brian_griffin
"Eric Cartman?"
Sabres season is over. I'll likely watch a little playoffs, but essentially be taking a hockey hiatus for 10 weeks or so until the expansion draft.
I saw a lot of Yin / Yang, or two-sides to the coin, or pro-cons, with the totality of the 2021 season.
I'll try to enumerate them as paired responses, and take it in reverse order to end on a positive note.
Ugly:
My desire: I really wasn't into hockey this season. The late start wasn't bad - actually, I'd be fine with a shorter NHL season starting around Armistice / Veteran's Day, finishing the end of March. That's 20 weeks and assuming an average of 3 games per week, 60 games. 7x4=28, +8x2=16, +16x1=16, =60 total. But I assume the NHL will do an 84 game schedule in 2022: 7x4=28, +8x3=24, +16x2=32, =84 total.
COVID: Definitely impacted my desire. Had no interest after the Sabres season was ended in March 2020. The Sabres 2-week pause after 2 weeks of 2021 play, with the compressed make-up schedule to boot, didn't help things at all. Never mind the avoidable Palmeri incident, which has been discussed at length.
Schedule: COVID aside, I liked the "back-to-backs", or "COVID back-to-backs" where teams played twice in 3 days. I did NOT like how the Sabres schedule was front-loaded with certain opponents and back-loaded with other opponents. I haven't looked whether all, or only some, other teams had the same "uneven" schedules with certain opponents. It seemed like Groundhog Day at times.
Losing Streak: The tenor and humor on these boards helped endure some truly shitty hockey on the ice and coaching behind the bench and from the press interviews.
Bad:
1. Jack Eichel's injury. He was clearly inhibited to begin the season, then finally shut down after exacerbating it. Icing on the cake was the near-incessant speculation about Eichel leaving the Sabres this offseason.
2. Waiting far too long to fire Ralph.
3. Ralph's ignorance of analytics in general, his reliance on veteran depth, and his bromance for Cody Eakin in particular.
4. Ullmark's injuries. All backups definitely hurt the Sabres in the standings; likely .
5. McCabe's injury. Prevented a trade deadline deal for an asset of some kind. There would have been a taker, and McCabe would have finally gotten to the playoffs, likely as a parting gift from Buffalo.
6. Dahlin's regression under Ralph / Steve Smith.
7. Girgensons' injury. Sabres could have used his speed and style in the lineup this season.
8. Skinner looking out of place and out of sorts almost all season.
9. Kevyn Adams. In the post-Krueger firing zoom call with the media, he didn't come across as forceful, resolute, or in command.
10. NHL officiating. Far too frequently it was inconsistent in both calls and non-calls, and biased for and against players and teams.
11. Taylor Hall. I haven't seen $8M so blatantly wasted since a US Congressional spending proposal.
Good:
1. Jack's injury let us see Sam at center for the first prolonged run since he was drafted. And Sam delivered. Whether or not he's a center to start next season remains to be seen, but his value just went up. I think he should be signed long term, but if the Sabres seek to trade him, they should demand a center (or a 1A goalie) in return. Further, the speculation that "Eichel is absolutely leaving" should stop yesterday. Who the hell plays the world's fastest contact sport with a herniated cervical disk for an employer they hate when their contract and paycheck is guaranteed and injury protected?
2. Seeing the new life breathed into the Sabres by Donnie G. and staff. Imagine how shitty we'd feel as Sabres fans if Adams/Pegulas had waited until today to fire Krueger, or even decided to retain him. We'd have seen nothing of what could be again, in the future.
3. The resurgence of Mittelstadt, the emergence of Cozens *heart* and Asplund, and the tenacity of Bjork and Ruotsalainen.
4. Hutton's subsequent injury allowing us to see Tokarski, UPL, and Houser, each of whom, though likely not ready for long-term NHL stints, provided a few flashes of good play. Hutton had a couple good games too, he's just not NHL caliber anymore.
5. The potential for Borgen and Bryson and Samuelsson. I think we'll see at least two of them on the Sabres to start next season, and all three of them to finish next season.
6. Dahlin's resurrection under Donnie G. and Capo Girardi.
7. Girgensons return next season - assuming he's not taken in the ED.
8. When paired with Eichel next season, Skinner surely has to be better on the ice and on the stat sheet than this past year. Because he can't possibly be worse. Right? Right!!??
9. Karamos hired to help Adams. I see no downside in the short term.
10. Don't have to watch the officials gig the Sabres in the playoffs.
11. I've already forgotten about Taylor Hall. Had to re-read my post before hitting "post reply" and can't believe I left that slacker off. By the way the US govt. spends >$8M of taxpayer money every minute.
