PerreaultForever

Most good teams. Bruins started the season with big names missing, they did just fine. My point is that we really really really lack depth.

That's part of the problem isn't it? Lack of depth. There really isn't anyone.

How so? They did not get the deals/offers GMs made Vegas. Their expansion roster wasn't that great. They've added players and made some good signings. We could have added some as well but chose not to.

I'm not miserable at all. I'm really enjoying Kraken games.

Maybe. I'm not convinced he's the answer. I personally have more hope for Kulich. I'm not sure who it'll be the question is how long will we have to wait. The failure in the pipeline might also be a lack of more Samuelssons coming soon. We could use 2 more imo. Is the goalie Levi? How long will that wait be? I'm also not sure we have the 4th line role players either.

Well okay, I think this might be semantics. ignoring me and you specifically, would you not agree that there are 2 main groups of fans now. Those believing in the new plan and those who are more skeptical and want to see proof on the ice before they buy in again? I think that's fair, and I think you can reduce that to optimists and pessimists. I also think the older fans tend to be more pessimistic. Loyal, but sadly pessimistic, as they remember too many better times. Now back to you and me, maybe you are not as optimistic as you appear to be to me when I read it. I will definitely accept the pessimist label though. I'm 100% in the show me and prove it camp.

Not "blew the draft" but didn't draft the best player. That's all.

The reality is this team is very thin and not very deep. We saw how bad things got with several D men injured, can you imagine what will happen if Thompson and Cozens were out at the same time? The bottom 6 is simply terrible with a draft bust, a waiver pick up, a one dimensional shooter and a couple aging has beens plus one more rotating body. Its a bottom six group that cannot match u[p to many better teams. We won't get better until we can add in more rising prospects.

I am on a Bruins website and it's VERY different to this one. The bar is so much higher and players get critiqued with the slightest drop off. I don't post there much but it is kind of a fun (for me personally) comparison to read. I think I've told my story several times. I grew up in Hamilton. Dad was an immigrant, not a hockey fan, so no hockey in my house until I started watching. Turned on the playoff game with the Bobby Orr ariel goal and thought ya, that team's pretty cool. They also wore black and gold just like my home town Hamilton Tiger Cats so they were my first team. hated Montreal right away. Local tv showing Sabres games. Saw the French Connection. Sabres beat Montreal. Fell in love with that team and the whole vibe and they became my number one. As it was for years. over the last decade I've enjoyed my #2 team (fortunately for me) win a lot as the Sabres floundered. It's given me something to enjoy. Soon, I expect the tables will turn and the Sabres will be the better team again. At least I hope so. Watching both a lot though so I do compare them. Bruins keep defying the odds and getting things right while the Sabres still come up short. What I keep pointing to is their superior team culture. I want that for the Sabres. I want it bad. I really miss the early days, the Peca years, all the good old teams. It's really really hard to stay a Sabres fan. I'm getting old and impatient. I live on the west coast now. As I've said, I am comparing the new rebuild here with the Kraken to see who has the better plan. Guess what? I'm falling in love with the Kraken. team has spunk, fire, absolutely no quit and massive effort. Beniers is going to be a superstar. They shouldn't be ahead of the Sabres yet, but they are. It's like the powers that be really don't want me to stay a Sabres fan. I'm tip toeing along the edge.

and you're arguing at me for calling you an optimist????

Owen Power is a good hockey player, and in time he may turn out to be the best (maybe) but at the moment it is looking like we blew the draft.

I'm not saying they are "quitters", not going that far. But I do think there is a little too much of the participation trophy mentality where they think oh well we tried. I didn't see any great differences in effort levels in those games you mentioned. If anything the opposition let up a little but overall it was just the same level and in those occasions we got a few bounces and made a few plays. We are "in" games more now and we can score more now so we aren't dead in the water if we fall behind early so there is improvement I can see. When we start to see more blocked shots, hits, diving for loose pucks, you know what I mean, the stuff where the guy coming off the ice is totally spent, that's when we will be there with a new culture.

Sure it does, you're the "optimist"

Closer than I expected but kind of all the same problems keeping them from winning. Some good offensive moments some bad defensive lapses. Too many perimeter shots and poor net front defense. Cozens still looking very good. If that kid line does in fact mature together as is clearly DG's hope, well then we will have the 2 offensive lines we need after all. Got to work on getting that third line though. It's still a mess.

