PerreaultForever

Sure but every team in that race has had key players injured at times this year. There is no valid "if" and you won't get me to drink that Kool-Aid. We were not as good as the teams still in it. Ottawa has won the which one will make it next year of Ottawa, Buffalo, Detroit race that we heard about last year. Montreal and Columbus win the good drafting faster than expected rebuild awards. Rangers and Bruins are crashing below expectations and what happens to either next year is unknown. We are down with Philly in the lots of mistakes and haven't got it right yet class.

but nothing. they don't mean a thing.

Adams made the team too young, that's his ultimate failure. It's a self fulfilling prophecy. But right now he's telling Terry, "did you see that, we beat the best team, we're the best now."

Yes it is, but if you were a player and had a chance at getting out of here with a big contract wouldn't you take it?

I'm seeing a lot of "if" all over the internet in Sabres conversations. If Dahlin hadn't missed games, if Quinn had started hotter, if goaltending had been better, if they hadn't gone to Europe, if if if it's if every year. The bottom line for me is Ruff didn't make a difference. The team isn't any better than it was last year.

I heard an interesting comment the other day on a podcast. I forget which one. I think it was Jeff Marek's. "No franchise can ever be successful if everybody is always agreeing with each other. You need dissenting voices for success." If that's true, and I think it might be, that right there might be the core of the Sabres problem brought on by Pegula's presence and the need to "agree". We need somebody in that room to say "that's stupid" once in a while.

The problem I have with Adams (well, the biggest problem) is this constant narrative that it's "hard to make a hockey trade" and that's the only trade he will consider. The reality is it's easy but you need to do TWO trades not one. That way the whole league is an option. You can do a hockey trade if it's there but if not, you work harder and you trade the guy you don't want for picks and prospects and then you trade picks and prospects (not necessarily the same ones) for a veteran guy(s) you want from someone else. Teams contending, teams rebuilding, teams with cap room, teams that need cap room, they all want different things and Adams can fill any of those needs if he stops trying to do just one deal that is player for player. So Power or Byram for whatever but ultimately we end up with veterans on the team that we are currently missing like a solid defensive D man (among other things). Adams needs to stop trying to win deals and stop waiting and use the luxury position he currently has. How they can still not get this right is mindbogglingly stupid.

Given the success St. Louis had I think we are going to see several offer sheets around the league this year and Peterka could be one of them. What KA does with it who knows.

If they take us seriously we have no chance. If they play loose and spend the day trying to set up Ovi we could steal one. That's it.

But, if we were closer and actually in the hunt opposition teams would take us more seriously and we'd have a tougher time of it. We've been winning a bunch of wide open games where teams have been loose and/or uninterested and when given open ice this team usually does well. The exception was the Philly game where they also played loose and open and beat us at our own game. I laugh when I read things like "Quinn is heating up" on twitter and sure he is, cause he's not being checked as closely and he has open ice. Give him open ice and yes he has skill. We knew that. The problem is his inability to play through tight checking and physical defense. This happens to this team every single year and every single year it seems to give management this illusion/delusion that we are close, just a little luck is all we need. It's madness.

Well okay but I think it's safe to say we haven't had a good GM in this entire non playoff stretch. They have all made a bunch of big mistakes.

cause they are way way behind and have been out of it for ages. It's not bias, it's rationality.

No that's bs. You can't blame Botterill for Adams trading Eichel and Reinhart. That's some weird logic there. As for ROR when a guy says he's lost his love and the owner doesn't want to pay his big bonus the player gets dealt and the team loses no matter what. Bottom line is there's a long long list of mistakes and bad moves from each and every one of the GMs and also the poor coaching choices and the lack of spending and everything else about this stupid stupid franchise. and most of all there's no sense that it'll be any better next year either.

Miller Lite isn't beer.

Not really. Much less than what Adams did. ROR wanted out remember. There was no option there, and he got the guy who is now our top line scorer.

It's always been folly to run him like a top level starter. He's inconsistent. He always has been, and he burns out too. We've needed a 40-50% workload veteran goalie for years now. Every since we lost Ullmark. But Adams disagrees. F'n stupid. UPL is at best part of a tandem. The defense however, is really horrendous and that exposes goalie issues easily.

Flyers fans really angry with the Torts firing. They are afraid they will lose their top 5 draft pick (center for Michkov). A lot of wide open hockey in this game and pretty bad defense. I've been comparing the Flyers rebuild to the Sabres for a couple years now. Teams are different, but just about even so far. Both not good, but that Michkov I think is going to be something else. They need a center and a goalie.

Meh, you never know. Goalies are weird. He could still be good. I'm almost certain Adams goes with UPL Levi in Buffalo next year. Reimer re-signed and another 3 goalie scene? Maybe. But Adams still has his hopes set on Levi.

they got palm trees too down there. No palm trees in Detroit either.

Well we learned tonight he's another guy who can't fight. Not that he has to, but it would have been nice if he could.

Yes I know, I just meant it didn't mean anything for the fate of the NHL team. The preseason record was very good but the team still crashed and burned. This late season stuff doesn't mean anything either. It will be interesting to see if they can win in the playoffs though.

When the Sabres admit Adams has? idk Boy are they ever a bunch of divers though. Refs were buying into it but these guys were flopping all over at the slightest touch. Ruined the flow of the game and kept it from being a tight playoff style game too. Dead Things still lost so good on them. Cozens didn't do much.

This is like watching preseason meaningless hockey. Remember when the Rochester roster was beating everyone and how optimistic that made you feel? In the end, it was nothing. Pittsburgh looked almost as bad as the Bruins do. So all we need is a little more conditioning. Uh huh.

I find myself wondering how few Sabres play through injuries compared to other teams that are still competitive. It's fairly well known that Brady Tkachuk is still hurt from the 4Nations but he toughs it out. Norris comes here and he's not fit to go. If he was still in Ottawa would he be sucking it up and playing through it? idk. Hard to say with how little they say these days on what injuries are but I do wonder. A lot of Sabres do seem to miss games for seemingly little things.

I think Torts and Briere/Jones just hit a timing/philosophy difference. Torts doesn't like tanking and Philly realized they have to tank to get Michkov a center. This is why Torts finally said he had "no interest in coaching that type of team". Now Philly can tank for this year and maybe next (McKenna). They also have their eyes on Tocchet should he be available. Some teams make moves when they are unhappy with events. Buffalo? Stay the course. If I owned Buffalo I'd actually hire Torts as coach. Bump Ruff up to a senior advisory role. Let Torts fire any and all of the assistants. I'd fire Adams too but since he's a lap dog yes man and will do whatever the boss says sure let him shuffle paperwork while other people do the work. 10-1 Quinn would be the first guy in the doghouse.