Thorny

I prefer just looking at last season’s pace vs this season's. It’s not a golf course, improving by 2 points over a poor start from last year doesn’t mean we are in better shape than last year, more reflective is how the pace has downturned since they finished last season You hope that carries over + improvement not that you more less revert back to a stage pre-several stages of development. What would be the point of having a development year last year if it didn’t carry over - that’s the entire point

He’s referring to: “If we only had Quinn, we’d be ok. Curses, we’ve been screwed again - there’s just nothing poor Kevyn Adams could have done.” It’s an incredibly compelling correlation right now

Hockey players don’t individually have a very high WAR and if a second year player somehow did, all the more reason KA should have replaced him when he had ample time and all the more reason this could have been avoided by a GM actually playing chess. Hell I’d settle for checkers. He just needs to actually play.

‘Zactly. We have plenty of flexibility (more than most teams), a .500 base and plenty of tools to make it happen: we simply need the GM to wield them

The biting sting of truth

The offseason was objectively bare bones from Adams

Best moments by far of following (the heart of the reason I watch) is watching the 06 and 07 runs when I was near that age W/my Dad

Maybe this did happen Even w/o playoffs maybe that was the ahead of schedule year - - - It’s a big part of my thinking that jobs shouldn’t be lost if we miss this year ie have one abject failure. There should be somewhat of a reprieve - I’d give the management team another shot next year. 5 years seems fair and reasonable. they still could claw in this year, and they’ve got another shot following

Well, we’re still a hockey team. Onto da next

Remember the episode where he got most eligible bachelor in Detroit and it went to his head Loved that show Watched it with my Mom

I’ll settle for a playoff berth

Agree. And it’s always good to keep the bolded in mind

Yep, man games lost wise we are pretty par for the course re: the team we entered into the season with. Quinn is a separate distinction. It was clear from a good ways out he wouldn’t be available, plenty of time to address it, it doesn’t fall under “bad luck” like the others. But again, bad luck is really just expected luck where injuries are concerned

Very few players actually have the cache to demand something like that never mind stand firm on it. Dahlin maybe but I don’t think he’s close to that in a mind right now the Sabres TANKED for Eichel. He knew it was his team inherently that was an inherent part of tanking at all. He had more of a right to be like “you aren’t rebuilding again” than most would. Dahlin as a #1 overall, maybe

Because we’ve had inept GMs. Or an owner hiring inept GMs. Take your pick Sorry, is Occam’s Razor here that we are mystically cursed? Hockey gods? Monkey paw? Winning teams just can’t be built in Buffalo? Come on now

Dude just measure him against the other GMs in the league. It’s a relative comp. We have achieved less on average than other teams. It’s his job - they get evaluated by results. It’s very straightforward

But at least:

All around stink show. No need to attempt to siphon blame onto one aspect

KO heating up

I don’t think so, Tim

They parroted that the expectation internally was playoffs this year, and more importantly it’s the common sense expectation for a regime in year 4: icing such a young team in that season remains a willing choice and certainly doesn’t serve as a manual cheat-code reset of expectations

We seem to struggle to win any in a row and don’t lose in regulation a bunch in a row either. A .500 team isn’t the worst thing, the seeming security in that is progress somewhat: but only progress relative to the worst we’ve seen the last decade or so. Not so much after a 91 points last year. Hasn’t been enough holds on career year outputs from last season nor replacement of that output through internal dev. It’ll be interesting to see how they look to transition from .500 club to playoff club

Ya, the youth thing is definitely an excuse. It’s not a bug in year 4 of the tenure, it’s a feature