Sabre Dance
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Posts posted by Sabre Dance
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Fall faves:
College football
Mayer Bros. cider + donuts
Multi-hued foliage
Halloween
Wearing my leather bomber jacket
My birthday (65th next week!)
Cool nights and warm (not hot) days
Yes, autumn means winter is on the way, but that's one of the great things about living in WNY: all four seasons. Each one has its own charm.
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On 5/11/2021 at 3:11 PM, I-90 W said:
Are most people in Buffalo Jays fans or Yankees fans? Always wondered that.
For me, neither. Hate the Yankees; have been a Red Sox fan for years. (Went into hiding after the Bill Buckner incident - came out again when the Sox won their first World Series in decades). Made the pilgrimage to Fenway for a game several years ago against...the Blue Jays. Waiting to see if the Red Sox will be coming to Buffalo for a game.🤞
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At what point do we change the title of this thread to "Free Agent Fizzle"? Just sayin'.
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11 hours ago, North Buffalo said:
Nothing more than a sloooow rebuild... nothing to see here but an inpatient fan base losing its shiite
Hmm...impatient? So, I've been a Sabres' fan since day one. That's 50 years, y'all. I watched an expansion team in 1970 make it to game six of the Cup Finals in 1975. We're now in year 9 of (what should have been) a 5 year rebuild. Patience? How much more should I have...or need?
Fortunately, I have plenty of other (and more important) interests than NHL hockey. When the Sabres finally get around to working out all of their issues and become relevant again, let me know.
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I know it is gray, sleepy winter's day but you'd think that one of these two teams would wake up. I need some more excitement ; I am going to go watch some paint dry.
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1 hour ago, That Aud Smell said:
They are great. All 6,429 of them. I think they're all part of the same Facebook group.
Didn't Buffalo fans manage to score tickets to Game 7 of the ECF in 2006 on a fairly last minute basis?
Having said those things: I do tire of this line of conversation. In North America, anyway, if a pro team is good, lots of fans will turn out and turn up. No matter the region.
The Buffalo region has very good hockey fans and a lot of them. They've been beaten down and had the life sucked out of them, lo, these past 8 years or so. If the local pro team suddenly became a 98-point-paced squad that played with obvious heart? This town would be upside down bonkers for them.
And the arena would be noisy. Except on those Tuesday games against Florida. No one gives a sh1t about those games.
It's easy to support a winner. Where was all the love for the Sabres the last few years from the "true" fans? (games where the KBC was half full of visiting team fans). That's when the team really needed the support. (See Websters under "Fans, Fair Weather"). By the way, the arena in Raleigh looks pretty full (and raucous) so far in these playoffs. Perhaps they caught the hockey bug since 2006...
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I never minded the whole playoff beard thing, but now there are players who wear beards all season long (Burns, ROR, Thornton, etc.) Once the playoffs roll around, whose beard is a "playoff" one and whose is just a beard? It's too confusifying...?
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19 hours ago, LGR4GM said:
There are people on this very board, blaming Eichel.
You know what's ***** dumb? Blaming the guy leading the team in everything but goals. You know what wins games, talent. Scandella, Sobotka, Larsson, Zemgus, Wilson are all garbage and need to go. Why don't we blame Dahlin, why wasn't he better?
Almost right - talent by itself does not win games. Applied talent wins games. The NHL has seen many players with modest talent become stars. It has also seen guys who drip talent from their pores fail to make it. The key is to find players who can maximize the hockey skills they do have and get results. No really good team is made up of all first round picks. There are always the third-rounders (and a free agent or two) who just plain work hard and that is how they make their mark in the game.
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UB basketball fans! Welcome to Springboard U.!
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OK, so we all pretty much agree this kid's got IT (whatever it is). Now what? He's a very bright spot on a very lackluster team. (It's like having a great set of wheels on a beat-up used car - yes, the wheels look great and the potential is there for the rest of the car to improve, but....now what?)
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On 3/13/2019 at 10:51 PM, bunomatic said:
Pratt makes talk radio in Van City CRAZY and he gets the locals all riled up. The worst part is that people actually believe him. I know what you're saying Dudacek , the Canucks are like an alternate universe to the Sabres. I hear it every day.
