Sabre Dance

Well, one of the folks in our office was trying to sell two $53 tickets for tomorrow's game for $75. No takers. I fear a lot more fans will be showing up at the arena as empty seats before this all ends. I will probably continue to watch the team, at least for a while. The thing is, even if they lost 75% of their games, but played some entertaining hockey and kept the games close, it would make it worthwhile to watch. Right now, it's like watching a passenger train derailment. Close up. In slow motion. With added sound effects.

I thought this was Ted Black's role? Quiz: This team's poor play is the result of A) lousy talent or B) lousy coaching or C) a combination of the two. If you answered B or C, you are correct. I begin to wonder if this collection of players has decided to tank it until the coach is shown the door. And if anyone thinks that the local media has been tough on Regier, Ruff et al., be glad you don't live in a town like Montreal or Vancouver. Their local media regularly tears into coaches and GMs like a wolf on a sheep. If the status quo remains at the FNC, you ain't seen nothing yet. There's nothing worse than a surly Buffalo sports fan except a drunken surly Buffalo sports fan. The boo-birds started yesterday at the end of the Panthers' game and there's no reason to believe they won't re-appear if the Sabres go down a goal against the Habs Thursday night. I guess my question is: How long will this be going on? Most of the teams that have beaten the Sabres are below them in the standings. Those are the points you need to collect if you expect to make the playoffs. The odd "big effort" against a big rival doesn't feed the bulldog. The team has played nearly 20% of their games already and have just 7 points to show for it. That puts them on a pace to wind up with somewhere around 38 points at the end of the season. Have the owner and the front office already written off this season? Can we expect any action on any front, be it roster moves or coaching/GM changes? If not, is that the way you repay the loyalty that your fans have continued to show this team? There has to be a breaking point somewhere. I just hope it happens with the team before it happens with the fans.....

It took me a while to be able to type this - earlier, my jaw was still hanging open and kept hitting the space bar on my keyboard. After Boston's third goal, I was tempted to switch channels and watch "Glee". Fortunately, I hung in there and was generously rewarded. Amazing game! I noted that the taunting "MILLer, MILLer" chants stopped after the Sabres' third goal. I think the word "sparkling" applies to many of his saves last night. Big sports weekend coming up - Sabres/Canadiens, HNIC, Sabres/Panthers and then.... oh yeah! That Super Bowl thing. I won't be getting much done around the house for a couple of days.... :D

My heart says that the Sabres will reach down deep and pull out a close win...but my head says the B' s will win easily and will rub it in for the rest of the season. I love visiting Boston, and I like the Red Sox and Celtics...but I hate the Bruins and the Pats. :angry:

Fixed. I'd like to buy a brick in the Sabres' Alumni Plaza with some variation of these statements on it. This has been a "let's wait and see what happens" franchise for over a decade now. Worse than that is a fan base that (for the most part) goes right along with the sentiment. Sorry, I'm pi$$ed. I feel like I was sold a bill of goods when Pegula took over. I was promised a shiny new Cadillac and got a used Chevy. After the way that Sabres fans have continued to throw money at this franchise (season ticket sales, multiple sellouts, millions in merchandise sales), you would think that Pegula would want to give back more than he has so far...

Just wait until Friday morning after the Bruins game...... :angry:

This. Pegula is still the "new kid on the block" as far as NHL owners go. I wonder if old-timers (like Jeremy Jacobs or Ed Snider) look at Pegula's antics and chuckle to themselves. You have to wonder just what it would take for Pegula to dissolve this "fellowship of the rink". I know that it is human nature to try to find positives even after a horrible situation occurs, but listening to all of the comments like, "Yeah we lost a close one, but at least Grigs got his first goal". Really? That fact is more important than two points? (OK, just the one extra point last night). At the risk of repeating myself, the points not earned now will be coming back to bite the Sabres in the a$$ come April. If they wind up three or four points out of eighth place, no amount of mea culpas will make up for missing the playoffs again. I'm not interested in a player or coach telling us that we just didn't have the jump or we played well all night except for when the opposing forward skated by our defense and roofed one to win the game. Bullspit. I'm interested in the team playing winning hockey. Sort of that, at least have them play interesting hockey. Even if they lose 75% of their games, let them play some fire-wagon hockey and see how much louder the FNC would be.

I know that listening to Ruff in a post-game presser or an interview at once depresses me and makes me crazy. If he was my boss, I'd do whatever it would take to stay off the ice and away from his monotone. (FYI, my boss is a fiery, shoot-from-the-hip kind of guy. I love working for him because he has tremendous passion for our work and it shows, big time).

