Randall Flagg

Can we hope for Boldy-like production from Quinn next year?

This feels like the offseason (or 2) I have been asking for since 2015

The best RHD we can find

✊😌 take that putler

Nobody isn't agenda-driven, thats how biology works. You just don't like his agenda and prefer yours

Im calling an emergency meeting to discuss the emoji usage of all WNY-affiliated professional sports team twitter accounts Something has got to change

One thing i forgot to mention - after the game ended and fans were filing down the escalators from the 300 levels, we were packed onto the steps as usual, shoulder to shoulder with many people. The thing abruptly stopped, and we all gasped/shouted. I am pretty young and of a reasonable fitness level, and I had trouble keeping my balance, almost tumbling forward into the helpless couple below me. I am shocked that there wasn't a domino effect all the way down, crushing people beneath each other, it only would have taken one person to start it. It was genuinely dangerous. At the bottom I asked a lady in employee-like garb if that had ever happened before, she shrugged and said "yeah that's at least the third time." That seems like something important to fix, and should never have been allowed to happen once, let alone three times. Pretty alarming

You're correct in a pragmatic/literal sense, as my tangible life wouldn't really change one bit if the Sabres and NHL poofed from existence, but when you consider the quasi-metaphysical framework that sports fanhood and things like this Sabres fan community are baked into, you are wrong. But if you want to stick with a pragmatic and literal perspective, if the Sabres make no offseason additions and let the kids ride to a probable mid-70 point finish with questionable goaltending and no insulation, literally nobody on planet earth is better for it, save the Sabres division rivals. It advances nothing except for the acceleration of desperation and contempt for losing that flushed the last attempted rebuild down the drain.

Since the Sabres threw two seasons away losing on purpose, it has generally felt like the month of March was a special hell, showcasing just how far away the Sabres are from teams that are ramping up their games to get ready for playoffs. I wanted to check and see if that feeling held up. 2015-16 March record: 7-4-4, 42 goals, 41 goals against I recall feeling hopeful for the following season during this March, and the record reflects that - notable moments included the Eichel OT goal on Kane's hail mary pass as the seconds dwindled against Carolina, Hudson Fasching's first goal in a win against Winnipeg, two fun victories against the tanking Leafs, Eichel's backwards-skating point shot goal against Calgary (that some think went through the hole in a defender's skate). Still, this is not deluca .500, and downer moments included getting pasted 4-1 by those same leafs, as Eichel missed his only game because of a bad grilled cheese sandwich. Overall, this March seems like it will be an outlier for this thread, and with a high ankle sprain the following October, we never felt hope on that level again until a ten game win streak 2.5 years later. 2016-17 March record: 6-7-1, 37 goals, 40 goals against This March wasn't as fun as the record suggests (it doesn't suggest much fun). After a bad start and most the forum having violently turned on Bylsma, the Sabres had pulled their way up to 26-23-10, and with a win against the Blues in late February, pulled to within ~4 points of the final playoff spot. A good March would have us feeling like the rebuild was right on schedule. But the Sabres then fell apart, losing their final 4 games in February and, after a brief victory against a lowly Coyotes team on March 2nd, lost 6 of their next 7, killing those playoff hopes as quickly as they materialized. The first ever Sabrespace meetup at a 5-2 victory over the Leafs was one of the only bright spots, as after that Blues game, the Sabres finished the year with a sub-60 eighty-two-game-point-pace, with an ugly March embedded right in the middle of that. The bulk of the wins in this month were forgetful wins against bad teams after the drain circling had been completed. 2017-18 March record: 5-8-1, 34 goals, 53 goals against A completely forgettable month in a season that was over before its third week was complete. No signs of life, nothing interesting aside from a 7-4 win against the Predators on the month's last day, when a five minute major allowed the Sabres to score 3 or 4 goals late in the third. 2018-19 March record: 2-12-2, 31 goals, 66 goals against This team was desperately clinging to its 10 game win streak cushion by early/mid January. We all know the story - no help came, and the result was a historic plunge, and the Sabres playing with the full emotional burden and knowledge of that fact. It was some of the ugliest and most frustrating hockey in team history, caked in the middle of a 3 win in 24 game stretch. I was done with Botterill 2 months into his first season, convinced that he is the worst Sabres GM I've ever seen after the ROR trade (yes, it's nice that Tage has worked out, we can rehash this elsewhere), and after this collapse convinced that he would be my least-favorite participant in Buffalo Sports until somebody comes along and moves the Bills. What a month 2019-2020 The Sabres season was toast, and then the league was shut down for the bulk of the month for some reason that is slipping my memory. The Sabres missed a 24 team playoff. At least Jason had learned from his previous mistake and bolstered the roster by trading for Frolik. Oh, they did play 4 times in March, winning the last one with the first 3 being the continuation of a 6 game losing streak that started when they traded for Wayne Simmonds 2020-2021 March record: 1-13-2, 33 goals, 66 goals against March contained 15 of the games from the 18 game losing streak, with its last game ending the streak. Every ounce of the limited good feelings from last spring came after the month of March finished, and this one was the bleakest yet. The Sabres had never felt further from relevance. The only saving grace was that fans were barred from witnessing any of this in person. So in the last six Marches of Buffalo Sabres hockey, the Sabres have played 79 games, won 22, and lost 57. The last time anyone felt *hopeful*, let alone *good* about the Sabres after the month of March was in 2016. Every other spring they exited the month feeling worse than when they entered. Having this trend change won't guarantee anything because these games don't count in next year's standings. But it would definitely be a breath of fresh air and allow for a hope that is rare in these parts. The schedule sets up well - a bunch of good teams to sharpen our swords against, Reinhart and Eichel games, a bunch of home games sandwiching one of those comradery-fostering road trips to western Canada. I hope the Sabres are up for the task and I hope that they set us up for an optimistic summer full of buzz-generating moves and then an October of restoration after that

