The Buffalo Sabres Are Officially Eliminated From Playoff Contention

[SwampD]

3 hours ago, dudacek said:

This is amazing to me:

• The Sabres, Devils and Red Wings each have 38 wins.
• The Islanders, Flyers, Penguins and Capitals each have 37.

Three of those teams will make the playoffs. Four will not.

Anybody who watches hockey knows the difference between each of those teams is a few deflections here and a few bobbled passes there.

What’s been so confounding about the current team for me is not that they are terrible like most Sabres teams of the past decade, it’s that they are finally good enough to be part of the great band of mediocre that comprises about 40% of the NHL.

And they still didn’t make it. Twice.

It simply shouldn’t be that hard to find the one straw that pushes them to the front of that pack.

Let’s hope it will be that we will have a starting goaltender from the beginning of the season, instead of one showing up halfway through it.

[Thorny]

4 hours ago, Getpucksdeep said:

Jack Quinn 

Not saying you are doing this but I don’t think the answer is ever “well next year we’ll be healthy.” Which is I think the connotation of the above, in a sense. If we get Jack Quinn back for a full year, rest assured there will be a different guy we say, “if we only had him the whole time.” It’s just how injuries work. We’ll make the playoffs next year if the team is good enough even AFTER the inevitable key injuries. That’s the depth we need. And it requires a more practical approach. 

We can imagine how good we’d be with Quinn this year, but we have to go through the roster of every other team we are competing with and give them back a player they’ve missed too 

Edited April 12 by Thorny

[LGR4GM]

5 minutes ago, Thorny said:

Not saying you are doing this but I don’t think the answer is ever “well next year we’ll be healthy.” Which is I think the connotation of the above, in a sense. If we get Jack Quinn back for a full year, rest assured there will be a different guy we say, “if we only had him the whole time.” It’s just how injuries work. We’ll make the playoffs next year if the team is good enough even AFTER the inevitable key injuries. That’s the depth we need. And it requires a more practical approach. 

We can imagine how good we’d be with Quinn this year, but we have to go through the roster of every other team we are competing with and give them back a player they’ve missed too 

If you can't make the playoffs due to injuries, it means your team isn't deep enough or talented enough. 

[Thorny]

Has anyone been following along with the latest Kevyn Adams burner on twitter? Joined February 2024. Posted every day on *every Sabres post* we’d be making playoffs this season and that we were in excellent position to do it while sitting 8 points back, up to and including during the Dallas game, then immediately shifted tact upon elimination 

 

[dudacek]

16 minutes ago, Thorny said:

Not saying you are doing this but I don’t think the answer is ever “well next year we’ll be healthy.” Which is I think the connotation of the above, in a sense. If we get Jack Quinn back for a full year, rest assured there will be a different guy we say, “if we only had him the whole time.” It’s just how injuries work. We’ll make the playoffs next year if the team is good enough even AFTER the inevitable key injuries. That’s the depth we need. And it requires a more practical approach. 

We can imagine how good we’d be with Quinn this year, but we have to go through the roster of every other team we are competing with and give them back a player they’ve missed too 

You have been very pointed about saying “leave no stone unturned”.

This year is why.

[Thorny]

30 minutes ago, dudacek said:

You have been very pointed about saying “leave no stone unturned”.

This year is why.

Goes hand in hand with my over usage  of the “shell game” phrasing. I have a theory you can divide into sort of 4 tiers 

can’t win

>>>

Pick which way you lose

>>>

find a way to win

>>>

avoid losing

the Sabres are basically right in the middle of the scale at this point, but still too dominated obviously by the “pick a way to lose” tier to find a way to make the playoffs.

We HAVE increased the overall talent, but basically the theory goes it’s not that the team has only one big strength or (one big weakness), but rather now possession of the overall talent acumen to “choose how we lose”. In that we CAN have good offence or good D (generalizing) at any one time, if that’s our focus, but not the overall talent to have both. So competent teams can still exploit that imbalance. Thus, shell game 

So, no shell unturned…or whatever. Upgrade the overall talent *even if you think it’s “set” in a certain area.*. Things shift fast. It’s like the “don’t draft for need thing cause things change fast” is pretty accurate after all. 

