Thorny

It’s funny how much support the strategy had in theory before the season started, too

BPA re: F/D/G in trade

Sabres won the division shortly after losing Briere and Drury for nothing

There’s a reason they weren’t on their game

Raptors finished second in the east the year after Kawhi left and they didn’t get back what they gave up to get him, either Build a team I’m saying where this player goes we won’t need ice

Forsling was a McDavid hack. McDonald’s played 70% of his shifts last night vs the Gustav

If McDavid doing what he does and looking the way he does as he does it isn’t enough to back people off the “see, he couldn’t carry his team through!” argument, literally nothing can. That’s it The proof is in the pudding: you can perform to a level of aptitude greater than all who came before and it still can, quite clearly, not be enough. It’s just not the nfl or nba Can we imagine for a second what it would be like if McDavid got to touch the puck on literally every offensive possession the oilers had?

That’s the biggest thing. People will talk about development until the cows come home and neglect to mention we traded Eichel at 24 - he wasn’t close to being in orbit in fact he was just launching his prime. People will ask “how didn’t you win with Jack Sam and ROR?” when non-ELC Jack and Sam never played with him Anyways, I’ll say C Should be noted: the leafs were the second best team this year. Only one team gave Florida a true test

There are countless times the guy winning the Smythe did far FAR less and it was well enough to win it all. If McDavid’s Smythe performance last year isn’t attached to a Cup win it’s other aspects of the team not bridging that gap, to a certainty - - - anecdotally I find people really tend to struggle with recency bias. People get McDavid was far, far more good/clutch than Reinhart this postseason, right? 10 of Reinhart’s 23 points came in the last 4 games. He had 13 in 17 before that. He’s good, great maybe even, but a short little streak at the end doesn’t make him McDavid. Reinhart wasn’t “clutch” and McDavid a “ghost”, McDavid performed all playoffs to a much higher and more consistent degree - all the playoff games count Do you think Bennett was better in the playoffs this year than McDavid?

It’s dumb how there was no penalties all game, like they didn’t stop taking them in the 6th game lol. NHL officiating is so weird. but, fun to see the Canadian drought continue. Florida is a wagon - - - Gotta be Bennett for Smythe

^There’s one (see emoji reaction)

Ya he’s a mofo

Eichel, Reinhart, O’Reilly, Peterka were floating through my head when I typed it out

The sabres don’t seem to negotiate or convince when a player has concerns it sounds like they just give up errrrr revert to “we only want players who want to be here.”

A player we’d have an excuse not to pony up the cash for, you say? He also looks 70 And is 27 It’s like a mirror image haha

Depends what the return is. If we deal JJ and Byram for futures Norris will be promoted as the big offseason addition as predicted and the transformation is minimal could also easily end up with a situation where we’ve bridged JJ, dealt Byram for a depth vet D and a high pick, and “added” Norris. Again, minimal transformation If we deal Peterka for a Peterka level player and Byram for a concept of Byram level player we can talk

Jarmo only

Take the full day. Screw the man. Also, always go to the bathroom on company time

“But will they perform in the playoffs?” is a spit out your drink level hilarious question to ask as a sabres fan at this time, I agree. Just get there lay the first brick

True but far less risky than no serious move at all Ya Vegas was only missing a 1C but they still traded for their best player. And more importantly - they were missing a 1C re: being the cup favourite. You aren’t making an analogous comp here cause we are only looking for pieces to scratch 16/32. Add the best players you can

Making the playoffs is a year over year enterprise The average time spent out of the playoffs is one year. Being “years away” is a job security sales tactic, im sort of surprised more don’t realize that by now. Long rebuilds aren’t actually a thing - that’s nhl ea sports GM mode fodder. The nhl is a professional league not developmental: no one should fall for that. The few and far between “decade long” rebuilds we’ve seen are the exceptions that prove the rule - another term that should be frankly more familiar they Sabres haven’t made the playoffs because they haven’t chosen to. They’ve yet to make it the priority. people get there’s an active conflict of interest with the fans, right? The organization hasn’t had the same goals trading Dahlin only helps if you trade him for better players. And it only helps even then if you don’t care about, ya know…..THE most precious resource known to mankind in Time

Door 3