Contempt

I'm referring to how seemingly every year you'd watch a game in late November with the Bills close to .500 and they'd throw up a graphic showing them in the "in the hunt" category.

I'm tired of being right. I'd like them to prove me wrong for a change. Frankly I didn't feel like it was aggressive prediction at the time given their flaws (no depth, bad goaltending, poor team defense) and their penchant for inconvenient stretches of poor play. Then the middle of March happened which really wasn't different from any of the other stretches of the year where they dropped a bunch of games in a row. I appreciate that you and other might not like it and that some of you race to be the first one to be right predicting positive things and that's not my lane. I didn't believe in what they had at the deadline and the season has been functionally over since Nashville and really over since the Islanders game. The Sabres have been "in the hunt" the same way the Bills were "in the hunt" for a decade. Meaning not. I don't enjoy that. In fact it annoys me quite a bit that they squandered the position they were in. However, after what they've done for the length of time they've done it I'm done with moral victories and promises of the future. Show me. What this team showed is is every time they had pressure to perform they wilted. Does that translate to growth in the future? Maybe. Maybe not. Maybe they learn from it and get better, but maybe they don't have the mental and emotional fortitude for it and this is what they will do. I don't know and neither do you. You choose to believe, I choose to be skeptical until proven wrong. It has nothing to do with wanting to be right. It's emotional self defense.

In a perfect world, I want Johnson to make Jokiharju expendable in addition to the team bringing in another solid defender in the off-season to bump the 5 and 6 down a peg.

That is exactly what I would be looking for as well.

I'd move all of those things also. I just think Mittelstadt is a good sell high candidate.

Didn't say it wasn't fun. Said it was irrelevant. Glad you enjoyed yourself.

Who would you move instead?

Yeah, I came out of the woodwork today to have 5k posts. You're right, Johnson is clearly a top six guy.

Calling today a meaningful game is also misguided. This team has failed the pressure away at every opportunity. Furthermore, I think it far from clear that they are on their way to obvious success. Their defensive structure is hot garbage, there is no defensive help coming in the pipeline, goaltending is still a huge question l,and it's also a question of the administration thinks that the lack of team defense is even an issue. Run and gun isn't a recipe for success. It's just not.

He needs to be traded for a defenseman because he can be more easily replaced by the prospects we have coming up. I'm leaving out any and all vitriol I have for him personally. He is replaceable and needs to be traded for what we do t have in the system.

Agreed, if hearing truth makes you sad please ignore me. Today's game was 100 percent irrelevant. Games that actually mattered were back in mid March when they were giving up stupid numbers of goals and rolling over for BAD teams. That's what killed this season, not anything that happens this week. They are out of it and have been. If you believe otherwise tell Santa what you want for Christmas. I'm sure it will arrive.

Maybe, just maybe, Johnson isn't that great either.

He wasn't the first choice in OT. You explain it.

That Johnson wasn't his best option to start OT but we want to believe that he's more than an AHL tweener so we will blame Moszko instead.

It's not meaningful. It's only meaningful if you suspend all reason. It's playing out the string. Great they beat Carolina. It doesn't matter. They needed to beat Columbus and Philly a couple weeks ago and they couldn't.

That his coach didn't see fit to do that should say something. But we will pretend it was an accident.

Still no. It was no weeks ago and it's still no now. No. It was no on deadline day. No.

Suckers.

He needs to go.

This is why you can't crap your pants against Columbus.

Like I said. Do what you want. You pay their bills.

Salt Lake City needs to worry about the lake drying up more than they need to worry about getting the Olympics or a hockey team.

I long for the day where Will Borgen is no longer discussed.

How long does Mitts get to be "young"? He's got storm trooper level shooting precision.

You say no because of the message it collectively sends if enough people do it. Someone somewhere in that office is keeping track of the percentage of STH who choose to do this, knowing full well they won't make the playoffs. They will interpret that data to help measure how happy the STH base is. High percentage = high satisfaction. I'm not going to ceremonially agree for you to charge me for something you didn't do. Something you didn't do IMO because of investment you refused to make in this season's team. You let them twist in the wind with no defensive depth and it cost them the season. The Sabres want to say the prices weren't right and the players weren't available and that the better time for that is the summer? That's fine, the better time to talk about taking more of my money is also the summer, not right now after they shat their pants in the most important month of hockey the team has had in a decade. -edit- This is a hypothetical conversation anyway since I've repeatedly said that I won't give them any money of any kind until they get their crap together and actually become a relevant NHL team again. You guys pay their bills, do what you want.