jad1

I get your point that the youngest team in the an issue. I've criticized it also as a major issue with Adams' rebuild effort. But how long are we going to use it as an excuse? As the cliche goes, you don't get to pick the army you go to war with, you go to war with the army you got. Adams isn't making a trade to fix the youth issue, as much as we might want him to. If the Sabres are going to get better, it's the guys in the locker room who are going have to figure it out. And I don't think the issue is talent, or depth. I'd like see them make a trade, but does trading for Ehlers prevent them for no-showing against the Flyers last night? Does it prevent them from giving up a 2-0? This team continually fails to match the intensity of its opponents. The Calgary game is a perfect example. The Flames, a mid team, slept-walk thru the first half that game and the Sabres took advantage. As soon as the Flames picked up their intensity, the Sabres didn't match it and needed UPL to get them to shootout, where they won in a skills contest. Ruff called that game a "gritty" effort, but nobody should have been surprised when they carried their low intensity effort into the Canadiens game and lost. I think this all comes from low expectations. Nobody, with good reason, talks about the Sabres winning the Stanley Cup. Not the organization, not the media, not the fans, not this board (well one guy did, but he's gone I think). When Drury joined a bad Sabres team, he hung a picture of the Stanley Cup on the locker room wall. It set a standard. It introduced accountability. This team expected to compete every night, because that's what championship teams do. And it sounds crazy to set the same expectation for this team. It's more realistic to set the bar at making the playoffs. But making the playoffs means finishing in the top sixteen of the league, right? What do the standards look like for that? Do you really have to compete every game to finish in the top sixteen? Can you take a night off against bad teams and still finish in the top sixteen? I'd argue the Sabres' effort is exactly what you would expect from a team who's goal is to finish 16th in the league If you set the standard that you are a championship team and hold yourself accountable to that, but still fail, you probably end up a playoff team who makes a memorable run before losing in the playoffs. If you set the standard to finishing 16th in the league and fail, you end up with another lottery pick in the draft. No doubt this goes all the way up to the GM and ownership. The Sabres last three GMs all believed that they were going to eventually win a Cup three or four years down the line. And that has just sucked, because it ignored current success in favor of a pipe dream. But the players can do something about it. They can, within the locker room, set a higher goal for themselves. They can call out a lack of intensity, a lack of compete, a lack of physicality, and hold one another accountable to play to a higher standard. A strong captain could help them do this. I'm not sure if Dahlin is that guy. Dahlin is a great player, extremely talented (certainly more talented than Peca or Drury). But he seems like a guy who focuses more on his own game. He's more of an introvert, uncomfortable about criticizing (constructively) his teammates. I don't think a calvary is coming to fix this edition of the Sabres. To turn things around they need Ruff (who seems like he's in 58 year old Mike Tyson mode, but that's another story), and the team itself to raise the standard of their play. This means that Dahlin will need to be comfortable with introducing accountability in the locker room. If this doesn't happen, the Sabres will miss the playoffs, Adams will be fired, and the new GM will start another rebuild.

Sorry, don't buy it. The talent on this team should be good enough to make the playoffs. Are you really saying that the Sabres need one of the best goaltenders of all time in net for them to be successful? And the 06-07 team had six 20 goal scores on the roster. They finished first overall in the league standings. The 22-23 Sabres had five 20 goal scores on the roster. That team finished 20th overall. What was the difference. And regarding talent, how many other teams have two #1 overall picks on the their defense? How many even have a #4 overall pick on defense? Sabres have all that, and yet it's not enough talent? You cant chalk up the Sabres woes to talent. One of their issues is they play fundamentally poor hockey, and that's on the coaches to fix. But another issue is that they lack consistency, urgency, and a high level of compete on a game-to-game basis. And those are qualities that Peca and Drury brought to the team. Those guys set a high standard in the lockeroom and demanded accountability from the players. At some point this team has got to accept the talent in the room and set the expectation that it's good enough to win and demand the effort level from itself to make it happen each game. The Sabres had captains who could do this in the past; they need one to do it now.

5 years ago?

Sure tonight, but Quinn's been playing poorly long before Tage and Greenway were injured.

