Thorny

A monumental victory

Kevyn Adams can only act like a Kevyn Adams does. If he didn’t, he couldn’t be Kevyn Adams at all

2011-2020 didn’t exist. Scrap it from the record. This stretch from 2020-24, with our 31st, 24th, 20th, and 25th place seeding is objectively league relative terrible. Granting Adams a 5th year is absurd patience. We literally do not need to even mention what came before. (WITH A MASSIVE OWNER COMMON DENOMINATOR, to boot)

It’s yet another issue for Kevyn Adams’ “hindsight need not apply” pile. Taking a long form rebuild was *a choice*. That choice was, AT THE TIME, a risk specifically because of how the fanbase might react: Adams KNEW the rebuild was being positioned in that reality. Following an already exceptionally trying stretch. The risks were known. Extending this out and measuring in half-decade chunks was a calculated mistake. To blame the fans is actually more absurd the more you think about it If he doesn’t like it, they could, ya know, win. Or employ a strategy that doesn’t take 5 years to do so. *no one said they needed to do a 5-year long-form tear down rebuild *. It is, entirely, on them. Eichel asked out SPECIFICALLY because he got wind of Adams wanting to do this.

Art from artist, I agree. they are an entertainment product. None of it is personal: it can’t be. If they don’t understand that, anyone that doesn’t understand that, that’s on you/them

No, I’ve turned on the Sabres because of Adams’ regime. Specifically Adams’ regime. He’s taking way too long to make the playoffs

no one needs to f*cking apologize lol

You follow baseball: how hilarious is it that the Jays literally just did the Kevyn Adams offseason haha

Playoffs also require a commitment from the GM that we haven’t gotten yet. The connotation of “patience” just remains so inappropriate because the fanbase has exhibited more than enough of the patience for both the organization (and its Pegula common denominator) - 13 years, and Adams’ regime - 4 years, that can be reasonably expected given a fair reading of the time it should take, league relative, to make the playoffs. Adams plan wasn’t to take 5 years just to make the playoffs. The plan may be in motion, but it’s not going according to plan. Rather than asking for undo patience, IF we think Adams’ objectively, needlessly snail-paced plan will nonetheless eventually lead to the results we want, and that it’s our best option cause we are too afraid to make a change: why not just say “it’ll take TIME.” that seems like a fair compromise. Patience is absurd. The idea it’ll take time: can be true without asking something of the fans they shouldn’t have to be providing

Your perspective is impressive

Most “I’m not actually taking a step back”, “I’m taking a step back” post, ever love the detail. we’ll need some F additions to help out after shipping out the guys you said and to account for inevitable injuries Also, a fan being “negative” about perhaps the worst run in sports history is not even possible, I don’t think you’ve merely been reflective

More of the same pigeonhole the problems logic. This franchise hasn’t made the playoffs in *13 years*. We do not have the luxury of turning up our noses at *any* kind of improvement that can be salvaged. How could we? Didn’t we miss the playoffs by a solitary point last year? What are we doing here? I’m not saying Girgs has to go but yet again, your post reads like, “well, he’s ALMOST a good enough 4th liner, it’s fine.” No. You seem to be looking for reasons to avoid replacing players, when the mindset should be to improve in any area possible, if at all possible a bunch of small things that “aren’t really the main issue” quickly stack up and BECOME an issue when you dismiss away thing after thing under this principle

We are on the same page if we are agreeing Adams needs to be proactive in addressing several holes this offseason. I do think several moderate reinforcements would go all long way, in an alchemical sense I think they’d represent more than the sum of their parts: in that the entire team will see benefit from them. We can’t shave on these additions and put ourselves in a position where *if everything goes to plan* we are the 16th seed. We can surround ourselves with mathematically reasonably conclusions yet if you are counting on 10 things that are pretty likely, not all of them are going to go right: regardless of them all being likely. This is an issue of *strategy*, not analysis. I’ve been trying to say this forever: I agree with quite a bit of KA’s analysis in a vacuum but it’s how he strategically goes about implementing things that loses me. If the playoffs are the mandate, it’s absolutely not good enough to structure things in such a way that things COULD go right. If it’s truly a hard line expectation, the roster needs to be configured in such a way that *some things can go wrong and we still make the playoffs*. That’s what people need to accept: we’ve gotten the roster to a point where success is theoretically possible. But it’s about the results. Isn’t it now, finally? If you are measuring a goal by the actual result, you need to put yourself in a position where that result is protected by failsafes. Our failsafes for some of our most risky bets this year included..rostering Eric Comrie, a non nhl er, who’d need to see a lot of action should Levi not break *crazy historical precedent*. Adams didn’t, hasn’t, managed the roster in such a way that actually had any sort of urgency towards making the playoffs. He hasn’t acted like it truly NEEDED to happen: he just made moves where it remained reasonably possible. That’s not going to cut it

