GDT: Sabres @ Oilers 9PM EST TV:MSG Radio:WGR550 Last Gasps

[oldgoalie]

8 GA?
feel bad for UPL.
f*** this team and the coaching staff. time to pick another team to root for in the playoffs. this group ain't even in the same galaxy as the rest of the league.

 

[Dubi Doo]

Oilers fans feel kinship with Sabres, because we understand...

We are still waiting perpetually for Edmonton to implode due to years psychological trauma.

Sports PTSD is a real thing. The Bills are a great team with an elite QB, and I still feel like the world is going to implode at any minute!

 

[Matt Ress]

well I was at the game, that 3rd period was rough to watch in person

View attachment 839731

Were you sitting behind the Edmonton bench by any chance

 

[Mattilaus]

Oilers fans feel kinship with Sabres, because we understand...

We are still waiting perpetually for Edmonton to implode due to years psychological trauma.

With respect, nobody else in the league understands. 13 years and counting.

 

[Chainshot]

Chad starting to see the light

Repetition teaches the donkey as my old chem professor used to say.

 

[toddkaz]

Amazing Granato shortens the bench in the third and the players quit.

 

[DapperCam]

The last wild card team this year will be like 90 points and we’re still not going to be close. Just sad.

 

[iCanada]

With respect, nobody else in the league understands. 13 years and counting.

Trust me, we understand. We even had the 1OA trade arc transition to said player winning the Hart trophy the next year.

10 years with an average of 72 points after correcting for the 12/13 lockout.

If you run the same exercise on the Sabres correcting for games played with the lockout, COVID, and this year not being done y'all are at 13 years with an average of 76 points per 82 game season.

It's maybe not exactly the same, but we feel the decade+ of futility.

 

[Mattilaus]

Trust me, we understand. We even had the 1OA trade arc transition to said player winning the Hart trophy the next year.

10 years with an average of 72 points after correcting for the 12/13 lockout.

View attachment 839858

If you run the same exercise on the Sabres correcting for games played with the lockout, COVID, and this year not being done y'all are at 13 years with an average of 76 points per 82 game season.

It's maybe not exactly the same, but we feel the decade+ of futility.

Your team was gifted the generational player. We have the record for futility currently and there is STILL no light at the end of the tunnel. I am not going to get into a misery pissing match, but the situations aren't similar.

 

[ValJamesDuex]

The GM now has "CLEAR" vision of what his team/coach are. Correct the problems!

 

[iCanada]

Your team was gifted the generational player. We have the record for futility currently and there is STILL no light at the end of the tunnel. I am not going to get into a misery pissing match, but the situations aren't similar.

I think there is a ton of light at the end of the tunnel, tbh.

Between Dahling, Power, Byram and Jokiharu that's essentially an elite top 4 locked in for the next decade. You also have Tage, that's an elite player right there. Add Cousins and you're already at 2 of 6 on a great top 6, again locked in for next decade. Benson looks like a winner.

You also have UPL. Again, locked in for the next decade.

You've also got some great support pieces and a large accumulation of talent.

You've got the hardest pieces of a great team locked in already. Next step is learning to win, and that's not easy. Just takes time of having the core together. Just ask Ottawa. Or us. Or Vancouver. Or Detroit. And then look at the opposite - Boston really isn't that great on paper. Etc.

I've been where you are. I know it seems like there's no hope and everything sucks. I even know me saying this likely comes across as some bad faith "coming in peace" crap. Just saying coming in peace on HFOil as an opposing fan gets you close to black listed because of that.

But I say this having been right there, having completely given up, and even been mad at myself for even devoting the time to the team and caring at all. I felt like I wasted a decade of my life on a hobby that brought me no joy and that just kind of sucks. There is light at the end of that tunnel. My advice would honestly be to just take a step back and re-engage when you feel less intensely about it; it might even mean just not watching for 6/7 months or even a year. But when you get there, man will it feel that much better seeing and experiencing the highs after all the lows.

 

[Beerz]

I think there is a ton of light at the end of the tunnel, tbh.

Between Dahling, Power, Byram and Jokiharu that's essentially an elite top 4 locked in for the next decade. You also have Tage, that's an elite player right there. Add Cousins and you're already at 2 of 6 on a great top 6, again locked in for next decade. Benson looks like a winner.

You also have UPL. Again, locked in for the next decade.

You've also got some great support pieces and a large accumulation of talent.

You've got the hardest pieces of a great team locked in already. Next step is learning to win, and that's not easy. Just takes time of having the core together. Just ask Ottawa. Or us. Or Vancouver. Or Detroit. And then look at the opposite - Boston really isn't that great on paper. Etc.

I've been where you are. I know it seems like there's no hope and everything sucks. I even know me saying this likely comes across as some bad faith "coming in peace" crap. Just saying coming in peace on HFOil as an opposing fan gets you close to black listed because of that.

