Thorny

Ya I’d go with Dahlin personally, not really a hard choice. He’s already our best player and will be here longer, and in his prime for the duration of his contract Also don’t really want the added pressure to lock up a guy who’ll be on the downside of his career because he’s captain, may even run into an Okposo situation

The Leafs game would be must-see tv if we can go in at nhl 500

Any player worth their weight will care as much as the fans do in the moment: the competitive nature the game requires at the highest level is considerable. But the players will never care about the *Buffalo Sabres* as much as the fans. We love the crest. We have the history. We feel the weight of it in a way they never could, including the drought. Most of these guys didn’t give 2 sh*ts about the Sabres before signing a contract here: they are professionals. It’s a job. A job they may love: but it’s still a job. So do they care as much in the moment? I’d say yes. Does the millions of dollars they make soften the blow? Of course. Do they care about the Buffalo Sabres franchise, beyond their current teammates? Not close to the level of a fan. When they get moved to a new team, that’s their team. So yes, they of course care. There isn’t any lack of it to the extent it would affect winning, imo. They care about winning. It’s just useful to keep in mind the things they don’t care about, as much

It sure as heck makes dealing with the losses easier, though

There’s over-analysis of one game in an 82 game season and one game in a 13 year drought and then there’s this. We didn’t win because we are better without one of our best players. If it’s a better line configuration on L1 without him that’s a *coaching issue*. If we need to save the team from themselves by not playing Skinner that would be a bandaid fix for an issue surely to arise with other lineup decisions

Tweet that, tweety-bird

Unless he was suiting up in goal, of course

Exactly lol. I’ve theorized this a bunch and I think you are absolutely right. It’s not surprising: the “we need goaltending” thing has always been staring us RIGHT IN THE FACE and not only that it’s the one area that goes a long way towards masking other issues. It’s why the “who even was there?” logic was always so bad: it’s season 4. You absolutely had the ability to pay what was *necessary* to bring in a good goalie, regardless of what other teams were willing to (which is the biggest factor in who moves and who doesn’t)

Not at all, it was just objectively wrong so you get an X. Sorry dems da rules Well done. Really well done

I’d settle for yo-yo tbh, at least we’d be .500. We’ve been fair a bit below that. I didn’t see the game as mentioned, biggest takeaway before I see the highlights at least seems to be goaltending. Shocker. Looking at the preliminary numbers, this is the kind of performance we need more consistently between the pipes. That other teams get more often than few and far between. See, it’s actually ok for your goalie to provide significant positive value and not just stop the ones he’s “supposed” to, ie the ones that go without saying for a pro goalie. For the millionth time, I’ll say we should waive Comrie: ride Levi for now in a 1/2 and if/when he falters, if Comrie somehow gets claimed, it’ll be easy to find another goalie of his caliber. The dudes I played with tonight are available. Though they might be little bit beyond his level

But we have the White Liger - that has to count for something

They’ll be up for this one. If Levi gives them a good start we’ll have a good shot at it. Maybe even a Tuch shot at an empty net.

I thought it was going to be Gene Hackman when I clicked into the thread Ah.

Better question is probably “when”. There’s almost certainly a late season stretch with our name on it where we rack up a bunch of wins against teams that don’t take us seriously. But that will only be a mirage: key is for ship to be righted while we actually have a realistic chance of making the playoffs

I feel like people only get tired of hearing the “youngest team” thing when it’s used under the context of being a defence for the GM. I don’t blame the players at all. They are merely the sum total of what Kevyn Adams committed to record. The expectation for this season was playoffs because the context of that expectation is analysis of the GM. If the sentence that follows is, “well, it’s an unfair expectation because a poor GM did a bad job assembling the roster, and part of that is the team is too young: I’m all for it - - - “They aren’t good enough because they are too young” can be true, and still serve as an indictment of the GM. The important thing is that we acknowledge the GM is a bad one. (fine, “Competent” is still on the table, if we can make the playoffs this season somehow) The ship has more less sailed. A plan that takes 5 years to make the playoffs is a bad plan, and that’s the earliest it’s looking that we can get in. Anyone can sit in the GM chair and do literally nothing, I could literally do it. He’s a bad GM. Can we get to the playoffs under a bad GM? Law of averages says yes: In a league where half make it, ya, we should still be able to get in eventually, one would think, even if he’s on an apparent lifetime term

Thankfully, have my own game tonight. Don’t worry, I’m wearing my hat again to rep

Old age/small finger buttons on half-broken phone. Was supposed to be a thumbs up Thanks for asking though, corrected I couldn’t care less if we paid him or traded him (really, this goes for anyone at this point) as clearly we need major change. But the specifics you laid out seem to be accurate as far as Casey is concerned

The Sabres don’t “play the right way” because the Sabres are only one side of the equation: the other team wants to play THEIR game, too. Zero sum game. It’s not an issue of will. The issue has been the same for 13 years and KA is the latest to take a big ol’ swing and a miss by theorizing cUltUre was the issue and turning the Sabres into a country club. It’s talent. It’s our collection of talent. (Talent includes ability to fight along the boards for pucks, sick snipes, all of it. I’m talking all around ability). We have less overall ability top down team wide and have for over a decade. We didn’t have cancerous players, we had players that became cancerous because we slotted Marcus Johansson at 2C. It’s a GM issue.

Laine’d his butt

Wow. Thanks Jon Morosi. Thanks MLB for officially retweeting it. Thanks Sportsnet reporters for gaslighting the fans by saying they got “worked” by social media when their own often-on-their-network reporter (Morosi), who’s supposed to be legit, broke that news. I hate sports in 2023. Time for an indefinite break. Just don’t want to do it anymore. “Go team.” You guys around here have fun. Try to keep your head up. You’re the only part of sports worth knowing.

I like this comp. Good defensive awareness as well

That’s what I mean. Advocates for sending him down are operating under the idea there’s a negligible difference between him and the other option (Comrie). That was the case. But presumably while he’s up, each times he’s up, Levi gets a chance to re-write the current story. No reason this call up needs to be just one game. See how the call up goes. If he proves he’s better than Comrie, he stays. If he doesn’t, THEN send him back down. No reason to keep him here if he doesn’t deserve it but also no reason to send him right back after a good start

Not over yet, though

I saw that

2 out of every 5 starts or so, at the NHL level, if he’s clearly one of our best 2 guys would be the way to go imo. It would serve the team (which should be the priority) and also presumably represent a (solid re: development) workload that DL could also theoretically handle. Again, if he’s one of the top 2. in No universe am I willingly giving Comrie starts over Levi if I believe Levi is non-negligibly the better goalie. That would be ridiculous in a season supposedly about winning