Owning Our Mistakes

[Jacob582]

Florida too. I thought they would drop. Didn't they start the season with injuries?

Samson Reinhart too. I thought he would have scored 40 by now.

 

[Irie]

With yet another lost season winding down, what is something you as a poster were sure would happen this year that was the absolute opposite of your expectation? Think back to how some reacted to the Greenway deal or Luukkonen still being in net or Ryan Johnson's intentions or what have you.

Mine? That Pat Kane was washed. That guy looked so cooked and had a surgery that nobody has come back from to produce at a high level and yet, he's doing it with the Wings. I admit, I was wrong.

Just as a note, grandstanding on some hot take will probably get deleted. You want to take a victory lap on something, this isn't it. This is looking at what was held as so and turned out to be diametrically different in outcome.

Wings record with Kane: 12-11-2
Wings record without Kane: 18-9-4

While he is still putting up points, the hockey Kane is playing is not super conducive to winning imo. I do agree that he is better post surgery than I thought he would be, I also worried he wouldn't even be serviceable.

For me, the biggest surprise that I was completely wrong on was that I thought the Sabres PK would be sub 73%... again. I assumed they would run the same high pressure puck chasing scheme they had been running for two seasons, but they have really settled down, there is discipline and chemistry in the units.

I have a feeling that Clifton and Johnson may be part of that turnaround, and not just on the ice, but by working with the assistant coaches and teaching them how to coach a PK, but either way, my prediction was out to lunch.

 

[Chainshot]

Wings record with Kane: 12-11-2
Wings record without Kane: 18-9-4

While he is still putting up points, the hockey Kane is playing is not super conducive to winning imo. I do agree that he is better post surgery than I thought he would be, I also worried he wouldn't even be serviceable.

For me, the biggest surprise that I was completely wrong on was that I thought the Sabres PK would be sub 73%... again. I assumed they would run the same high pressure puck chasing scheme they had been running for two seasons, but they have really settled down, there is discipline and chemistry in the units.

I have a feeling that Clifton and Johnson may be part of that turnaround, and not just on the ice, but by working with the assistant coaches and teaching them how to coach a PK, but either way, my prediction was out to lunch.

I stand with Cliffy and EJ replacing Joki and Fitz and others on the PK as part of the reason that unit is better. Going with pairs that have better skaters also has helped put pressure on the puck - Okposo and Girgensons have not been a forward pair on the PK, guys like Quinn and Benson worked in with Tuch and very much Greenway to make more of the pressure.

 

[Snippit]

Greenway I was a hater for sure

 

[Irie]

I stand with Cliffy and EJ replacing Joki and Fitz and others on the PK as part of the reason that unit is better. Going with pairs that have better skaters also has helped put pressure on the puck - Okposo and Girgensons have not been a forward pair on the PK, guys like Quinn and Benson worked in with Tuch and very much Greenway to make more of the pressure.

Personnel absolutely makes a difference, but their spacing is just flat out better. Watching them last year abandon their positions to chase the puck out at the boards all the time, (all of the penalty killers, Girgs, Tuch, Cozens... the entire team would do it), and then this year watching them pull up and retreat back to shut down the passing lanes and show discipline instead of puck chasing - that goes way beyond personnel. It is a different coaching approach.

Whomever brought the new philosophy, I highly approve, but it was a big surprise.

 

[OkimLom]

I missed The mark on the quality of play I would see Ryan Johnson. He’s been better than I thought. I actually have enjoyed his game a bit more than the expectations from Power.

I was wrong on Krebs. I thought he would channel in that pest sort of game that he showed last season to find another level in his game. At this point in time, my ceiling for him is what Larry was for us. I have zero confidence of his game being more than that.

UPL, I didn’t have an opinion one way or the other. Happy to see him find a groove. Its important for goalies to be able to do that, but especially important for young goalies that have consistency issues.

 

[ValJamesDuex]

Rolled my eyes at more UPL, well done on you UPL!

Figured RJ was never coming

 

[allsilverdreams]

UPL and Benson

 

[MarkusKetterer]

RyJo I was wrong on. I figured he’d need a year to look like an NHL player.

Other than that, I was wrong on the team as a whole. I didn’t think they’d take a step back in every way except the PK. I figured it’d be more of the team of last year but with better PK stats.

 

[SabresFanNorthPortFL]

I was wrong about the management aspect of the team….

It’s been a crappy dozen years, the team was coming together at the end of the last season, I was wrong to think ownership/management would, actually wanted to win. I was wrong.

Us as HF’ers have been able to identify gapping holes in this team for years and years, so a fan boy like Pegula knows it too. Why the ownership/management didn’t build on the momentum of last season is the biggest failure as a Sabres fan.

 

[BB79]

I'm going to own my biggest mistake right now.

After last season I thought there was the best chance in over a decade of making the playoffs again this season.

They fooled me yet again.

