Thorny

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

Vancouver very nearly scored there, missed the net a few times on some wide open chances still alive

On the plus side, Vancouver added another before the end of the second: I much prefer our chances now that their lead is officially more dangerous

Is this English?

Tuch: “Well, actually..”

Ya she’s a unicorn in some ways. Absolute phenomenon. even made the nhl playoffs more recently than the sabres somehow With a leaky, portable propane tank

That was an abomination

55 and 66 assists for Miller and Hughes

Who was the Sabre who literally gave them a 2 on 1????

These Canucks sweaters are admittedly awesome

Sabres dub Ohhh it’s cause I forgot to post the Brady