Yeah, I kind of have the same feeling. Back at the beginning of the NFL season when the Bills started to lose, I decided to back the Ravens to win the AFC and go to the Super Bowl. (Obviously, I always hoped for the Bills to do well, but we all know how that worked out). I'm having the same feeling now about the Sabres. I will now and always be pulling for them to win every game, but from what we've seen so far, I fear that will not come to be. So, I guess I would hope the Rangers take the Eastern Conference. They are natural rivals with both the Bruins and the Flyers and I hope they crush both of those teams through the rest of the season and into the playoffs. Plus they have Marty Biron as their backup and he deserves a shot at a Cup. (Of course, in any Rangers-Sabres matchup, I'd still be on the Sabres end of the ice, natch.)

This. Ruff was on WGR this morning and when asked about Grigs, he said that they need to assess where they are at as far as injuries and bodies available to play and that a decision has not yet been made. Sounds to me like Regier has something in the works and needs some time to put the final deal together. Otherwise, why continue to carry two extra defensemen for every game who have not been in the lineup even once? (when you obviously need help on the front end).

Sounds like the Rangers medical staff is pickier than the Sabres' - maybe we should bring Arnott in for a look-see :rolleyes: .

I don't disagree, but when the end of the season rolls around (and it is not very far off, really) this team is going to wish it had at least 4 of the 6 points it missed in the last three games. Losing by one goal or ten, it's still a loss. On a side note, as full as the FNC appeared Friday night, it was a frightfully quiet crowd. Maybe we need to give some guy a horn and have him toodle "Let's Go, Buffalo" on it. It seems to have worked for Carolina and Washington. (Scarily enough, it sounded like exactly the same horn in both arenas. Weird.)

I can't make it to the game tonight - could you find a TV camera to remonstrate in front of? At least that would keep my interest even if the Sabres play lousy again...... ;)

Well, since the chance of this team reaching the playoffs is still in doubt, it'll be like a 48 game training camp for the kid. But, boy! Wait until next year!

Whatever "philosophy" Pegula is employing, it sure hasn't panned out the way we thought it might. He's owned the team for just about two years now and so far the "improvements" are underwhelming. I don't know if anyone can say this team is any closer to a Stanley Cup (or even making the playoffs) than it was when Pegs took over the team. I know it's easy to point to a team like the Rangers (who collected Gaborek, Richards and now Nash) or Minnestoa (who picked up Suter, Parise and Heatley) and say "Hey, how come we can't get guys like that?" Well, we know it simply isn't that easy. But, if we take Pegs comments at face value, we ought to have more to show for the $$$ he's spent than Leino, Erhoff and Regehr. Much more. So, whatever equilibrium he has reached with Regier and Ruff, it hasn't worked so far.... Yeah, I feel much better with Pegs as the owner than I ever did with OSP (and his sidekick, Huckleberry Quinn), but still not great.

Tough call. I would have liked to see a few flashes of brilliance in his play to make the decision easier. So far, he has looked....well, he's looked like any other forward in the patented Lindy Ruff system. How do you know what his play might be like in two months if he stays up with the big team? I guess if I was coach and/or GM, I'd ask the kid.

It IS early in the "season", so any real judment should wait for at least 10 games. That being said, this is Myers' fourth season in the league. For a prospect of his size and (reported) talent who won the Calder in his first season, he should be playing much better than he is. A quick look at his plus-minus should say something. (+ 13 as a rookie, 0 in '10-'11, and +5 last year). If you want to make a comparison with Chara (although they have very different "styles" of play), in his fourth full season (and first with Ottawa) he was a +30. (Yes, he was a -27 with the Islanders. But, well...it was the Islanders.) That being said, Myers could have an epiphany and turn his play around any time. I guess R & R have to look at him and decide if he is ever going to be the player they thought he was going to be when they drafted him. BTW, I caught the Bruins/Rangers game the other night and the Bruins have a rookie D-man named Dougie Hamilton. He looked pretty darned good out there for a 19 year-old. Actually, much better than any of the Sabres' D has looked so far. The guys that give the most effort should be the ones Ruff puts out there - slackers should be in the press box, big contract or no. Tonight's game will be telling - if the Sabres can bounce back and at least put up a good struggle, we may be OK. If they do another El Foldo like last night, any serious playoff considerations may be out the window.

She was talking in this video? :wub:

Maybe we can forward them a link... ;)

You realize that if anyone from the Flyers discussion forum read these posts, their head just exploded....

Yeah, because that "system" has worked so well in the past.... :rolleyes:

30,000 tickets? So much for the "fan protest". :lol:

Brian Burke for Bills' GM!!! Oh, wait....brain cramp.

So, when they make the 2012-2013 highlight video, will the first half of it be a blank screen? :lol:

As an IT support person, I can tell you that printer issues are some of the most difficult to resolve. For example, we have a networked copier that most of our office uses as a printer for large print jobs. When I install the 32-bit printer driver, the default paper size is "Letter". When I install the 64-bit driver (for those with Windows 7), the default paper size is "A4" (which is the international paper size for letters). I have to then reset the default. Grr.... :angry: