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Abandon all hopium, ye who enter here: 1,001 reasons why the Sabres won't be better this year — or probably ever

dudacek

By dudacek
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Believer First Liner

Believer

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Then there is this given reality offered up by an unnamed NHL Coach speaking about Dahlin:

“The team he’s on is such a downer, man. They’re so bad,” a coach said.

Yet Adams remains in place. Five years and counting?

Wake up, Pegula.

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Andrew Amerk First Liner

Andrew Amerk

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The team sucks because there is no identity of who they want to be and how they want to play. 

I don’t remember which coach it was, maybe Granato, made them an offensive team that sucked on defense. That team was fun to watch. Then I suppose the plan for year 2 was to make them more defensive? Which didn’t work or happen, and the team hasn’t seemed to have any plan or identity since that season. 

JP51 Third Liner

JP51

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Nice write up thanks for taking the time...  I also noticed you said "Could" regress...  not predicting they WILL regress, but making the statement these are all possible outcomes... and with that I agree with all as possibilities...  

 

 

CallawaySabres First Liner

CallawaySabres

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This team made me tired of hockey. My passion, which was equivalent to the Bills, has all but disappeared. That never happened, not even one year during the Bills 17 year drought.

There is something very rotten about this team from top to bottom and I don't think it ever gets fixed. I didn't lose the passion because the team has been bad, I lost it because from the GM down to the players, they are about as unlikeable as a team can get. They lack talent, heart, and the in-game experience is practically unwatchable. 

Edited by CallawaySabres
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PerreaultForever All Star

PerreaultForever

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The lack of hope stems from one central idea and that is that Terry Pegula is stuck on one idea, one vision, and he won't relinquish power to actual hockey people who know better. Terry thinks he knows better and he is the de facto GM or director of hockey operations. As long as that remains this will continue as is with a little up then a little down but all on the outside of the playoffs as players leave or get dumped in rebuilds periodically. 

Everything else is just icing on a cake that was baked with salt instead of sugar. 

 

GASabresIUFAN Hall of Famer

GASabresIUFAN

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59 minutes ago, PerreaultForever said:

The lack of hope stems from one central idea and that is that Terry Pegula is stuck on one idea, one vision, and he won't relinquish power to actual hockey people who know better. Terry thinks he knows better and he is the de facto GM or director of hockey operations. As long as that remains this will continue as is with a little up then a little down but all on the outside of the playoffs as players leave or get dumped in rebuilds periodically. 

Everything else is just icing on a cake that was baked with salt instead of sugar. 

 

Terry Pegula, the Jerry Jones of the NHL.

 

1 hour ago, CallawaySabres said:

This team made me tired of hockey. My passion, which was equivalent to the Bills, has all but disappeared. That never happened, not even one year during the Bills 17 year drought.

There is something very rotten about this team from top to bottom and I don't think it ever gets fixed. I didn't lose the passion because the team has been bad, I lost it because from the GM down to the players, they are about as unlikeable as a team can get. They lack talent, heart, and the in-game experience is practically unwatchable. 

Apathy.  The Sabres players, owners, management and coaches have made many of us apathetic about the team we all once adored.  

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PerreaultForever All Star

PerreaultForever

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1 hour ago, GASabresIUFAN said:

Terry Pegula, the Jerry Jones of the NHL.

 

Apathy.  The Sabres players, owners, management and coaches have made many of us apathetic about the team we all once adored.  

A fair comparison. Although Jerry Jones (for all his errors) might be more competent than Terry. 

There's also that thing we heard earlier that "Buffalo was hard to deal with" in terms of trading. I think that was on 32 thoughts around the time of the Byram rumors or Peterka trade. I tend to forget as I'm less invested these days but it was around there. So you have to think two things. One, Kevyn does not have good relationships with other GMs and two, I wonder if part of that is Kevyn constantly having to get the okay from Terry. Whatever the case it isn't good. We need an experienced GM who already has league relationships and he needs to be given free reign and that won't happen with Terry. 

Apathy? I guess so. I've been in the prove it on the ice mode for a few years already and now I'm really deeply in the skeptical prove it camp. Even a 10 game out of the gate win streak won't get me out of that. It'll take a lot to get me back on the bandwagon. So I guess I'd say not apathetic (as I will still watch) but definitely cynically skeptical. 