And for all of the allowances we want to give Kevyn, with Ralph and a pandemic and the situation he was thrown into, and Eichel and kids and all that - the man has presided over two of the worst seasons in franchise history. He owes us this effort. It will be difficult, and he COULD take an easier way out, a slower burn that gives him more time while "sufficiently marinating" the kids, but he has a moral obligation to avoid this

I need to attend a writing workshop, im too bad at it for how much i write stuff for fun

The lady that does the commercial break/intermission games with fans is new (I think it was Lauren Hall that did that job a while ago, this was the first time I've seen this new person). It felt like she was talking to a kindergarten class the whole night. Same thing happens at work, corporate emails and zoom meetings and seminars all take the same tone. It's very grating This team can be made into a wild card team this summer, and there are ways to do it that won't "mortgage the future." If Kevyn can't find them, we shouldn't have faith that he can get this team over the more important hump, being a championship team, because that is even harder. If Kevyn won't do this, fans have no reason to give this team any time, attention or money, because it's a complete waste of an opportunity to wash the losing stench off of these young players, and give them irreplaceable development in important springtime games. There is no reason that this team shouldn't be the 16-17 Leafs next year. Pushing that off another year does absolutely nothing for anyone.

Haha how many of you were at this one? It was my first since 2020 as well

🥴

I don't think there's a huge overlap in their roles/skillsets. Mckenzie is good at running over routes against mediocre corners in man coversge. Beasley can't do that and is integral to Allen picking apart zones I'm cool with keeping Mckenzie. Bills will need to be smart and focused with their WR room this offseason, I'd like to add 2 guys better than Isaiah thru draft and/or FA

Imagine a well-placed combination of a Copp-like veteran, a Manson-like veteran, and a stable veteran goalie on top of that.

Right he treated the veteran garbage as positive assets, where plenty of us were howling from the mountaintops that they were completely washed and that we should have gotten a lot more value for agreeing to take them. However the Blues themselves ranked them (how exactly do we know that?) I distinctly remember considering Thompson barely a top five prospect of theirs at the time and I remember linking threads that had Blues fans consistently ranking him similarly. Everyone but Jason and Terry knew what we were trading away, and there is no reason the Sabres shouldn't have gotten another top piece out of the deal. It is happy and lucky for Terry, who doesn't deserve the luck (the fans do), that Tage is going to make it turn out okay, especially if Johnson hits.

This isn't the issue so much as, given the value of all pieces under consideration at the time, he should have easily been able to pull Kyrou WITH Tage and everything else he got.

Any one of us could have seen this coming. This line could easily be an NHL average 4th line that doesn't get caved in and doesn't cost a lot of money. I get that we are injured but the roster we came in the season with was always going to either have a dreadful 4th line or spread out, even more subpar scoring lines. No reason not to have made this team better than it was, and kevyn owns two of the worst seasons in sabres history because of his own decisions The kids certainly wouldn't be WORSE off with a line that flips ice and plays defense rather than getting caved

Not sure how much there is to match up, usually our lines are some combination of copies - like two young kid lines that can play wild and can't play D, and two AHL lines that can't do anything. Combined with 3 defensive pairs that don't yet have it in them to consistently play solid defense

He is now far from the cliff i worried about. I am happy with his floor as a good offensive defenseman and think the sky is still the limit but it's tough to put odds on specific levels he could hit. I think he has been quite good this year

Tage is absolutely sick. Good for him.

A high stick is a high stick, no matter what you yearn to see from the young swede. It was a bad missed call that played a huge role in the game, objectively, a mistake which turned what should have been a dead play and a sabres power play into an avs 2 on 1 instead. It happens sometimes and it's fine to be upset when it does. Sabres played well against the best the NHL has to offer "Lost a battle." Lol, said the scorpion, lmao

Great effort so far. Lots of fun!

You'd think they could at least figure something out when there was one less senator on the ice, but each power play was equally woeful