about "imagine when he's weave's age" for talking about these dumpster fire contracts on last-leg NHLers to fans who universally were sick of guys like Matt Ellis and tank fodder in general a few years ago doesn't make any goddamn sense. This is the same place that Lindy goddamn Ruff wasn't good enough for because of not enough playoff series wins. I just don't get it.

The bizarre "what else was there to be done? They've done everything they could, have you heard the rumor mill?" attitude here is new both the posters expressing it and this place in general, and has to be a reaction to the negativity that the reality of our team being awful and our attempts to address it being controversial, or arguable in quantity, has drummed up. I've never seen outlooks like it among fans in a world where players and teams move across the country and all over the standings on a year-to-year basis, except our Sabres, who have finished last 3 of the past 5 years and comprise the only last place teams of the last 5 to not make the playoffs the year after they finish last, which is going to be a triple-crown performance this season.

I would have given Pateryn a million more than he got. I would have been in on a couple other FA names I don't remember. But that's not the point. There was not a single rumor about us "being in on" Scandella until the trade was posted by the blue checkmarks. It is not hockey code that there need to have been whispers and rumors for months for the move, trade, addition to have any possibility of happening. I don't get this take at all.

Hunwick is the same or worse as all of those. Those guys themselves, depending on role, have non-negligible differences anyway. He was a cap dump and presumably was taken to be such by Botterill. I am going to be disappointed in the offseason if Hunwick plays before 3 guys get hurt. Better at what? Gorges' role was better suited for him this past season, and as a result, at least based on the handful of games I watched for counting purposes, he played better than Guhle, who was truly dreadful at anything but skating the puck from his blue line to the other blue line. What moves are you talking about? The guys who were added to the team this offseason that project to play in the top 6 without injuries based on what the established defense group at the end of last season was, taking into account the in-season developments that you yourself outline drive roster changes, are as follows: Rasmus Dahlin. I don't know how else to word this. On no other teams do we count Bogosian being supposedly healthy (especially mother f*cking BOgosian) an offseason addition or roster move. On no other team is the young kid who played the last half of the season a roster addition and offseason move. Thomas Chabot is not an "offseason move" going into this coming season that Ottawa fans are "claiming didn't happen." Sebastian Aho full-time is not an offseason addition in the Islanders fans discussions. This stuff happens on every team, and when fans criticize their GMS for not making moves, this goes without saying, even though it apparently hasn't in this discussion. If you want me to start calling Zach Bogosian, Casey Nelson, Matt Hunwick's cap hit, and Brendan Guhle offseason additions in my criticisms which focus on Botterill's lack of doing enough to fix the defense then fine, I'll do it: In all of Botterill's offseason additions, including bulking up the back end by adding Zack Bogosian, Matt Hunwick, Brendan Guhle, Rasmus Dahlin, and Casey Nelson, I am not satisified with what he has done, I hope he has another move up his sleeve, I wish he had done more, and if the group doesn't perform better, it's completely on his shoulders and he gets another checkmark in a growing negative column. Have I nuanced this enough?

I find it interesting that my journey is probably polar-opposite. I'm not a self-identified conservative, but 6 years on college campuses with more coming has completely disassociated me from the left. I used to hide from other views, purposely blocking other takes on facebook, twitter etc, skimming fast past arguments I don't like, jumpy and nervous. I've cast that aside and realized that it's okay and important to not be sure about things and to seek other people's takes in THEIR OWN words. Doing so on my trips back home and with the content I read/watch has made me realize the opposite of you guys - I had assumed all republicans were racist and bigots to some degree, and I discovered that this isn't anywhere close to true, and that every single argument that I assumed was blanket-default- "ist" "ism" "phobic", upon actually listening to the nuance of discussion for the first time in my life, wasn't even close. This of course does not mean that there aren't terrible people over there, and on all sides. A liberating freedom from the opposite side. We have probably settled next to each other right in between.

