Stanley Cup! 2025

[Goldseatsaud]

Well said Hank!! Sabres aren’t together 

[shrader]

20 minutes ago, Indabuff said:

First timers get it first,  very cool. 

Let’s face it. Being able to do it that way is incredibly rare. Very cool though. Seth Jones didn’t really look like he cared all that much, which was odd to see. Maybe that’s just his demeanor. 

[FrenchConnection44]

This is an incredible team. Just so all around. They are tough (especially with the addition of Marchand). Physical. They play exceptional defense. They skate really well. They have multiple quality scorers. They are deep with 4 lines. They are extremely intelligent and disciplined. They are selfless and play together. They have a great goaltender. And they have guys who can intimidate and defend players ... no one is really going to mess with this team. And they make great trades at the GM level. What more could you ask? 

They may not have a Gretzky or Lemieux or Crosby or McDavid, they are not a flashy offensive team but really what a great grinding team. 

And how far are the Sabres from all those qualities?  

Hard to even imagine. Light years. 

[shrader]

13 minutes ago, Taro T said:

Tkachuk tore the adductor off the bone and also had a hernia on the same side.

And he still played.  And played well.

It is absolutely AMAZING how tough these guys are.

And that injury probably gets them Marchand and Jones too. 

[OverPowerYou]

Each sport has their annual all star playoff bust , Connor McDavid, Aaron Judge, Lamar Jackson… these players put up phenomenal numbers during the season and then never show up in the big moments 

[shrader]

Forsling posing for a picture with his family and the cup and his infant/toddler child will not face the camera, can’t stop staring at the cup. I love that they keep the cameras rolling so long so we can see this stuff in the background. 

[Mango]

Remember when this franchise used to draft players that were good enough to go out and win Stanley Cups as soon as they left the team.

Now this team is full of guys who are healthy scratches (Skinner) and players that can't even make it to the Finals (Mitts).

Way to go Kev!

[spndnchz]

I feel sorry for McDavid

[...]

 

[steveoath]

So this mcdavid guy…… one more year till UFA. Will he re-sign with the oilers? Would be a fun offseason if he didn’t. 

[Turbo44]

If you told me back a few yews ago when they were in the Sabres that Eichel, Reinhart and o’reilly would have 4 Stanley cups and players from the 2017-18 would have 11, I would have been elated, thinking the Sabres won the Stanley cup 2 times.

sad and pathetic franchise

[Demoted]

6 hours ago, spndnchz said:

I feel sorry for McDavid

If he had went to the Sabres he probably could have won 2 by now for the Panthers.

[Weave]

23 minutes ago, Demoted said:

If he had went to the Sabres he probably could have won 2 by now for the Panthers.

[LGR4GM]

8 hours ago, OverPowerYou said:

Each sport has their annual all star playoff bust , Connor McDavid, Aaron Judge, Lamar Jackson… these players put up phenomenal numbers during the season and then never show up in the big moments 

Go look up who won the Conn Smythe last year and then delete this. 

[OverPowerYou]

23 minutes ago, LGR4GM said:

Go look up who won the Conn Smythe last year and then delete this. 

But he didn’t do enough to win it all 

[That Aud Smell]

9 hours ago, FrenchConnection44 said:

This is an incredible team. Just so all around. They are tough (especially with the addition of Marchand). Physical. They play exceptional defense. They skate really well. They have multiple quality scorers. They are deep with 4 lines. They are extremely intelligent and disciplined. They are selfless and play together. They have a great goaltender. And they have guys who can intimidate and defend players ... no one is really going to mess with this team. And they make great trades at the GM level. What more could you ask? 

They may not have a Gretzky or Lemieux or Crosby or McDavid, they are not a flashy offensive team but really what a great grinding team. 

I've been thinking about what Stanley Cup champion from recent memory compares with this Florida team. They are just incredible.

Is it possibly the Bruins in their recent heyday? How many Cups did they win - just one? I'm mostly wondering whether Bergeron is comparable to Barkov, then with Marchand being comparable to ... Marchand, etc.

[...]

55 minutes ago, LGR4GM said:

Go look up who won the Conn Smythe last year and then delete this. 

Do you mean Sam Bennett is the best player in the league now?

[LGR4GM]

10 minutes ago, ... said:

Do you mean Sam Bennett is the best player in the league now?

Wasn't the discussion we were having. It's not even relevant to what the OP said.

