PerreaultForever

So true. He looked absolutely dreadful on that and you can see he does not have the size and/or physicality to handle hard play in tight. few of our D do. I said this in another thread but I think it's worth stressing. If you look at Adams building a team he "filled a need at D" with a fast puck moving D man but that's exactly the same move JBots made when he got Montour and he's basically the same guy. In fact, Montour is a lot tougher and might be the better of the two. When Montour got here he wanted to be here (being from Ontario) until the losing kicked in and he was poorly coached and the D system sucks and his game was garbage so he goes to Florida where they have proper structure and good coaching and he's a star for their D. Byram is just Montour V2 and so in terms of building this team if you look at the whole time line, Adams has simply given away Mitts. We have not progressed here.

In fairness they traded away Walker and Seeler is hurt as well as old injuries for Risto and Drysdale. They were getting pretty thin back there so I think EJ is just a stop gap filler for the moment. They are trying to do a tricky balancing act between now and future with that Walker trade. He was really good for them this year. I'm curious to see this 6'8" Russian goalie they got though. Guy is huge.

Hasn't been the same player since he got damaged in that fight. Same for Cozens and his. I wouldn't say they play scared, but they definitely play smaller. I truly believe that what happens with this team is guys like that look around and say to themselves why am I taking the physical toll when nobody else is? Nobody's got my back why should I have theirs? This is the mindset that sets in with this team. It's a mistake in team building and the losing culture is infectious, especially when it's a low expectation pampered locker room anyway. Laziness and relaxed easy living sets in. If it was any of us, we'd be exactly the same.

UNLESS you want to start winning now and not a year from now. UNLESS you want to change the character of this team now before young players give up and want out. The clock is ticking to another Eichel wants out scenario. We don't spend to the cap anyway, one extra year of 2.4 is not huge. The biggest part of the money will be gone when we need cap room for Benson or whoever. Do it NOW. Ship him off to wherever it was they sent Moulson.

I just want Skinner gone. That's it. Jost, Girgs, Olofsson who cares, not relevant, should be upgraded, should be waived, they are all non entities to me with no value. Robinson, Krebs, Bryson, who cares? Pretty much the same marginal value. Just get rid of Skinner, upgrade the bottom end, and then all of these mutts become irrelevant. Now who is this Comrie guy? Never heard of him. Does he play for them?

The commonality here imo is that all 3 teams lack good coaching. Ottawa basically doesn't have a coach, ours is a college level guy and (although I know less about their details) Detroit's hasn't got them playing a good system either. Three up and coming rosters filled with top picks all failed because of the coaching. Vancouver on the other hand transitions into the next level because of good coaching. Philly and Nashville overachieve due to good coaching. There are other factors, but that's the biggest one imo.

Philly playing like they are intentionally trying to NOT make the playoffs.

It's not the individual players imo it's the (bad) system and the coaching along with the full immersion development plan. When you critique Power (still a kid) or Byram for that matter or any of the rest of the D stop and consider Brandon Montour. This team and this franchise f's players up and they almost all get worse when they come here and are better when they leave and get proper coaching.

No, nothing disparaging about women in that at all. If you like women's hockey that's great, but the point was it's a different and gentler game and that's how the Sabres play. We don't finish our checks, we don't initiate contact, we don't battle for pucks hard in the corners or the net front. It is like women's hockey. It's all similar to hockey, and there's still lots of skill, but it's a different game entirely. Think about how we play compared to teams that are winning. Consider the differences and then get back to me with a discussion rather than trying to spin this into a false judgement of me.

haymakers? The whole thing was embarrassing on both sides because both teams are a bunch of pussies. Leafs want to act tough so they can look playoff ready but have you ever seen so many guys involved and yet almost nobody actually drops the gloves. Like a bunch of preschoolers all 10 of them.

I'm starting to think that Granato learned all his hockey from watching Cammi play because this team plays like a girls team. A junior league girls team.

Personally I can't really answer that. We've had bad teams before (most every franchise does) and there's the tank and all that but this thing is cumulative so while this team might not be the worst it still feels like the worst and it's the franchise that stinks as a whole since Pegula bought it. I have trouble un-disliking them until they actually change.

Thanks Terry.

So? You should realize that even if we win every single game left all Washington has to do is play .500 hockey (which is below their season play level) and we still miss the playoffs but sure keep dreaming.

This is my actual choice as well. Truly 50/50. Or 60/40 at least. Ideally every D pair is a puck mover with a rock solid defender so 3 and 3, and the bottom 6 really hard to play against or if you prefer mixing it top 3 lines of sniper-playmaker-gritty 2 way guy on each and then a gritty 4th line so still 6 and 6. This mix is not only the best roster, it is the more sustainable model if your stars demand big paydays and you want to stay cap compliant. Consider the best teams in the NHL. They all fit this type of roster model closer than to what we are doing.

