PerreaultForever

Of course, but as always, there is a middle ground to cap floor and cap ceiling.

The NHL likes to have hockey going all day Saturdays. This has been the thing for quite a while. I'm fine with it. My game is 2:00 in the afternoon. So we played a team that plays the kind of hockey we prefer and we won. Now we play a team that doesn't play the way we like. They are pretty much built for an opposite type of hockey. I suspect this one gives us a lot of trouble. Speed and the PP could save us, but I doubt it. I'd guess a low scoring grinding affair that they take over in the 3rd.

I know. My timeline isn't the same as KA. I pretty much speculated about that when he was hired. Doesn't change my mind though. This season was a missed opportunity imo. I think a really good GM has to have a little more flexibility and adaptability in his "plan". You basically stick to your plan and philosophy but you don't dig your heals in and get stubborn. You have to be willing to speed it up or slow it down as moments and opportunities present themselves.

We've gone over the home thing with young teams before, but I do sometimes question Granato's line matching at home. he seems stuck on the same idea most of the time whether it is working or not. As for Bedard, to quote Torts recently "tanking is asinine". We learned this already have we not?

Reinbacher would be a good pick if it's 10th or more. otherwise, I'd try to go for D in the second round if possible.

I don't disagree with the general sentiment of what you say at all. Matter of fact, I don't think Buffalo's 3rd pair could even make the Bruins roster. They buried Mike Reilly in Providence and although he is not great, he's definitely better than Bryson. Zboril's better than our bottom pair as well and he can't crack their line up when they are at full strength. They're a cap ceiling team we are a cap floor team. That matters too. That's also part of why we will miss the playoffs though. We could have had a better team filled with young guys and all this development but also with a few more veterans and players who could have gotten us there. Everyone knows what this team lacks, the only real argument will be how much faith you have in the next wave of prospects and do we need 3, 4, 5 or more guys to fill the holes. Pretty sure the people who say do nothing and stay the course will be a tiny tiny minority, if they exist at all. (But that might be what KA does and says unfortunately).

That, and different people prefer different styles and as such their "solutions" vary accordingly and that's what we get to argue about.

Figured we had a shot at winning this one. They play a similar style to us and it's all that open offensively minded fast skating hockey that some of you love. We are comfortable in those games and we came out on top. That, and it's the goat heads.

Jersey might give us the kind of wide open speed game we like so winning this one seems more possible imo. Not probable, but possible.

I can't agree with this but leave it at that. It's far from a "trivial" thing. An example of how it shows up and impacts is how teams play in the hard and dirty areas. The front of the net. One of the Sabres constant issues is lack of net front presence and poor defensive play in front of our own goalie. Lots of our players just don't go in there or fight for that real estate but on teams where players have each other's back (like the Bruins, but lots of others as well) they drive the net and fight for rebounds and whack in lots of dirty goals. All of these things make a huge difference but as I said, we won't agree so leave it at that.

I guess it was cliche. They didn't have any wings to pass around this time. There's always a way to spin everything in sports positively or negatively for isolated examples, interviews, coaches comments and so forth but you can discern patterns and similarities over time and year after year. Is your actual argument that the Bruins culture is not superior to the Sabres in every way? Is it just a media driven illusion? Sabres are the same. Would that be your position? There is an argument that winning makes that sort of thing easier and automatic but I'm not sure that's true. Leafs win lots of games but I'd make the same argument about the superiority of the Bruins culture over theirs as over ours. It's an argument I've made for years here and it keeps repeating. I see the contrast constantly because the Sabres being as bad as they have been has driven me to watch more Bruins games. I used to watch the Sabres games first and live but at this point I often do watch the Bruins game first and the Sabres game after in replay because I am pretty sure the Bruins game will be better hockey and better entertainment. Every year I wait for the flip when they fall and Sabres rise but so far it hasn't happened. Briefly this year the culture looked like it might be changing, but if you look back I said at the time I thought it was fragile and sure enough it appears to have broken again. My build philosophy was/is and always has been. Build the culture first. get rid of anybody who doesn't buy in. then add the talent starting from goal out and with that you will have a long lasting and enduring winning team. Sabres believe in reversing that process. So far it hasn't worked. I'm going to be interested to see if we rise faster (which you'd think we should) or if Philly does. They seem to be coming out of an era of dreadful management and bad decisions, bad trades, bad drafting, and a complete cultural collapse. End of the season here they do seem to have changed their culture first, now it's a question of the subtraction and then the new talent. It looks like they might be following my method. Maybe Sabres will be better. I'd hope so with all the picks and prospects we have (including Philly's) but again, not yet. Time will tell. Bottom line, it's really hard to be a Sabres fan.