If Botterill thinks Matt Hunwick was an upgrade addition we're f*cked. Guhle and Nelson are part of last years' group even if they didn't start here last year. Neither has shown to be a legitimate NHL defenseman yet, so as far as anyone on planet earth knows, there's no difference yet. My whole point is that NHL teams, on principle, have this exact same stuff happening to their rosters, every, single, offseason, and also make moves to make their team better on top of them. We are just sitting here, patting ourselves on the back without these steps having been taken. If it works out, great, and if it doesn't, it looks as monumentally stupid as every sh*t season we've had does.

I was talking about roster additions to the defense. I think our perspectives on the value of rumors might explain our difference in take here, then ?

I understand this to an extent, but no moves were made outside of Pilut and a draft pick. It so often gets said that the alternative to a team doing X is that there's literally nothing else that could have been done. They found Scandella last year. Good teams make moves and make their teams better in the offseason, otherwise no team would get better outside of several years of draft hauls all finally getting good together, but that isn't how the league works. Just because nothing has happened doesn't mean there was literally no way to make a move that would make us better and not hurt us in the future.

Oh, I'm just messing around. I think Gary is goofy so I like to rib at him.

Musing on point 2, something I grapple heavy with in discussions with smart conservatives in my life is the role of those (Judeo-Christian) higher values in America. I firmly believe in the Enlightenment-driven view of natural human rights and the way they are upheld in the west. I also recognize a historic role that J-C philosophy played in their development. It can be argued to me without counter that this is a fundamental and necessary part of the values, that without J-C beliefs it doesn't hold up on a mass scale in practice. I can't "win" these debates because I'm not knowledgeable enough, but I'm also grappling with the fact that I don't believe almost any claim of these religions outside of a few things I think would be obvious without them, and I think that those principles don't need all the extra baggage, they stand on their own. What I'm really saying is that I am still trying to wrap my head around higher principles in general

Wow. Sounds like a quasi-religious shift as well, that's really heavy/huge. I can't even really imagine how that feels.

I think Pilut might have me more interested than any non-Dahlin addition we've made. He comes from the same league, scored way more points than Dahlin, and was defenseman of the year. And he looked silky as hell in the prospect camp.

You say that 20 seconds after posting that you voted Gary Johnson ? But seriously, here's a question or 5. What ideas do you now associate with, and groups/people in general? If not, do you feel like you're kinda just floating around out there? Which long-held views, if any, do you hang onto, and which did you most enthusiastically toss aside?

We'll have to see how Guhle plays after a summer of development, but based on the sample size we got, he isn't an upgrade on anything until he actually does it. Aborted stat project mentioned earlier confirmed he was still barely treading water, even compared to our icky guys. But you know Beaulieu's playing 18 minutes opening night. Also, picture how you think of Justin Falk, or Nathan Beaulieu, or kinda a mix of the two. That's how I feel about Bogosian, so his presence that we're for some reason assuming will be there ( ? ) doesn't do much for me. The names are all the same only this year we don't know who gets hurt, when, and for how long, unlike having that information about last year. Ignore that about last year, and THAT'S the thing I was hoping Jason would build on a little this offseason. Shuffling out cap dump Josh for cap dump Matt doesn't do all that much for me either. Also ???

It's the same but with Dahlin. Pilut the wildcard I have high hopes for.

Well McCabe is probably our 4D anyway because the guys behind him are hot trash, but really at this point his most recent hockey shows he's a 5-6-7. Even if he's a 5 beating out our other 6es, we still have a 3-4 in Scandella at 2, Risto in his right spot, and I guesssssssss Dahlin couuuuuuuuuuuuld be a true 1D this year, but you can also seize the "1D spot" on this team simply by not being caved in as bad as Risto at ES, which isn't hard, and playing the opposite side of our 3-4 D in the 2 spot. Basically, the only way I can picture Scandella-Dahlin McCabe-Risto top 4 being GOOD (what I think is good might be different from what you're talking about, if yours is more relative to past Sabres iterations) is if McCabe is of the nature of younger D on the second pair of good defenses, which he's currently miles from, and Dahlin is so good as a 1 that 3-4 Scandella is a serviceable top pairing guy. Which I just don't think is likely even if he justifies that spot in this lineup.

Nice, can't wait to watch

Wasn't that Enzo sauce thing pretty funny? Or was it bad? I can't remember.

