Thorny

Wasn’t only Thorny that wanted Jack to stay ^ YOU WERE THE CHOSEN ONE

I’ll always remember vividly your post about Taylor Hall looking like “a shark that wasn’t quite hungry yet” during camp 2021. How excited you were, and how excited you made me about it there’s no way that guy believed the core should be exploded to the tune of a long form plan based on 56 games, of which Jack played, what, 21? While severely hurt? There’s no way you’d draw that strong of a conclusion based on 21/56 games - I don’t buy it Jack and Sam had to go? You felt Adams had the right idea? It’s not plausible

You didn’t want Eichel traded until you heard he asked for a trade In fact you frequently argued against the necessity of it until it happened Talk about revisionist Again, you didn’t want it blown up You didnt want a 5 year rebuild you just argued splendidly and intelligently for why it could work, after the fact - its what you always do. You proclaimed the merits of how the plan could work, and if Adams was actually trying to build a winning team in the way we want one, he probably could have done it by following your strategy

I don’t hand wave 2021 as a quirk of the pandemic at all, that’s far from accurate. I deem it as something that should count towards the evaluation of the 15 years for exactly the amount of games within that stretch it counted for. 56 games. 56 out of 1157 using that anomalific sample size as justification for a 5 year rebuild is incredibly stupid yes

There’s no reason the lenses should be different. I’m judging him purely by the record of the team during his time as GM If you aren’t judging him by that after 5 years, I strenuously disagree with you. If you are, the lens is the same

It’s mostly the fact we are splitting hairs between bad and bad Better is still bad here. The reaction is going to be more in line with the bad, not the fact it’s squint and you see it better than putrid

And I’m glad you didn’t because Adams being probably worse than Murray and Botterill (looking at his full 5 years and not just 3) doesn’t stop him from being definitively worse than the competition when compared to a single real GM in Darcy

Only nearly true because of one season carrying the weight for the following two that downgrade, and then downgrade and also not true: 11/12/13 we averaged 89 points per (and made the damn playoffs, to boot) We’ve averaged 84.7 the last 3 (2013 of course a prorated total) You could have used 14 years as the cut off but alas you did not so

I think pro sports is sold on the quality of product

I’ve said it before that if the team was “finding ways for it work” in the way you consistently outline, not in similar fashion but literally just employing the mindset and tactics that would lead to the same conclusions your draw, it would necessarily be far more likely to yield a playoff team than whatever malarkey they’ve been engaging in

I think they very well could. I also think people underrate what we needed on O even before we traded Peterka, though. But we’ve debated this before and I know I’m generally on an island on this one thinking we needed help at F even before that move - - - At the end of the day I think the simplest view here is also the one that incorporates the most data which is standings points. I do believe in the old “you are what your record says” cliche and the sabres were and are a 79 point team. Did you see addition this summer akin to launching a 79 point team into the mid 90s as usually required for playoffs? We can break down the variables every which way but the fact of the matter is the roster is deficient to the tune of being a 79 point (bad) team. If your equation doesn’t account for a HUGE influx of needed improvement, whether from external sources or within, it’s going to fall short. Shoveling it onto UPL’s plate doesn’t work for me either, in estimation Adams’ tactics and mode of operation haven’t changed even if he’s switching up slightly on the “type” of roster he’s building - when we have literally AVERAGED 78 points a year, too, for half a decade, I don’t see why the smart bet could be on anything else than that when we’ve only seen that same modus operandi continued I could easily finally be wrong but the roster still looks to me like mostly a shell game shuffle, as it’s seemed to be for a few years. As always in a position of “it could work”, but reeking of winning in the now not being the central priority.

Danforth is the 1C

Mittelstadt looked good because he had a good season. His numbers at ES were very good league relative There’s a borderline obsession with predictive stats. You can prioritize those all you want and claim Casey is a poor player now and forever because of them and that can be totally fair while still *not changing what actually happened* Cheechoo scored 56 goals that year. That year he WAS really good. Mittelstadt played and produced well that season. Not relatively well: well.

Danforth 15 minutes a night dudacek why do you hate the fans?

