PerreaultForever

So you think we have the talent and all it'll take is a new coach? Ok, good luck with that.

You want to just ditch our best player and start over yet again? I mean sure, if you can get a magnificent trade why not but how is that going to happen? At best you get something like what the Bruins got for Seguin and that isn't going to make us better. People simply have to stop comparing him to McDavid and referring to him as elite or generational and just accept he's an offensively gifted player, an allstar in a good year and a potential 100 point guy in a good season. Very good, not great. Accept it and move on. We (and his linemates) have to stop expecting him to do everything.

Yup (and the Jets got better when they traded with us :)) but it's JBot's 2nd year. Leafs and Flames didn't get everybody in two years. They all have drafted better.

I honestly don't think he is that horrible, but he is a really bad fit for our style/system and clearly unmotivated. If he was on the Islanders under Trotz or on Washington or maybe even Boston he'd be fine as a 3rd/4th liner.

Nylander and Olofsson a shot earlier? maybe. Not sure they've shown enough to warrant that or to have made a difference but maybe. Smith or O'Regan? Nah, they are nothing. AHLers. Nothing to pin any hopes on. Duchene trade (so you are giving up.............?) no thank you. He has done very little for Columbus and he should be going flat out to earn a big contract. Guy only plays when and if he wants to. No way does he fix this mess. Veteran 2C would have been good. Not sure we had anything to offer though without giving up the future. Bringing in vets to mentor the young puts us in Okposo territory so it'd have to be the right guy for sure. I dunno, it's a slow process. What irks me now is how they've lost the effort and the will to try. I said a bunch of games back they were more entertaining this year and I felt they were losing but in games. Signs of life and hope. Now, that's all gone. They look slow and anemic and as bad as they did in the tank year. I am no longer entertained, and so I question whether the culture has in fact changed at all.

Cancerous? I thought that was the guy they traded away when they got him? Maybe that malignancy rests somewhere else?

That's what I thought the who will be here next year thread was, not the team, but us.

For the money he is/was apparently asking for I would hope we do not sign him. Maybe this is why Carolina let him go for little return. They already knew he wanted too much. This stuff is just painful to sit through now. Just terrible hockey, if it can even be called that. and just how was either going to do that with this lot of losers?

I wanted to have a betting pool to see which one gave up the first or most easy goals up against the post, Lehner or Ullmark, but it looks like it's Hutton so never mind.

Too many of the lower picks in the tank years have been busts. When you are picking first overall, your second pick is virtually a first and you have to hit on some of those players as well as the obvious first one. We lost mcDavid and got Eichel, but 2nd round we have to do better than Guhle. The Reinhart year we took the wrong guy and traded Lemiuex but the rest was a bust outside of (perhaps) lucking into Olofsson in the 7th. JBot's got us a bunch of Swedes and Finns, and some of those guys have to develop into pros or his drafts will also end up being busts. Too soon to tell. SO MANY BAD DRAFTS over the years though explains it all. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Buffalo_Sabres_draft_picks

LOL. When I read the title my initial thought was you were asking who (of us, fans) would still be here (Sabrespace) or would we have given up finally.

Umm, chicken and egg Robin. They booed before the game started because of what you did the games before. Nobody booed the guy before he gave us his body of work. In two games I've seen the Islanders play I noticed he still has all the same old weaknesses. 10-1 the Sabres are too myopic to shoot for those spots though.

Not even close. Max may have been a limited player in many ways but he could put the puck in the net, which not many on this roster can. Much better shot than Tage, faster and more skilled. Just a tad lazy at times. Bet he would have been a killer in the shoot out. Wouldn't win us the cup, but a few Afinogenovs on this roster, with all their limitations, might have made us competitive or put us in the playoffs.

Good scouting and drafting is the obvious key to any team's success. the Sabres screwed up royally in 2006 when they let go Don Luce and much of their scouts. It was Luce that got us Mogilny, Afiniganov, Biron, Campbell and Pommer among others. Too soon to say on JBot's crew but we have not scouted well since. Oh and by the way, the Leafs hired Luce as a scout in 2015 so there you go, should have kept one of our own.

I'm also done comparing Eichel to McDavid but not in the same way. Simply don't see the point. We lost that lottery and Edmonton lucked out. McDavid is better. Eichel is not "generational." Okay, we got it, is what it is. Move on to the present. He is still currently the best player on this roster. You can trade him sure. Give us a Forsberg plus package for a Lindros I'm with you 100 percent, but since that isn't likely on the table you aren't going to make us better by moving out the only legit allstar on the roster. Dahlin may be our best player one day, we can only hope, but not yet. Rather than move him out, what we need is enough talent on the roster that he is no longer the only player the opposition has to check. Burke wouldn't say that. He had Sedins. He traded for Kessel. He too values skill as much as anyone, so he wouldn't do this. What he might do however, is surround him with Ferland types and let a lot of that rub off on him. He'd maybe build a bigger team with a tougher attitude. One that protects it's stars and lets them play their game. But I don't want to defend Burke, twas just a thought. You got a better candidate? By all means love to hear it. The bottom line for me is the current thing just ain't working, so maybe it is the owner and maybe it is the way they run it. If you think yet another coach or another GM and no other changes to the whole thing will suddenly fix it, to that I say dream on.

Sometimes I think Ullmark is really really stoned. Like that play where he was turned around in the net on his knees facing the boards and looking around like he had absolutely no idea where the puck (or he) was. Puck came out in front and fortunately a bad Detroit team had nobody there to get it so no harm but really.........only a Sabres goalie can manage to be that out of it.

Olofsson has some skill. Not sure how durable he'd be. Seems kind of small and light. Pretty obvious how teams would deal with him in big games - if we ever get to play any. Still, could see him as the 4th forward on the PP. Good speed, nice passes and seems to have good awareness. Upgrade from Tage for sure. Loved the figure skating spin from Skinner. If he'd scored on that it might have been a highlight :)

So I guess that means we have no more D prospects after Borgen? Yikes. I think the Bruins went through about 5 or 6 this year alone, (and all of them looked better than most of our starters.)

long overdue.

I think this might be the first game this year I don't watch. Record it to look at Olafsson later maybe but I think I will watch the Habs Blue Jackets game instead for some actual hockey. See if any of those temporary Columbus guys would be worth free agent targeting.

A buffoon maybe, but also maybe it is time to call it like it is. Maybe, just maybe, it's time for everyone to say they've had enough. I personally think we need to hire a tough hockey guy who will say that and fire anyone who doesn't get on board and start rowing in the same direction. Brian Burke maybe? Just a thought. Somebody tough who doesn't take crap from anyone and doesn't breed a culture of softness and losing. I've been pretty patient this year, optimistic even, but that Ottawa game revolted me. I cant' watch that stuff any more. At least earlier I was entertained and saw some effort. Now it's back to no effort, no pride, no guts, no identity, no plan no NOTHING. IT HAS TO STOP!

I think this may be right, the question would be who? https://buffalonews.com/2019/03/27/sabres-terry-kim-pegula-bills-buffalo-jason-botterill-phil-housley-opinion-2019/

He's up now. He too gets a chance to soak in a little of that losing culture.

I'm not sure a decent Sabres team would be good for him. He manages to get excited about the tiniest glimmers now an actual good team might be too much for him.

I guess that is good for you guys who get to watch them. Gives you some sort of hockey team worth cheering for. Being a Sabres fan I'm forgottening what that's like.