But I say this having been right there, having completely given up, and even been mad at myself for even devoting the time to the team and caring at all. I felt like I wasted a decade of my life on a hobby that brought me no joy and that just kind of sucks. There is light at the end of that tunnel. My advice would honestly be to just take a step back and re-engage when you feel less intensely about it; it might even mean just not watching for 6/7 months or even a year. But when you get there, man will it feel that much better seeing and experiencing the highs after all the lows.

We have the pieces and ability to be a perennial playoff team.... we lack leadership behind the bench and the fortitude to do what is necessary in the front office (so far)

 

[Tatanka]

I think there is a ton of light at the end of the tunnel, tbh.

Between Dahling, Power, Byram and Jokiharu that's essentially an elite top 4 locked in for the next decade. You also have Tage, that's an elite player right there. Add Cousins and you're already at 2 of 6 on a great top 6, again locked in for next decade. Benson looks like a winner.

You also have UPL. Again, locked in for the next decade.

You've also got some great support pieces and a large accumulation of talent.

You've got the hardest pieces of a great team locked in already. Next step is learning to win, and that's not easy. Just takes time of having the core together. Just ask Ottawa. Or us. Or Vancouver. Or Detroit. And then look at the opposite - Boston really isn't that great on paper. Etc.

I've been where you are. I know it seems like there's no hope and everything sucks. I even know me saying this likely comes across as some bad faith "coming in peace" crap. Just saying coming in peace on HFOil as an opposing fan gets you close to black listed because of that.

But I say this having been right there, having completely given up, and even been mad at myself for even devoting the time to the team and caring at all. I felt like I wasted a decade of my life on a hobby that brought me no joy and that just kind of sucks. There is light at the end of that tunnel. My advice would honestly be to just take a step back and re-engage when you feel less intensely about it; it might even mean just not watching for 6/7 months or even a year. But when you get there, man will it feel that much better seeing and experiencing the highs after all the lows.

Tage is not an elite player. He has tools...no tool box. We traded our only true C and now need to find a 1C. G and D is promising but there are a lot of holes and mgmt wants to fill them with prospects. Smh.

 

[iCanada]

We have the pieces and ability to be a perennial playoff team.... we lack leadership behind the bench and the fortitude to do what is necessary in the front office (so far)

Yeah, I hear what you're saying, but I don't know that I necessarily agree.

Hindsight from watching the Oilers with McDrai for 8 years; I don't think you guys have really made any major missteps recently since you really rebooted the rebuild. Which sucks all on its own that you had to do it, but I think it was the right call.

Fundamentally you guys as a team need to learn to win - your core pieces need to learn to win. Even McDavid and Draisaitl needed to learn to win.

If anything a lot of the things you're saying you want the Sabres to do to accelerate things I'd say are things the Oilers did and they didn't make us better, they were overly aggressive miscalculations that minimized our chances of winning a cup in the McDrai window instead of maximizing them by trading assets in the peak of that window (ie right now) for assets before. Think about what we look like right now if instead of trading guys like Petry, Eberle, slews of picks, and tons of long term cap space for buyouts of players like Neal, Pouliot, Sekera, Lucic, Maroon, etc and "best case right now" bandaid fixes like Campbell. All that trying to win in 2017 thru 2019 when we've only really started to enter the peak of our window last year.

The Oilers right now could have an extra 9 mil on salary expenditures right now for our active roster as well as all the potential assets accumulated from players that we traded away for quick fixes like Pelech, Barzal, Eberle, Seider, etc. You dont want to follow our example - if we had just stuck it out and waited to upsell and cash in on those assets the Oilers could just be a way better team right now today. We could have a real top goaltender plus another bonafide top 4 D, and another rental upgrade on the Walker / Tofolli mold.

It's slow and painful, but slow and painful is the right move right now. It sucks and it is hard to watch, but it's the right move for your overall chances of actually winning.

 

[Mattilaus]

I think there is a ton of light at the end of the tunnel, tbh.

Between Dahling, Power, Byram and Jokiharu that's essentially an elite top 4 locked in for the next decade. You also have Tage, that's an elite player right there. Add Cousins and you're already at 2 of 6 on a great top 6, again locked in for next decade. Benson looks like a winner.

You also have UPL. Again, locked in for the next decade.

You've also got some great support pieces and a large accumulation of talent.

You've got the hardest pieces of a great team locked in already. Next step is learning to win, and that's not easy. Just takes time of having the core together. Just ask Ottawa. Or us. Or Vancouver. Or Detroit. And then look at the opposite - Boston really isn't that great on paper. Etc.

I've been where you are. I know it seems like there's no hope and everything sucks. I even know me saying this likely comes across as some bad faith "coming in peace" crap. Just saying coming in peace on HFOil as an opposing fan gets you close to black listed because of that.

But I say this having been right there, having completely given up, and even been mad at myself for even devoting the time to the team and caring at all. I felt like I wasted a decade of my life on a hobby that brought me no joy and that just kind of sucks. There is light at the end of that tunnel. My advice would honestly be to just take a step back and re-engage when you feel less intensely about it; it might even mean just not watching for 6/7 months or even a year. But when you get there, man will it feel that much better seeing and experiencing the highs after all the lows.

UPL, joki, and Byram are all not locked up. Byram will be difficult since we already have 2 D men at 11 and 8 million. Joki is likely gone as we can't afford him.

 

[iCanada]

UPL, joki, and Byram are all not locked up. Byram will be difficult since we already have 2 D men at 11 and 8 million. Joki is likely gone as we can't afford him.

Still under team control. Still valuable. Even if you can't sign them you'll still have assets accumulated from having them.

In terms of making a strong playoffs team - you'll find most of them have like 75% of cap allocated between their top6 forwards, top4 D, and starting goaltender. Rest of the team is usually largely a mix of ELCs, veterans on cheaper deals, and TDL acquisitions that you can get at 1/16th of their AAV. That's 11 guys for an average of 5.8 million in today's dollars, but if you assume the cap starts going up again (say even 2% per year, which is low) and your window is when the current core is when they are 28 to 30 on average that increases to 6.5 million per guy.

That means after Power, Dahlin, Thompson and Cousins you have from a roster construction stand point you have an average of 5.4 million AAV for the rest of those spots. Fundamentally it's also like not necessarily a problem to bias your spending towards D, Nashville at one point was paying Suter + Weber + Ekholm + Josi like half of their cap and making the conference final / SCF every year. If you sign Joki, Byram & UPL at 8 million you can easily fill out 4 top 6 forwards spots with guys making 3.5 million. A little on the lighter end but it's possible; guys like Marchmont, Pavelski, Duchene, Bunting, Barbashev, Howden, Roy, Stephenson, Arvidsson, Viliardi, Lowry, Evan Rodriguez, Tarasenko, Hartman, DeBrusk, Sharongovich, Duclair, etc.

That's not to say it's easy to make that kind of thing happen, but I'd say most teams have acceptable top 6 guys at that price range. And even if you have below average forwards - with good goaltending and good defense you'll be fine regardless.

 

[sabremike]

After last night's blowout I'm off to the NCAA Tournament where hopefully I can see a competi...

Oh:

 

[Mattilaus]

After last night's blowout I'm off to the NCAA Tournament where hopefully I can see a competi...

Oh:
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Seems fine as long as you are cheering for whatever team is on the right.

 

[McAsuno]

This has to be trolling, lol.

Actually not. I have a soft spot for the sabres as one of my pals is a huge sabres fan too.

 

[BB79]

Still pulling for your team to make the playoffs.
Hope you guys can make it!

LOL yeah no, 7 points behind Detroit with 11 games remaining..and I think 7 of those 11 are against current playoff teams, and also 2 against Washington who has pulled away from us at this point..

Losing 3 of 4 on this road trip so far was the nail in the coffin..the corpse is being lowered into the ground as we speak. Better luck next year...and the following year....and the following year..

 

[McAsuno]

LOL yeah no, 7 points behind Detroit with 11 games remaining..and I think 7 of those 11 are against current playoff teams, and also 2 against Washington who has pulled away from us at this point..

Losing 3 of 4 on this road trip so far was the nail in the coffin..the corpse is being lowered into the ground as we speak. Better luck next year...and the following year....and the following year..

I hate hearing it because we had numerous other fans posting the typical 'you guys will be better next year' but I truly believe it for the sabres. The Dcore that your team has built especially is absolutely legit. Just needs more seasoning. Still pulling for your team to make the playoffs though. I can say that sabre fans are among one of the best fanbases in the league that genuinely care about the team.

 

[Dubi Doo]

Actually not. I have a soft spot for the sabres as one of my pals is a huge sabres fan too.

Oh, I know. I was joking because the playoffs just aren't going to happen this year.

Good luck to your boys in the playoffs. I love watching McDavid, and the playoffs are the only time I get a heavy dose of watching him, so hopefully your boys go on a run!

 

[BB79]

You know you hit rock bottom when fans of other teams have more faith in your broken team than you do. Or maybe we just know better? Hard to say which. There ain't no Hasek to bail these bums out. I'm sure if there were, he'd be requesting a trade by now

 

[sabremike]

It's actually amazing to think those players who completely and totally quit had the balls to do a passive aggressive f*** you to the fans a few months back for calling for Donny's job.

 

[TheDawnOfANewTage]

It's actually amazing to think those players who completely and totally quit had the balls to do a passive aggressive f*** you to the fans a few months back for calling for Donny's job.

They didn’t even do it with any balls, they did it quietly like goddamn passive-aggressive wuss babies.