IKnowPhysics

I blame a combination of bad draft classes, reduced scouting budget, and the loss of Jim Benning. We haven't had a thread on potential GM candidates yet, but I would strongly suggest Jim Benning as a candidate. He was with the Sabres from 1994 to 2004 and did a lot of good work. It's not clear to me how much contribution he's had with the Bruins, but he's served as AGM for 6 years now, including their Cup. Also not sure of his interest level- it's likely he's been interviewd by other teams for the GM role.

1) It's peer reviewed, so it should be ok. Nice find. 2) From the abstract: "Audiences or fans can impact performance, but impact may depend on sport, the specific sport skill, and specific audience behavior." Hockey wasn't covered by the article, but cites an article that did examine hockey.

Well, there's an entire thread hashed out on that topic over here, but nothing was really determined besides the team isn't good. Nah, if you trade up, your 14 mid-round picks become closer to 6 or 7 better picks. And if you check out the drafts since 2008, it really doesn't look like there's many busts in the top 5. It's been said before; the top 1st rounders have been a lot less dicey lately than the middle ten. Call it two busts, two workable guys, two legitimately very good guys, and maybe an all star. Add those guys to the good prospects already in place that develop properly, and that's about half your team. Add the current veterans you wanted to keep, and that's most of your team. Then tack on a couple of free agent veterans to fill needs. I think that if we're willfully going into full rebuild mode, I trust Darcy to use his rapier-like (rapiest?) trading prowess to move out the ###### pieces in good trades for lots of draft pick bounty or quality prospects. And then I mostly trust him to draft well. Ehrhoff excluded, his free agent signings need work, though- he has the ability to land the ones he wants, but the once they've landed, they seem like they don't fit. Maybe that improves. Maybe it doesn't. Maybe it's the players. Maybe it's him.

For better or worse, this argument has always been invalid with this ownership group.

I like Ted too, but Ted's not a hockey guy. Ted's a fan-friendly PR guy trying to explain what the hockey guys are up to and what the ownership thinks. I don't know why he's defending the attendance thing or the booing thing, he could just say the team needs to be better and they're trying to be better, which is something we all know to be true. I do admire that he confessed that they thought they had the quick free agent fix for the roster that then backfired. A truly snidely PR guy could try to spin that all sorts of weird ways. I believe what he says about the next steps- they're going to try to assemble a few stellar draft classes in an attempt to build a longer-standing and more robust position of competitiveness. But it's because of this that I think (and some will hate this) that Darcy's in for the long haul because they think during this ownership's tenure, he's been mostly successful with drafting and trades.

Stafford's "winning," big time. Myers was -9 on Feb 7th, but then went +8 from then until this last game, when he went -3. He's now at -4 on the season.

And of course the stock photo they use is a scoring celebration against Buffalo.

Rebuilding edition. 1) I love that guy! Players: Tyler Ennis, Ryan Miller, Christian Ehrhoff, Tyler Myers Others: Rick Jeanneret, Ted Black, Terry Pegula, Brian Duff 2) He can play on my team. Players: Cody Hodgson, Thomas Vanek, Steve Ott, Mark Pysyk, Pommenstein Others: Darcy Regier, Rob Ray, Harry Neale, Mike Robitaille 3) I wouldn't cry if he went elsewhere Players: Nathan Gerbe, Pat Kaleta, Marcus Foligno, Grigorenko, John Scott, Mike Weber, Andrej Sekera, Jhonas Enroth, Ville Leino, Jochen Hecht, Andrew Sulzer, and the career AHL'ers (Adam Pardy, Kevin Porter, Brian Flynn, Cody McCormick, Luke Adam, Matt Ellis, Corey Tropp) Others: Ron Rolston, Paul Hamilton, Kevin Sylvester 4) Get him out of here now! Players: Drew Stafford; Members of the old guard can be placed here for the right price (Vanek, Hecht, possibly Miller) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MAGoqMZRLB4

Lollerskates.

