DirtDart
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Posts posted by DirtDart
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I would take botts as GM, and Ruff as an advisor. Coach? No idea.
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Agree 110%...Should I be surprised, probably not. Am I annoyed, beyond belief.
I slept on everything that I read and heard yesterday and you know how it feels to me? It feels like some Buffalo people are just unhappy Jack Eichel isn't kisses their ###### and answering their questions like a good little boy. I heard so many times yesterday how Jack is a kid and how he hasn't earned this or that. Jack Eichel just lead the Sabres in points as a 20year old who missed 21 games... you don't get that good without some serious mental fortitude.
What I read from predominately older posters on SS was saddening. All this stuff about he hasn't earned this or that and needs to shut up and be a leader. A leader says what needs to be said and follow the path they must no matter how hard. Dan Bylsma is not a good coach. That is the truth, don't believe me? Go watch other teams for a few nights and you will see. Jack Eichel as the best player on the Buffalo Sabres has a right and a responsibility to say if the coach is an issue. He has a right and a responsibility to be unhappy after a losing season. This character assassination of the best player to wear Blue n Gold in the modern era needs to end.
But Liger he was snotty to the reporters and he's only 20... I hope he continues to answer dumb reporter questions with disdain. Hey Jack are you unhappy that your team didn't make the playoffs? No I am ###### thrilled that we missed the playoffs because now I don't get to play NHL hockey for 6 months and don't have a shot at the cup, yes I am ###### unhappy.
He's not snotty, this is what a winning culture looks like. Losing is unacceptable and actually makes people unhappy. Jack is a Winner, get use to it.
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Just got the text. Woooowwwww
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I lay the blame for this entire mess that is the Sabres (and Bills) at the feet of the dim-witted Terrence M. "Terry" Pegula. He created this "management team." He created the country club atmosphere with his $10 million locker room... He helped pick and keep some of these defective players starting with Leino. He encouraged and loved the tank and set us up for the big mutiny we are now seeing. Terry and his wife have made the Sabres and Bills the biggest laughingstocks in the NHL/NFL and I don't think we're ever coming back.
"Terry" Pegula is NOT MY OWNER.
Well, unless you work for him, you are correct.
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I am in his camp.That's what I suspected.
I'm afraid his camp doesn't have enough members to play taps and lower the flag every evening.
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My follow up would be coaches that have done it in his position; a failing team with his job on the line after multiple reports of players dissatisfaction with him. I just feel like it's a terrible move on his part in terms of actually helping his own self preservation
multiple reports from who? The press spinsters?
True. But there are limited (non-emergency) moves between parent club & AHL club after the deadline & before the AHL club is done playing. Sabres had already burned most (all?) their moves bouncing guys around right after the deadline.
My question earlier was if the Sabres only had 21 no -injured & non-suspended skaters w/ them & that seems to be the case. The scratches were Okposo (sick), Ristolainen (suspended), Franson (injured), & Fedun (injured).
Still foolish of Bylsma to make him sit on the bench the whole game. Hopefully he gave Reinhart the option of being on the bench or dressing room after the start & Sam chose to support his team.
Great point T.
I am glad he benched him, and made him watch. Want to act like a child, here ya go.
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I think he could be if he wasn't in this crap, hail marry system. He was one under Gallant in Florida on a playoff team
you guys, and all your system talk drive me nuts. Please, do explain this hail marry system. Is it Dan that plays the "system", or the players not playing within the "system"? Either way, he is not responsible for the lack of communication on the ice, or the play. What should he do bench the players? We already play almost nightly with a short bench as it is.
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In order to skate the way he does and I have tried.. Can do it for my 5 strides and then my legs are jello... you have to have massively strong upper legs with endurance to boot... His power is impressive.... maybe why he floats so much when not at full bore.
His legs are like tree trunks, very powerful.
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Did she just say ferelious fight? I re-wound it three times. She butchered the Anthem....
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I think they have been really good. A hell of a lot better than Franson, or Bogo. I know Franson has decent stats this year, but his mistakes are very noticeable.Personally I think signing Falk and Fedun to shore up defensive depth was a masterstroke. Not top 4 guys, but they've been leaned on heavily and haven't broken.
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Why in the world are they showing all of these Philly Commercials, and advertisements? This is driving me insane. I get this is National coverage, but they are playing in Buffalo.
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Sky is falling? Great assessment!!!!!
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Why not just say douchebag
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What Burrows did certainly doesn't rise to the level of deserving blood on the ice. He was being a punk, nothing more. I will admit to liking Falk's reaction to it. I liked Lehner's reaction less. I don't want him losing focus. Not even in the moment.
I have to think Lucic did cross Miller's mind. He deserved better than the reaction he got back then. And the team knew it afterward.
I'm curious what sort of reaction we would see to a genuine Lucic incident today. The team mentality seems different, but what would they do if the infraction is perpetrated by someone they don't really have a physical answer for (ala Lucic)? I'm not sure this reaction is automatic. Burrows isn't exactly a fearsome fellow.
Burrows is a rat, just like Marchand. Somebody needs to teach this type of player a lesson. Whether we take a penalty or not, I am ok with it.
