Doohickie

I've been around here longer than the drought, but a few thoughts on my fandom. The old-timers already know this but recent posters may not be aware. I grew up in Buffalo, watched the Sabres passionately through their first 10 years. Then I went away to college (got to see Daren Puppa and Adam Oates play their college games). But in the early 1980s, 300 miles from home, without the benefit of Center Ice or the internet, I lost touch with the Sabres (and Bills). My first job after college was in Los Angeles and frankly I was too involved with living in L.A., not making ends meet and being newly married to really pay too much attention to sports. We moved to Fort Worth, but the Stars were still the North Stars then. A few later years we moved again, to Detroit. My only realistic choice to follow the NHL was to follow the Red Wings, and the Wings brought me back to hockey fandom. We left Detroit in 1997, weeks after they won their first Cup in over 40 years; by then my wife and I were big fans. Returning to Fort Worth, we were finally doing well enough that we could get Center Ice and we did it to stay in touch with the Red Wings. I knew the team inside out and they were my team. But.... the Sabres were also available and I watched a game there now and again. Then the Sabres were suddenly in the Cup finals in 1999 and I returned to the Sabres as a bandwagon fan. But my wife isn't from Buffalo and I was alone in my Sabres fandom. I found this forum in 2006 and it's become my lifeline to the Sabres. We had some good teams back then... and then the drought. This forum is both a blessing and a curse: I used to just watch the games and enjoyed the wins and shrugged at the losses. I didn't understand how a team is built, how the AHL plays into it, how salaries and trades affect the cap, let alone all the analytics. So I blissfully rooted for them, always hoping that they would win, make the playoffs, etc. This forum as made me more realistic and I know we don't really have a good chance to get to the playoffs again this year. All the knowledge and wisdom of the boards has tamped my optimism. But I think it's worth it because I can see why they're not doing well. I will continue to post here and continue to watch the team... at this point because of FOMO. I actually missed the Cup finals in 1999 because I was on vacation. I don't want that to happen again. Do I have secondary teams? Yeah. I'm 95% Sabres fan, 4.9% Red Wings, and 0.1% Stars. I feel the like Stars are my "friends with benefits team" in that I'll spend an evening with them once in a while but really there's no emotional attachment.

Welcome to the forum!

Y'all got sucked in. Well then, the Sabres are your team.

So essentially they got him for free as he won't play 45 games. Yeah, and when they waive him, Columbus claims him and gives us the pick back. He's like a tool rental at AutoZone.

Yeah, if only we had someone like that down on the farm.

Probably Future Considerations... as in they will waive him when Girgs returns and Columbus will reclaim him.

Nailed it.

Send Rosen back to Rochester where he can play on a top line and have fun. When Girgs is back, wave Robinson... unless Robinson really clicks here. Also, not sure if it's been discussed in this thread but apparently KO didn't participate in practice today; maybe he's banged up too (or maybe he's "banged up" as in he knows he's lost a step and he'd rather be banged up than healthy scratched).

Traded for "future considerations" is my guess.

I think you nailed it.

I've looked into that some... You're in the home market, right? You can subscribe to MSG without a cable plan these days, right? One of the alternatives I've been looking at does the same thing with the Bally Sports app (for Stars-Sabres, plus I follow the Texas Rangers). I'll have to pull up my list to see what other plans I am looking at. I almost dumped Spectrum when they had their Disney spat and dropped ESPN for a while, but I had some business trips and decided not to at the point. I did some research and figured out that no matter what I need a "general carrier" subscription- Spectrum, DirecTV, Hulu + Live TV, etc., if I want things like TNT and ESPN (not +) to watch games. Then there's ESPN+, plus any other specialty or premium channels you want. I might change over during the holiday break. I'll try to find my spreadsheet that compared for stuff I cared about.

Actually we do get lucky but then

While this may be true, if KA feels like he's on the hot seat, firing DG may buy him some time. Bringing in a new (but experienced) HC would probably give the team a bounce that would buy him time to the end of the season. 12, actually, but who's counting? 👀

I think it's easy enough to say DG was the coach the team needed two and a half years ago, but that he's brought the team as far as he could. I honestly would just pick up a former NHL HC (Gallant, Boudreau, I don't care) if I could get one on an interim basis, then see what shakes loose at the end of the season. If no one wants to coach with the interim tag, bring on the Matty Ellis show. Until this season started I felt firmly that the team was moving in the right direction. It suddenly feels like it's all gone. That goes back to the game when Tuch said the boos motivated them. It makes it very easy for the fans to express their displeasure while simultaneously trying to urge them to do better.

To me if this losing streak gets to 6, they either have to accept it's another lost year or they need a radical change RIGHT NOW to try to salvage the season. A 6-game losing streak would match the streak Granato started his tenure with, but then the trend was upward. That's not the case now. Six just seems to be the number in my mind.