PerreaultForever

To think, when the Pegulas bought this team we were 15th overall, and we've never gotten that high since, and usually not even close to that level. It takes a special kind of skill to be this incompetent for this long.

So I think maybe you're saying it doesn't matter who the coach is? Or at least all the ones they hire. Bylsma was just under .500 🙂

Nah, it'd be like the Ravens/Browns. They wouldn't keep the name, they'd want to be the Nordiques. They probably wouldn't keep the blue and gold either. As for the fan thing, I think to some extent it's just habit now. Local is local, I get that, but I doubt there are any young fans who live outside Buffalo unless it's from a parent being a fan or something like that.

How about sell it, move it to Quebec, and then Buffalo can get a new expansion team and start over. Can't be worse.

He's soft. They're soft. Team's stupid.

Same. For this season. and it started that way, but more and more you see players not quite in the game. Not skating, quitting on a play, no second effort, standing and watching, letting the other guy do it. This happens every year and whoever the coach is he can't seem to address it before it becomes commonplace. Granato's nice guy philosophy only works to a point, then accountability has to happen to change things.

uninspired effort against a very tired road team that was ripe for the picking. At least UPL looked like an actual goalie. that was something. Tage was pretty good. Rest was crap.

Surprisingly good. Thought it would just be a cash grab but it's pretty well written. When it started I thought he was in Alaska though. Now it turns out it's just winter in rural New York state? Near Buffalo then 🙂

2 of them were devastated by covid, Arizona is in a blatant tank and then there's the Montreal mess. Not that hard to be ahead of any of that. Ducks can not only beat us but can hurt us, if they want to. They had a tough one last night though so they might come in tired, flat, take us lightly, or all 3 so you never know. I'd guess we see the back up goalie too.

Oh I think it likely he will be 30-40 or even 50% better, assuming he likes it there and actually gives full effort every night, which I don't believe he actually did here. And that way, when this contract expires he can pull a Tavares and go to Boston tweeting his childhood Bruins PJ picture.

Not to mention Troy Terry tearing it up this year. Imagine if we'd drafted him instead of Devante Stephens (or Borgen and Guhle for that matter).

Red Sox.......but but.........they're from Boston.............. 🙂 Old rivalries were great but they ain't what they used to be. Too much player turnover, too many free agents. Few teams hate each other the way they used to. I was never a Bills fan, but I used to love watching the Bills Dolphins games back in the day. Regardless of each team's season those games were always good. Not any more though. I guess you hate the Patsies now, but so does everybody.

I agree there's not much he can do NOW, not without giving away assets no one wants to give away so that's that. Subban is the best you get. The time to make the moves was before the expansion draft, negotiating with the numerous teams that had to leave goalies exposed. Or sign a free agent back then. Heck even Martin Jones has played better than Dell. idk why people always talk about Gibson though. Why do they think he's even an option at any price? Anaheim's rebuild is soaring ahead and they're currently a playoff team. Helps when you have a goalie, good veteran leadership and of course DesLauriers 🙂

Bruins are my second team and I'm not afraid to admit it. (It's worth it just to irritate Zamboni, but that's not the reason). Bruins were my first team. Back in the 1970s nobody in my house watched hockey. As a little kid I discovered the game on my own and the very first game I ever saw was the Bruins winning the cup. The one with the iconic Bobby Orr flying in the air thing. As a little kid I thought cool team, don't want to be a Leafs fan like most of my friends, it just seemed like being a sheep and they sucked, so that was my team and as little kids do, Orr was my guy. Also, they wore black and gold just like my hometown Hamilton Tiger Cats so it was made to be. With televised games locally I discovered the Sabres and fell for that French Connection era team, beating Montreal and so on. Rick Dudley. All that flair and character and that was it, that was my main team and still is. Come playoff time though, lately, fall back to beantown and follow them off and on. Admire the culture and the team comradery. It's a model worth following imo. I'm also acquainted with Ken Casey of the Dropkick Murphys, so if I don't support the Bruins at least a little bit he'll razz me about the Sabres forever. Flyers suck 🙂