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Thank you.I'm trying to think back about the Sabres, particularly between 05-07. The fans were OBSESSED with the Sabres and they would ALWAYS cheer them win or lose. fail or success. 15 shot minus differential, and 15 shot plus differential.
But what I hear from a crowd during a game at KBC,and i may just be hallucinating on mushrooms so forgive me if i'm wrong, is BOOS- if there is a mistake/bad play/bad powerplay/ failed clearing attempt ect...
In 05-07 fans would NEVER boo the Sabres if my perception of the time serves well. BOOING your OWN hometown team is the ultimate form of disrespect to me!
Think about it, these guys sacrifice every part of their body 41 times at KBC. Most don't just show up for a paycheck, they are also very much aware of the interdynamic between the fan and the player, and they want to go balls to the wall because they are LOYAL TO THE TEAM and the CITY. and for the FANS, BUT- perhaps even from a "psychological" point of view, HOW can a player be loyal to a TEAM when the FANS aren't even loyal to the players AND BOO them!!?
I get it- it's FN frustrating not seeing things like the PK -whatever- flourish. I get it. It's FN frustrating when they can't get it out of the damn zone. They are also a young team, and learning, they need all the confidence from the support from the fans,
They're essentially sacrificing their lives, developing and learning as kids, while doing the best they can. Yet the fans basically say your S*it in the event of an inevitable mistake ?
I don't know how many fans do this, but c'mon. give the kids some confidence. Cheer them for their efforts. BOOING only alienates the players from the city,team and fans. No one should blame Eichel for addressing the booing (i think he did..?).
He is absolutely right in that case. critical assessment, restless crowd, and suspension of applause is normal BOOING is 6 FINGER hand slap in the face. The BOOING has gotta stop. It is utterly unacceptable.
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Clearly not a coach issue, love how the pro-fire Dan club twists the verbiage.
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Well written, almost brought tears to my eyes. And YES, I do believe.NowWhen do you believe?I have a confession to make: I like this team.
I know those words fly in the face of seemingly every frustrated sentence you have read and posted on this forum since a certain curly-headed ginger from Massachusetts went down hard on his ankle during the final minutes of the final pre-season practice.
I know that reading them can feel like Dustin Byfuglien has skated over your testicles, especially after you’ve just watched Brian Gionta fail to tip another stretch pass, or Marcus Foligno flub another perfect Sam Reinhart set-up, or Josh Gorges jump over the boards to line up next to Risto for yet another offensive zone faceoff.
I know it’s not politically correct to say them after four years of mediocrity begat three years of suffering only to begat a return to mediocrity.
But I like this team.
I like most of the players on it. I like Reinhart and Ristolainen and Eichel as young building blocks. I like Okposo and Kane and O’Reilly as pieces of the core. I like Larsson and Foligno and Girgensons and McCabe as foot soldiers. I like the kind of players Tim Murray likes: smart, competitive, not afraid to get their hands dirty.
I like how Murray has a plan after so many years of watching Darcy have no plan — just the ongoing tactic of managing assets to the best of his ability while keeping his bosses happy.
I like the plan Murray has executed and I believe in his ability to diagnose and repair the errors and the remaining holes in this roster.
Tanking was a precarious strategy, but it was the unfortunate hand Murray was dealt. He has not played it to perfection — few have — but he has played it with a mix of boldness and vision. I see a path, a purpose and a will to stick with his vision despite adversity.
I see that adversity — an extraordinary run of injuries that inspired the coach to play the most low-risk, soul-sucking style of hockey imaginable — combining with the scars of the hope-crushing enormity that was the tank to create a jaundiced view here that blinded people to what this group actually is: an emerging team still learning how to win.
Going in to the season, we thought the Sabres, with a “normal” amount of injuries, were a playoff bubble team with the ability to score goals. You may find this hard to believe by reading forum commentary, but the numbers would actually seem to bear that out. Since the return of Jack Eichel marked a switch from a skating MASH unit to a team with a “normal” amount of injuries, the Sabres have gone 13-10-4, a .556 points percentage that would place them 15th in the league — exactly on the playoff bubble. And since that time, when their coach has actually started to let them push the offence, they’ve scored 79 goals — a 2.93 goals per game pace that would place them 8th in the NHL.
It is a hockey cliché to not use injuries as an excuse: “good teams play through them.” That’s coach speak. More realistically, few teams endure a two-month stretch of injuries where three of their top four forwards and two of their top three defencemen are either out or hampered and “play through it.” Certainly not young, incomplete, still-developing teams like the Sabres.
And this is a young team, one trying to rise from a thorough salting of the earth, a team just 130 games removed from an on-ice utter abomination. They are a work in progress. You know it, even if the progress hasn’t happened as quickly as you had hoped.
The Sabres have good players coming in the pipeline, but even the oldest are 21. They are at least a year away from developing the organizational depth to insulate themselves from a run of injuries. They still have a gaping hole in their blueline top four that moves for Bogosian and Kulikov have not fixed. They have a coach who appears determined to outsmart himself.
