Big Guava

Hopefully there is a lot of meat on the Rathbone

Band on the run?

Not saying to give him away, get what you can for him and get out of the contract that even as it might be reasonable for a starting goalie in the NHL is a big overpayment for a player who is not a starting goalie in the NHL. I mean a player with a career .898 save percentage in this day and age should not be a starting goalie in the NHL. It's hard to be that low when your save percentage last year was .910 in a season where you played 54 games, which means he has sucked much worse the rest of the time he has played. He leads the NHL in Goals allowed and out of goalies with 20+ games played he ranks 50th out of 56 in save percentage with an abysmal .885. In short, he sucks, so I am not sure what your argument is for keeping him is. And about not replacing him...they could bring in Michael Houser and get this level of goaltending most nights. If that's what you are getting anyway, why pay 5x the price? Stop deluding yourself into thinking UPL is going to be anything other than a disappointment. Just pay a vet minimum contract and you'll get the same level of goaltending...I mean Reimer has been outplaying him and it hasn't really been close.

Whoever the goalie coach is needs to be gone yesterday. I'm not sure who the goalie coach was when we started the drought but the goalies all were pretty good for the first 4-5 years and I remember many of us thinking they were going to screw us out of the #1 pick from stopping too many pucks. Even random goalies that they picked up in trades to replace people they traded. Hire that guy back again if he is out there somewhere. Honestly I'm not sure what they should do because Adams seems to have issues identifying quality goalies. None of the people he has brought in has done well here, except for Reimer in a small sample size and even then, his save percentage sucks too. Eric Comrie was a disaster. Carter Hutton was a disaster. Adams seems to not be able to identify what's important for goalies talent wise.

Having terrible positioning has nothing to do with defense. The first goal he is inexplicably cheating towards the pass when his D-man has it played perfectly leaving him just the shooter to worry about and he gets beat shortside which shouldn't ever happen in that spot...dude is broken. He is often in bad position and is allowing 1-2 goals a game that are simply not NHL level goals that should ever go in. His career GAA is under .900 which is a joke for an NHL goalie and the only time he has shown to be good was when he had something to play for like making the NHL roster his first time getting called up and then last year playing for a contract. Outside of that, he has sucked and sucked badly all too often. Seems like he gets comfortable and loses focus, doesn't put in the same effort and doesn't pay attention to details like he does when it counts. So yeah, please have someone take him so we can stop wasting our time waiting for him to play well while being comfy with a guaranteed contract.

Nobody is taking that contract and if they do thank God, it's a terrible contract

UPL is broken. First goal he gets beat cheating towards a pass when his D-man is in perfect position taking that away on a 2-on-1 and his job is to take the shooter. He gets beat short side which should NEVER happen on that play. Do your freaking job and stop trying to do someone else's! His positioning is abysmal. He needs to go down to the AHL and work on that badly.

UPL is a mental case at this point. His positioning is all wrong. On the first goal, there is a 2 on 1, his job is to take the shooter, the defenseman correctly eliminates the pass leaving UPL to deal with the shot and instead of being in the proper position he is cheating towards a pass that never comes and gets beat on the short side which should NEVER happen in that situation. Do your freaking job! Stop trying to do someone else's job. This dude is a basket case right now and he needs to be sent down to the AHL.

With the amount of parity and the fact half the conference makes the playoffs every year it is nearly impossible to have a missed playoff streak of this length...even thru sheer dumb luck and a few loser points or a hot streak they should have been able to make it by now. The fact the Bills are tied for having the 2nd longest playoff drought in NFL history and the Sabres keep reaching new highs with this playoff drought, now at 14 seasons, 4 longer than the Panthers in 2nd place in NHL history, and it's almost inconceivable that these overlapped for several years, let alone happened to two teams from the same city.

It's not on any individual player, it's on the collective mentality they are indoctrinated into when they join the team. Losing begets a losing mentality from the veteran players there who then teach the younger players the same losing mentality,and the cycle continues until it gets broken. Ryan O'Reilly won a cup and came here and had the life and energy sucked out of him from the losing. Eichel was supposed to be the savior and then turned into a whipping boy and leaves and wins a cup. Reinhart was a good player...leaves and becomes a 50 goal scorer and wins the cup. Montadour couldn't do much of anything here...leaves and plays a key role on a cup team. It's the same stuff over and over and over. Good players come here and do nothing but lose. Then leave and go to other teams and have a lot of success. At this point it becomes a self fulfilling prophecy after it's been going on this long. Almost have a feeling of "here we go again" and "nothing ever changes".

Yes...one that we consistently find ourselves on the wrong side of far too often over the last 14 years

Good depth to have, but better as a 7th D-man that can fill in spot duty.

Nice win...but another game with a sub .900 save percentage by UPL. In his last 12 games, he only has 3 games where he registered a .900+ save percentage. Pathetic.

UPL now leads the NHL in Goals Allowed

"I'll take things that never happened for $1000, Alex."

Well...good win.

You mean except the coach that got fired mid season?

Bylsma won a Stanley Cup

The ability to lose no matter who the coach is or how many times they rebuild with new players. Almost impossible to be this bad for this long but they have figured out a way to do it

UPL sucks ass

Dahlin said he never even said anything like this and is pissed about it

1...2...3...we want 4!

He has but clearly it is a low point for him and not his average of what could be expected. I would think that a 23 year old player who still has time to improve, is very durable and has shown he has skill is worth more than a guy who has missed 100 games the last 2 years and can't stay on the ice and is more expensive and 2 years older. Let alone then throwing in a 2nd round pick to boot. Especially when it's an open secret that the Sens have been shopping Norris for a loooong time and found no buyers...why the hell are you paying a premium to take a guy they are desperate to get rid of?? It would be like someone that is putting stuff at the curb with a free sign on it and you go up to the house and hand them $100 for it...like what are you doing??

I don't care until next season starts. That's the next time they have any shot at a playoff berth

Well they definitely got the better defensive player without question. Cozens was a liability on D Norris isn't going to get any Selke votes but he is very capable and at least league average there.