How worried are you about this team? Both on and off the ice?

Royisgone

Registered User
Mar 7, 2012
2,203
516
Here's the sad part. All we are left with is the hope to be able to sit down and enjoy watching a particular Sabres game, if they ever get back to playing.

Not much hope for Cup wins, or playoff runs, or competent leadership. But you can always enjoy the random hockey game.

And even that is tough to do with how this team is structured and the atmosphere at home games.

How many games out of 82 are truly enjoyable pieces of entertainment? I would suggest less than 10.
 

Man of Principles

The Krueger Effect
Nov 30, 2011
2,277
383
I remember some years back (maybe around the time Tim Murray was hired) we had a thread asking this very same question. At the time I wasn't overly confident in the general direction the organization. I would have said maybe a 5 on a 1-10 scale. I knew things could get way worse, but I predicted an organizational upswing after a couple tough years. I never imagined dysfunction to this magnitude. Using that same 1-10 confidence scale, I'm honestly at about a -2. I thought if things ever went this badly it'd be the GM's fault entirely. This is on the Pegulas for not making the right changes more than once. It will not help that they want more control going forward.
 
  • Like
Reactions: May Day 10

explore

I was wrong about Don Granato and TNT
Jun 28, 2011
3,752
3,434
Hard to have faith in leadership that's demonstrated that they're incapable of learning from past mistakes, but I'm too emotionally invested in the Sabres to not want to hope they become better.
 

La Cosa Nostra

Caporegime
Jun 25, 2009
14,073
2,335


That team is still god awful. Nearly half of the forwards aren't even full time pros.Including a third of the projected top 6.

We can at least point to what we do have in place.

Franchise #1 center(Eichel). Franchise #1D(Dahlin). 2 high end goal scoring wingers(Skinner+Olofsson) (Skinner deserves more time. You don't get the disrespect he does after 1 bad season when you scored 40 goals the year prior).A 55-60 point winger(Reinhart).A couple top 4 RHD(Risto+Miller/Montour), an elite center prospect (Cozens).

What this team needs is 2 more 50 point forwards, some consistent legit toughness in the bottom 6 and on the blueline and to get good goaltending consistently.

Upgrade Hutton to someone more consistent, add some toughness and a couple of legit offensive threats and this is not an awful team. How can you be awful forever if you literally have a franchise center and franchise #1D in place?We have the 2 hardest pieces to acquire it is so f***ing frustrating why we are still bad.
 

VaporTrail

Registered User
Mar 2, 2011
5,236
1,356
Here's the sad part. All we are left with is the hope to be able to sit down and enjoy watching a particular Sabres game, if they ever get back to playing.

Not much hope for Cup wins, or playoff runs, or competent leadership. But you can always enjoy the random hockey game.

And even that is tough to do with how this team is structured and the atmosphere at home games.

How many games out of 82 are truly enjoyable pieces of entertainment? I would suggest less than 10.
Pretty much this...i don't have much confidence at all in the organization at all anymore.....if GMKA fails it most likely will be years before we hit the playoffs again...what's the record for missing the playoffs consecutive years in a row ? We could be looking at that record....I' mstarting to look to add another team to follow and become a fan of so I can hopefully watch a winner
 

DolanPlsGoSabres

スカンデッラ
Mar 17, 2013
2,220
1,318
Nagoya
Pretty much this...i don't have much confidence at all in the organization at all anymore.....if GMKA fails it most likely will be years before we hit the playoffs again...what's the record for missing the playoffs consecutive years in a row ? We could be looking at that record....I' mstarting to look to add another team to follow and become a fan of so I can hopefully watch a winner

Miss next season and we're tied with the 2000s Panthers and the Oilers between their finals appearance and post-McDavid.
 
  • Like
Reactions: VaporTrail

Spikey

Registered User
Feb 12, 2020
139
50
Don't the Sabres start the season really well? atleast the last few years they do. Not sure why they can't keep up with that pace.
 

OkimLom

Registered User
May 3, 2010
15,123
6,581
Don't the Sabres start the season really well? atleast the last few years they do. Not sure why they can't keep up with that pace.

because after the initial feeling of a fresh start; the back to earth goaltending and teams “cleaning up” their structure/system while Buffalo struggles to implement a flexible and competitive system comes to the forefront.
 

Montag DP

Sabres fan in...
Apr 4, 2007
11,854
4,069
...Maryland
Honestly, I've barely thought about them the last four months, and it's been... nice. No Sabres is good for mental health.
 

sabremike

Friend To All Giraffes
Aug 30, 2010
22,546
33,791
Brewster, NY
lol how does he think that's an improvement? The #1 wingers on the team are CJ Smith and Alex Nyalnder.
Just guessing but probably because we'd still have a #2 center who right now is probably going to end up in the hall of fame (you know, the hole that was blown in our roster that essentially obliterated the organization and made it that there likely won't be playoffs in Buffalo until 2022 in the most optimistic scenario).
 

tsujimoto74

Moderator
May 28, 2012
29,802
21,846
Just guessing but probably because we'd still have a #2 center who right now is probably going to end up in the hall of fame (you know, the hole that was blown in our roster that essentially obliterated the organization and made it that there likely won't be playoffs in Buffalo until 2022 in the most optimistic scenario).

We had 2 seasons of Eichel and ROR that were absolute trash. So, sure we'd have a 2C, but we'd have basically no NHL caliber wingers and shit for defense, we'd still be a sucky team.
 

OkimLom

Registered User
May 3, 2010
15,123
6,581
We had 2 seasons of Eichel and ROR that were absolute trash. So, sure we'd have a 2C, but we'd have basically no NHL caliber wingers and shit for defense, we'd still be a sucky team.

I wouldn't say they were trash, seeing as the seasons were riddled with injuries, but that particular roster they had posted would be absolute trash on the wings and terrible at puck retrieval and takeaways.
 

Baccus

Garage League filled with Mickey Mouse teams
Feb 18, 2014
1,453
953
Hockey Side - Coming out of the Murray/Bylsma firing, I had renewed "hope" when we got #1 and Dahlin. Then they blew up center ice and now they're basically screwed for quite awhile as far as whatever team building they will be attempting in the future, and they still haven't been better then the Murray teams by points somehow. Basic draft assets minus 3rd round picks, minimal envious prospects (they've mostly all graduated already, and Cozens will join the NHL team this year in all likelihood). With "good" moves they are at best a bubble/low qualifier team for the next couple+ seasons, which is exactly what they were when the GM/coach revolving doors started.

Business side - The sad reality is the Sabres at BEST (with playoff runs) will MAYBE be a breakeven business, but even that seems questionable. It's a small market with cheap tickets, anybody who yells about the now vanishing sellouts and season ticket base need to look up what the average ticket price is around the league, let alone real box suites and other arena income streams.

So the Pegula's were a big breath of "Our Day Has Finally Come!". Reality ended up being they spent money on locker rooms and bad players, didn't spend money on the analytics and had no real idea of how to run any aspect of a sports team. Now we're back to maybe being a foreseeable future budget team, that may use some type of analytics to cut costs as opposed to get an advantage.

At this point I think they will be continuing to cut budget over the next couple years, and I don't have any real expectation that they will start spending to the cap again any time soon after that.

NSFW mood:
 

Ad

Upcoming events

Ad

Ad

-->