I will say this is the first year I am not interested in the rookie camp or prospects and I don't plan to watch preseason unless I'm really bored or multitasking. The "future" stuff is a big pile of whatever. 

JohnC First Liner

JohnC

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On 9/15/2025 at 4:21 PM, GASabresIUFAN said:

Terry Pegula, the Jerry Jones of the NHL.

 

 

Jerry Jones talks too much, and Terry Pegula doesn't talk at all. The ying and yang of bad ownership. 

DarthEbriate All Star

DarthEbriate

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1 hour ago, GASabresIUFAN said:

This graphic encapsulates the Sabres perfectly.  

15 years and they are no closer to contending than the year they started the rebuild.  Disgusting.  

And their little arrow shows that they were near where Detroit was the previous year. Just spinning.

The best outcome of the season would seem to get back to the Detroit - window opening - this season. And the other outcome is they slide to where Nashville is.

LGR4GM Hall of Famer

LGR4GM

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2 hours ago, GASabresIUFAN said:

This graphic encapsulates the Sabres perfectly.  

15 years and they are no closer to contending than the year they started the rebuild.  Disgusting.  

Yea

... no Detroits window isn't opening

DarthEbriate All Star

DarthEbriate

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15 minutes ago, LGR4GM said:

Yea

... no Detroits window isn't opening

Agreed. Just going by the label on the chart. I can see Detroit and Buffalo swapping positions this season, and again after next season, depending on how UFAs play out. They're both in 1C purgatory. (Yes, Larkin looks good on Team Canada and he plays with speed. But... he's not striking fear into any championship contender in the playoffs.) 

  • 3 weeks later...
GASabresIUFAN Hall of Famer

GASabresIUFAN

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On 9/12/2025 at 9:40 PM, dudacek said:

4.  The goaltending is woefully inadequate.  The save % of our 4 goalies last season were as follows - UPL .887, Levi .872, Georgiev .875, and Lyon.896.  League average last season was .893 in all situations.

 

On 9/12/2025 at 9:40 PM, dudacek said:

8.  The defense remains defensively suspect.  Byram, Power, Samuelsson and Bryson are still inept defensively. Kesselring and Timmins maybe upgrades defensively over Joki or Clifton, but neither has ever been a full time top 4 defenseman.  Timmins has averaged less than 16 minutes a night for his career and last season was his first in 6 years as a full time NHLer.  Kesselring played under 18 a night last season and while he did fill in the top 4, as soon as Utah got healthy he was relegated to the 3rd pair.  He did have a solid all around season, but it’s fair to wonder if he is ready to pair with a player as defensively inept as Power for 22 minutes a night.  It’s also fair to question whether the addition of two 3rd pairing D is enough to elevate a group as terrible as the Sabres have been defensively for years. 

Even as cynical as I've become about this team, even I am having trouble believing how physically fragile this roster is.  

However, watching the last 2 periods against Pittsburgh really illustrated what I wrote in the 2 above quotes. 

mjd1001 First Liner

mjd1001

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On 9/17/2025 at 8:21 AM, GASabresIUFAN said:

This graphic encapsulates the Sabres perfectly.  

15 years and they are no closer to contending than the year they started the rebuild.  Disgusting.  

Interesting graphic and I get it might be done with some statistical formula:

-I agree Detroit isn't a team that has a bit time window opening. They seem to be more in 'no mans land', maybe SLIGHTLY toward the 'window opening'.

-Put aside all the negativity, I think the Sabres should be slightly more toward the 'window opening' area.

-I know Kopitar is retiring, but I don't think the Kings should be basically in the worst area of the chart.

-Toronto might be entering the 'window closing' phase soon, but I think their position on this chart should be slightly farther back.

-Edmonton should be slightly farther forward to the 'win now' area.  I think Edm and Toronto should be in the exact same spot.

-I'm not sure how Ottawa and Boston are almost in the same area.

SwampD Hall of Famer

SwampD

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1 minute ago, Wyldnwoody44 said:

It's hard to pronunciate words with ham sammies in your craw 

Great,… now I want a ham sammie.

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