Thorny

I think this presents an important conclusion: we either believe Adams or we don’t. If people think he’s doing a good job, they presumably must believe the words that come out of his mouth and the strategy he presents: “We want players who want to be here”. If this is actually true, and not just a blown out narrative of his shaping of the Eichel drama, I fail to see how attracting Patrick Kane, and the connotation inherent to that, wouldn’t do *a lot* on the front of positioning the Sabres, to the league at large, as a destination where actual players want to be

Have we considered, considering the obvious and documented revamp of the Sabres social media presence since Adams took over, how likely it would be that the team isn’t very well aware of the conversation that’s taking place online, in general? Would seem an absurd suggestion that they weren’t. Have we considered Adams is simply most concerned with frequently ensuring there is smoke, regardless of the conversion to fire? How important is, “well, we tried” to the narrative this organization is consciously shaping online? Under, again, the established context where we KNOW they care dearly about online narrative and presence? Chad may just be a victim of the organization’s conscious social media handprint, as much or more than anyone else. I’ve been on this train for a good long while, their social media revamp is relatively un-mined as a discussion point and I think you can see it’s offshoots in a lot of places

I agree. I’d be pretty surprised if KA and team have switched up on their initial evaluations after seeing such limited output afterwords. We preach endlessly it’s too early to judge guys that have already been suiting up as nhl pros for years - a drastic shift like that (even Östlund was picked before Kulich) would be surprising to me

Also, I used “Adams” to put a Face on the Hand, because it makes the most apparent sense. But “Adams” is synonymous with Front Office. If he’s merely a puppet, feel free to alter the Hand to Terry, and literally nothing about my arguments changes as a result

Granato..the players..they are all pieces on the board. Adams is the Hand, and the impetus behind their movement and performance.

In seriousness, are we thinking this is something the organization has already changed its mind on? Presumably they believed Savoie was the better prospect considering they selected him much higher, in the same draft

This is where I am. We might be damned if we do, but we are very probably damned if we don’t, because of how it reflects on the man in charge. I’ll take the signs of life.

If they sit KO at 1001 and thus prove the only thing keeping him in beforehand was prioritization of doing right by the vibes and not our team record…I won’t be mad at this hockey team. I’ll just be disappointed.

And liquor is the confidence of the fan

We are in the same spot in that I’ve posted recently that the math absolutely keeps playoffs a realistic possibly for this season I just disagree whole heartedly with the connotation of “panic”, and the way it’s being bandied about. If what people are posting about is “panic”, then yes I guess the panic is deserved - people should be worried if playoff are a full-stop goal this year. It’s a LOW expectation we SHOULD NOT fall short of. We *put ourselves in the position* of there being a short runway to consummate that goal by devoting so many years to build years with zero literal expectation. THIS is the cost: it’s year 4, you gotta convert on playoffs now. As a minimum. They chose this situation. If you put yourself in a position where you are left with minimal outs and the tenuous future you need to achieve looks to, at this point, be 50/50 and hanging in the balance, there should be concern It’s not the future we deserve that’s 50/50 and hanging in the balance: playoffs are the *minimum*. If you can’t make the playoffs in 4 years as a GM, I think you are objectively a bad GM thats why there is “panic”. We are already well behind the 8-ball due to “time served”. Enough. Make the playoffs. They HAVE to make the playoffs. What’s up for referendum here isn’t whether Adams is a good GM: he needs to make it just to prove he’s not a walking farce it’s not just 7-7-1. It’s 7-7-1 in a season there is supposed to be no more runway left, by all rights. Hockey wise, It’s not “50/50 we’ll have enough for our backpack trip through Europe this year, let’s see how it plays out”. It’s, “50/50 we aren’t going to have enough to pay the debt collector that’s coming for our legs” Panic.