 

[Kublakhan]

When we drafted Rosen I was pissed we got such a small kid.. Yeah hes pretty good..

 

[Reddawg]

I expected meaningful hockey in May and didn't even get any in December.

 

[paulmm3]

I had UPL as the third choice goalie prior to the season and will admit I was completely wrong. I thought I'd seen enough of a sample size of UPL already prior to this year, but I guess not

 

[littletonhockeycoach]

Never expected the Sabres to look THIS bad.

There's really nothing to be excited, upbeat and confident about this team moving forward.

 

[HaNotsri]

I thought we would take a step back but this was not what I had in mind. They went full sabres on me again. In none of my scenarios were they this bad. I thought we'd easily be an 85-point team that would slip in january/february not that our season would die in december.

I thought Krebs would be a good player from the start of the year and be in the same category as Peterka.

I thought Granato would develop along with the team.

I didn't think UPL could amount to more than a backup.

 

[BowieSabresFan]

That piece of 4 layer chocolate cake last night.? Definitely a mistake, but so worth it.

 

[Duddy]

Was expecting Dahlin to play like the beat dman i the league, f*** me the dude is letting me down this season.

 

[slip]

I thought Dahlin/Cobra/Power were sufficient to push this team into the playoffs.

 

[Push Dr Tracksuit]

With yet another lost season winding down, what is something you as a poster were sure would happen this year that was the absolute opposite of your expectation? Think back to how some reacted to the Greenway deal or Luukkonen still being in net or Ryan Johnson's intentions or what have you.

Mine? That Pat Kane was washed. That guy looked so cooked and had a surgery that nobody has come back from to produce at a high level and yet, he's doing it with the Wings. I admit, I was wrong.







Just as a note, grandstanding on some hot take will probably get deleted. You want to take a victory lap on something, this isn't it. This is looking at what was held as so and turned out to be diametrically different in outcome.

The Thompson line would at least maintain their 2022 numbers

the PP would be a consistent benefit for a team that struggles into a defensive shell

Really my expectations were for another wildly inconsistent season with slightly better goaltending and penalty kill, slightly worse production from the thompson line and better production from the cozens line. That combined with consistent play from the PP led me to believe that they would finish 4 points higher than last season and make the playoffs.

Quinn never played, cozens has had a tough year, and the Thompson line has been an outright failure. But the PP. In the decades of mediocre PP this one is possibly the most pathetic version. Im traditionally soft on the coach hate. I dont think coaches in hockey are anywhere near as important to a hockey team as the other major sports. The performance of the PP and the outright refusal to do anything to change it, I would have fired donny in december. I would have fired donny after CBJ. I would have fired donny after the harrington no salute bull shit.

the outright failure of donny to keep this team progressing was the biggest thing i was wrong about

but I also want to own that I said trying to teach this roster to play defense was a fools errand and completely waste of what talent existed on the roster, you were never going to get this group to play like the bruins in 1 season, when these guys think they fail, when they are moving on instinct they blow people over. all these players that were consistently useless finally all found success by just playing offense, why people thought asking them to go back to traditional hockey was a good idea is beyond me

@Chainshot ive edited this thing about 8 times if you want to disclaim your thumbs up

 

[Faceboner]

I thought Bedard had a realistic shot at 80-90 points but still he is having a great year honestly he could be what Stamkos was pre leg break with better playmaking

 

[Jim Bob]

The biggest thing is just the optimism based off the momentum late in last season carrying over despite me not being thrilled with the way Adams approached the offseason.

The stuff like maybe Boston was taking a step back and that Kane wouldn't look this good coming off the hip surgery are a far cry from getting my hopes up that this was the year they would end the drought.

 

[57special]

I thought that Ottawa and Sabres would be the new, hot teams challenging the old aging teams like the Bruins and TBL. Also thought Tochett would go Mike Keenan on VAN's younger, soft players and destroy the team.

In completely unrelated news, I thought that my team, MN would barely squeak into the playoffs, only to lose for the eleventy'th time. Seemed like I was wrong and the team would be picking in the top 8 or so, but a recent hot streak has them back in familiar territory - 2 points out of a Wild card spot.

Not saying that Sabres fans should be happy with where they are at, but I am saying that there are different kinds of hell.

 

[Zman5778]

In completely unrelated news, I thought that my team, MN would barely squeak into the playoffs, only to lose for the eleventy'th time. Seemed like I was wrong and the team would be picking in the top 8 or so, but a recent hot streak has them back in familiar territory - 2 points out of a Wild card spot.

Not saying that Sabres fans should be happy with where they are at, but I am saying that there are different kinds of hell.

Oh that hell was what started us down the path to this whole mess we're in. Once Drury and Briere left, we were in that middling "too good for a top 10 pick, too bad to actually do anything" hell for 7 years or so.

Then we tore it down and rebuilt.

Now we are here.

 

[TageGod]

I have made no mistakes yet.