PerreaultForever

It's low enough I'm jumping down and taking Carter Bear and I don't g a f what any critics say about that.

That's true. They are the biggest fish in that small pool. Jets are all Winnipeg really has. There's the CFL team and they get a crowd but it's not really competition. Buffalo's market is much bigger though and it's located better. Bottom line, Adams has no real excuse.

yes I do. I think he's literally in heaven right now. Happy to get away from this crap and he can deal with a bigger better team.

So basically Sabres killed him, he died and went to heaven.

The bar for success much higher there. Once they got back in the playoffs the bar was raised to winning in the playoffs. So now it's seen as failure. As it should be. This is now also the moment a good GM needs to pounce on whoever they hire. There will be a desire for change. Maybe even change for the sake of change and that's when you can target pieces of their roster. Going to be the same for the Avs and others. These teams will not run it back as is. Sabres GM however, will just bank on Levi and complain about his palm trees and taxes.

Oh I agree, I think St Louis is being built much better than the Sabres. Their roster has much more balance. They can play physical and with speed. They aren't there yet but I suspect they will keep rising. Remember back at the beginning of the year when people here were debating if Sabres could or should trade for Parayko (as if he was available)? I imagine a number of those posts haven't aged well 🙂 Winnipeg is like surrounded by nothing. I would think it's high on many no trade lists. If you were American born would you be happy going there? Likely not. Maybe if you were from Minnesota it's not that different but not if you were from anything east coast or west (although there's less hockey there). They have to over pay and they have to entice. IF Buffalo was a winning team it would be much much more desirable than Winnipeg. That's the IF though isn't it? The vibe this year is they aren't even trying to get better. They are doing nothing. It just feels like they've given up. It's so sad.

Peterka doesn't remind me of Skinner he makes me think of Ray Sheppard. That's probably too far back for some people here but there it is. I fear we will overpay him and regret it.

Monty don't do so well in game 7s 🙂 That was a good finish and this time the refs did put the whistles away which was good. I doubt Winnipeg gets past Dallas unless Hellybuck somehow becomes a playoff goalie which is more than unlikely. If Winnipeg were to win the cup though I want Hamilton or somebody to ask Kevyn how they did it when they don't have any palm trees.

I suspect he went to prove he should have been in 4Nations and thus get a spot on the Olympic squad. It's about time. I always admire the guys who show up for these things. They don't have to, but the national pride aspect is admirable for all of them, all countries.

Oh it's a legit penalty but it and lots more are usually let go in tied game 7s in the third period. I'm a put the whistles away type of guy unless it's a clear breakaway or assault. I'd rather they had played it out 5 on 5. Colorado imo is an overrated team. Good, but not great. McKinnon is a beast and ultra elite and Makar is absolutely elite, but the rest of that team is nothing special relative to other top teams. Dallas is, and has been for quite a while, a very highly disciplined and structured team that plays a team concept. hence they survived the absence of a couple top players and the star player they added in Rantanen came through for them in the clutch. I don't know if Dallas can score enough to win the cup but they will be a tough out.

I liked the Landeskog fairy tale story better than the Rantanen revenge tour but what can you do. He certainly came alive and stuck it to them. The late penalty was bs though. That was most definitely not a late game tied game 7 playoff call. Hated that. Guess the refs feared a long overtime and wanted to go home.

I'm not doubtful. I'm sure he's not.

lol, Bruins aren't going to win it.

Easily. Young teams often take 2 steps forward and 1 back and luck factors in as well (injuries, scheduling etc.) but yes, I'd say they have a different approach to Buffalo. Buffalo can't seem to learn from Buffalo's mistakes, that's the real problem.

Well of course the progress is determined by the "stars" or I guess you'd say here future or potential stars, but don't underestimate guys like Gallagher. There's a competitiveness angle that they have in spades. Team works harder overall. Suzuki is a leadership personality as well agreed. I see more balance and character on that team than the Sabres and not really more talent. They play more like a team and as has been the case for a long time the Sabres are a group of individuals. It's a culture perpetuated by management as you see all the end of season crap is about individual accomplishments. The idea that individual accomplishments mean nothing if the team fails is alien to the Sabres.

Difference is they also have some toughness and more veteran leadership to go with those kids. Not enough to go further right now but the structure of that team is being built more playoff ready.

It's funny to keep reading things like Friedman saying he "expects changes" but he can't say if they are big or small so they might just be reserved parking spaces.

Leafs still looking like maybe chokers. LA definitely looking like chokers big time.

Been preaching that for years (as have some others here). Terry P does not seem to agree with this idea. Murray sort of realized that but there hasn't been much effort to address it since then. Doesn't matter though, they aren't in the playoffs and seem content with that so no reason to a worry about it in their minds.

I haven't see that but maybe if you dig around it's on that site somewhere. https://edge.nhl.com/en/home Interesting (and maybe obvious) if you look at the top 10 fastest teams they have listed there they are all playoff teams. So if being fast is our mantra, they are not succeeding in that regard.

I thought Sabres were supposed to be the "fast" team? https://forums.hfboards.com/threads/fastest-and-slowest-nhl-forwards-and-defensemen.2981847/

Hellebuyck and Ullmark are both very good goalies who do not elevate for the playoffs and also have trouble tracking the puck with the extra speed you get come playoff time. Some have it, some don't. This has always been the way in hockey.

Of course we can't control it, but that doesn't change the fact that it's a big problem. As long as Terry is the de facto director of hockey operations we are sunk. I am 100% sure of that.

Yes, for too long the thinking has been down the road, build for the future and development. The thinking of "win now" should have started when we missed by 1 point but since it didn't, it's definitely what has to be the full thought process now. Yes, you don't need this many prospects. You are still drafting more every year as well. You can easily package some of them up without getting anywhere near any idea of selling off the "future" for the present like Murray tried. You can target several types of teams. Teams that have veterans and are cap squeezed. Take a veteran contract off their hands for an ELC prospect. They can then sign the FA they want so everybody happy. And to be clear I don't mean a dead contract here I mean a player who can still play. An NHL veteran with gas in the tank. You can also target teams looking to rebuild/retool and shift to more speed and skill (which has been our focus for draft picks). The Boston type teams that have realized they are too old and slow and are looking for a speed/skill shift. Or the teams in a rebuild that might want to go even further down that road by moving out veterans. primarily I'd want guys headed to RFA not UFA at the end of their contracts but that's all in the details. Then if I'm GM I'm also going offer sheet crazy. We have cap space and we can do the St.Louis/Edmonton type moves. Get aggressive. Get creative. Team is a laughing stock now, I'd rather be hated than laughed at. The one thing we cannot do is stay the course and wait for development. We do that and I guarantee you Dahlin is gone and then maybe Thompson too.

More rats on that team than any team I can remember since the old Philly teams but they are smart and well coached. Quite disciplined. They won't lose their cool and will do it in subtle and clever ways that likely get Tampa to take more penalties than them. If Barkov is out for any term though that will hurt them. They might need Barkov to beat Toronto.