Well, they are our "sister" team, also coming into the league in 1970. Maybe that was just a bad year to start up a new pro hockey team...
Frankly, I don't know where the Sabres are headed. I already spent all my frustration with them over the last decade; now I'm just weary. I used to have a tingle of excitement in September when training camp was about to start. Now, I just sigh...loudly.
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I have no idea who the author of this article is, but what he is saying is a pretty realistic (but perhaps blunt) assessment of the Sabres. Us fans tend to be a little too subjective at times (myself included). However, the easiest way to judge the reality of the situation is to have someone from the outside comment objectively. That seems to be the case here.
No one likes to read that "their team" is no good. (No parent likes to hear the Little League coach say their kid isn't that good). I think if we all take a step (or two) back, the reality of the situation is that, yes, this Sabres team is not good. Yet.
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On 3/12/2019 at 6:54 AM, Marchand'sNose said:
We absolutely were! Though to be more accurate, I would say "until about 17 years ago." Many people are probably not aware that the Sabres - for about the first three decades of existence - were the third most successful franchise in the NHL in terms of game points percentage (points obtained divided by points possible), behind only Montreal and Philly and not even too far behind those two. Obviously the playoffs were another matter, but that's mostly because our fledgling franchise consistently stood in the shadows of more established ones like Montreal and Boston (partly due to the playoff format back then). Nevertheless, the Sabres were pretty much always competitive and occasionally very much so.
So what went wrong during the 21st century? Simple: ownership. First came the Rigas scandal, and then came Golisano. Both were overly parsimonious to the point that the on-ice product suffered greatly. Rigas wouldn't pay our stars what they were worth. Golisano took this idea even further and trimmed the scouting personnel way too much (evidence: see our drafting history from 2005-2011, the effects from which we still are experiencing today).
Then came Terry Pegula, who at least arrived with dedication and enthusiasm for winning. His problem? Utter NAIVETY in all things related to sports management. We initially saw it with the reckless spending on such "talents" as Ville Leino and Christian Ehrhoff and soon after with Cody Hodgson and Matt Moulson. His fan crushes on everyone tied to Sabre history is also a major problem. It has manifested itself multiple times, whether it be taking too long to part with Regier and Ruff, turning to an unstable personality like LaFontaine to initially run the rebuild, or hiring a highly unproven head coach like Phil Housley. Perhaps Terry Pegula's biggest problem, however, may be his complete lack of certitude. You get the sense that he can be easily influenced by the wrong people with stronger personalities. The Tim Murray era never should have happened. Same thing on the football side with the Rex Ryan era. Same thing with Russ Brandon's lengthy run of influence on both sport sides. And now Botterill has Terry convinced that rebuilds need to take much longer than they somehow do for all other NHL franchises. This is very convenient for Jason Botterill because it quite simply buys him more time on the job than would otherwise be reasonable. My final Terry Pegula personality complaint would be the extent to which his political and religious/moral beliefs bleed into the sports operations. Are any of us confident that Terry will look objectively on Phil Housley's tenure? Or that of Sean McDermott? When it becomes obvious that these two are a problem and need to go, I have a deep concern that Terry Pegula will be the last person in Western New York to see it.
Apologies for this ownership rant, but I needed to get that off my chest.
Moving back to the original topic: I would say that every single Sabres fan has every right to complain right now. We are quickly approaching the "historically unprecedented" realm in terms of NHL franchise incompetence, and there appears to be very little evidence that it will get much better any time soon. Why are the Sabres still basically playing like the worst team in the league (that is, for the past 3.5 months)? Injuries aren't a problem, JB/PH have been given two off-seasons and nearly two full seasons to mold the team in their image, and the roster is not exactly devoid of raw hockey talent (8 regulars are top-8 overall draft picks). So I don't like it when others attempt to trivialize valid fan frustrations by pointing to various non sequitors as the Boston Red Sox finally turning things around or the Quebec Nordiques losing their franchise. Something is very disturbingly wrong with the Buffalo Sabres franchise. Once the Hurricanes make the playoffs, we will have the longest active playoff drought (8 seasons) and will be only 2 seasons away from tying the NHL record.
