PerreaultForever

Well, see I hate Pacioretty so I'm like whatever, he'd have done the same hit if he could. Chara, Stevens, Pronger, guys like that were always hated by other teams and that's the nature of who they were and what they were paid to do. Playfair and Korab were similar.

Oh I totally get that. I know a lot of Bruins fans are having trouble cheering for Florida for similar reasons. Marchand, understandable, Lucic, for sure, but Chara? Big beast on the ice but he's a really good guy. I never saw him in that same "rat" boat. I have respect for him.

That's how I felt last year. This year I'm waiting for a new dealer. 🙂

As do all the Tkachuks, Bennett, Perry, Kane, Nurse and a host of others. But oh look, they're playing in the finals. I mean look at these playoff stats. https://www.statmuse.com/nhl/ask/brad-marchand-career-postseason-stats that's hall of fame stuff.

I am not believing anything in advance. Been burned too many times. It's all bs until it changes.

Well ya, so putting that in the worst way, a tired old man with a chance to pad his retirement account working from home. So he took the job.

I keep seeing things like this and I have a hard time believing it. Active? With Kevyn Adams? With no coaching changes? I will believe these things when they happen.

They hired Bylsma because they didn't get Babcock and he was last notable coach remaining. Had won with Crosby so the thinking was win with Eichel. They fired him because there was no progress at a point when there was greater expectation after drafting Eichel (and we already had Reinhart, O'Reilly etc.) After more than a decade of failure the bar for success has been drastically lowered, that's obvious. DeBoer will never happen here.

These things happen and who knows. I know nothing about him so can't say if we screwed up or not. I'm really interested to see if this Shabanov guy (supposedly linked to the Flyers) will come over and can he play. Supposed to be incredibly skilled, was just passed over for size. I only put it here cause it's not worth it's own thread on a Sabres site.

This is never going to happen. TP is never going to hire a defense first guy like DeBoer and he is most definitely not spending big coin on a high profile coaching hire.

I hate to say it but this narrative makes it even worse than if they didn't let him pick his own assistants. This tells me his day was truly done and he was no longer connected the way he used to be. A has been and people didn't want to come to the Sabres or work with him and he knew it.

lol, please, don't do that internet tough guy garbage. We all know you're in your mom's basement. Let's be real about hockey. Marchand will be in the hall of fame one day. If he was a Sabre he'd an all time fan favorite. All we can hope for is 20 years from now we will look at Benson or somebody else on this roster in a similar way. Right now? We got nothing comparable.

He isn't. He just said he was open to teams bidding and the speculation was it would be 8x3. Bennett hasn't asked for 10 either but that speculation is out there too. Rest easy, neither will be a Sabre.

In all my 50 plus years of watching hockey I cannot think of a final series closer than this one. It is dead even and a total coin toss. Either team can win this and it'll probably be luck in game 7 OT. It's a very good final, the league must be happy.

He would punch you back, harder. Admit it, you wish he was a Sabre.

Nothing against Lindy but what's the point of retaining him as an "advisor" when you didn't even let him hire his own assistants? Just cause he was a Sabre before? It would be pointless.

I see nothing in Sabres style of play or character that would indicate playoff success if they got there. What is it you are seeing?

Sturm hired in Boston. The mantra seems to be they plan on being very defense first in terms of team identity. (They may have to be with their lack of offense outside of Pasternak).

No. Big no. At this time we do not have any of the leadership or experience required for the playoffs. They would be so far over their heads so fast they'd exit faster than the Leafs did when they first got back in. Look at Ottawa. They even had some playoff experience on the roster and they showed they were way out of their depths. You are dreaming if you think they will do well. Unless they add veteran leaders of course. But they have not shown any desire to do that so far.

You would have seen glimpses. Moments. Individual games. We have not.

This Oilers team is handling the physicality better than last year's version did. If Florida is going to win this Tkachuk and Reinhart are going to have to be better. I suspect Tkachuk is playing injured all playoffs but those guys are big guns they need to step up.

The pace and physicality of this game so far just tells you how far away the Sabres really are.

I personally agree with that assessment. Although I was fine to trade Cozens, I would not have moved him for Norris. I like Peterka and think he still has even more potential with good coaching and a good system. I'm not sure the whole league would agree with that though. I think there are many who would be interested in Norris. Utah would be my first phone call.

Don't trust him to stay healthy. Not worth the risk imo. I've already said I expect next year's excuse to be "if not for injuries" and I'd rather avoid that probability.