I didn't mean to make it sound like I took it personally, my punctuation should probably be more properly employed. And yes, I will shamelessly weasel out of any possibility that I can be declared wrong ? I'm still optimistic long term because of Jack, Sam, Dahlin, and Casey. I really like deez guyz. I'm concerned about this season because I don't think another bad season for Jack, Sam, Risto specifically will just be another 'learning' season that 'won't affect them when the rest of the team and prospects are developed and ready.' Because year 4 is a big deal. It gets harder and harder to justify a bad team the older these guys get, and it makes the tank more and more devastating as that number gets higher.

Whether or not a positive outcome for my mental state is possible has no bearing on my analysis of a situation And my stance is well documented to allow for things going well. If they do, we will have defied the odds and finally gotten a bunch of unknowns to go our way at once. I'll always say it can happen, because it can. But if things of the McCabe, Risto, depth nature etc. stay the same as they have been, like we've seen each of the past two seasons, we won't have a fun time

Sorry to hear that biodork. On the emojis, I compleeeeeeeeetely agree. Those old ones were special.

I think our defense, as critical as I am of its current construction, is closer to baseline competence than our forwards are at the moment. My annual summer project fell apart this time, but involved watching them closely for a few games, and even flawed guys have one or two things they did really well. Improving in switches and coverage awareness, and an increase in confidence (not even ability, which we'll get in spades with Dahlin), and assertion on the breakout, would make a huge difference. There are several guys who are legitimately great at transition breakups (Scandella is far better than the stat says he is, because sometimes he'll press the guy to the outside and the separation doesn't happen until down by the goal line, when I counted those instances he was like 50% better than zone entry stats say he was), McCabe is pretty good at stuffs above the blue line, and when Risto has support and isn't fatigued he's legitimately good at finding the short, crisp, correct pass out of the zone. If the forwards could do something with it, Risto is less fatigued and makes fewer mistakes. Progression from Guhle to full-time NHLer adds another interesting skating element that other teams have to adapt to which will make things easier on his partner. But when I watch Ryan Ellis and Roman Josi leaving their zone, it's not that their accuracy is in another league from Rasmus Ristolainen. It's better, I'm not saying Risto is that good, but the real difference comes in the assertion and trust in their own decision-making that only comes with repetition and success on the part of the forwards. When our D get nervous and defer this task to their partner, they do it accurately. The attitude needs to change more than the skill does (which could use some boost too)

I don't see it this way at all. I'm not saying that doesn't happen in America, or even that it doesn't happen often, but it does not have to logically follow whatsoever. Of course, that can be turned around and be the equivalent to saying "Anti-western Lysenkoist farming tactics and the state sucking at resource management are not an explicit part of communist ideology just because it happened under a "communist regime" and starved dozens of millions of people." But I reject the notion that capitalist economics is inherently zero-sum. The degree which separates the poorest of the poor from the richest of the rich decreased after capitalism relative to before capitalism (and really, the poorest of the poor was literally everyone that wasn't related to the monarch or what have you), and that isn't coincidental to the fact that an extraordinary net amount of wealth of all people has exponentially increased as well, with the help of the manufactured middle class. Taking a step back, it's utterly ludicrous that on balance, the average poor person in a free market society lives in a wood or brick building with separate rooms, a fridge, and a few other things, at least compared to the human condition before 200 years ago. Because the economic model the U.S. and other western nations was built on emphasized voluntary association, mutual agreement, and the inherent right to do so. I understand I'm arguing from an ideological base, an idealism, and you're probably talking about application. I don't have the chops to go at an argument of why homeless people exist in the U.S., why people do get taken advantage of, and so on, but I'm confident we'd find points of disagreement ? I guess to me "far" is attached to the word "leftist." I've been thoroughly lectured by the group of acquaintances who are proud Marxists, or antifa members, or anarcho-communists, and the like. They distinguish leftists from the liberals like you and I who they view with the same disdain they view anyone right of center. I find dictionary entries and historical context goes along with their definition really well. Leftists shut down conservative speeches on college campuses. Liberals sit and debate them. And so on