BillsFan4

There’s been enough smoke around Watson to Miami that I have to think there’s a fire. Unlike some of you, I wouldn’t want Watson in Miami. I also feel like if he is traded, he will play again. No team is trading for him if they think there’s a chance he won’t play again. Whats even going on with his legal issues anyway? I feel like it’s been pretty quiet on that front for quite a while now.

@shrader this is one of the games I was talking about that is only on ESPN +.

he’s highly regarded in the analytics community. Seems like the Sabres are going all-in in analytics, which I think can be a good thing as long as it’s backed up/balanced by traditional scouting. We saw what happened when Florida and Arizona relied solely on analytics. Analytics are a big piece of the puzzle but they can’t see everything. I’m all for a new approach though. The Sabres scouting/drafting has left a lot to be desired. edit - more praise from the analytics community:

I’ve been wondering if Miami might panic after their brutal start and trade for Watson. Their GM is in his 4th or 5th season and the rebuild looks like a total failure right now so I’m guessing the seat is getting pretty hot.

I get the general idea of what you are saying and I Know you are a passionate Sabres fan and that’s why it bothers you. But just remember, most of us are (or were) passionate fans too. Otherwise the losing wouldn’t bother us so much. There’s a lot of passionate hockey fans like me that have been broken by all of the losing and complete ineptitude. It’s hard when you see your favorite team making the same damn mistakes over and over again (and that goes for the front office and on the ice). We all want them to be good, that’s for sure. and as I mentioned I have been watching the games and it’ll be up to them if I continue. I like the fight they’ve shown and I’ll continue watching as long as they continue to play well. But I just have no patience left for bad Sabres hockey. I’d rather not watch than torture myself. I can tolerate losses if they continue to fight hard and make games exciting. But it’s going to be hard for me to feel like another bottom 3 finish is progress (despite the lack of talent). It’ll be easier to live with if we see true growth from our young players though, and if we win the lottery (Shane Wright could be better than Eichel/Matthews...). But I’d rather make the playoffs or even just be in the hunt. I don’t see where another bottom finish is good for any Sabres player or the new culture they want to build. I think winning probably even outweighs Shane Wright (as amazing as he looks).

I took offense to you telling any Sabres fans whether they can or can’t be fans. Or trying to make them feel like bandwagon fans if they decide to start supporting their team again. Especially with the massive **** show the team has been for years now. It’s not the fans fault that this team has been destroyed and the fans have been driven away. Notice how empty the arena has been? No loyal Sabres fan should be knocked for their lack of support for this team. This team has been run into the ground. A once proud team and fan base is now an NHL punching bag/laughing stock. I attended games and watched every game for a long time. It’s been 10 straight years of losing. 10 years of bottom 10 finishes. I took a lot of pride in the Sabres always icing a competitive team, even despite all the budget restrictions of past owners. Hockey was always my #1 sport. Played for much of my life. Even though I didn’t like the idea of tanking for McDavid/Eichel I supported it. I watched every single game through the tank years. I had hope for the future. These past few years have been literally killing my love for the game. and Last year pretty much broke me. I had to stop watching. It hurt too much. Maybe Kevyn Adams and Don Granato are the guys that get it turned around. I do have some hope that they are. I really like what I’ve seen and heard from Granato so far. I think he’s showing that he deserves time and to coach a team with more talent. I loved the return Kevyn Adams got on Ristolainen, and I like that so far he hasn’t caved in and traded Eichel for a mediocre return. But Its going to take time for me to buy back in. I’ve been burned too many times. I’ve been watching the games but I don’t know that I’ll continue to. It all depends on their play. Whether I decide to support them will be decided by them. This isn’t the first hot start or winning streak in recent years. Remember that 10 game winning streak under Housley where they were playing with crazy effort? Remember the start to the 2019-20 season under Krueger? They started out 7-1-1, and 9-2-2. Everyone was talking about how Krueger was the right guy and how fun his system was to watch. Then they fell straight off a cliff, lost 6 in a row and just kept spiraling. This season they have what’s pretty much universally considered a bottom 5 roster in the NHL. The Sabres traded or are trading both of their best players (Reinhart and Eichel) and did nothing to replace them (so far. Let’s see what the Eichel trade brings). They don’t have a single proven top 6 C on the roster. Their #1 goalie is 40 and was about to retire because no team offered him a job. We’re relying on young kids with no experience and who have never shown they can be top 6 players in the NHL. We have no one on the roster to help them if they struggle. Kevyn Adams was hired as the GM without even as much as a single other interview being held despite having no experience in an NHL front office. His main qualification? The owners knew him. He came in and fired 2/3rds of the hockey ops staff as the owners talked about their new “lean and efficient” plan. They had the least amount of scouts in the NHL last season and went back to the Darcy/Golisano days of relying on video scouting. They didn’t even have any scouts for some entire leagues last season. Thankfully Adams has started to slowly fill back out his staff. But it’s still a small staff by NHL standards. Now, I’m not saying that some of those moves weren’t/aren’t necessary (like trading Eichel) or that there aren’t reasons for hope but It’s going to take more than a few fun wins to get much of this fan base back to their previous levels of support for the Sabres, and rightfully so. You’re 100% bought in and seem to agree with every move the Sabres make and that’s fine. But you shouldn’t expect every other fan to have the same level of belief in this team. and BTW, I started losing interest in the Bills as well during their decades of losing. I stopped attending games. I had lost all faith in Ralph Wilson and my interest in the team was about at the level my current interest in the Sabres. But the ownership change gave me hope again and the McDermott hire got me to buy back in because I was a huge fan of his from his time in carolina. The Bills and Sabres will always be my #1 teams but that doesn’t mean I have to blindly support them.

