Thorny

You were right about Jack, and you were brilliant in your hyping of the season - it gets me excited every year even though I have no hope 😂 It’s not your fault the GM doesn’t hold up his end of the bargain

Wasn’t only Thorny that wanted Jack to stay ^ YOU WERE THE CHOSEN ONE

I’ll always remember vividly your post about Taylor Hall looking like “a shark that wasn’t quite hungry yet” during camp 2021. How excited you were, and how excited you made me about it there’s no way that guy believed the core should be exploded to the tune of a long form plan based on 56 games, of which Jack played, what, 21? While severely hurt? There’s no way you’d draw that strong of a conclusion based on 21/56 games - I don’t buy it Jack and Sam had to go? You felt Adams had the right idea? It’s not plausible

You didn’t want Eichel traded until you heard he asked for a trade In fact you frequently argued against the necessity of it until it happened Talk about revisionist Again, you didn’t want it blown up You didnt want a 5 year rebuild you just argued splendidly and intelligently for why it could work, after the fact - its what you always do. You proclaimed the merits of how the plan could work, and if Adams was actually trying to build a winning team in the way we want one, he probably could have done it by following your strategy

I don’t hand wave 2021 as a quirk of the pandemic at all, that’s far from accurate. I deem it as something that should count towards the evaluation of the 15 years for exactly the amount of games within that stretch it counted for. 56 games. 56 out of 1157 using that anomalific sample size as justification for a 5 year rebuild is incredibly stupid yes

There’s no reason the lenses should be different. I’m judging him purely by the record of the team during his time as GM If you aren’t judging him by that after 5 years, I strenuously disagree with you. If you are, the lens is the same

It’s mostly the fact we are splitting hairs between bad and bad Better is still bad here. The reaction is going to be more in line with the bad, not the fact it’s squint and you see it better than putrid

And I’m glad you didn’t because Adams being probably worse than Murray and Botterill (looking at his full 5 years and not just 3) doesn’t stop him from being definitively worse than the competition when compared to a single real GM in Darcy

Only nearly true because of one season carrying the weight for the following two that downgrade, and then downgrade and also not true: 11/12/13 we averaged 89 points per (and made the damn playoffs, to boot) We’ve averaged 84.7 the last 3 (2013 of course a prorated total) You could have used 14 years as the cut off but alas you did not so

I think pro sports is sold on the quality of product

I’ve said it before that if the team was “finding ways for it work” in the way you consistently outline, not in similar fashion but literally just employing the mindset and tactics that would lead to the same conclusions your draw, it would necessarily be far more likely to yield a playoff team than whatever malarkey they’ve been engaging in

I think they very well could. I also think people underrate what we needed on O even before we traded Peterka, though. But we’ve debated this before and I know I’m generally on an island on this one thinking we needed help at F even before that move - - - At the end of the day I think the simplest view here is also the one that incorporates the most data which is standings points. I do believe in the old “you are what your record says” cliche and the sabres were and are a 79 point team. Did you see addition this summer akin to launching a 79 point team into the mid 90s as usually required for playoffs? We can break down the variables every which way but the fact of the matter is the roster is deficient to the tune of being a 79 point (bad) team. If your equation doesn’t account for a HUGE influx of needed improvement, whether from external sources or within, it’s going to fall short. Shoveling it onto UPL’s plate doesn’t work for me either, in estimation Adams’ tactics and mode of operation haven’t changed even if he’s switching up slightly on the “type” of roster he’s building - when we have literally AVERAGED 78 points a year, too, for half a decade, I don’t see why the smart bet could be on anything else than that when we’ve only seen that same modus operandi continued I could easily finally be wrong but the roster still looks to me like mostly a shell game shuffle, as it’s seemed to be for a few years. As always in a position of “it could work”, but reeking of winning in the now not being the central priority.

Danforth is the 1C

Mittelstadt looked good because he had a good season. His numbers at ES were very good league relative There’s a borderline obsession with predictive stats. You can prioritize those all you want and claim Casey is a poor player now and forever because of them and that can be totally fair while still *not changing what actually happened* Cheechoo scored 56 goals that year. That year he WAS really good. Mittelstadt played and produced well that season. Not relatively well: well.