I didn't expect them to win either, but we've drifted off the point. I believe your contention was that the D would do better if we got early leads, was that it? If so, my counter point would be that we usually do start games pretty good, but the D crumbles if/when the other team turns it up and applies more pressure. I think in part sometimes teams do still take us lightly , at least at the start, and teams that like to play open and loose, we can handle those, but when they press and drive the net and really attack us (or play physical) Dahlin and most of the rest of them panic and make mistakes and players lose assignments in general. Granato is doing some decent things, but this team has not learned how to play good team defense and I really think they need another full time assistant coach working with the D and one on one with Dahlin in particular. Not sure at this point what Girardi's role is.

Expected ? Nothing much, but when you're gifted a 3 goal lead you should be able to put up a better fight and maybe even an upset if you get a little good goaltending. They aren't unbeatable, Seattle took them down just before that and Seattle isn't very good.

A lot of the Vancouver thing falls on Pettersson and some of the other "stars" underachieving this year. Pettersson signed the contract late and now only has 4 goals on the season. So the question is will Boudreau get him back on track or will they end up tearing down like we did? A number of people here wanted Boudreau, I guess we will find out if he might have been a good choice or not.

I'm with you on both parts of this. Personally, I know this will take several years and I'm okay with this year being the bottom, but I do want to see a forward progression sooner than later, and a decent goalie is needed for that, not just waiting on the kids. I personally believe you start with the goalie(s), you build the team culture and then you add the talent bit by bit into that existing culture. I see Seattle had that idea. I'm very curious to see which team rises faster and endures in the long run because it's 2 completely contrasting plans. On the border thing, idk what it's like now but I know I currently live only 5 minutes from the border and haven't crossed it in a couple years now. Used to go to Bellingham often and occasionally Seattle and even Portland just for the heck of it. Growing up in Hamilton Ontario we used to cross over to Buffalo all the time. I still remember how the Buffalo people bought us all drinks and treated us like celebrities when we had that hostage crisis thing and some got out with the Canadian embassy. Had nothing to do with me of course, but somehow ALL Canadians were royalty for a good 6 months or so. That was fun. The best time to smuggle duty free across the border was the evenings of Sabres games. Put a jersey on, know the score and they'd just wave you through with the line up, but that was a long long time ago.

So you, if it was you, would prefer to be unemployed rather than be paid 1, 2 maybe 3 million a year for a nice executive job with perks and an expense account? Really? You underestimate the egos on some of these guys. They all think they can be the guy to turn it around and then be named the greatest guy ever.

So like in the Florida game? 🙂

Every single one who is out of work. (multi) million dollar a year job, you kidding me? and it's not even a kiss of death as you see JBott landed another gig, so anybody can . Well maybe not Kreuger 🙂 You give a guy a multi year contract and he will come in and proclaim how he's going to fix the culture and restore pride just like all the rest ad infinitum.

So they didn't hire a new GM first so does that mean the owner chose Boudreau?

cute, but no. I guess I just want to feel some level of confidence that they have a decent plan. Something to grasp onto to make it worth hanging on.

How are we really in a better position? (I mean we might be, but until we see it, it's all just hope and prayer) Last time we were supposed to have had the better of Reinhart/Draisaitl, we had a "generational player" coming, we'd already gotten our 2 way second line center (ROR), we had a big physical D man and an elite power forward who had just been misunderstood in Winnipeg and we had a big young Swedish viking goalie who was going to be an allstar plus some other prospects. That was all supposed to make it happen. How is this one better than that? (again, it might be, but hindsight and all that)

I would be more on Adams side if he was more honest with the fanbase. Not TOTALLY honest, nobody expects that from any GM in any sport, but a little more. Just lay it out. Stop saying we have a plan and lay the plan out. Don't give us bull about the goaltending, admit it's a tank year (don't expect it to be called that, but use the right buzz words to dance around it so you can admit you never tried hard to get a goalie). Just lay out what the plan is and then we can decide if we want to go through that with them and also hold them accountable to that plan. Enough of the "we know things the fans don't" stuff. We deserve a little - a little - more after having put up with this crap for so long.