So if Miller plays well, he costs us a high draft pick, but if he plays poorly, he's overrated and overpaid. Sucks to be him.

Interesting point. We'll have all summer to piss and moan.

Ha, that's chirp ammo for opponents if I've ever seen it.

We need to indoctrinate the youngins so that they grow up right, as fearless, die hard, and occaisionally self-loathing Sabres fans. Booing doesn't help that; it confuses the situation: they want to be happy and watch their heroes, and coudn't give two five year old shits about why Mom and Dad hate some guy named Darcy.

Good article from today about Blue Jays fans booing at home: http://metronews.ca/voices/cathal-kelly-on-sport/626312/angry-for-caring-why-toronto-fans-boo-their-own-teams/

I get the sense that each fan has three or four different personas that get acted out, in some ways or others: 1) The way we interact with non-fans or other teams' fans or at away games. This is almost always a "my team/franchise is better than your team/franchise" mentality. Your team sucks, my team is great, regardless of the standings. We attack the other team for sucking and build up our case for why our team is great. Sometimes we're more mature and accepting of our suckitude in casual conversation with other fans, but at the end of the day, we know those other fans can go to hell and we'll defend the Sabres until we die. 2) The way we interact with our own fans at home games. We want to support the team and we paid good money to see something good. We don't want to be let down and we don't want to be embarassed. But here's the crux: Buffalo fans have been let down so many times in often the harshest ways, we don't want to REALLY cheer on the team until we see a reason to do so. We don't want to cheer until we know we're not going to be let down- we have our emotional guard up big time. So, many fans sit quietly, waiting for something good to happen, giving them reason to cheer. They don't want to be the person that emotionally invests and cheers all game only to end up the guy that cheered on the team that lost. Some fans think that's embarassing to cheer for the loser. BUT many fans have been sitting quietly for so long with no improvement (or, this season, some significant steps backwards) that some fans act out on their frustration and boo the team. Then many fans see other fans booing and it becomes easier for them to boo because others are doing it too. 3) The way we think internally in our minds about the team. We want the team to win. So badly. Like it or not, most of us are emotionally invested on some level or another. We have ideas about what they should be doing to get better, but at the end of the day, we're fans of this team and we want them to succeed. 4) (Optional) The way we interact online. Often times it's the same ways we interact in 1) and 2), motivated by or inclusive of ideas in 3). For some, it's a more anonymous and, because of its inconsequence, truthful representation of what we think, want to think, or want other people to think. I could be wrong about this, but I see myself and other fans I'm close with fall right in line with much of this. Myself, I'm not a boo-er. I think if fans are fed up with the booing, they should start a let's go buffalo chant.

To some, the Sabres are so dissappointing, they dissappoint at dissappointing. edit: My only disspointment is that they might dissappoint while dissappointing the dissappointed.

As of today, the Sabres have captured 14 points out of a possible 20 in their last ten games, going 6-2-2, a .700 pace. Currently, they're 4 points out of a playoff spot, with Rangers and Islanders; Rangers have a game in hand. If the Sabres hold this pace, and either of those teams posts a less-than-0.500 pace, they could slip in.

Fill in the blank with 98% of the other ###### we debate, but hey, we still have a forum.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8JNuqEz_GCQ[/url]

Devils on the run Miller and Myers excel Sabres forever

Topic: Grade these apples. I grade apples an F as a protest against all threads/posts that attempt to further the position that it is somehow OK to give crappy apple pie credit for using good apples but not hold it accountable for being crappy apple pie. Nonsense. This thread's about apples, not crappy apple pie. There's lot of threads about crappy apple pie. And some people think the apple pie isn't even the worst part of the meal.

5/3/95 Never Forget. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M8vFHnc4lek[/url]

Word on the street is that Ovechkin was quietly asked to waive his no trade clause and wouldn't do it when he found out it was for Buffalo. And by word on the street, I mean I made all of that up just now, because this thread got stupid in a hurry and I didn't want to feel left out.