NHL Playoffs (First Round) discussion

[JoeSchmoe]

31 minutes ago, OverPowerYou said:

Was just about to post this. Maybe we can trade for one of their 1st liners this year 

NO THANK YOU!

[mjd1001]

52 minutes ago, That Aud Smell said:

I’d rather be a Sabre fan than a Leaf fan right now.

With the Sabres, I know what we’ve got. It’s pretty mid.

With the Leafs, you go through this annual torture of thinking you have a team that can compete for the Cup, but … no, you don’t.

Its about expectations.  2 ways to have a 'good' season as a fan:  1.) you win the cup.  2.) you exceed expectations.

In Buffalo, its possible to do the 2nd one without doing the first one.  Some/many people will enjoy that type of a season.

In Toronto right now, expectations ARE to win a cup, and they have realistically been that for a few years.  EVERY season that you don't win the cup is basically a 100% failure and not enjoyable.  And they haven't really been close to that.

[PerreaultForever]

The thing for me, and it has been for a while, is I am afraid we might become the Leafs and we will be forced to endure a decade of playoff failure even if we do get regular season good. I am hoping Ruff will have a say in fashioning this roster into a team that can win in the playoffs, not just get there. 

Leafs struggle mightily when there is less open ice. Bruins taking away time and space and the usual Leafs struggle. It was hilarious to watch how many times the frustrated Leafs were looking to refs, gesturing and begging for non existent penalties because they weren't getting their way or weren't able to do what they wanted. Even the HNIC guys called them out on it and said "just play". 

We don't want to be them. 

[thewookie1]

#### that traitorous bastard

[JohninMinn.]

Muther Pussbucket eicHl.

[Thorny]

Personally, I’d take a stretch of multiple enjoyable regular seasons leading to playoff berths ultimately ending in disappointment than I would multiple terrible regular seasons to the tune of the worst run of all time in professional sports followed by coming in even lower by expectations than the Leafs because we can’t finish higher than 22nd any single season

but that’s just me 

3 minutes ago, thewookie1 said:

#### that traitorous bastard

He’s so damn good 

Edited April 28 by Thorny

[thewookie1]

5 minutes ago, Thorny said:

Personally, I’d take a stretch of multiple enjoyable regular seasons leading to playoff berths ultimately ending in disappointment than I would multiple terrible regular seasons to the tune of the worst run of all time in professional sports followed by coming in even lower by expectations than the Leafs because we can’t finish higher than 22nd any single season

but that’s just me 

He’s so damn good 

Doesn't matter, Benedict Arnold was a good general but he was also a traitor.

That being said the true star tonight is Thompson standing on his head

[Flashsabre]

Watched the game with all my Leafs buddies tonight..OH BOY

6 straight playoff losses at home. 8 years in the playoffs with this group, one series win.

Leafs have to be blown up. Dubas is a complete fraud. The worst constructed team I have seen. All the money dumped into high end forwards with no D or goalie focus. Treleving has a giant mess to clean up.

I would imagine both Shanahan and Keefe get canned. The media and fans are out for blood here. 

Edited April 28 by Flashsabre

[PerreaultForever]

52 minutes ago, Thorny said:

Personally, I’d take a stretch of multiple enjoyable regular seasons leading to playoff berths ultimately ending in disappointment than I would multiple terrible regular seasons to the tune of the worst run of all time in professional sports followed by coming in even lower by expectations than the Leafs because we can’t finish higher than 22nd any single season

but that’s just me 

He’s so damn good 

Of course it's better than 13 years of not being in the playoffs at all, but why not get it right and enjoy the possibility of actually winning in the playoffs? I think that'd be better. 

[PerreaultForever]

27 minutes ago, Flashsabre said:

Watched the game with all my Leafs buddies tonight..OH BOY

6 straight playoff losses at home. 8 years in the playoffs with this group, one series win.

Leafs have to be blown up. Dubas is a complete fraud. The worst constructed team I have seen. All the money dumped into high end forwards with no D or goalie focus. Treleving has a giant mess to clean up.

I would imagine both Shanahan and Keefe get canned. The media and fans are out for blood here. 

Well they haven't lost yet (but it doesn't look good). Bruins blew a 3-1 game lead last year with a better team roster so they could easily do it again. 

But ya, assuming Leafs do lose, the "core" they have is not going to ever get it done and collectively costs way too much to allow them to build a better team around them. This is why I say , we do not want to follow that model. 

[French Collection]

6 hours ago, Flashsabre said:

Watched the game with all my Leafs buddies tonight..OH BOY

6 straight playoff losses at home. 8 years in the playoffs with this group, one series win.

Leafs have to be blown up. Dubas is a complete fraud. The worst constructed team I have seen. All the money dumped into high end forwards with no D or goalie focus. Treleving has a giant mess to clean up.

