That Aud Smell

He seems like a genuinely nice guy. And yes, it’s time for (new) leadership from the player wearing the C.

Fans and mods should strive for coherence alike. Your post 🆙 thread made no sense (to me).

Well, fans too. I still have no idea what you were trying to say.

It’s possible that the losing is a symptom of an underlying problem. This thread is generally directed to discussing that underlying problem — or at least aspects of it.

That was quite a tangent. Mods should strive for more coherence.

You’re getting at a fundamental disagreement on the dynamic at play here. Are the fans and players on substantially equal footing such that booing from the fans justifies the players reacting in kind? Or do the players owe a higher duty to their fans such that they are obligated to take a high road when a segment of the attendees boo the team and chant for the coach’s firing? I’m in the camp of the higher duty being owed by the players. Also: For the committed core who are still showing up, it’s more than a product. Lol at the few hundred rejoinder.

⬆️ The Shawshank movie owns the word obtuse.

I’ve inferred it’s KO. There are fairly lengthy quotes in the article. They sound every bit like things he’d say.

“‘one member of the team told me afterwards that the group was simply looking to change things up and didn’t intend to offend the paying customers.’” As bad a captain as Phaneuf (sp) was, at least he (or maybe Kessel) pleaded a benign reason for skipping a customary fan appreciation gesture.

@LGR4GM and @Thorny might have wrapped this one up quite neatly. ⬆️ I love the Sabres. At the moment? I feel like the Sabres don’t love me. That will change. And may it change soon.

Arena experience snobbery! Lol. There’s nothing so ear splitting as the sound from a noise meter graphic during a kid-heavy, sold-out matinee.

There’s no putting this toothpaste back in the tube, unfortunately.

This helps me understand where you’re coming from, at least. Mind you, I disagree fundamentally - metaphysically? - about dynamics you appear to accept as normal as between and among the players (on a pro hockey team) and disgruntled fans. But that disagreement is one I can just shrug and accept. I gotchu (I think).

It frustrates me that the point here is getting lost. I don’t think anyone here gives a sh1t whether the team salutes or doesn’t. What’s causing concern is that an unnamed Sabre veteran - read: Okposo - confirmed that, after a handful of leather lungs bellowed “fire Donny” amidst a 9 goal shellacking, the team decided to stop making a customary gesture of fan appreciation. It doesn’t matter what the gesture was. It doesn’t matter if it was good or bad. It doesn’t matter if you value it or don’t. What matters is what the team and its leadership elected to do in response to frustration being voiced by some fans in the arena. And what they elected to do was effectively say “ well then fu*k them - Donny’s our guy.” Awful.

I love me a good subtweet. I stand by what I said. That’s some barrel bottom leadership by ol’ Okie.

I do not. As indicated in multiple posts of mine (and those of others).

A few of ‘em maybe. I had hopes for Dahlin. But he’s gone vanilla on us.

Says who? Someone had it right when they suggested it was a post lockout fan appreciation thing. There is no defending this. The team leadership’s decision to lead the team in abandoning a fan appreciation gesture — in response to theiw feewings being huwt — is damning.

A point of clarification: I don’t give a hoot about the stick salute. As others have noted, it’s the thought process that led to their abandoning it that bothers me. A lot.

I know you dislike this sort of take, but, by all accounts, he is a really nice guy. Like, just a super guy. Terrific personality for a youth development coach. I chortled.

@PASabreFan crystallized it and now I’m even more pissed off. How’d that conversation go? JFC. A few hundred people are hollering to “fire Donny”, so it’s “f*ck all y’all”? The worst. Oh, and then go “unnamed” when you confirm it to a reporter. THE WORST. Holy sh1t, if doctors and other health care professionals were this soft …

This gets at the root of what I’m saying. Not just soft. They’re fu*king idiots. Hmm. Interesting take. How did this evolve? It used to be something done on special occasions, and then became more routine?

I figured this deserves its own thread. Harrington quotes an unnamed veteran Sabre (gotta be Okposo), who confirms that, after the “fire Donny” chants amidst the 9-# loss to Columbus, the team decided to stop the stick salute to fans after a win. What in the actual fu*k. When does the no-salute policy stop, Kyle? What’s your endgame here, you dipsh1t? Look, you get to retire and go do whatever the fu*k you’re gonna do, but this is my hometown team. And you and your equivocal soft ass leadership is helping to atomize it.

Also: There are plenty of “anonymous” quotes in the article, but I don’t want to implicate copyright issues by dumping all that verbiage here.

It took a while, but Harrington looked into this. I love how the “veteran Sabre” asked to be nameless but you can absolutely tell who’s confirming that the team decided to snub the fans in order to support Donny (it’s clearly Okposo). https://buffalonews.com/sports/professional/nhl/sabres/buffalo-sabres-nhl-don-granato-columbus-blue-jackets-toronto-maple-leafs/article_97abb70c-cc5a-11ee-8ab4-1f71e58cc14c.html “It reached a breaking point with the “Fi-re Don-ny” chants directed at coach Don Granato during a 9-4 loss to Columbus on Dec. 19. The locker room was severely rankled by that outburst and, apparently, the response has been a postgame snub of the fans. Given anonymity so he could speak freely, a veteran Sabre said simply that the team made a decision to stick together in support of its coach.” A team decides to snub the fans based on some of the fans audibly expressing frustration. This is the most toxic franchise in North American pro sports and you can’t convince me otherwise. And that “unnamed veteran player” is a sh1t leader. Take off, hoser.