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

[GASabresIUFAN]

25 minutes ago, Pimlach said:

...  Stale hot dog buns, dry pizza, old popcorn, low quality and expensive beer, broken cup holders,  urine on the restroom floor, paper towels that don't dry, can't put my size 12 1/2 shoes on the floor when seated in the 300's,  always get the seat next to the fat guy ...

Delaware North they’ll do better this season. 
 

https://www.wivb.com/sports/buffalo-sabres/sabres-add-new-food-options-for-upcoming-season/

Edited October 8 by GASabresIUFAN

[rickshaw]

This really is it for this team. They have to make the playoffs. Will they? Probably not. A lot of other teams need to falter. But it’s time to put up or shut up.

This also has to be Adams last chance. If we go on another 8 plus winless streak it’s just not acceptable.

 

[inkman]

I’m a wee bit surprised about the continued interest into this team as my fandom is slowly leaving my body. I just can’t keep giving to something with no payoff at all. I’ve poured 20 years of emotion into this team and only have misery, frustration and heartbreak to show for it. I’m not subscribing to any streaming service that carries the games this season. I’m done wasting my time and energy. I imagine I’ll post here a little while longer but I just can’t keep pouring my emotions into an infinite black hole.  

[rickshaw]

This is the beauty of aging. When I was younger this playoff drought would have crushed me. Now, turning 60 on Saturday, my stress level is low, with no expectations. If they win, I’m happy but I’m over a loss in seconds.

Now if we get in the dance, well then it’s stressful again. But it’s been pretty easy the past 15 years just living day to day life and not worrying about sports results.

[#freejame]

22 hours ago, inkman said:

I’m a wee bit surprised about the continued interest into this team as my fandom is slowly leaving my body. I just can’t keep giving to something with no payoff at all. I’ve poured 20 years of emotion into this team and only have misery, frustration and heartbreak to show for it. I’m not subscribing to any streaming service that carries the games this season. I’m done wasting my time and energy. I imagine I’ll post here a little while longer but I just can’t keep pouring my emotions into an infinite black hole.  

I come back when I see an article in the Athletic that I’d like to see expanded on more. Seldom do I sign in. If October and November go poorly, I’d imagine I’ll be going the way of GoDD. 

My two year old loves hockey and the Bills. I’m not sure he knows much of anything about the Sabres. 

I don’t want to say I care very little about the Sabres, because I know I care immensely about them. But much like the Sabres, my fandom is a shell of its former self and I cannot be bothered to invest emotional, financial or intellectual energy to them. 

[DHawerchuk10]

6 minutes ago, #freejame said:

I come back when I see an article in the Athletic that I’d like to see expanded on more. Seldom do I sign in. If October and November go poorly, I’d imagine I’ll be going the way of GoDD. 

My two year old loves hockey and the Bills. I’m not sure he knows much of anything about the Sabres. 

I don’t want to say I care very little about the Sabres, because I know I care immensely about them. But much like the Sabres, my fandom is a shell of its former self and I cannot be bothered to invest emotional, financial or intellectual energy to them. 

Yeah, I hear you.  I have no enthusiasm, and my interest is at all time low.  For over 40 years, my passion was the Sabres (win or lose).  I just feel hopeless and deflated.  I almost feel like a part of me is on life support and in a coma.  Will I watch games, yes.  But not with the zeal I once had.

[GASabresIUFAN]

I apologize.  I’m sorry!  I should have never believed my lying eyes that told me that we had no PP, no goaltending, no defense, bad coaching, an incompetent GM and an owner not committed to winning.  Please forgive me.

It was very plain from the opening pick drop tonight that this season was going to be different this time and it was. Adams successfully removed in the off-season the team’s one area of competence and that was 5 on 5 offense.  Well done! 

Besides the NY Jets, is there a worse run organization in pro sports?

[CallawaySabres]

I thought that Buffalo would be top five worst in the league before the season started. Now with these injuries, I have no doubt on my mind. They will be the worst team by far, it won’t even be close.
 

this team has pushed me so far away that I actually welcome all of the booing that will be going on every single home game.

[HumanSlinky39]

This team needed Norris to be the very best version of himself, and he is quite good when he actually plays, to make a legit run at the playoffs. If he's out long term (spoiler: he will be, if not now...soon), this team is going nowhere. Again. Because our oxygen thief of a gm looked at last year's team and said "oh yeah, let's run it back!"

