PerreaultForever

Just want to say that players rarely match "career years", that's why they are called career years.

There's an assumption that we will have improved goaltending but that's certainly far from a certainty. We have a guy who had one good season and an undersized rookie with potential. Either one of these guys gets off to a rocky start and it's game over.

Seattle did make 2 suspect moves that's for sure. Not sure what their plan is there. With elevating Bylsma it looked like they were going to go with lots of Coachella players but then they give way too much term to 2 aging guys, strange. I mean they will be better than they were for 3-4 years so maybe that's worth it. It's certainly more aggressive than what the Sabres are doing.

They offend me.

Probably true. I also expect overpays to UPL, Krebs and Jokiharju though. Roslovic is nothing special, but he's better than Krebs.

There's a difference between going to the net and making things happen in front of the net. Skinner refused to play D though. He's cost us as many goals against as he's scored, if not more.

I think it will be very interesting to see what Montour does away from the tightly knit Florida system which allowed him to excel as the puck mover in the unit. Seattle does not have that type of structure so I expect there will be a huge drop off next year.

McDavid didn't get it done until they added the necessary team pieces either. Now they are in the running but only because of the team around him combined with his skill. 2 first overall D men should make a difference absolutely, and if Power becomes a top NHL D man it will make a difference, but that's still and IF and in the meantime we suffer the ineptitude of bad team building.

I don't know if Adams is inept, or he has his hands tied by NTCs and any other number of issues but whichever the case the result is the same. You can see he is trying to bring in the missing pieces and the right type of players (that we don't have) but what he's getting is the fringe versions of that type and the end result will be that these guys do not get it done. So just like with Robinson, new guys will throw a hit or two and people here will get excited but it'll fade fast when nothing changes and so will their play. That's what I (sadly) see happening.

Savoie is a likely candidate. They might be familiar with him and think since he was in Moose Jaw he might not mind being in Winnipeg. McGroarty is exactly what you want in a 3C imo and as for the "demand" is that not pretty much the same as Levi? He is still raw and green though and not really what I want in our 3C next season. Down the road though yes. Different type of player to our prospect pool or at least most of it.

Like Bradshaw and others in football. Not the brightest lights.

That's what I said though, the "stud quarterback" makes all the difference. Hockey isn't the same. One stud doesn't get it done in hockey.

I think it's mostly Winnipeg fans wishing it's Tuch but idk. It's out there. I wouldn't be surprised if Buffalo and Winnipeg are talking. They need to move McGroarty. We have prospects. Maybe Adams thinks somebody might rather be in Buffalo than Winnipeg. Two teams that have trouble landing free agents so it's not shocking to think they are talking. It just better not be Tuch.

All these Winnipeg rumors have them moving Tuch. I can't believe this and if they do this idk, I might truly be done.

I've thought about this phrase and remembered how he's used it many times over the years and I think it's his way of saying "all our trades fell through" or "I'm not making any more trades for now". Those sentences piss off fans and make people think there will be no additions. Instead he just says "I like where we are at" to give it a positive more hopeful spin. But really, it means Krebs is your 3C.

It's a relatively new term, and has come along with analytics, but it's so over used now. It's almost like every single draft pick has a "good hockey IQ" which is why they are drafted. Makes you wonder when they don't say it about a draft pick, is he a "hockey moron" then? I really think it was a spin to get away from saying (the way they used to) that he's a "smart player" because then people on the internet put up quotes from interviews or even got their school grades up and did the hating "he's not smart he's dumb" thing so this lets you separate them. He can have a high hockey IQ regardless of his actual IQ which may be high or low. In any event it's stupid.

I don't get into the whole Bills/Sabres comparisons really. Too apples and oranges. I think the big difference is Pegula meddles and stays too involved in the hockey team. He knows nothing about hockey but thinks he does and he has a vision for what he wants to see and results be damned, he will make it happen is his mindset. He is more of an owner just watching with football, and that's why they have had more success. The other big difference is due to the nature of the game itself. Where would the Bills be without the stud QB? A star NHL player doesn't impact the game the same way as a QB does football (especially in this modern era where you can't hit the QB nearly as much as you could way back in the day). You see even with a McJesus on your team, he still needs the supporting cast and others have to carry the load when he's shutdown. The team dynamics of the game are very different, so an Eichel draft pick is a good one, but he needs the team around him more.

I was pulling for Florida all the way after they beat Boston. Absolutely loved the style of play they brought. I've said here that is the style we should be trying to play with all our size and speed, but so far we only do the speed part and we do not know how to defend like they did. Can Ruff change that? It won't be easy, it's a huge shift. I have no idea if he will even try. New Jersey certainly didn't play like that.

No, I will just end up watching the Bruins in the playoffs like every other year (which for some fans here is worse than suicide) and they will give me some enjoyable games I think, because while that may be "all Ruff has to do" but with the line up Adams has given him it's next to impossible.

Which is why I want to stick to harmless sports babble.

That was a bad moment. There's been lots of bad moments, but I think the lowest of the low has to be when Lucic ran over Miller. Lucic basically broke the franchise. That sounds silly, but look at the results from there on. We have been bad ever since. We lost all the mojo we had and we have never gotten it back.

We have sunk to doing real life stuff here now? Sports is supposed to be my happy place. Real world escapism most of the time. Don't try to take that away from me with anything serious.

I don't hate the Sabres. I hate Pegula and what he has turned this franchise into. Until it changes there's not much to love. I had a lot of hope with Ruff's hiring, but the last few days have sucked all of it away. It's sadness and frustration as I see another wave of young players wasted away and eventually leaving.

Well ya, there was all kinds of things wrong with the team then but while they say things have changed have they really? The results certainly haven't, and players not wanting to be here hasn't, so idk, I really just don't know. I've said before that I think this franchise will not succeed under Pegula. Whatever it was or is, that was a creepy weird comment.

Anyone else tired of hearing the phrase "good hockey IQ"?