I think the thing people here always end up arguing over comes from a difference in perspective. There are optimists like you who kind of forget and forgive and tend to have wiped the slate clean and view this as a new plan starting with Adams and the removal of the old plan/Eichel et. al. So you look at the progression from there and have faith in the draft picks and you believe and assume it'll all progress step by step with that plan. Then there are the "show me" pessimists like myself and @Buffalonill who view this as a long decade of false promises, failed plans, and utter disasters. We are sort of fed up and we won't believe anything until we see it on the ice. We don't have faith any more. We've been fooled too many times. There's no reconciliation of those positions until they win regularly and often, and/or make the playoffs again. We tend to focus more on the missed opportunities and things not done (like goaltending for example) rather than the just wait until (fill in name of prospect here) develops or comes along view. The comment to me isn't a big deal but it doesn't really tell me anything's really changed either. There aren't any players who publicly say they are okay with losing. Eichel said similar things in the past when he was here (and then he'd quit on a shift the next night). The sentence is open to interpretation but it does come across like a big excuse. It's a big BUT sentence. It's not that different from something like telling your wife "yes, I did sleep with your sister but I still love you". It is an excuse sentence. On the positive side it does mention putting in the work, which is really good, but I'd still like to see it on the ice. A lot of times the team still seems flat when they are losing. Effort level doesn't change. It's just next shift and on we go the same rather than rally and dig down. The emotions show when things go well and they are winning, we should see that when they're losing too. A lot of players on this team still don't seem willing to dig down and do that extra needed to turn a game around. When I see that, it comes across to me as still being okay with losing, or at least accepting it, and that has to change.

I suspect he's simply too old for a back to back. It was probably smart to play him in the more winnable game. We will have to score a LOT to win this one. I doubt we do.

Our goaltending was better than their's in this game. Defensive lapses gave them the point. Samuelsson played like a rookie in this game. Cozens was really good. Pretty much an even game though. Good to win.

There's no argument here so I'm not sure what the point is. As you well know the contracts for Tage, and especially Samuelsson were questioned around the league and considered generous and perhaps too generous for young players. Restricted free agents have limited leverage and these were generous offers so they signed. It is a business for them too. Eichel signed a big long deal too right? Who wouldn't? Drafted players have limited options and I never said people hated to be here, just that they didn't choose to be here. It relates to trades, no trade lists and free agents not young players who have limited options. Vinnie is a scrub who got offered a contract. Better than joining the KHL Means nothing. Anderson is an old over the hill goalie who gets to play one more year and make some good coin for his retirement. Nobody else would sign him. Comrie was a career back up offered a chance to start so he'd go anywhere for that too. Lybushkin got offered more than he'd get elsewhere. He's a mercenary like most Russians are. I would suggest that Russian UFAs might be good targets for the Sabres as most of them are mercenaries in their thinking. They are here for the cash. Kyle was overpaid by Murray and the stigma was not there when he signed. You know that. Skinner wanted to be near S. Ontario and held them ransom for an obscene overpay you know that too. Neither strengthens your argument. ZG and VO were both paid more here than they'd get somewhere else. Not sure they had any better options that were even close. Casey Fitzgerald? Seriously? Come on man. You know full well this team is at the top of no trade lists. This might change, but the way to change it is to win.

Yes, of course that can happen, but you surely can't argue that winning the draw and shooting it down the ice to start doesn't cut time off the penalty? I am not a stats guy, never will be (it's not fun) but when I look at the good PK teams, they are also good at face offs.

I think the Detroit game was a clear example of how when our goaltending is better than theirs we can win a hockey game (even if we did blow the lead with bad D). PK, well we have focused on drafting offensive talent and we lack defensive talent. We don't have a real checking line, we suck at faceoffs and so we don't have reliable penalty killers. We struggle in front of the net 5 on 5 so with an extra man we struggle really bad. Most PP goals against us I'm pretty sure are from the so called dirty areas or are the result of solid screens and tips in front. At this stage, we are only going to win games by scoring A LOT.

If you all stop talking about things that have already been talked about you'll have nothing to say because this thing has been going on for over a decade now and nothing has really changed.

I'm not sure how to word it clearer. The point is really that in no way is Buffalo currently a desired landing spot. It was a long time ago and it might be again but it isn't now. I think if you argue against that you're just being a homer and not being objective at all. I wonder if the real reason Adams has the philosophy he does is because he tried to get free agents here and ran into nothing but brick walls so there was only one pathway to walk down. We as fans talk about sign this guy or that guy, but what if none of them actually want to come? As a GM what would you do then?

I think people over value the 4th line. I really don't think it measures up to top teams 4th lines and lacks the role/character some of those lines have. They're really just a bunch of guys who can't crack the top 3 lines and not solid role players. The fact we have two of our letters on the 4th line is downright weird. The 2nd line is good at times but still raw and error prone at others.

The "energy" line is pretty mediocre and doesn't measure up to other team's actual energy lines. There is nothing in the bottom six that the team needs to hang on to for the future. It's a comparatively weak group. Can you list out who you mean or are thinking of.

Face it, we have one good line, one kid line and 2 lines of garbage. That's it.