I would imagine both Shanahan and Keefe get canned. The media and fans are out for blood here. 

High end regular season forwards. No grit or extra gear when it matters.

[#freejame]

7 hours ago, Thorny said:

Personally, I’d take a stretch of multiple enjoyable regular seasons leading to playoff berths ultimately ending in disappointment than I would multiple terrible regular seasons to the tune of the worst run of all time in professional sports followed by coming in even lower by expectations than the Leafs because we can’t finish higher than 22nd any single season

but that’s just me 

He’s so damn good 

I would love to be that frustrated again. 

[OverPowerYou]

I get up before sunset for work everyday. I still haven’t been able to catch a Connor McDavid game yet. Way to go NHL playoff schedulers 

Edited April 28 by OverPowerYou

[That Aud Smell]

8 hours ago, Thorny said:

Personally, I’d take a stretch of multiple enjoyable regular seasons leading to playoff berths ultimately ending in disappointment than I would multiple terrible regular seasons to the tune of the worst run of all time in professional sports followed by coming in even lower by expectations than the Leafs because we can’t finish higher than 22nd any single season

More than fair.

I sound a bit like a NY Jets fan - seeing the Chiefs crush the Bills’ spirits again in January - “I’d rather be a Jets fan than a Bills fan.”

Because NAH.

Nonetheless. There’s something specific about this being the Leafs, Toronto.

[Archie Lee]

7 hours ago, PerreaultForever said:

Of course it's better than 13 years of not being in the playoffs at all, but why not get it right and enjoy the possibility of actually winning in the playoffs? I think that'd be better. 

I have no idea how things will be when we finally get in. Almost all of us are now at the point, though, where we acknowledge there are issues with how the Sabres roster is constructed, both in the present and forward looking. Adams seemed to acknowledge this in his after the season press conferences. 

Contractually we are not constructed like the leafs though. The Leafs big 4 forwards were paid 48.5% of their cap this year. Next year the cap is projected to go up by $4 million. With the raises coming for Matthews and Nylander, their big 4 will take up 53% of the cap next year. All 4 of them have full NMCs. Unless one of them asks to be traded, they are stuck for another year until the Tavares and Marner deals are up. 

We are not in that sort of contractual bind. While we don’t know what will happen over the next year or two, there is currently no one on the Sabres roster who projects in the short term to be in line for a bigger contract than our current big 4 of Dahlin, Power, Thompson, Cozens (total salaries next year will = 38% of the cap). Of course, that doesn’t mean we will make effective use of the cap room that we have ( we haven’t for many years), but at this point we are not building anything like the situation the Leafs are in. The GM of the Sabres will have flexibility that the Leaf GM has not had. 

[That Aud Smell]

20 minutes ago, OverPowerYou said:

I get up before sunset for work everyday. I still haven’t been able to catch a Connor McDavid game yet. Way to to NHL playoff schedulers 

Oof.

I just looked at today’s lineup.

It is objectively incompetent for Bettman to allow this slate to be coordinated such that McDavid is *still* in the 10:30 eastern game. Inexcusable.

[mjd1001]

8 hours ago, PerreaultForever said:

The thing for me, and it has been for a while, is I am afraid we might become the Leafs and we will be forced to endure a decade of playoff failure even if we do get regular season good. I am hoping Ruff will have a say in fashioning this roster into a team that can win in the playoffs, not just get there. 

Leafs struggle mightily when there is less open ice. Bruins taking away time and space and the usual Leafs struggle. It was hilarious to watch how many times the frustrated Leafs were looking to refs, gesturing and begging for non existent penalties because they weren't getting their way or weren't able to do what they wanted. Even the HNIC guys called them out on it and said "just play". 

We don't want to be them. 

My opinion of the Leafs for the last 2-3 years is that they don't want to be pushed to play hard. They WILL play hard when THEY (the players) want to play hard.  When they can easily play at 75% and 'out talent' a team, they seem to like that game.  But when there is a team that makes things hard on them (that can even be a 'worse' team but one with a lot of young/raw talent that just forces the Leafs to skate to keep up), well, the 'core 4' up there doesn't like that.  Its just a feeling, but I think the Leaf's core wants to play their game, when they what, how they want, and if things don't go well they would rather wallow in their own misery than push themselves out of their comfort zone as players.

[DarthEbriate]

1 hour ago, #freejame said:

I would love to be that frustrated again. 

Yup. I want the Sabres to be good or relevant or even popular enough for long enough to be vilified the way the Leafs or Bruins are. That’d be fun.   

[Weave]

10 hours ago, That Aud Smell said:

I’d rather be a Sabre fan than a Leaf fan right now.

With the Sabres, I know what we’ve got. It’s pretty mid.

With the Leafs, you go through this annual torture of thinking you have a team that can compete for the Cup, but … no, you don’t.