Once we add a bit more, I think I’d we had had a proactive summer last year we may already be there, but if we have one this summer, we could find ourselves soon in “find a way to win” tier, where, regardless of what a team chooses to shut down on a given night, was can counter 

 

 

 

[Getpucksdeep]

1 hour ago, Thorny said:

Not saying you are doing this but I don’t think the answer is ever “well next year we’ll be healthy.” Which is I think the connotation of the above, in a sense. If we get Jack Quinn back for a full year, rest assured there will be a different guy we say, “if we only had him the whole time.” It’s just how injuries work. We’ll make the playoffs next year if the team is good enough even AFTER the inevitable key injuries. That’s the depth we need. And it requires a more practical approach. 

We can imagine how good we’d be with Quinn this year, but we have to go through the roster of every other team we are competing with and give them back a player they’ve missed too 

Yup agreed. He just looks so good.  A catalyst.  But ya gotta overcome the injuries no doubt.  

[apuszczalowski]

2 hours ago, Thorny said:

Has anyone been following along with the latest Kevyn Adams burner on twitter? Joined February 2024. Posted every day on *every Sabres post* we’d be making playoffs this season and that we were in excellent position to do it while sitting 8 points back, up to and including during the Dallas game, then immediately shifted tact upon elimination 

 

The problem with the Sabres is that they are trying to put the cart way before the horse and build a 'Stanley Cup Contender's before having a 'playoff contendor'

Stop trying to construct a dynasty team and build one that can at least just get into the dance, them build off of that. There was always a worry about the cap, but winning teams are showing you that the cap isn't a hindrance as much as people think. Also, there was worries of blocking prospects from moving up, and wanting players moved up early. I can't think of any player that's ever been ruined by having to spend a little extra time in the minors.

[apuszczalowski]

A couple of 'fun facts' I noticed about the draught

- the Sabres have never made the playoffs since the Winnipeg Jets returned to the league

- there is only one Sabre left playing in the NHL since their last playoff appearance (Tyler Myers)

- the Sabres (after being eliminated) still have about the same chance of being in the Cup Finals as the Leafs........

(The last one was a joke)

[Thorny]

10 minutes ago, apuszczalowski said:

The problem with the Sabres is that they are trying to put the cart way before the horse and build a 'Stanley Cup Contender's before having a 'playoff contendor'

Stop trying to construct a dynasty team and build one that can at least just get into the dance, them build off of that. There was always a worry about the cap, but winning teams are showing you that the cap isn't a hindrance as much as people think. Also, there was worries of blocking prospects from moving up, and wanting players moved up early. I can't think of any player that's ever been ruined by having to spend a little extra time in the minors.

I agree totally and have been saying the same thing for a while. To me it’s actually to the level of hubris: I don’t think we should be focused on anything but building the best team possible for the current moment, not turning our noses up at good because we feel the only thing worthy of our pursuit is the Stanley cup. Cart/horse. And I actually think the newest regime sort of underestimated the dangers of stacking a long form build on top of 9 previous years missing.

Sabres have become a unique, anomalific environment over the course of a decade and they need a real-time jolt of urgency to shock us out of it imo 

[Thorny]

10 minutes ago, apuszczalowski said:

A couple of 'fun facts' I noticed about the draught

- the Sabres have never made the playoffs since the Winnipeg Jets returned to the league

- there is only one Sabre left playing in the NHL since their last playoff appearance (Tyler Myers)

- the Sabres (after being eliminated) still have about the same chance of being in the Cup Finals as the Leafs........

(The last one was a joke)

Jets thing has hurt me deeply, being a local problem 

[apuszczalowski]

10 minutes ago, Thorny said:

Jets thing has hurt me deeply, being a local problem 

Sabres better act soon, with the way the Jets ownership has talked about their attendance, the Sabres would want to have been the only team to never make the playoffs during their existence.....