Thorny

1) You bi-passed my point about “McEichel”, and Eichel has proven to be good enough to be the 1C on a cup championship team. There’s no leg to stand on anymore: we could have built a great team with him here. A playoff team, should have been a given. 2) Players care 3) Are you willing to put an ETA for an expectation on that, or is it sort of a, “How much is this old toaster you have for sale?” ”How much do you have?” ”50 bucks.” “Oh lucky for you it’s 50 dollars” ..situation? Like is there any time frame you are willing to say it’s reasonable to expect results by or is it just a matter of when they eventually get it done, is the time you wanted it by? Actually asking.

1) tanking “for McDavid” (20%) was always dumb and was folly from the beginning if that was the plan, based purely on odds. That’s why we always said it was about “McEichel.” The only way the strategy ever theoretically made sense (I think it was the wrong decision) if he you thought you could competently build a team around either, because finishing last guaranteed one. 2) As bad as failing to build around a guy demonstrably capable of leading a cup championship team (and league) in scoring was, the result was nonetheless salvageable until the cardinal sin I mentioned. Our reputation is soured because of Pegula’s handling of the situation. What is the perception around the league? That’s what matters.

Guess you weren’t ready for the cold ring of truth Teams change GMs all the time. It doesn’t lead to 14 year playoff droughts We replaced Murray 7 and a half years ago the “carnage” began when we tanked. All of the failings systematic of the ineptitude of the owner. The ineptitude that lead to the fatal flaw I mentioned “no one wants to come to Buffalo”. You know, maybe that’s because no one cares about eloquent Sabrespace breakdowns of why we “actually” needed to wage a public war against the player we already prioritized above the rest of the roster several times over. it didn’t work, Pegula being absolutely butthurt screwed us over, and one day everyone will admit it. When you are ready. It was never about right and wrong. Perception is reality. If this, above all else, hasn’t been driven home to you in 2024…with the way the world is today..im not sure what to say

Not sure if people are finally ready for this. Terry Pegula and the Sabres’ fatal error was placing so much emphasis on the “return” for Jack Eichel. It doesn’t really matter if the Sabres were “in the right” or in the wrong, that was the part everyone missed, not if the perception around the league was going to be that they did poorly by their franchise player Inexcusable Terry missed this b/c *that was our burden to bear* because we TANKED for Eichel. Placing 1 player above all else was *what they signed up for*. They made their bed in 2015 and thought they could avoid paying the piper. Are Tuch and Krebs worth the reputation hit? You let him get the surgery because you have to. The fallout of denying that to the player you sold the very soul of your franchise to get, is well beyond any trade return that was ever possible

It’s tough. I just try to give every season a chance. I’ve spoken before my rope with this regime ends here, so I’m certainly not bailing before game 82

Really? I feel like Byram has been good A legitimate bright spot Not saying anything to roster construction but he’s been good so far this season

Quinn has been quiet

Dahlin is fine. He needs to be better though for sure. But I highly doubt any lacking performance is the result of wearing the C. If he’s wearing the weight of it, mentally, that’ll have been a prerequisite to him getting that crown in the first place: it’s in his nature and that he feels responsible for the results is going to be present regardless hard truth of today’s NHL: it‘s exceptionally tough for a D-man to be your best player. this is now a league of goals Of offence

Remember when we used to always beat SJ in SJ? I miss Matt D’agostini

Come on, this isn’t a serious question. A sports-historic run of ineptitude aligns precisely with his tenure. Yes, a million times over yes. It would save the franchise He’s the biggest issue, by far Would defy logic to suggest we could pull a worse rabbit out of the hat. You don’t fear stuff like that when your current hand is the worst possible.

Alex Tuch is sorta an Event guy. He’s always up for the Moments but he’s not a guy who’s seemingly giving his best day in and day out. He’s always struck me as the guy who “always finds the camera”

I chose to say 51% in spite of better judgment before the year started, 2 games isn’t enough to jump off what was already a hopium filled projection. I’ll still say yes. It’s probably just cope but I ALWAYS think about that Marcus Johansson 2C, Botterill team that was FLYING out the gate at 2-0. Look what happened. Why not the inverse?