It's still lazy. If you don't have the time to reply and provide a counter argument why say anything at all? Now where can I find a F U emoji for people questioning my validity as a "fan"?

Ya they have good goaltending, but that's not the reason. Lot more to it than that.

Apparently I'm not a Sabres fan so I guess I will post this. The interesting thing to me is how he turns the question about Marchand not shooting for an open net to try to get him 50 into praise for Marchand sticking up for Bergeron. The point, if it isn't obvious, is a contrast in culture. This attitude is what the Sabres need. But what do I know, I'm not a fan. So I guess I must be a masochist for watching every single Sabres game .

he got 4 minutes. Montreal did get a power play. Bruins post game comments all praised it, including the coach.

check your grammar rules . If I am talking about them, I use they. I was a Sabres fan before you were born and your attempts at invalidating it are offensive and idiotic.

I'm curious what Sabres fans think of this: is this just one more example of why you hate Marchand? or is this what the Sabres should be doing when somebody runs Dahlin late?

I love it when lazy people put the red x up but don't bother to offer a reason or a counter argument. Lazy Sabrespace posting perhaps reflective of the lazy team they support. Now let the red x's begin.....................

Well Arizona didn't 🙂 Kulich is my favourite current prospect as well, as I've said before. I have high hopes for him but I also hope he gets most of another year in Rochester. I am hoping next year we have enough of a defined lineup that he becomes a call up for a similar slot and is not a Vinnie type move everyone around kind of thing. We shall see what happens. I have my hopes and my fears and my fears are tipping the scales at the moment.

"neanderthal era" why do you always do that? You get the point I was making about effort and accountability do you not? Nothing "neanderthal" about that. Heart and soul still matters in sports and always will. I was watching Flyers Wild tonight and although Philly has far less offensive talent than we do their effort level compared to us is off the charts. If we were giving the level of effort they are and we played hard and went to the hard areas like they do we would be IN the playoffs right now. Even with this crap goaltending. "neanderthal"? If that's neanderthal, I'd rather be a caveman than a beached whale (gratuitous Brendan Fraser joke for your dining and dancing pleasure)

So I guess we can just hope they do something about it.

@Taro T you got me curious to look back at that Carolina roster https://www.hockeydb.com/ihdb/stats/leagues/seasons/teams/0009792006.html and that's a roster structured very differently from what we have. Lots of down and dirty hard working playoff warrior types on that team. They had a lot of what are the missing elements on this team.

Ya, I suppose that could be his thought process but wow if he thinks he can just repeat history like that maybe he should have spent a little more time in concussion protocol during his playing career. I guess in sports anything can happen. There's been miracles on ice after all so who knows, but I think the likelihood is pretty remote. I doubt there'd be anybody on Sabrespace who would feel honestly confident about this team's chances next year if our goalies are Levi, UPL and Comrie when the season starts.

Except Cam Ward won the Conn Smyth trophy did he not? Shouldn't Adams know that you don't win without good goaltending?

You'd think Chicago would put a little more effort into making things like this happen after the abuse scandal they went through but I guess memory is short in sports and things are slow to change. Sad.