1 hour ago, GASabresIUFAN said:

I apologize.  I’m sorry!  I should have never believed my lying eyes that told me that we had no PP, no goaltending, no defense, bad coaching, an incompetent GM and an owner not committed to winning.  Please forgive me.

It was very plain from the opening pick drop tonight that this season was going to be different this time and it was. Adams successfully removed in the off-season the team’s one area of competence and that was 5 on 5 offense.  Well done! 

Besides the NY Jets, is there a worse run organization in pro sports?

Cleveland Clowns, but it's an exclusive club.

[Gatorman0519]

We will be buried by thanksgiving…. Yet again. 

[GASabresIUFAN]

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

Sadly, they can, as they have proven the last two seasons.  This is the pts trend under Adams leadership - 91, 84, 79.  
 

10 reasons they could continue to regress

1.  The Atlantic division is deeper than ever.  Det, Mon, and Ott are actually improving while the Sabres have regressed

2. Adams traded away another young developing scorer, who has improved each of his 3 NHL season, for two depth players who may or may not have upside.

3.  McLeod is almost certain to regress.  He is a career 11.9% shooter who had a career year last year when shooting 20.9%. 

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.

5. Norris unlikely to play enough games to adequately replace Cozens.  Norris has never played more than 66 games in a season and has averaged only 47 games a season during his time in the NHL.  Remember he was shutdown after only 3 games last season following the trade from Ottawa.

6. The entire failed coaching staff returns including special teams failure Appert and defensive failure Wilford.  

7.  The team again refuses to spend to the cap and with the cap rising quickly, the Sabres are likely to fall further behind. Remember that teams that don’t spend to the cap rarely make the playoffs.

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. 

9.  I am a big fan of both Benson and Kulich, but Sabres are betting on their continued improvement, plus rebounds from injury prone guys like Quinn and Norris, plus continued success from Zucker and McLeod, to keep the offense working. Also don’t forget we don’t even know who the 9th top 9 forward will be; will it be the injury prone and scoring challenged Greenway or a bet on another young player with 62 games of NHL experience in Josh Doan. That’s a great deal to ask and comes with a high risk of failure.  If the offense regresses, it raises the odds of another regression by the team significantly. 

10.  Kevyn Adams is still the GM.

I understand that the fans here want to have some hope that the 15 years of wandering in the hockey desert as punishment for the “tank” might end this coming season, but honestly we need to temper our expectations for a team put together by GMKA (aka Howdy Doody).

I wrote this 2 months ago and nearly all of it has come to pass.  The 9th item - offense regression - has sadly become the poster for this season.  Kulich and Benson are out for who knows for how long.  Norris didn’t even last one game.  Zucker is also injured.  Quinn isn’t progressing and McLeod has regressed (also as predicted, but not as bad as I feared. Only Doan has impressed.  Also Tuch and Tage haven’t stepped up as leaders when necessary.

The goaltending is still bad and the defense, especially now with Dahlin out indefinitely, is as bad as ever.  Kesselring hasn’t been good, although Timmins has been ok.  The PP still sucks.  Add all this together and this team is already competing for the top overall draft pick.  

Terry fire Adams and start again 

 

[Gatorman0519]

28 minutes ago, GASabresIUFAN said:

I wrote this 2 months ago and nearly all of it has come to pass.  The 9th item - offense regression - has sadly become the poster for this season.  Kulich and Benson are out for who knows for how long.  Norris didn’t even last one game.  Zucker is also injured.  Quinn isn’t progressing and McLeod has regressed (also as predicted, but not as bad as I feared. Only Doan has impressed.  Also Tuch and Tage haven’t stepped up as leaders when necessary.

The goaltending is still bad and the defense, especially now with Dahlin out indefinitely, is as bad as ever.  Kesselring hasn’t been good, although Timmins has been ok.  The PP still sucks.  Add all this together and this team is already competing for the top overall draft pick.  

Terry fire Adams and start again 

 

Ha, what I said came to pass as well.  It is coming up on Thanksgiving and we are cooked!

[GASabresIUFAN]

12 hours ago, Gatorman0519 said:

Ha, what I said came to pass as well.  It is coming up on Thanksgiving and we are cooked!

They were done by Canadian Thanksgiving