Thorny

I got lost somewhere along the way apparently 😆

Wow, a Hallmark congrats if I’ve ever heard one

Source?! This would be objectively hilarious and look awfully poorly on Terry Probably would be one of the most damning things I’ve ever heard about him or any owner re: aptitude running a team

Alright. No problem, I’ll just work that into my argument, then: I take back what I said about the tank being dumb for potentially 3 significant reasons: it’s actually 4. It’s the first 3 combined with the fact that, should even everything go to plan with such a terrible strategy, and the balls bounce your way, which they did, they still must have been aware of the fact that Bettman could, on a whim, step in and say, “HELL no! Not on my watch!” Before laughing maniacally and retreating to his fortress of evil. Making the whole strategy even more dicey.

Ya I couldn’t remember which it was and couldn’t be bothered to look it up. the “better“ odds still made my argument anyways so went with that and if wrong, like you said, my point is even stronger thanks for the correction If I start a poll about whether there really was a conspiracy to “get” the Sabres... I’m going to be really disappointed in the results, aren’t I

So what are we thinking here: the most likely culprit was a grand, dastardly conspiracy by the league to screw the Sabres, they cheated them in the lottery, risking the fact that if that was exposed, the league would be in shambles? Or the fact there was a 75% chance the balls weren’t going to bounce our way This isn’t even Occam’s razor, it’s like...occam’s Rob Ray

Do you really think the league would have preferred McDavid in *Edmonton* over Buffalo? Those of is in *Winnipeg* refer to Edmonton as the middle of freaking nowhere. Think about this. Imo only the last one isn’t answered. edit- Sorry, the last one before the fantasy hockey one. obviously fantasy is important

They are doing him SO dirty publicly. What an embarrassment

We A) already know that there’s no wisdom in betting everything on one guy, we don’t need to wait to see any data on that, to answer @nfreeman and B) if the aim of the tank was specifically McDavid, and achieving him was the only form of success, that was a poor mathematical bet from the start and therefore an even more awful strategy, from conception. The only logic that ever even arguably existed in the idea of “tanking” was the concept of “McEichel”, which was guaranteed by finishing last. This is what many fans bought in for. But as mentioned, torpedoing the franchise to get ANY one guy I think has proven to be folly considering you drastically up the degree of difficultly in surrounding said player with a complementary team. Our tank was dumb for at least 1 significant reason, and for as many as 3 reasons, the inclusion of which makes it exponentially stupider when combined. 1) torching the ground and salting the earth for ANY player is bad. We know they inarguably did this. They also may have: 2) if they ventured into that thinking ONLY McDavid would be that guy, and they not only torched everything, but did it for A 25% shot, its a laughably bad strategy at the point 3) if they did it for McDavid (or even either) and did so under the prism of thinking ONE PLAYER makes the team, not just that they needed to burn it all down to get him, but that they consciously undersold the work they thought they had to do after, around said player (which I’d argue is exactly the case), it pushes the whole thing over to *chef’s kiss* all-time bad. Which, was sort of par for the course for at least a decade

Interesting discussion on Overdrive today about how NBA practices re: roster management leak into the NHL over time. Feschuk was saying that all GM’s, when asked, so “no way” to Load Management becoming a thing. But the hosts seem to believe it’s an almost common sense practice and that Matthews himself could be the first.

This surprises me - I read it all the time. I often have to read the GDTs solely because I can’t get it on tv full disclosure I had about 5 quoted posts lined up here from the last while calling into question his effort and game but there’s no point - having sometimes emotional gdt responses dredged up doesn’t really serve anything. Search function is your friend if you want, can take my word for it, or just completely it disregard it

Those most impressionable by skill? What is the point of the All Star Game? To promote the game and sell tickets. Dahlin’s case is even stronger after we remove our Sabres bias

Tuch gets lambasted for his effort frequently in game day threads. He’s always the guy leading the charge when it’s a culture night I’m not saying the calling out of his effort is correct - in fact I generally disagree with it, it often seems way over the top for me and players ebb and flow - but there’s a noticeable shift certainly in his approach for the “big” games. I’d imagine this would serve us well in the playoffs. Re every day leadership - same as the guy who’s our best player. Dahlin. Game in, game out, to the tune of 25+ mins. We need more guys with his will, “been there”, or not That Dahlin and Tuch both provide leadership shows it can come in many forms

The really do seem to “put it all together” for the games they deem of extra importance. We can only hope they circle out those games on the calendar to a greater frequency next season. It’s good to see they can up their game, once they see the 2 points-as-the-goal as just as important in a regular game, re- moving up the standings, I think we’ll see that more. Once they make the conscious shift from development being priority to results. Tea leaves say next season

That’s kinda fundamental in my point, though

I’ve seen more images of Derek Roy in the last 2 pages of this thread than I had in the rest of my life before that

You want home ice for the championship final to be decided by a glorified wheel-and-deal beer league game? Is this some sort of sick projection of your desire to somehow attribute meaning to your own beer league games?

If you can’t figure out what THIS giant red X is for, I suggest you take a look at my Twitter at the amount of photos I have of a certain special little guy

Dahlin reaches the 50 point mark in his 43rd game of the season. He reached the mark in his 76th game last season.

It’s not that big a deal to me from a Sabres perspective. It’s no slight on him and he gets the rest. But looking at it objectively, the only point of having a all star game at all is to market the highest skill your league has to offer. Any format that excludes Dahlin has an internal fundamental flaw that needs addressing because he’s not just “very good”, he’s got the flashiest of skill the league is legitimately shooting itself in the foot. Such a dumb league

I was about to say Karlsson’s was better, as great as Dahlin’s was, and it does seem to go a bit higher, but it’s closer than I thought. Karlsson’s is almost a full 2 zones, Dahlin is a little further up. But Dahlin also fires his off his back foot. Which ups the degree is difficulty for sure

I theorize a fair few will look to change their vote on who the Sabres’ best player is on that poll by season’s end.

Funny, that