Thorny

Congrats you managed to get an X from me and Hank at the same time, platinum achievement its not unqualified advice I’m just quoting a common saying frivolously. It’s not that serious, believe me

“Equally plausible argument”…now we’re talkin’!

WC2 pace is 90 now after another Caps loss We’d have a shot if we go something like 9-2-1

Those who can’t do, teach

certainly I am not and I certainly wouldn’t complain. At this point, I mean I almost never rip the guy but I’m struggling to make an argument for why Granato shouldn’t objectively be fired. How can our standards be that low? Adams, well you know my feelings there, I wouldn’t lose sleep if we canned him now: most franchises would. He’s abjectly failed so far. But this year was his first outright fail on expectations so I’ve said it a lot but I WOULD give him a mulligan for next year even having said, earlier, that I actually don’t think he changes his strategy

They probably will mostly just rely on youth, they may get even younger, but nothing changes the fact this is their chosen setup for *year 5* of this regime. It doesn’t represent an iota of an excuse.

Its infuriating and disappointing but I’ll give this regime one more shot to figure it out for next season

It’s just funny cause we should be LONG dead. We have like 70 points with a couple weeks left and there are still mathematical scenarios lol the 8 range is just so so bad

We can’t just sit around and attempt to age out. We would be trying to make up too much of a gap in an area where only so much can be gained. Other teams have young players too, we are only benefiting development wise by being 0.25 years younger to a very small degree And there’s a draft every year and everyone gets 7 free picks. 31st, 24th, 20th, 25th (our standings placement, last one by points percentage) it doesn’t work, you need to configure an actual team

Good player + Bernier effect = Is he our best player? (-) Bernier effect: still good.

Caps lose. Sabres playoff hopes refuse to die

That’s fair Maybe needs a bit more consistency

“Why aren’t we consistent? The sabres are an enigma.” Not really that complicated. You are consistent when your baseline is higher. We always seem to measure exclusively by what these guys CAN do. What we should be asking is: what is the AVERAGE of what they do? I’m not sure why we don’t focus on that much. Not as provocative a question? Maybe we are so hardwired by this point to focus on potential, because we’ve put results aside so long, that we by nature see the upside in focus We are in the world of expectations now. Of results. Of what you put out there, on average

No, they are better. We are thinking, switch coaches, we are Vancouver and they are the sabres? We finish top 5? I’d say this is a wild take but, I can’t keep up anymore lol

Not yet. We have more than enough here to turn what we have into a playoff team, with a few significant moves. Not a ton, but a few. We don’t need to be the Canucks. Just be a playoff team, thats all the ask is. To start, at least Also, Dahlin could still become as good as Hughes. He’s just not right now. But that at least is possible. We might be behind them by a lot at F but the other first overall pick you mentioned combined with Dahlin is more than enough to be built around as a strength of a team and help bridge the gap to the F. Our D core could be comparable to anyone, but it’s enough right now to be a playoff team. We can’t keep letting perfect be the enemy of good

Yes, we aren’t making it. It’s a wonder, with our amazing roster that’s just unluckily underachieving as if it wasn’t imminently predictable all offseason and no, they don’t sometimes

You are looking at talent way too narrowly. I am speaking of overall aptitude. They are close to first in the league, we are 25th by points percentage. UPL has been stellar. There is a CHASM between our forwards right now you are sitting here in a thread arguing with me about how the rosters are close of a team that just tripled us in shots and sits at the top of the league and we havent made the playoffs in 4 years. Like you invariably take the side opposite and make cases for why we are actually really close to everyone. the standings do not reflect it. The data doesn’t reflect your conclusions. There is a massive hole that you willingly ignore that you just want to offset to “bad luck / we are cursed” - - - We have a roster construction issue. Call it 2 way ability, “grit”, defensive ability, edginess..playmaking.. goal scoring..back up GOALTENDING ..anything: if these things contribute to WINNING in the nhl, they are talents it’s not “well we are pretty close on talent everywhere but Granato sucks so we are 25th”. There are so many more variables. And it’s not luck.

Miller and EP blow anything we have at forward out of the water and Hughes is better than Dahlin and I’m the biggest Dahlin guy there is

They are more talented

Fun to fantasize about even if it never comes to pass Hope for the best, detail the worst

Well we’d only need 92 as we likely have the tie breaker. I don’t see Washington finishing with 92 though, cause of their schedule. Very reasonably could be 90 Also even by your math 93 allows us another loss, and you said win out more likely 91 gets the job done, so two more regulation losses and we conceivably have a reasonable shot

Not really. Cutoff will probably be like 90, not 95 Probably need to keep it to 2 more regulation losses tho

Dahlin by far our best skater today, Tuch his usual self. One thing: we certainly don’t quit. We didn’t play a good game but at least they kept coming Did Cozens play the entire last 35 minutes?

Like I said, right where we want em