Don’t agree on UPL, Adams has incessantly built the roster for 6 years acting as if goalie doesn’t matter so it’s not the area of the roster he’s supplemented with close to the talent required for it to be a key area, for me. I agree on Tage though. I think he probably ends up back at C - I may be traditional but needing a great 1C has just more often than not always been a thing. Everything shines a tad brighter for me when Tage is there

Dahlin, Tage, Tuch None of the other players mentioned doing what is mentioned will matter or amount to enough if the guys we expect and need the most from don’t fulfill those higher degree of difficulty roles

Under no circumstance should the word “process” be uttered should the regime come to an end and a new GM instated. The Sabres can’t afford another reboot or rebuild. Whatever remoulding needs to be done has to be done with an eye on making the playoffs the immediate year and in no way invoke the context of “next few”. There’s no rule you need to take a “step back”. Make moves based on winning in the now.

Hmm i strenuously disagree

Could hardly string together…4 words I Tarzan, you Jane

Hutton was half blind Comrie hasn’t amounted to being a starter - anywhere - not just in Buffalo. Adams takes shots in the dark at fixing the position and also handcuffs his own bets by assembling the rest of the team with the poor logic he uses to handle the goaltending position. It would be a stretch to think his ineptitude wouldn’t conform to the shape of the roster in totality when it’s as mobile, unstoppable, and fluid as water the goalies have been bad. The talent around them has also been bad. We don’t need to pigeonhole problems when you are historically bad: there’s room for them all, it’s a big party! You are doing too much when you eliminate blame, you’ll find some under every overturned stone when you are the worst team of all time

What goes up when the rain goes down

I’ve never seen it at quite this level

The sabres thinking they can address the roster in “typical” fashion remains a massive problem. I’ve said this countless times The sabres have needed a defibrillator for over 5 years. You can’t put yourself in a 14 year hole, disenfranchise your entire roster and fanbase over the last 5 years specifically, and pretend “a couple small “savvy” moves” are all the team needs. I admire the fact of how much of an incredible outlier you are in how much you expect of them, but you almost professionally remove context from your thinking as a choice; I just happen to do the opposite. No right or wrong there just stylistic. the team that’s been a drastic failure needs a drastic effort. You fall more along the lines of “well, just do what some of the other teams have done”. it doesn’t work like that imo: the solution needs to be sabres relative not relative to teams we’ve already showed we have failed to replicate “Well we more less did what Ottawa did and it doesn’t always fail when that happens” is just so woefully short to the point of insulting raise your expectations. We should be expecting nothing less than a roster that RIGHT now looks like a SAFE, SAFE bet to make the playoffs you were posting 2 years ago about how “come on people, don’t be afraid to expect something now!” The moves we’ve made this offseason are insultingly laughable through the prism of last offseason, if I had told you this is what they’d do after finishing with 70 something points you know that

Ya your take is fine, I just disagreed with the bit where you said you expect Benson to be a “very good” top 6 player with 40 points minimum etc. To me a “very good” top 6er is a borderline first liner and I don’t feel comfortable labeling Benson as that yes, even if he has the skills to one day be it Maybe I’m crazy but if the goal is a playoff team, not even the standard, not even the expectation given missing 14 years, just the goal: all 3 of my first liners are bonafide first liners, not 2 guys who are and 1 who may be because of them I’m sure there will be an excellent follow up post from someone explaining to me why benson is actually better than the 2nd LWer on every team to make the playoffs in the last decade, and how no one on the team is actually out of place besides the goalie or something. But ya to me there never seem to be enough purported holes and disadvantages to add up to the record, with the amount that get discarded over the course of your average summer probably the result of a multitude of coin-flips spread throughout the roster, where they can conceivably all individually go right, but the combination of them all doing so mathematically very unlikely

Not really in love with the poll options. Probably closest to 1, but it’s not something I necessarily expect to unfold this season that the sabres are counting on it necessarily, for success, on that sort of time frame, when he’s 19 or whatever isn’t a commentary on being a beaten down fan if one finds difficulty in predicting it: it’s a commentary on the fact it’s an objective gamble