 

8 hours ago, Thorny said:

Personally, I’d take a stretch of multiple enjoyable regular seasons leading to playoff berths ultimately ending in disappointment than I would multiple terrible regular seasons to the tune of the worst run of all time in professional sports followed by coming in even lower by expectations than the Leafs because we can’t finish higher than 22nd any single season

but that’s just me 

He’s so damn good 

LoFL

Yeah, it’s real tortuous to have a long term near the top of the league team, elite stars, and annual playoff births.  WTAF.  
 

A decade ago this board started predicting the Bruins demise too.  Let’s not be proud of what the Sabres are building until they’ve actually done something to make us proud, ffs.
 

As PA likes to point out, Sabres PR and marketing doing a bang up job with this low expectation fanbase.

ETA- Let’s not forget that the current Leafs team is essentially what the Sabres were until 15yrs ago, and we were more than happy to love a team that had stars, had success and expectations, but couldn’t quite put together playoff success (other than a run behind a world class goalie and a mediocre set of skaters).  We used to be what Toronto is now, and that’s exactly what we are all hoping we might be able scratch and claw back into.

Edited April 28 by Weave

[dudacek]

Toronto’s biggest problem seems to be they keep coming up against better teams. 😁

[JustOneParade]

Great write-up in the Athletic this morning about the Leafs-Bruins series. Talking about the roster makeups of each team and their respective viability in the regular season vs. the playoffs. KA needs to make a major course correction because the Sabres are showing signs of heading in the direction of the Leafs.

[JustOneParade]

Meant to post this last night and I’m sure many saw it. Between the second and third periods Biz absolutely destroyed Mitch Marner for his play in the game and the series in general. Pointed to his salary and lack of compete. Leaf on Leaf crime. Hate to see it. (No, not really).

[Archie Lee]

5 minutes ago, JustOneParade said:

Great write-up in the Athletic this morning about the Leafs-Bruins series. Talking about the roster makeups of each team and their respective viability in the regular season vs. the playoffs. KA needs to make a major course correction because the Sabres are showing signs of heading in the direction of the Leafs.

I have issues with our roster construction, but strongly disagree we are headed in the Leafs direction (setting aside the obvious, which is that we should be so lucky as to have a team that has been as good as the Leafs the past 5-6 years). We are built from the back end out. Our young D and goalies are, potentially, dramatically better than anything the Leafs have had during this stretch. Also, I think many of our top players (Dahlin, Byram, Cozens, Thompson, Tuch, Benson) do have more jam/grit in them than Toronto’s big 4. Our guys just haven’t been provided with the down the line-up toughness that allows the higher in the line-up guys to be a-holes and get away with it. 

[JustOneParade]

7 minutes ago, Archie Lee said:

I have issues with our roster construction, but strongly disagree we are headed in the Leafs direction (setting aside the obvious, which is that we should be so lucky as to have a team that has been as good as the Leafs the past 5-6 years). We are built from the back end out. Our young D and goalies are, potentially, dramatically better than anything the Leafs have had during this stretch. Also, I think many of our top players (Dahlin, Byram, Cozens, Thompson, Tuch, Benson) do have more jam/grit in them than Toronto’s big 4. Our guys just haven’t been provided with the down the line-up toughness that allows the higher in the line-up guys to be a-holes and get away with it. 

Big picture, do you see this Sabres team having enough jam/grit to be successful in the playoffs if they got there?

[RochesterExpat]

8 hours ago, PerreaultForever said:

Well they haven't lost yet (but it doesn't look good). Bruins blew a 3-1 game lead last year with a better team roster so they could easily do it again. 

It could absolutely happen, but I see at least one big difference between the B’s this year and last. I think last season the team lost their fire when they were up 3-1 (the choice of not switching starting goalies after game 5 aside) because they knew they were a great team and thought they would just win (I say this as the proud owner of a Bergeron jersey who is my all-time favorite non-Sabre hockey player). It was a team that played expecting to win and not wanting to win. Through the first four games this year, every Bruin player is out there playing like he wants to win—and being led by Marchand who is embodying that attitude perfectly. Just look at how well Pat Maroon is playing. It’s the whole lineup.

I'm convinced it’s the same issue Toronto is having. The Leafs players just expect to win based on talent, but I don’t see them wanting to win. I could argue it’s Buffalo’s problem during the regular season as well where we have these “young, talented and skilled” hockey players repeatedly being told how talented they are. The problem is they don’t realize they need to play the game until they’re down 2-0 at the first intermission. Or we’re at game 50 of the season. Call it heart. Call it whatever you want. It’s what drives winners.

On a different note, if the B’s win the Cup, Marchand has a pretty good chance of winning the Conn Smythe. If he captains a Stanley Cup winning team and wins the Conn Smythe in the process, we might see some heads explode at the very real possibility of a Rat in the HHOF.