4th reason is definitely the biggest, any other concerns are secondary and subservient and benefits to not signing him don’t matter if number 4 isn’t true anyways for that reason I really hope we sign P. Kane

The nhl is just a weird league in general. It’s also the only of the 4 that legitimately has their officials call the game differently depending on regular/post season essentially creating two definitively different seasons during every singular. You need to construct a roster that’s adept at playing both the regular season version of the nhl and the playoffs version of the nhl. Old boys league full of old idiots

Injuries or not, it’s quickly becoming a “tale of two sixes” where the forward lines are concerned. Tuch would make a difference, but I’m not sure the combination of him and our stable of competing rookies changes the equation all that substantially. Thank god for Casey Mittelstadt, that’s all I’ll say

Me neither. Sounds like something Taro might know

I just feel like there was a time the lingo was used ONLY in the playoffs and not in the regular season - I feel like the vagueness used to be playoff specific

Correct me if I am wrong, it was only during the playoffs that it took hold at first, too, right?

Absolutely. And it’s why we “were what our record was” last season, and not our placement in total goals. And it’s why there was never a cheat code available to us where we could improve without work from the GM. We couldn’t just “improve goaltending by improving team D” and render actual roster additions unnecessary. Not without a cost. We could pay for the outside asset, or pay by way of some of that goal total It ain’t free Ask Levi what Qui-Gon said. Credits may do fine, but you can’t pay in vibes

You know me very well

There are receipts. The offseason is full of posts from some of the boards’ stand-out members that this season wasn’t even about making the playoffs, that we are actually ready to *contend* this season for a championship (which I cautioned against at the time). That would be the only reason you piss away 3 years in the name of development where the results don’t matter. (I mean, if you just want to make the playoffs, plenty of teams turn over on that goal in one offseason. We are aiming for something BiGgEr.) I’ll happily settle for playoffs and have ardently clung to this position and remained consistent in this - but let’s not pretend that wouldn’t be the *bare minimum* don’t make me pull up all the posts

Right. People can willfully ignore the context and evaluate every season as if it’s in a vacuum, and if we miss the playoffs this year, next season when we start 7-7-1 we can hear all about how, in a vacuum, it’s early again. But the reality is that removing all of the context doesn’t make any natural sense: it’s not 7-7-1, it’s in actuality 7-7-1 at the tail end of 3 previous years missing the playoffs under this regime, and 12 missed playoffs under the franchise: the salient truth is that “making the playoffs” this season, after missing for so long was an incredibly low, incredibly generous expectation to begin with - that’s where the angst justifiably comes in from fans - it’s a mark they absolutely need to and should be expected to hit. It’s already a gracious expectation. If they are looking 50/50 so far on what’s a NECESSARY, gracious expectation, there is going to be angst. Justifiably. If they make the playoffs, the reaction by all rights should be, “it’s about time”.

I certainly agree with this. Half the board takes a victory lap when we lose - but the other half takes a victory lap when we win, too. “Oh, I was told Steph Curry couldn’t shoot, and that the sky was falling, and that we couldn’t win? Hmmm?” they feed eachother

I think it does help. Venting helps. The fans can’t really do anything else. Imagine begrudging the fan who shows up with their lunch pail every day to this site in the midst of, not bad hockey, but a stretch of some of the worst hockey any team has had in any professional sport, over a decade long, who wants to vent their frustrations. Objectively, should the website not be an accurate reflection of the team’s achievements? These fans that are frustrated that still show up are the lifeblood of the team. make the f*ckin playoffs

So the argument is that there’s a group of fans who are so exhausted by always being bad that they’ve turned to the smaller satisfaction of at least being “right” about their predictions? Not exactly surprising. Why would we begrudge the fans clinging to something? The team could just…ya know…win… and then people wouldn’t be able to rail on their endless failure anymore and everyone could be happy nothing is the fan’s fault. This is all definitively the fault of the franchise

As a follower of the team for over 30 years, I can perhaps see how my perspective would differ from yours in the sense that it’s “only” been now…half of my time period as a fan that has been marred by putrid league-relative hockey. Though, I would wager to say that a fan of 50 years could/should possess the deductive ability to understand why a team that’s been bad for a decade and a half might be populated by followers predicting more of the same. I don’t think 13 years is a short period relative to human years. Vulcans, maybe. It’s objectively a long one, though, for us. You know, just compared to the amount of years we get on this planet. Frankly it would be sort of weird to, after such a long time, for people to NOT be fed up with it and prone to expecting more failure. Almost as if those preaching otherwise are being disingenuous. Or, at best, undervalue the most important asset in the world: time.

You are surprised the site is full of people calling for rain when it’s rained for going on 13 years straight that’s interesting