Thorny

You think I understand the charts? - - - There’s a big part there that’s defensive. But yes a lot of it is offensive. But it’s all in the red, and pretty significantly I haven’t heard that he actually had relative matchup difficulty just defensive deployment difficulty. Is there data on the matchups difficulty? You don’t have to post it I’ll take your word for it

Agree. It’s not a very likely time for things to happen by that point but certainly not unheard of

I haven’t been willing to pencil in any of benson Quinn or Peterka to the top 6 until this year, *it’s year 5*. 3 of the first 4 years of the Adams drought, 75% of it, Quinn and JJ were either not in the nhl at all, or rookies. And good teams have “top 6” quality players sometimes on the third line. I’ve even seen the Sabres do it. it’s not a red herring, it’s a fact

Who thinks he’s not trying now? He’s trying. The issue of him not trying has I think been litigated. Some, I, for example believed he put it off far too long, and our backs being against the wall now “all of a sudden” is in a large way a result of that: but I think he’s trying to win NOW. Doesn’t everyone? He’s trying for a bigger add he just may not have the ability to pull it off

Eichel barely played lol People that tout the “improvement” after we traded him by definition have to make a disingenuous argument because no one actually believes the sham Eichel we saw, hurt, for 21 games, in 2021 was even a shadow of the real Eichel the 2021 Covid season, RIFE with anomalies, is brought up a lot as “evidence” for a lot of things that really renders a lot of arguments dicey when we’re talking a 50 game sample size

I think it’s going to improve, too. Truth be told I don’t really have any interest at this point of the year when I’m trying to be as optimistic as I can, betting against my team making good but not incredible improvement. The original claim you made was more specific, “back to 22-23 rates”, if your point as you say is you expect significant improvement: I’m actually trying to convince myself of that, too. I dont think it’s coming without at least a 3C, we are way way too short on centres, but WITH that, as mentioned: I’m expecting a lot out of Quinn and JJ Unfortunately, we can also expect injuries. Need another top 7 forward

The substance of this post is that you can believe in Dylan Cozens, but to do so to the tune of not even rostering a competent 3C would be borderline negligent

To be fair, it’s not like Beck had good underlyings in those deployments

First day here?

They could play Lafferty at 4C I obv agree they need someone tho

I think they said the plan was UPL / Levi still. It’s good insurance for camp though where if there’s an injury or Reimer plays exceptionally well or Levi notedly poorly. It’s definitely a “little things” move to be proactive about the *inevitable* pitfalls of the coming season rather than reacting to them in the moment (and sometimes much too late) during the season, as if you were hoping they wouldn’t arise

I’m honestly not sure Byram represents an exception, but sorry, I started that paragraph off talking about how not once in 4 years has Adams bought a top 6 F and shifted the wording to “player” for some reason. That’s my mistake, I’m talking forwards the whole thing in intention And im not sure it’s that far out of the realm of possibly we finish top 10 in scoring. Not sure if I’d bet on it, I’d say it’s more likely we do not, but it’s possible. That’s a lot different than 3rd potentially. Would you bet they finish top 3? The contention I took with your post was that they’d, without any other addition, equal the scoring of 22-23. Which is very unlikely as the roster stands

I think the clock is ticking right now tbh. I’d wager I’m not the only fan signing up for some distance from this team if we miss and Adams is back again. There comes a point of unseriousness from a franchise where there’s no return Oh like Star Wars

Why 3 years?

No, it wouldn’t be. The point is that those expecting more of the same have been right 10 times over. So much so we are truly sick of being right People saying “it’s going to be ok”, as a default stance, *have not been right yet once*. An “I told you so” would be incredibly tone deaf and absurd like I said, we still know it’s coming. It’s ok, they’ll get their day the joke is, all the people that have been right for 13 years will be HAPPY to *finally* be wrong. So, knock yourself out. The other funny thing is I’ve been one of the most “playoffs are still possible until mathematically eliminated” guys there is. I wrongly predicted playoffs in ‘23.

Alright. Well he’s averaged 76 points per season as GM. Everyone can place their own definition on it

Sabres / Sabers Levi is here now. It’s all one and the same Just read my post about the Luke being a legend in TLJ please. Ok? Thanks

We don’t watch movies the same way It would have been better if Luke showed up and acted like an invincible overpowered MCU superhero? lol dude. Say you didn’t understand the movie without saying you didn’t understand the movie The *entire point* was that Rey was right, Luke was wrong, and the galaxy DID need a legend. “What do you want me to do, stare down the entire first order with a lightsaber?!” But that’s exactly what Luke does. But not physically: People wanted the Luke from the OT back: we got it. His force projection to Crait *literally only succeeded as a distraction* because of the sum total of the accomplishment, belief, heroics and INSPIRATION Luke had built up over the course of the saga. They literally fire a million high powered rounds of explosive force at his feet, Luke “walks out” from the smoke and brushes his shoulder off, and Kylo and the first order *still believed he was actually there*. Do you understand what kind of opinion they had to have of Luke to believe he could withstand that?? “MOREEEEEEEE!” - Kylo The galaxy needed a Legend and got it it wasn’t just the Spark he provided for the resistance: the belief in his legend undid the first order people that whined and cried for the old Luke and it was staring them right in the face. Look at Kylo. Look at the fear. Luke winks at C-3PO because he knows he’s already won - - - and yes, worry for his sister made him snap in Jedi. That’s my point. His fear for EVERYONE made him snap, momentarily, in TLJ

You can literally tell they came up with the “zomg look at (drastically overpowered) Vader go! So cool! So lightsaber!” hallway scene first and structured the script around it rogue one isn’t terrible at all, it’s decent, but it’s a big reason for the decline of SW. it was the diverging point where fans realized if they complained enough, they’d go back to pointlessly rehashing stories that had already been told, further watering down characters that had well played out, to a greater effect sans added fan service, tacking on “mOrE cOnTenT” material

I think the big thing in your post is Tarasenko or whoever he’s the hypothetical placeholder for in this discussion, for what we do add. Look, we can look at the improved 4th line and coaching and argue we might be better overall, that’s fine. There isn’t a realistic argument sans more addition from the outside that our offense for 22-23 will come back we are short 33% of that top 6 and haven’t replaced it, and the ones we still have had career years Sorry to quote again but liger’s jumped in between

So we project insane years from everybody

22-23? Our second and 5th leading point scoring forwards aren’t here. That’s 141 points we need to replace on top of Thompson Tuch and Cozens reverting back to career years. Who’s replacing those points? Peterka and Quinn had 70 points combined that year. Ok, so maybe we get lucky and Quinn stays healthy and puts up *70 points* on his own- a stellar year. Who’s gets the other 141? Peterka going for 70 as well? Ok, still need ANOTHER 70, and this is assuming Tage Tuch and Cozens ALL rebound

Is that Eichel? Which doesn’t really count cause we sold the better player

Ya he has never traded for a top 6 forward aside from cashing in on Eichel I believe. He’s never bought a player, never completed a trade where we were getting the big name Until we see it, don’t expect it That’s a 5 offseason period

Agree on Rise of Skywalker being an abomination. Rogue one is not very good, it’s empty fan service. We’ll have to disagree on TLJ