Thoughts? Rebuttals? Additions?
The glass is definitely half full.
I saw a lot of Yin / Yang, or two-sides to the coin, or pro-cons, with the totality of the 2021 season.
I'll try to enumerate them as paired responses, and take it in reverse order to end on a positive note.
Ugly:
My desire: I really wasn't into hockey this season. The late start wasn't bad - actually, I'd be fine with a shorter NHL season starting around Armistice / Veteran's Day, finishing the end of March. That's 20 weeks and assuming an average of 3 games per week, 60 games. 7x4=28, +8x2=16, +16x1=16, =60 total. But I assume the NHL will do an 84 game schedule in 2022: 7x4=28, +8x3=24, +16x2=32, =84 total.
COVID: Definitely impacted my desire. Had no interest after the Sabres season was ended in March 2020. The Sabres 2-week pause after 2 weeks of 2021 play, with the compressed make-up schedule to boot, didn't help things at all. Never mind the avoidable Palmeri incident, which has been discussed at length.
Schedule: COVID aside, I liked the "back-to-backs", or "COVID back-to-backs" where teams played twice in 3 days. I did NOT like how the Sabres schedule was front-loaded with certain opponents and back-loaded with other opponents. I haven't looked whether all, or only some, other teams had the same "uneven" schedules with certain opponents. It seemed like Groundhog Day at times.
Losing Streak: The tenor and humor on these boards helped endure some truly shitty hockey on the ice and coaching behind the bench and from the press interviews.
Bad:
1. Jack Eichel's injury. He was clearly inhibited to begin the season, then finally shut down after exacerbating it. Icing on the cake was the near-incessant speculation about Eichel leaving the Sabres this offseason.
2. Waiting far too long to fire Ralph.
3. Ralph's ignorance of analytics in general, his reliance on veteran depth, and his bromance for Cody Eakin in particular.
4. Ullmark's injuries. All backups definitely hurt the Sabres in the standings; likely .
5. McCabe's injury. Prevented a trade deadline deal for an asset of some kind. There would have been a taker, and McCabe would have finally gotten to the playoffs, likely as a parting gift from Buffalo.
6. Dahlin's regression under Ralph / Steve Smith.
7. Girgensons' injury. Sabres could have used his speed and style in the lineup this season.
8. Skinner looking out of place and out of sorts almost all season.
9. Kevyn Adams. In the post-Krueger firing zoom call with the media, he didn't come across as forceful, resolute, or in command.
10. NHL officiating. Far too frequently it was inconsistent in both calls and non-calls, and biased for and against players and teams.
11. Taylor Hall. I haven't seen $8M so blatantly wasted since a US Congressional spending proposal.
Good:
1. Jack's injury let us see Sam at center for the first prolonged run since he was drafted. And Sam delivered. Whether or not he's a center to start next season remains to be seen, but his value just went up. I think he should be signed long term, but if the Sabres seek to trade him, they should demand a center (or a 1A goalie) in return. Further, the speculation that "Eichel is absolutely leaving" should stop yesterday. Who the hell plays the world's fastest contact sport with a herniated cervical disk for an employer they hate when their contract and paycheck is guaranteed and injury protected?
2. Seeing the new life breathed into the Sabres by Donnie G. and staff. Imagine how shitty we'd feel as Sabres fans if Adams/Pegulas had waited until today to fire Krueger, or even decided to retain him. We'd have seen nothing of what could be again, in the future.
3. The resurgence of Mittelstadt, the emergence of Cozens *heart* and Asplund, and the tenacity of Bjork and Ruotsalainen.
4. Hutton's subsequent injury allowing us to see Tokarski, UPL, and Houser, each of whom, though likely not ready for long-term NHL stints, provided a few flashes of good play. Hutton had a couple good games too, he's just not NHL caliber anymore.
5. The potential for Borgen and Bryson and Samuelsson. I think we'll see at least two of them on the Sabres to start next season, and all three of them to finish next season.
6. Dahlin's resurrection under Donnie G. and Capo Girardi.
7. Girgensons return next season - assuming he's not taken in the ED.
8. When paired with Eichel next season, Skinner surely has to be better on the ice and on the stat sheet than this past year. Because he can't possibly be worse. Right? Right!!??
9. Karamos hired to help Adams. I see no downside in the short term.
10. Don't have to watch the officials gig the Sabres in the playoffs.
11. I've already forgotten about Taylor Hall. Had to re-read my post before hitting "post reply" and can't believe I left that slacker off. By the way the US govt. spends >$8M of taxpayer money every minute.
Thoughts? Rebuttals? Additions?
The glass is definitely half full.