It’s a good breakdown (and I agree with your concluding sentence, tbh), but essentially what this logic is doing is cherry-picking a stat or 2, AND removing key players to do it, and in doing so also only aspiring to the output of a team that, last year, finished 20th place. That’s the key point. Talk about leaving the end result dancing in the wind. This would be the sort of zero-urgency mindset that amounts to the sort of results we’ve seen and are well-familiar with. Squinting really hard at the data until you lump it all on to one variable is lazy, and ineffective, and most of all: it’s not predictive. This is what people mean when they say even math has a bias. Your post even (understandably, you’re a fan) *reads* as if you are trying to pull the most positive numbers out of the analysis, it’s skewed by the result you want, by a pro-Sabres bias.

Chad being wrong isn’t that surprising..he’s fallen off recently Not saying you are - you’ve mentioned you believe the PP is one of several issues - but he certainly is if he means “there’s your issue”, definitively He goes against the grain willingly a lot. He’s been pumping out the “things are actually fine!” content since he put out his “I’m officially done this season, it’s over” tweet. I don’t really blame him, he’s a content provider

All-star Zemgus Girgensons put some ‘spect on it

This I agree with mostly. They need several significant changes/additions/upgrades: but at least we are in the spot where THAT is what we need. The GM needs to actually do it, but at least it’s reasonably possible from our standing. To start a reset would be a huge mistake. Even if we brought in a new GM, which id be fine with, he’d have to be a quick turnaround guy to a certainty. These guys are aplenty: and they aren’t all Tim Murray. Most vet GMs operate in the real NHL ie they don’t believe in the absurdity of 5 year, job security prioritized plans. A guy could come in and say, thanks for the prospect pool, and make the necessary tweaks KA apparently refuses to. Or KA could just do it

Or, just pay everyone professional, long term cash to play a professional game, all in the name of providing an entertainment product, and let them…..learn *how* to be professionals *AFTER* the fact, haha. The Sabres have lost the plot, and some fans are reading an entirely different book along with them. Taking 5 years to *learn to play* isn’t absurd, it’s nearly insane lol. It’s a ridiculous, Sabres-invented concept. The “5 year plan” was about taking a slow approach SPECIFICALLY so that we’d be perennial cup contenders by year 5. *the entire point of that strategy is to purposely take a longer path, because “just making the playoffs” isn’t enough* the strategy was NEVER to take 5 years just to do something almost all teams, historically, do much quicker, year over year. It was never about taking 5 years to make the playoffs. that sort of plan is DOA ”trust the process, patience, young team…and if you do so, you’ll be rewarded with playoffs in 2024 or 2025” is *already* a failed strategy. That’s what some miss: the expectation of playoffs, bare minimum, was *inclusive, already* of us having all these caveats people point to. Youth, process, etc. The plan failed. It failed both relative to other teams, and even more importantly: intrinsically. Its literal strengths collapsed upon themselves. It now needs to be re-written.

I moved into the condo I’m currently living in in March of 2012. Miss 1 of the Drought followed, that spring. 12 years I’ve been here. Not one appearance. Not since I lived at home. I move out this coming April. We make the playoffs in 23-24. I’m absolutely sure of it.

Damn even AI is scoring “likes” off this team, now He’s over half-way to 2000 games. It’ll be a while No, we’re bread. Toast is a process. Gotta give it time.

̶R̶e̶b̶e̶l̶l̶i̶o̶n̶s̶ ̶ Rebuilds are built on hope. And there never was much hope… ..just a fool’s hope.