HumanSlinky39

I cannot get past this. This is a team that had lost 10 in a row. They're in MTL. They're dressed to practice. They get a pep talk from an animatronic bologna sandwich of an owner then are given the day off. 10 straight losses and somebody opines that they need THE DAY OFF??? WTF, man?

Any reports on how this played out? He's definitely not a stupid man. He is just ill-equipped to own a hockey team.

Well, I think the stew was simmering since yesterday with the Pegula nonsense. Then you follow it up with a performance like that? And they cancelled practice yesterday??? There is malpractice going on at every management level of this team. This is a ton of frustration being released into the atmosphere. I care. As bad as this ***** franchise has been for a decade and a half, I still care. I've loved this team for 30+ years and they've been shitting on me (and all of us) for 14 uninterrupted seasons. I'm fed up and I'm pissed that they seem to be just fine with yet another season being a smear of human excrement.

If he makes it through the season, I'll be floored. That dog and pony show with Uncle Terry yesterday would have been the final straw for me. The big dumb owner breezes in and tells everyone they have nothing to worry about and then they CANCEL PRACTICE? A team on a 10 game skid gets the day off? What kind of outfit are these clowns running?

I'm seriously beginning doubt Lindy makes it through the season. He's a good coach with 24 years of experience as a bench boss. There's no ***** way he buys that line of ***** about "the answers are in this room." He has to be seriously regretting taking this job and I wonder how much longer he lasts before he says "***** it" and resigns. I wouldn't blame him at all.

One of the biggest problems with this team is that we have a pair of wingers as our #1 and #2 Centers. Cozens and Tage should be on the wing. Of course, you do that...who are your top 2 centers? McCleod, Krebs or Kulich? Adams has bungled the roster construction so badly, your top 2 lines stink because they have mediocre centers running them. Let Tage loose on the wing in a Draisaitl kind of role. He's a talented scorer, but doesn't have the hockey sense to center a top line. Same with Cozens. Take the pressure of centering a line off of him and i bet he's a 60 point guy, easy with some talented linemates. This roster is so poorly constructed and deployed it's unbelievable.

What a gutless, spineless performance. Everyone involved from Terry Pegula down to Dennis Gilbert should be utterly humiliated.

*Insert Thanos "what did it cost" meme*

Looks like Uncle Terry's pep talk is paying off! 🤣

What's worse is the return for guys have become franchise players elsewhere. Eichel netted a solid winger in Tuch, who is a second line guy on a good team, but he's been a default first line guy here. Krebs is a decent bottom six energy guy, but not likely to become more. The VGK 1st rounder became Östlund who has yet to reach the NHL, so no idea what we have there. Reinhart became Devon Levi who has struggled in sporadic NHL action, but may still develop down the road and Jiri Kulich who is just now seeing his first regular NHL action, but still has a ways to go. He looks like he could become a decent middle six Centerman. So you dealt away two star cornerstone pieces for a veteran second line winger, a bottom 6 forward, two forward prospects who we're not sure what they'll become yet, though I don't think either is expected to become a superstar, and a goalie who may or may not become a viable NHL netminder. This is why this rebuild isn't going anywhere. I know neither Jack or Sam wanted to be here anymore, but whose fault is that?

Lets just look at straight wins and losses, removing "loser points" from the equation, here's the Sabres' win % since 2022/23 2022/23: .512 2023/24: .476 2024/25: .355 That's NOT the direction a young team should be going as they're entering their 3rd/4th year of playing together. That indicates the roster is fatally flawed and is in need of adjustment...not more patience.

I'm coming around to that same idea. If that is the case, the GM that assembled them and seems to have an unreasonable attachment to "his guys" needs to be removed from the equation and a fresh set of eyes needs to be brought on to parse out who stays and who goes. Continuing on the same path is just burning more years.

I think Lindy should have been brought on as POHO this season, but I don't know if he would have even been interested in that. Maybe he's still intent to coach. A guy like Lindy would be the perfect buffer between Terry & operations. It's becoming more clear by the game Lindy isn't the coach for this team (I'm not solid that anyone is). Maybe that's the ultimate plan to have Lindy move upstairs in that role. But if Appert is the succession plan, that's more Terry ***** and he needs to removed from operational decisions. Harumph, I just don't see much to be positive/excited about in this team's future.

This is a ridiculous expectation. Patience? For 14 years? 2 seasons ago this team, with pretty much the same core of players, went 42-33-7, 91 points and barely missed the playoffs. Then they regressed last season to 39-37-6, 84 points (a 7 point drop) and still barely missed the playoffs. This year they're 11-16-4 (a 69 point pace), have lost 10 straight and are seeing further regression pretty much across the board. Patience is one thing if you're holding steady or making small gains; it's not to be expected when you're going the other way 2 straight seasons after appearing to be on the cusp of a breakthrough. If they're serious about "patience", they're the most tone-deaf front office in pro sports history.

All that told me was that this is not a serious hockey organization that actually cares about winning.

Terry's vote of confidence was surely the one thing they've been lacking and will spur them on to an easy 7-1 win! ** Kidding, they're gonna get boat raced. **

They were apparently so inspired that they cancelled practice. Yzerplan.

https://x.com/EricEngels/status/1868702946088960351 Yes, yes - a team that sucks out loud needs LESS practice. That's a brilliant plan, it's a swiss ***** watch if I understand it correctly.

I could never fully "boycott" (i.e. never watch), but I've already missed more games this season than any in my memory. If I have something else going on, I make no real effort to tune in. That said, if I lived near Buffalo, I don't think I'd dump a couple hundred dollars into going to a game to watch a lousy, uninspired team. Given the attendance we've seen for a few years now seems like most fans are the same.

This is not a serious hockey organization.