But they aren’t as bad as this fan base is numb. According to nhl.com, the team has come from behind in the third period to win five times this year, third most in the NHL (it feels like more). They’ve also yet to lose in regulation this season when leading after two (that surprised me). These are not the marks of a bad team.
And what seems to be forgotten in the angst about Bylsma and Lehner and Franson and whatever else tends to occupy our attention here is that those debates are mostly peripheral noise. Ultimately, this team will be relevant or irrelevant on the backs of Risto, Sam and Jack. None of them are as good as they will have to be — although Risto usually looks damn close — but I still think they can get there.
I know some of you don’t believe in a culture of losing. I do. It thrives where people talk so much about what’s wrong with their situation that it becomes all they know and all they expect. They get paralyzed by their own negative expectations and are quick to throw in the towel at the slightest sign of adversity.
Just because the results haven’t been what we want them to be, it doesn’t mean we are not on the right path. It doesn’t mean we can’t appreciate the process.
I read about how far the Leafs are ahead of us. I see the angst of our fanbase and the smugness of theirs. I think about the adversity our team has endured this year and compare it to theirs. Then I look at the standings, see the difference as only a pair of one-goal head-to-head Buffalo losses-that-should-have-been-wins and I wonder why these perceptions exist. Perspective. (I miss Neo)
This isn’t about recent results; I started writing it after the Leafs loss. It’s about my fandom, about why I watch. It’s about the lens through which I perceive the game and what the Sabres bring to my life.
I know that Team Sunshine and Kittens lost. I know the odds, and the history, and how much safer it is emotionally to be on Team Storm Cloud. I know how hard it is to hope. I know all about because Buffalo. I’ve been at this for a long, long time. I’ve been wrong before.
But I refuse to join the ranks of the scorned and the scornful, or the legion of Sabrespacers who have become dearly departed victims of this trial, this unabashed period of suffering. I hope you can forgive me this heresy: the clouds, they are still parting.
I don’t expect the playoffs this year. But I hope and I will enjoy the struggle. I like this team. I see signs. I choose to believe. It’s why I am a fan.
I don’t expect you to agree. But I do hope that you can, some day soon, join me in this forgotten bunker where people actually allow themselves to like being a Sabre fan.
I’ll leave the light on.
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Great post, you have echoed what I have believed are the issue leading to the inconsistency we see on the ice.a) Better record than last year
b) weathered an unreal injury storm
c) still in his second season.
Bylsma stays as long as he doesn't lose the room whether the system is attractive or not. This is a long term project and this Sabres team is NOT talented enough to do more than squeak into the playoffs this year...just like almost every NHL season prediction stated. Just like the models which add up player performance numbers show (see @IneffectiveMath on Twitter for an example).
Get used to Dan.
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Great game by the boys. We left at the end of the second per usual, the baby never can last into the third. Driving to Bar Bill I turned on the radio, and almost crashed hearing we were up by 1.
Good to see Dan spark the boys, what a game.
At least two goals per game are due to the Defense losing coverage, or forgetting they are actually allowed to clear players out of the crease.Wow, amazing game. 2017 has been good for the Sabres so far. 3 games and 5 points. And yes, Jack, 6 would be better. But no team ever finishes the season with 164 points either.
But on the negative side - will it last? Even bad teams have good streaks - so the next 3 games could be 1 point earned and 5 left on the table. And Lehner let in his almost obligatory 3 goals this game. One of the goals (can't recall if 2nd or 3rd Jets goal) he left the rebound laying right there a foot or two in front of him and it got hammered into the net - that was frustrating to see.
Just looked at Lehner's game log - last time he had a 1 goal game was late November. Since then he's had 9 three goal games, and three 2 goal games.
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I see a kid that is pissed off at his mistakes, and the team play.
He is obviously trying too hard as he was at times last season, and realizes it has cost the team.
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I was going to. But, those Coasties actually have a mission:) I have much respect for all my fellow Brother's, and Sister's, regardless of Branch.Ouch! Shots fired!
...I'd have gone with the coast guard.
I'm kidding, I swear!
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Get them from Stubhub, thats where most of us season holders sell ours. They go pretty cheap most days. If you are interested PM me.Any advice? What do you know about this process now that you wish you would have known before you did it for the first time?
I have never done this, but it has come to my attention that the only way I'm going to get my entire family of 6 to a Sabres game is if I procure the tickets at a substantial discount. After last night's collapse, it seems like this might be a good time to look into it.
What sites are used for this? I know about stubhub; are there are others? Any pitfalls to avoid? Thanks.
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U.S Air force, the Matt Ellis of the Military.
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So glad we jumped up to grab Ragland, and missed out in DakI'm going to pull for the Giants, but wouldn't mind the Dallas "Prescott" going to the Super Bowl. Let me stress I'm not supporting the Cowboys. It's all Prescott. Reason I say that is I graduated from MSU. Prescott was and still is a great quarterback to watch. Has a lot of class. I have a lot of respect for the guy.
Sabres president of hockey ops — I'm calling it (again)
in The Aud Club
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It was discussed at great length on the Insitgators yesterday. Perfect role for Lindy.
Ruff has the knowledge, tons of expierence albeit it coaching. I think an advisor, or President of OPS would be a good fit for him.