Thorny

BIEBER! great add for the ceiling of the rotation

Fanbase can only work with the pieces they are given

Very few sporting events have achieved that level of zen for me. The feeling before/as Drury got the puck was that I knew he was going to score

Yet his assist to Drury set up the game winning OT goal in one of the greatest games ever played

Had the same take on Superman - just a good dude. Have you seen the first Happy Gilmore? It’s a childhood favourite, sort of reluctant to watch

Completely and utterly unacceptable

I think a lot of it comes down to strategy rather than execution. Has Adams done a BAD job implementing a build through the draft, acquire nearly exclusively young talent, low cost, long form rebuild? The problem is apparent nearly just from reading the sentence: I mean sure he hasn’t been GREAT at the execution but when you are asking him, or sorry, he’s choosing to implement a plan that has the focus (clearly) of being young, and cheap, how can you possibly begin to separate poor execution from poor strategy? if more of the players we drafted were taking bigger strides right now, Quinn, Cozens et al, wouldn’t the results be better and the strategy justified? That may sound dim and obvious but think about it: did we dislike the picks Adams has made, at the time? Not really. They seemed fine Now you may say wow Thorny you hypocrite you always say hindsight doesn’t matter it’s the results, you dope. And to that I say: well, yes, that’s true. Adams is still responsible though as we all know, because as people say: it’s more about what he doesn’t do. The McLeod move sure looked good. But that’s important in a macro sense: it’s not that he made really bad picks or really bad trades, he just *implemented a type of strategy* that puts things behind the 8 ball from day one. It never had a high likelihood of success. At least in terms of how we as FANS might define success. Example being - If you have to be a consistently *great* drafter to make up any ground at all, due to lack of other notable action, you are choosing a dive with one too many twists and turns: drafting is largely a crapshoot. Draft nuts don’t jump on that, I’m not saying there’s no skill. But when luck is undeniably a SIZEABLE variable and factor in the result it’s exceptionally difficult to make up ground vs other teams when so much necessarily must be left to chance by nature. And, again, you are already choosing to largely not use other aspects of team building to your favour. It’s like trying to build your strategy around one building point Superstar. If you aren’t Drafter McJesus, you need depth. And it’s NOT a strategy we have to implement because “no one will come here.” Demonstrably wrong. McLeod and Zucker are here and they are better than most of the guys we drafted That sort of “behind the 8 ball from the get go” thinking is the same with the tank, the nonsense of “well it succeeded”. Right, and if you rob a bank at gun point you may successfully get away with the money. Are you going to get to spend it? The circumstances by which you seized the cash matter. If you have to create a situation with the parameters of a Kobayashi Maru to “achieve your goal” your are likely going to lose the war. That’s what the tank was. - - - And in my opinion, every day we continue to operate without winning being the priority, even if it’s not to the extent of the tank, is more egregiously offensive as a fan than the last because there’s only more mounting evidence to suggest it doesn’t work

Right along those lines, what gets underplayed often is for how many of these players it’s a CAREER, a job, a way to make money: they have a life to live, after. They have a life to live, now. They are rounded human beings like Kyrie Irving said: “do you think I walk around with a basketball?” far, far more players than people would care to admit pursue their career and work so hard and diligently and to your point smartly at it because they are GOOD at it, rather than because it’s their undying passion. They are far more similar to other career folk than some think that’s of course not everyone. And lots of actors love acting. And lots of pilots love being a pilot and lots of retail sales associates love being retail sales associates: but, you don’t have to take my word for it, countless numbers of players have spoken to the nature of this. Players aren’t routinely candid about this stuff in front of the media; they’ll get torched like Scottie scheffler a lot of fans can’t reckon with this, many people even around these parts: they aren’t amendable to the loyalty we show, as fans, they aren’t fans. They are professionals. Their primary concern is a career sometimes they just ask out because they think they have a good chance of a better career elsewhere. If you turn against them knowing what we know, and knowing they know more, and knowing that our prime interests aren’t the same…I mean there’s probably nothing I could say if it’s still being ignored

This is why I always say: the players aren’t stupid. They understand as well as we do the overall situation - they aren’t blind to Pegula. We don’t draft a bunch of quitters - we bring them up in an environment where they are fully aware of the owner’s lack of commitment to winning. The players understand and are aware and can keenly perceive the lack of expectation, far more potently than we can. It’s why I always scoff at the reaction to those asking out. they know

I actually just noticed the cancer reference. Dude, that’s neither here nor there an an awful comp to draw Seriously guy, reconfigurate a bit. Me saying you are wrong about a professional sports club you follow as a hobby to pass the time is not the same thing, good grief my man, good grief. It’s not life and death. The other, well it f*ckin is

Dude why don’t you just block me? Not saying this in snark. Like, just for personally peace? You constantly constantly quote me taking issue with merely the macro issue of how it is I am a fan. How are you even a fan, Thorny. Regardless of the fact the forum is filled with evidence for 10 years explaining why if you cared to look - I’m not answerable to you. And I’m specifically not going to explain it to you right now because you’ve proven it won’t be worth my time as I’ve explained it to you before we are not the same. I talk about, and have posted before that I’m jealous you can be so relatively seemingly unaffected by the constant losing, how I truly wish that was me - you post questioning why I’m a fan at all, and on more than one occasion have told me to leave - don’t get me wrong: I’m not offended by it. I truly do not care what you think about my loyalty as a fan. But like I said, for your own piece of mind.. why don’t you follow my twitter and peruse my blue jays tweets? Would give anyone a pretty good preview of what I’m like when a team displays basic competence I’m sorry but wookie - if you can’t make the logical leap to think that maybe, like, JUST MAYBE MAYBE I am being honest when I say the historical ineptitude leads to historical disenfranchisement, I’m telling the truth? Is it that inconceivable I could be speaking honestly? That maybe, just MAYBE, if the team made the playoffs once it would be reflected in the way I post? I am frequently floored by the fact that logical leap can’t be made - the idea it can’t just be the team that makes me post this way. That I have to have some other agenda can’t you just, in the name of science, test your theory once? Like, just once see what my reaction is once we achieve something?

Zero doubt in my mind Adams tells himself this every morning in the mirror The sabres are not normal. The ever present urge to claim their behaviour as normal is unhealthy imo Isn’t this exactly how they view it? Can you explain the appeal to me? Miracle, exactly - it’s an act of God they haven’t made it, right? I can’t see that not being their reasoning - - - you can’t claim “hope for the best” if you haven’t done everything in your power to put the situation in the best possible scenario for that to happen- which they never, ever do they aren’t Frodo Baggins, providence isn’t coming to push the Ring in the rest of the way because Frodo sold his soul to get it as far as he could - there’s no grace on the way. They haven’t earned it. They have not done the honest to goodness work to facilitate the farming ground for those surprises