9 hours ago, OverPowerYou said:

Each sport has their annual all star playoff bust , Connor McDavid, Aaron Judge, Lamar Jackson… these players put up phenomenal numbers during the season and then never show up in the big moments 

 

1 hour ago, LGR4GM said:

Go look up who won the Conn Smythe last year and then delete this. 

 

42 minutes ago, OverPowerYou said:

But he didn’t do enough to win it all 

 

10 minutes ago, ... said:

Do you mean Sam Bennett is the best player in the league now?

Saying McDavid is a playoff bust is just nonsense. 

Edited 9 hours ago by LGR4GM
Added "not"

[Thorny]

49 minutes ago, OverPowerYou said:

But he didn’t do enough to win it all 

There are countless times the guy winning the Smythe did far FAR less and it was well enough to win it all. If McDavid’s Smythe performance last year isn’t attached to a Cup win it’s other aspects of the team not bridging that gap, to a certainty

- - - 

anecdotally I find people really tend to struggle with recency bias. People get McDavid was far, far more good/clutch than Reinhart this postseason, right? 10 of Reinhart’s 23 points came in the last 4 games. He had 13 in 17 before that. He’s good, great maybe even, but a short little streak at the end doesn’t make him McDavid. Reinhart wasn’t “clutch” and McDavid a “ghost”, McDavid performed all playoffs to a much higher and more consistent degree - all the playoff games count 

17 minutes ago, ... said:

Do you mean Sam Bennett is the best player in the league now?

Do you think Bennett was better in the playoffs this year than McDavid? 

Edited 9 hours ago by Thorny

[FrenchConnection44]

8 hours ago, spndnchz said:

I feel sorry for McDavid

And just think, the Oilers drafted Jesse Puljujarvi 4th in 2016, with Matthew Tkachuk on the board. Lol. That was a big time fail. Had they taken Tkachuk, along with what they have now? I think they would have won one if not two cups. You just can’t make mistakes like that drafting 4th and get away with it very often. 

[Crusader1969]

Just watched the Reinhart interview minutes after winning the cup 

can't help for smile and feel good for that guy 

though it's always going to tough not to think "what might have been" 

 

[...]

28 minutes ago, LGR4GM said:

Wasn't the discussion we were having. It's not even relevant to what the OP said.

Saying McDavid is a playoff bust is just nonsense. 

 

19 minutes ago, Thorny said:

Do you think Bennett was better in the playoffs this year than McDavid? 

OMG. You people are way too serious. 

[That Aud Smell]

it's a big lol from me at the take that McDavid is a playoff no-show, choke artist. (his dunderheaded whiff of a back check last night notwithstanding.)

otoh, he's been bumping up against some kind of ceiling -- encountering the limitations that a single other-worldly hockey player will encounter when trying to win a Stanley Cup.

ice hockey is the ultimate team game. and the panthers are -- quite obviously -- the best team in the world.

[DarthEbriate]

McDavid had 33 points in 22 games, tying Draisaitl for the playoffs lead -- both of them 10 clear of Reinhart/Tkachuk/Verhaege. McDavid was hardly a playoff bust. He was a stud in every game and series.

He and Draisaitl simply ran into a better team, particularly when Florida had the last change. If EDM had the depth (and goaltending!) to run McDavid and Draisaitl on separate lines, maybe they could manage it. But when they're paired together, Florida just drops on Verghaege-Barkov-Reinhart or ERod-Bennett-Tkachuk. And they still have Marchand-Lundell-Luostarinen as a "3rd line". That's 3 centers that can limit the damage and Marchand is on the flippin' 3rd line as a scoring threat.

We have to dial it back on this belief that a star player can do everything in team sports (even in basketball. Those '90s Bulls were the better team in each and every series; heck, they finished 2nd/3rd in their division when Jordan wasn't even on the team for the season.)

[Thorny]

2 hours ago, That Aud Smell said:

it's a big lol from me at the take that McDavid is a playoff no-show, choke artist. (his dunderheaded whiff of a back check last night notwithstanding.)

otoh, he's been bumping up against some kind of ceiling -- encountering the limitations that a single other-worldly hockey player will encounter when trying to win a Stanley Cup.

ice hockey is the ultimate team game. and the panthers are -- quite obviously -- the best team in the world.

If McDavid doing what he does and looking the way he does as he does it isn’t enough to back people off the “see, he couldn’t carry his team through!” argument, literally nothing can. That’s it 

The proof is in the pudding: you can perform to a level of aptitude greater than all who came before and it still can, quite clearly, not be enough. It’s just not the nfl or nba

Can we imagine for a second what it would be like if McDavid got to touch the puck on literally every offensive possession the oilers had?