We can easily win this in a tight checking low scoring 9-8 affair.

Didn't say he sucked but did say he is a true underachiever and he could be so much more if he was actually fully engaged and used his body. But he isn't and he doesn't. Did say I'd trade him and I still would. I'd have kept Mitts (unless the salary ask was ridiculous) and traded Thompson (not for Byram, for more) and I stand by that. never questioned his ability to snipe and score. Talent was never the issue.

Pretty sure we don't retroactively apply laws either (with the exception I guess of aboriginal related land claims and reparation type things which are somewhat complicated) but we do pass laws differently with a Parliamentary process so it could be "retroactive" to the date the bill was introduced in the house to when it was actually made into "law" through the Senate and the technicality or Royal assent. Tax laws were already on the books, it was just that many of them were not being properly enforced.

I agree with @inkman this was not an impressive win by any means. NJ is playing less than inspired. Clearly knowing their season is over and they don't even know who there coach will be or what direction the team will take. They are playing out the string. We were okay but not great imo and any late season flurry, even if we have one, doesn't change a thing. The organization, top to bottom is a flaming pile of garbage.

I've not been to Invermere but Penticton is quite hot in the summer. Too hot for me but if you like that sort of thing it's nice. Nelson is really nice for a visit. Real hippy town and very left leaning. Kind of a weird enclave in the middle of nowhere. Built on a mountain though. You'd have to get used to walking up a lot of slopes, much like San Francisco. Nice place though. Some great craft breweries and lots of weed shops. I've gotten used to the rain and don't think about it much. It's off and on all the time so you get a shower and then it's fine and then later another shower and you just sort of start to ignore it as most of the time in the day it's gentle drizzle. Not many thunderstorm downpour type things. Lots of gray skies though. I personally have grown to love the mild winters and not hot summers but as I said, everybody is different. You'd probably like living in Kelowna or outside it. Or for a really cool small town Smithers. Bit cold in winter but it's an awesome small town.

Two teams that basically play the same game and are just about the same. Sabres had more jump after a slow start so they came out on top. Woohoo?

This would be a great night to fire Granato and hire Lindy Ruff as his replacement. The underachiever bowl.

I would hope for that but he did sign that extension and gets some big NJ money for doing nothing so he might just want a vacation. In the very least we'd have to offer him term to get him to walk away from that I'd think. I just don't see a better option right now. The optics and the optimism this would generate would also be good. Promote a whole return to glory thing.

I'm going to leave the rest as it's going to get too political but the city conversation is interesting. There are many factors that go in to that and different places are better for different people and their age and lifestyle. Now I grew up in Hamilton and used to spend a lot of time in Toronto, which was great at that age, and some time in Buffalo. It was good for that over the border underage night life. Back then Buffalo was similar to Hamilton and Toronto but a little dirtier and more run down in places. I imagine they are still pretty much the same so if you don't hate the snow (Buffalo gets so much more) it's not a bad city. If I had to live in the U.S. I'd either stay west (Seattle, Portland, etc) or move into that upper New England and New York State area. Both areas are closer to Canadian in terms of the people and the general attitudes. Southern U.S. ain't for me. I've seen a few studies that name Raleigh as the best city in the U.S. but they usually factor in the cost of real estate and that is an issue that changes a lot of things. In Canada, for example, you can go live in Edmonton or in New Brunswick for dirt cheap but I wouldn't choose those places unless I had to. I live just outside Vancouver, and although it is expensive as hell, it is without a doubt the nicest city in North America IF you don't factor in that housing cost. It's expensive for a reason. I enjoyed my years in Nanaimo on the island where @bunomatic lives and it was a good place to raise small children but it's a little cut off from the big city and so I like the short drive down the highway better but I can see the allure of that area for sure. It's just gorgeous there. idk I'm just rambling here (I have this high taxed worry free lifestyle :)) but city choices (or rural choices) are a really subjective thing so it would go back to happiness. If you hate snow you'd hate Buffalo. If you hate rain you'd hate Vancouver. If you like basically no snow and mild winters you'd love Vancouver. It's all subjective, but back to hockey, if you are rich, as players are, I doubt there'd be any Canadian hockey player who would hate being traded to Vancouver.

haha - you've eaten up that Fox News propaganda I see. Good luck with all that. Meanwhile, while I hit 65 this year the government's going to give me even more free money. I don't need it, but I will enjoy spending it. Worry free retirement gives me lots of time to waste on Sabrespace 🙂 Research a little deeper. Let's leave it there.