Thorny

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.

Danforth 15 minutes a night dudacek why do you hate the fans?

Don’t agree on UPL, Adams has incessantly built the roster for 6 years acting as if goalie doesn’t matter so it’s not the area of the roster he’s supplemented with close to the talent required for it to be a key area, for me. I agree on Tage though. I think he probably ends up back at C - I may be traditional but needing a great 1C has just more often than not always been a thing. Everything shines a tad brighter for me when Tage is there

Dahlin, Tage, Tuch None of the other players mentioned doing what is mentioned will matter or amount to enough if the guys we expect and need the most from don’t fulfill those higher degree of difficulty roles

Under no circumstance should the word “process” be uttered should the regime come to an end and a new GM instated. The Sabres can’t afford another reboot or rebuild. Whatever remoulding needs to be done has to be done with an eye on making the playoffs the immediate year and in no way invoke the context of “next few”. There’s no rule you need to take a “step back”. Make moves based on winning in the now.

Hmm i strenuously disagree

Could hardly string together…4 words I Tarzan, you Jane

Hutton was half blind Comrie hasn’t amounted to being a starter - anywhere - not just in Buffalo. Adams takes shots in the dark at fixing the position and also handcuffs his own bets by assembling the rest of the team with the poor logic he uses to handle the goaltending position. It would be a stretch to think his ineptitude wouldn’t conform to the shape of the roster in totality when it’s as mobile, unstoppable, and fluid as water the goalies have been bad. The talent around them has also been bad. We don’t need to pigeonhole problems when you are historically bad: there’s room for them all, it’s a big party! You are doing too much when you eliminate blame, you’ll find some under every overturned stone when you are the worst team of all time

What goes up when the rain goes down

I’ve never seen it at quite this level

The sabres thinking they can address the roster in “typical” fashion remains a massive problem. I’ve said this countless times The sabres have needed a defibrillator for over 5 years. You can’t put yourself in a 14 year hole, disenfranchise your entire roster and fanbase over the last 5 years specifically, and pretend “a couple small “savvy” moves” are all the team needs. I admire the fact of how much of an incredible outlier you are in how much you expect of them, but you almost professionally remove context from your thinking as a choice; I just happen to do the opposite. No right or wrong there just stylistic. the team that’s been a drastic failure needs a drastic effort. You fall more along the lines of “well, just do what some of the other teams have done”. it doesn’t work like that imo: the solution needs to be sabres relative not relative to teams we’ve already showed we have failed to replicate “Well we more less did what Ottawa did and it doesn’t always fail when that happens” is just so woefully short to the point of insulting raise your expectations. We should be expecting nothing less than a roster that RIGHT now looks like a SAFE, SAFE bet to make the playoffs you were posting 2 years ago about how “come on people, don’t be afraid to expect something now!” The moves we’ve made this offseason are insultingly laughable through the prism of last offseason, if I had told you this is what they’d do after finishing with 70 something points you know that

Ya your take is fine, I just disagreed with the bit where you said you expect Benson to be a “very good” top 6 player with 40 points minimum etc. To me a “very good” top 6er is a borderline first liner and I don’t feel comfortable labeling Benson as that yes, even if he has the skills to one day be it Maybe I’m crazy but if the goal is a playoff team, not even the standard, not even the expectation given missing 14 years, just the goal: all 3 of my first liners are bonafide first liners, not 2 guys who are and 1 who may be because of them I’m sure there will be an excellent follow up post from someone explaining to me why benson is actually better than the 2nd LWer on every team to make the playoffs in the last decade, and how no one on the team is actually out of place besides the goalie or something. But ya to me there never seem to be enough purported holes and disadvantages to add up to the record, with the amount that get discarded over the course of your average summer probably the result of a multitude of coin-flips spread throughout the roster, where they can conceivably all individually go right, but the combination of them all doing so mathematically very unlikely

Not really in love with the poll options. Probably closest to 1, but it’s not something I necessarily expect to unfold this season that the sabres are counting on it necessarily, for success, on that sort of time frame, when he’s 19 or whatever isn’t a commentary on being a beaten down fan if one finds difficulty in predicting it: it’s a commentary on the fact it’s an objective gamble

I was just thinking today, after taking a bit of a break.. I can’t believe we didn’t do anything this offseason with management, or with coaching, or really even with the roster (you know what I mean, seriously. I get it, Doan. Ya.) No other point here. Just wanted to say it again. I just feel it’s important- cause it’s not just something we say: they truly are absurd.

Jays.

A lot of it stems from the fact ownership and management have different aims in priority than the fan base. It’s a little less, “I’m a hockey wizard!” - Terry Pegula, than people think and a little more “Come in on budget, and don’t build a roster so bad that playoffs look like an impossibility.” their whole thing is plausible deniability.

Yup. I’m sorry, do the sabres think they’ve earned the right to approach their offseason like the teams that *haven’t* been a dumpster fire for half my life? are you kidding me? Their specific situation needs addressing: they are an anomaly and need an anomalific approach to rise from the ashes I have now maintained this viewpoint for…6 seasons the solution to saving the team needs to be proportionally extreme to the tact that put us in the hole. Otherwise they essentially cannibalize any progress they make by timing their own players out. They have to get off the treadmill

I think we did ok relative to the teams around us, but absolutely putrid relative to what should be expected of a team that’s missed 14 straight

Tage isn’t bad defensively tho. A superstar is great offence and merely ok D. I think people forget that sometimes Great offence and great D is prime Crosby

Next up on the tee: Lafferty Daniel…and Gilmore, Happy

I do think Kesselring is going to be really good. I’d predict it to follow a predictable pattern like almost eveything Adams does. His list of (positive) impact moves is sorely lacking, and he tends to be so one-track-minded he can only do one thing. But the “one thing”, see: McLeod, Zucker, etc, usually does seem to turn out pretty well