On a positive note: even nfl teams sometimes make the playoffs after 0-2 starts. It’s optics, and a belief that past precedent is a solid indicator that the 0-2 is reflective of the roster, that represent the concerning factors more than anything, more than we are actually behind any actual 24-25 8-ball

I’m honestly very tired of hearing about the “fourth line” lol. is that really where we are 5 years into this regime? the fourth line.

Being a good home team would go a long way this year. Maybe that’s what we’ll see, which is more along the lines of what you see with most teams re: splits. Maybe we get back to NA and they look like a different team on home ice/frees Lindy up a little bit or something.

Again, it’s early, but on another note: the optics of this season are liable to tank even quicker than normal given the purported idea we kept cap space supposedly so we could lock up our guys to long term deals and keep this core together. I never thought counting chickens before they hatched could be relied upon on so throughly as a strategy, but it could tank to even more disastrous and comical results than we even thought. We didn’t want to do what was necessary to field a winning team now, because we thought it would hurt our chances at winning later? It’s the exact opposite and always has been. There’ll be no winning later until we prioritize it in the now. that we haven’t, or choose not to prioritize winning, still, after all this time, is leading to this. I’ve been saying it for 5 years. I’m sorry, but how many times does it need to be said. More, I guess. They are insulting the fan base on a daily basis by the way they structure their prioritizes. They are doing extremely poorly by the fans

It’s actually not as strong a correlation as you’d think.

Everyone said all this stuff. None of the fixes are complicated. We don’t get to throw our hands up in the air and say, “well, HOW?!l” when you spend in the bottom 10. That’s usually what happens. I disagreed with it cause I don’t care about the injuries aspect. It’s not a key variable, all teams suffer them, it’s not why we lost, Jersey has injuries too

We’ve essentially run back the roster again. This is what I meant by it’s tough to project better until you actually see it. It’s tough to expect different when the true potential catalysts for change remain untouched. Talking about a revamped 4th line is just dog days message board fodder, we have to admit that to ourselves. You don’t break a 13 year playoff drought by tweaking the least important sports on a roster you tweak the least important sports on the roster when that’s all you can find a way to do. We didn’t maximize our spending: again, why do we think we can win WITHOUT prioritizing it? How much hubris can one team have? But, it’s only 2 game. While the warning signs are flaring, perhaps this is a misreading creeping in and this team really will round into form in a timely manner. It’ll still a tiny sample size, as I mentioned yesterday

If you are counting on a coach to do this you’ve already lost. This isn’t a viable avenue for success. “It’s going to take the coach a long time to single handedly revamp the output of our entire roster by standing behind the bench and yelling at them.” isn’t an actual strategy and isn’t rooted in reality. If a coach has to do that much heavy lifting, the issue is the roster. You are cheaping out on the sum total of 20 sports and trying to buoy the whole purely through the coaching position. It doesn’t work with a star player, never mind a guy who doesn’t play. And “it’ll take time” (during year 5) need not apply unless the sentence is “it’ll take time for this roster to mould into shape for a playoff berth THIS season.” There’s no more runway

lol that’s Bull

Guess I’m not really waiting a few games before commentating..whatever. I’ll keep it brief i was impressed by JJ’s pass on the goal You know who looked good? One Bowen Byram. My worries about what the ETA is for his return to form being proven needless would be a massively positive development. I actually thought UPL was swimming around a lot, he’ll improve. The biggest thing possible for line 2 will be Tage performing as a superstar. Would probably buoy both lines, in effect. Truth is, most times, you need a star on offence to keep the whole machine turning. We didn’t have depth when we had the star in Jack. I think we have the depth now. But no performing star. Not yet. When Tage *was* a star 2 years ago we should by rights have made it if not for key errors from the GM, especially in goal. Can Thompson be that star again, and for a good while? We’ll see soon to be honest. The runway of his prime isn’t on its early days.

Right but I just mean if you look it up, October 4 is said to be the first official day of regular season