My final thought on this subject: for the love of God, please THINK OF THE CHILDREN! Sports team fanbases are built primarily on the captured hearts of adolescent males. But throughout WNY and the great Buffalo diaspora spread across this fine country, we have perhaps lost an entire generation now of Sabres and Bills fans due to the sustained inability to field remotely entertaining products. For a highly marginal professional sports market as Buffalo, this is not at all a very good thing.
Thanks for this post - you eloquently stated everything that I have been thinking for the last few months. Amen!
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For cryin' in the sink, someone please invent a time machine so we can actually see these match-ups. Otherwise, it's all innuendo...or is that outuendo?
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So, exactly how many angels can dance on the head of a pin? Maybe this is an interesting topic to mull over, but we'll all never really know. It's a moo point. You know, like a cow's opinion; it's moo. ?
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9 hours ago, SwampD said:
All the more reason. No wings (no real ones, anyway). I have never wavered in my opinion that the problem with all Buffalo teams is wings.
Kane will get a hat trick while eating a single order on the bench. Hot ones, too. ??
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JBot and the rest of the front office are trying to build the team like they're building a house. Lay the foundation, put up the framing, then the outside sheathing, a roof, drywall, mechanicals and then paint and carpets. That's fine, but you're not going to be moving into your new home for quite a while. Maybe they need to try prefab.
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On 3/5/2019 at 4:03 PM, Tondas said:
It helps when you get these guys in the first 4 drafts:
Gilbert Perreault
Rick Martin
Craig Ramsay
Bill Hajt
Jim Schoenfeld
Larry Carriere
Peter McNab
Lee Fogolin
Danny GareYes, it did help tremendously. But, when they were drafted (with a couple of exceptions), they weren't the household names that they became later. They were all just young, hungry guys looking to make good in the NHL. And they did. BTW, do any of the young draftees on our team now look hungry? Mmmmm...not to my eyes.
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Hmmm. tough question. I think the one positive is that the Sabres' last home game is April 4. That means no more traffic jams this season around the arena when I'm trying to drive home from work. ?
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1 hour ago, mphs mike said:
These pics, and the guys in them are the reason I'm still a fan. Can't shake those childhood memories. I was 8 when the Sabres were born and because of them in the 70's, I'm compelled to still follow crap like the past month
I was a bit older (14) when the Sabres broke into the league. Hard to believe now, but they went from an expansion bottom dweller to a Cup finalist in 5 short seasons. Makes the current situation look even worse to these old eyes. Of course, the league was different back then, much more player movement, no salary cap.....but still.
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16 hours ago, Weave said:
And there is that word. Culture.
They ship out guys like Kessel and Thornton because they don't quite measure up.
And we plan to lose for 5 seasons and wonder why the losing doesn't turn off.
Amen, brother....
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3 hours ago, Eleven said:
The first period was great. After that, I watched a movie because I knew that there was no way this team could keep the likes of Kyle Brodziak off of the score sheet.
I never even tuned the game in - I watched "Apollo 13" on Netflix. They had a LOT of bad luck but it still had a happy ending. ?
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It's not the amount of talent - it's how it''s applied. I think the key phrase you might be searching for is "hard work". Premier talent is worthless if the effort to use it is lackluster (lacklustre for our Canadian and British friends).
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1 hour ago, spndnchz said:
Got a survey about possible renovations to KBC. Invited to be in one of their discussion groups. No date set, they’ll ‘let you know when’.
Ditto - the questions in the survey seemed to be concerned a lot about how much I would be willing to pay for season seats in certain areas (boxes, club level, etc.) and concession prices. This year is the first time I've been to a Sabres game for quite a while, so I don't know why I got the survey. My first choice in renovating the KBC is to jack up the entire building, replace the hockey team with one that actually wins, and then lower it back down again. Everything else is window dressing.
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Kevyn Adams Discloses in his Presser that Eichel is No Longer the Buffalo Sabres Captain
in The Aud Club
Posted
This team reminds me of an inexperienced hiker lost in the woods without a compass (or GPS). They know they are in trouble, but don't know which direction to go to save themselves. Everything they try to do to rectify their situation makes things worse. It's hard to imagine a worse scenario to start off a season than what is going on now...although I fear there may be much worse to come.