Randall Flagg

I don't think it's sad, as I don't want to judge them for this, but I can't help spazzing anyway I think there's some thoughtful psychoanalysis in here though

I watch hockey for fun, and wins are a huge part of that fun, but if they were everything, I would probably just hang out and wait for the box score at the end rather than watching. I care about odd man rushes in the 2nd period, I care about goalposts and drop passes and icings. I care about what I'm seeing, I want to see players use their talents to paint a hockey game on their frozen tapestry For the first 10 years I followed hockey, I religiously consumed highlight videos of other teams' superstars and lamented that I had never seen anyone on my team so capable with a brush in their hand. For about 2.5 seasons, I got to enjoy that. Like I said in the post you quoted, I will not forget it. I don't think the board has an appetite for the details, but I'll give a couple of examples just to tell you what I'm talking about. I'm talking about stretches of 70 points and 35 goals in ~50 games, months on end of 100+ point paces, and games like: 11/29/16 @ Ottawa, 12/13/16 vs LA, any of the Boston solo efforts/4 point games, several insane efforts vs. Toronto, 4 goals vs Ottawa, Nashville in 2016 or 2020. Moments we ask why he never gave us because we never won, the same way we asked from ROR, even though like Jack, ROR DID have them. Like Jack, we forgot ROR's moments, or didn't count them, because they never mattered. Until they did, when he had a real team around him. Everyone has long forgotten those moments for Jack, and there's no point in remembering them really because it ultimately never mattered, but that doesn't mean I'm going to forget what that meant to me and how much fun I had watching him. We are losing just as much now as we did then, and I can't exactly say that this team draws my attention and enthusiasm even a fraction as much It doesn't have to matter to you, but that stuff happened and it did matter to a lot of us

Lol Jack played here for six seasons. That allows for 102 potential NHL players to hit the ice alongside him in regular roles during his Sabre tenure. You came up 11, that's right, ELEVEN, from SIX YEARS, worth mentioning, and that list includes: a.) Jamie McGinn... a mediocre 3rd liner who could score in maybe the teens but generally got caved in no matter who he was with otherwise b.) Evan Rodrigues...enough said c.) Brian Gionta, whose absolute peak as a Sabre was okay 3rd liner, who you'd expect your team to have several of every year no matter how good you are d.) whatever the hell Taylor Hall gave us last year e.) Mittelstadt, who never once in his career played above an AHL level until weeks after Jack's last ever shift as a Sabre And you think you are making any point at all? The Sabres were dreadful every year Jack Eichel was here, and every year you could see it coming a mile away, before the first puck drop. There was a string of 3-4 years in a row where each September I gave this team a four point window prediction of where they'd finish based on their roster, and it was in the mid to low seventies every time, and I was right every single time, and it wasn't because Jack Eichel was on the team, he was the only thing keeping those teams out of the low 60s in those years, as I point out here: Like I said in the post you quoted, they were bad because they thought Eric Staal, Vlad Sobotka, and Casey Mittelstadt circa 2018 deserved to be an NHL 2C in a conference where they matched up with Malkin, Tavares, Krejci, Point etc. every night. They not only thought that, they thought that for three consecutive seasons. They were bad because they routinely made sure that 45 games of the year they'd get ECHL level goaltending, and that Risto, Gorges, Franson and Montour were staple top 4 defensemen, with much worse players than they providing support underneath them. But go ahead and post a tweet about Eichel saying he needs to look out for himself after he no longer feels that the team is doing what is in the best interest for his neck, which he has to live with for the rest of his life, while pretending that instead of saying that he's aloofly slandering the Sabres, "nah dawg, i aint playin here no more, sheeeeiit". The nerve of him right And guess what. we got rid of mean old nasty Jack, we had posters on here declaring a happy new era of working hard and comradery after starting the year 5-1-1 without him, and yet here we are, with more than twice as many losses as wins as usual, because Jack or not, we still are a garbage team with garbage leaders that do not have any clue how to build a real hockey team This is all stupid because I don't even care about Eichel and I couldn't care less if he won 5 cups or became a 5 goal 15 assist 4th liner the rest of his career, I just spazz out when I see the way some people react to big trades like this, I did the same thing with O'Reilly (and was also correct then, when fans were far nastier towards him)

They're a normal team in the sense that their "showing up" occurs in the shape of a bell curve centered around an average level of play. They're an abnormal team in that they're a very bad team, so that average is quite low compared to the rest of the league, and as a result have more than twice as many losses as they have wins

Maybe next year we'll take the jump to be as good as a severely injured senators team now that our locker room has been scrubbed

Don't get why Tage failed and fell down there. Collect the puck and move to do something with it.

Lmao which team is playing like they're trying to tie a hockey game?

That's what happens when you decide that players who shouldn't be in the NHL are 2Cs for several consecutive years, and pretend that goalies that shouldn't be in the NHL are starters etc. The Sabres wasted a guy that could have developed into the premiere player on an elite team by being comically bad. This exacerbated Jack's flaws and diminished the very unique and very elite traits he had. I can't be bothered to hate Jack for this

All the same, I can't pretend to have forgotten what he did for large stretches of 2018-2020, and can't pretend we'll see anything like that in a Sabres uniform anytime soon

Rusty Jack plays some of the ugliest hockey you'll see.

I know that this isn't how things work, but I'd be happy to see the Sabres wear only 2 uniforms ever again, the current home and away set

I've seen players in Krebs position on that play not aware enough of the clock to take the shot he did, with how off-balance and twisted he was. It was not an ideal position and some skaters would be content to try to get into the position to shoot as the horn ends the period. But Krebs gave Alex a chance by playing with purpose and intent

I like eichel and will follow with intrigue, but without much emotion other than that.

Wow Eichel did it against Ottawa in 2019 I believe. 4-2 win Vanek also had one in Ottawa, in 2009 plus/minus 1.5 years

Counter offer: it won't be a shot, but it will count

Surely Holtby-UPL will deliver the goods next year

I hope Adams pretends they don't exist when trying to set up the pro squad next year. If one of them kicks the door down and earns a spot then all the better, but he had better not assume any of them are NHL players

Why?

Adams was perfectly happy to go into this season with Tokarski, Anderson, and UPL as his goalie platoon. The Sabres goalies have given exactly what we should have expected this year, and it can be argued that they've on balance been much better than you'd expect. Kevyn has completely butchered goaltending in both of his seasons as GM

The Sabres will be good in overtime when they decide to be a good NHL team and not a minute before

I'd like to see replays of the Fitzgerald and Thompon or Tuch plays. Both looked like they could have been phantom penalties or egregious and obvious ones and I'd like to know which

sick

all three of tuch tage and skinner are dangerous tonight, but aren't quite clicking yet

love kyle

That was not an NHL shift from Bjork and Hayden. Holy ***** why are these guys Cozens' wingers Absolutely dreadful!