What happens if they don't? Probably nothing.

Pegula should hire this guy to be GM.

This team is a mess.

He does seem to be lacking the presence of guys like Peca and Drury.

Nah, the Sabres have lost a lot and the Bills have won a lot over the last 7 years. The Sabres, thanks to their relentless on-going ineptitude, have little impact on anything or anyone.

I was only referring to him showing an iota of emotion, unlike the other players on this dead-inside team.

Just let th 19 year old handle everything.

Their mentors are going to disown them.

We've needed this since Dahlin was a rookie.

What Sabres defenseman doesn't get outmuscled and outworked in their own zone?

It could shoot lasers at the visitor's bench.

The sad thing is that this is this team's culture. Work hard a couple of games and then float a couple of games. There's a reason they can barely win 3 games in a row. Ruff needs to break this mindset. Being their buddy is never going to work with this group.

The Red Wings are a mess.

This is hysterical. It's a joke, right? Tell me you know nothing about sports without telling me you know nothing about sports.

I am enjoying it. I can't wait for the next game. While I'm not ready to crown the Sabres as a good team at this point, I see the process, good and bad, and am eager to see how Ruff leads the team. I can say that I'm enjoying the journey while realizing that the destination is still a bit far away. Not sure why this triggers you, but to each his own.

Saying that you would like the Sabres to string together a few good shifts in the 3rd period in response to being outshot almost 3-1 in the 3rd period is not asking for perfection. Having everyone on the bench committed to scoring the next goal when leading by 1 in the 3rd period is not asking for perfection. Relying your goalie to make every save while the team turtles in the 3rd with a 1 goal lead IS asking for perfection -- from your goalie. They don't have to play perfect, they just have to play better at critical points in a game.

I heard that and it gives me pause. He did say that the reason the team fell off in the last part of the game was due to over-thinking. Which I guess I buy. That's a coaching opportunity. This group of players just has a history of becoming overly-satisfied with big wins (yes the Sabres have won big games over the last five years), and failing to build on that momentum. It's why they struggle to win more than 3 games in a row the last couple of years. Anyway, as much as it's a cliche, it is a process.

My mistake. That would put them 2 points behind last year's finish.

After 15 games they are 7-7-1. Below .500. Not the record of a good team. 82 points pace is 2 points less than last season's finish. Last season, the Sabres were not a good team. Eye test sure, but take off the rose colored glasses before looking. Not saying that can't be a good team. Or they won't be a good team. It's just at this point, there needs to be improvement before it happens.

Right now, they are on pace for 76 points this season. That is not a good team. If you want to hand them a participation trophy for the last few games, go ahead. But 76 points is not going to get this team into the playoffs. They are a high ceiling team with a low floor. High ceiling because they have a ton of talent. Low floor because they lack fundamentals, structure, experience and urgency. After they won three games in a row earlier this year, they lost the next two winnable games. Why, because they played those games like they played the last 30 minutes of today's games. And if they play the next game like the last 30 minutes of this game, they'll lose that game too. I guess I get the excitement over the standings in mid November, but what I'm looking for somebody on this team to step up and turn the tide of momentum when they are getting outshot in the 3rd period of a game. I'm looking for a line to use their talent and impose their will. I prefer this to turtleing around the goalie, hoping he holds up, like they did today (although UPL was outstanding, today). When they do that, the winning streaks will come more frequently, and this team will prove it's more than just a playoff team. That's why I hope they are happy with the win, and not satisfied. They have to understand what needs to improve.

I don't expect them to play perfect, but I want to seem them compete and win more shifts, especially when the game is in the balance. I agree that teams that lose these types of games don't make the playoffs, but it's because these types of games when effort fades, are difficult to win. So, simply put, I want the Sabres to stop playing these types of games. I'm happy they pulled this one out. UPL hung tough and got the team to a skills competition. But rather than go that path in the future when things turn difficult, I'd rather see them eschew the panic mode that they've grown up in, and assert themselves to win shifts to win back momentum. When that effort becomes the baseline of their play, they will be a good team. They'll get there, but they have to take the lesson.