How close to the playoffs will the Sabres get this year?

[bob_sauve28]

53 minutes ago, LGR4GM said:

Fire the f-ing coaches Terrance. 

Wow, that's sad

[Believer]

58 minutes ago, LGR4GM said:

Fire the f-ing coaches Terrance. 

Been banging that drum for three months… Pegula isn’t interested enough to eat management contracts.

[Archie Lee]

The Sabres are 6 points off their pace from a year ago. They had 85 points after 78 games a year ago. Interestingly, they were actually further back of a playoff spot last year as they were 6 out at this point and are 5 out at the moment. 
 

Frustrating for me is that after missing last year by 1 point and with obvious flaws, from the end of last season to now there were only two moves made that can be argued as attempts to improve the team in the moment. These moves were linked, the adding of two veteran D in free agency. One, I would argue, turned out fine (I’m not entirely unhappy that we have Clifton at his AAV for 2 years), the other was awful (E. Johnson). That’s it. 
 

Watching yesterday’s game, it occurred to me that the Sabres have many players who are ready to be on a team that takes the next step. They really did need their owner and GM to have faith in them and help by addressing some of the weaknesses. At minimum, there should have been one or two changes in the assistant coaches and one or two veteran forwards added in the off-season to replace Quinn (injury) and Olofsson (who Granato had lost faith in). There are no guarantees, but where would we be today had we swapped Ellis and Christie to Rochester for Alpert and Peca and had we traded for Toffoli and signed, say, Alexander Kerfoot in free agency? Maybe we aren’t further along, but at least we could say there was an attempt.

The sad thing is, I see zero indication that Adams thinks there is any need for such moves even now. 

[Night Train]

3 hours ago, LGR4GM said:

Fire the f-ing coaches Terrance. 

 

2 people sent me that in messaging yesterday. Speaks for itself. No leadership. Soft. 

[Weave]

1 hour ago, Night Train said:

 

2 people sent me that in messaging yesterday. Speaks for itself. No leadership. Soft. 

Veteran leadership specifically.  This is what you can expect when the team building focus is “don’t block the kids”.

 

If our roster changes for next season include Kulich, Rosen, Savoie, replacing our FA’s this will happen again next season.

[MISabresFan]

57 minutes ago, Weave said:

Veteran leadership specifically.  This is what you can expect when the team building focus is “don’t block the kids”.

 

If our roster changes for next season include Kulich, Rosen, Savoie, replacing our FA’s this will happen again next season.

I believe there is room for both if the roster is managed properly.  However it remains to be seen.

 

 

Edited April 8 by MISabresFan
fixed roster

[Weave]

22 minutes ago, MISabresFan said:

I believe there is room for both if the roster is managed properly.  However it remains to be seen.

 

 

We are expected to move on from ~3 forwards.  If the 3 prospects I mentioned take their place, there is not room on the roster unless KA starts trading folks.  I don’t foresee that happening, but am willing to get excited if it does.

And if the trades are veterans out, we still aren’t improving the number of veterans on the team overall.

Edited April 8 by Weave

[Thorny]

16 hours ago, Alaska John said:

There's a really good book (and a not quite so good movie) called The Art of Racing in the Rain, where a race car driver says you can't win the race in the first turn, but you can sure lose it in the first turn.

The Sabres consistently manage to lose their race to the playoffs in the first turn, by having a lousy record out of the gate.  For this there's no culprit as obvious as the coaching, which doesn't have the team ready to compete when the games start counting.  Granato acts like training camp is just a tryout process, and that keeps on going for 10 or 20 games.  When the Sabres finally get down to business, the race is over.  

There was an article in The Athletic in late 2023 about the Sabres going into one of their patented early-season swoons, where it said "It's happening.  Again."  And that was on the money, except it could have said "It's happened.  Again."  

Really the question is whether the team is willing to watch in happen again this fall.  

He runs it that way because of the collection of talent he’s being granted by the GM

He’s lock step with Adams’ instituted process 

[Thorny]

9 hours ago, Archie Lee said:

The Sabres are 6 points off their pace from a year ago. They had 85 points after 78 games a year ago. Interestingly, they were actually further back of a playoff spot last year as they were 6 out at this point and are 5 out at the moment. 
 

Frustrating for me is that after missing last year by 1 point and with obvious flaws, from the end of last season to now there were only two moves made that can be argued as attempts to improve the team in the moment. These moves were linked, the adding of two veteran D in free agency. One, I would argue, turned out fine (I’m not entirely unhappy that we have Clifton at his AAV for 2 years), the other was awful (E. Johnson). That’s it. 
 

Watching yesterday’s game, it occurred to me that the Sabres have many players who are ready to be on a team that takes the next step. They really did need their owner and GM to have faith in them and help by addressing some of the weaknesses. At minimum, there should have been one or two changes in the assistant coaches and one or two veteran forwards added in the off-season to replace Quinn (injury) and Olofsson (who Granato had lost faith in). There are no guarantees, but where would we be today had we swapped Ellis and Christie to Rochester for Alpert and Peca and had we traded for Toffoli and signed, say, Alexander Kerfoot in free agency? Maybe we aren’t further along, but at least we could say there was an attempt.

The sad thing is, I see zero indication that Adams thinks there is any need for such moves even now. 

In essence 6 as Detroit has a game in hand. And more teams in between. 

[JoeSchmoe]

Do we make the playoffs if Adams gets Kane?

[#freejame]

21 minutes ago, JoeSchmoe said:

Do we make the playoffs if Adams gets Kane?

100%

[Cityo'Rasmii]

Sorry, our GM is clueless...😢

Edited April 8 by Cityo'Rasmii

[Alaska John]

On 4/7/2024 at 12:05 AM, Gatorman0519 said:

Imagine if we had just one 5-6 game win streak? We’d be in right now. I think we ultimately miss by 4-5 points. 

Imagine if they'd beaten the god-awful Anaheim Ducks in both games, instead of losing both games.

[Thorny]

6 minutes ago, Alaska John said:

Imagine if they'd beaten the god-awful Anaheim Ducks in both games, instead of losing both games.

Imagine if we didn’t come from behind in the final 10 seconds of regulation against Minnesota and dropped those 2 points instead?

Gordon Bombay 

[PASabreFan]

My God, the horse flies!

Mary Chestnutt

[DarthEbriate]

2 hours ago, JoeSchmoe said:

Do we make the playoffs if Adams gets Kane?

Not a chance. He plays well for two games. Then gets Ellis/Granatoed and we all end up complaining about his compete level and lack of accountability. The PP stays garbage and he only scores meaningless points after games are well-decided.

Then, 15 games in, he needs to resurface his hip again.

[Thorny]

2 hours ago, JoeSchmoe said:

Do we make the playoffs if Adams gets Kane?

Hard to say. Definitely would have helped. And the PP, too. Probably not but you never know. 

I don’t really buy this becoming-increasingly-convenient, one size fits all “it’s all Granato’s fault!” Narrative we are seeing being developed in real time. Thus necessitating Kane being unable to make a difference. Byram regressed from his early games because the early games had unsustainable positive regression. Post trade bump. Perhaps things have settled in to bad again because, I dunno, Casey Mittelstadt was one of our best players and Byram at least doesn’t more than account for that loss? We are the same team or worse after the deal, probably.

Prospects/Picks out, talent in would help the most. That’s what the summer is for 

Edited April 9 by Thorny

[Alaska John]

So after losing to Dallas they're 6 points out, riding a two game losing streak.  They're not going to match last year's fingernail finish.  My guess is they'll end up 8 points behind the final wild card team, a little worse than I guess when I started this thread.