Yeah I’m sure having Barkley helped but they had our number last year too, and the 2 previous games before that were low scoring, hard fought wins (14-7 and 13-12). The Bills just really seem to struggle against the Titans physicality. It also feels like Tennessee always seems to be more fired up to play us than we are to play them (but maybe that’s just me). They always play against us with so much passion/grit and the Bills seem to have trouble responding. Aggravating because there really is no excuse for the loss tonight. We are the more talented team and should have won that game. Last year you could make excuses. We had a ton of injuries (down our top 2 CBS, LBs, etc) and all that crazy covid stuff happened. I truly thought we’d avenge that loss from last year but it looked more like the Titans were the ones with something to prove.

I’m really struggling with this loss. This one hurts. A lot. I think it’s because I was honestly starting to buy into all the media hype about the Bills being unstoppable and the best team in the NFL/super bowl favorites. But It’s hard to buy into all the super bowl hype after tonight. I hate what a roller coaster ride the NFL is week to week.

Damn. I wanted to see the Bills avenge that Embarassing Titans loss from last year soooo bad, but this team just seems to have our number. The Bills really struggle with the physicality and passion the Titans play with. Tough to say that the Bills are the best team in the NFL after tonight. Maybe top 5 but definitely not #1. Man, this one really hurts. I honestly thought that the Bills would handle this game and get the win. So disappointing.

Ugh

So frustrating because the TD was there twice in a row.

Damn, sucks settling for field goals 2x in a row now. Frustrating. I just hope it doesn’t come back to haunt them later in the game.

Wtf was that play call...

Can she download the ESPN app and just sign in with your cable provider credentials? Thats what I’ve done in the past.

Can’t stand him or Mahomes girlfriend. They are sooooooo thin-skinned, especially for people who are Constantly talking trash about other teams/players and starting ****.

Damn, I hope Darryl Taylor is ok. Scary situation.

Yeah I thought Miami was going to be a PITA for years to come. Miami was looking like a really feisty up and coming team. Maybe they should’ve just kept Fitz... 🤔 😂

Wow! I can’t believe Jacksonville pulled it off. They did just about everything they could to ensure they lost that game. So. Many. Unforced. Errors. But Miami did quite a bit to lose as well. I’d be feeling pretty awful about my team right now if I were a Dolphins fan. They traded away their first round pick too! (iirc)

Watch them miss the field goal now... 😂

I posted this over in the around the NFL thread the day after the game but figured I’d post it here again. https://profootballtalk.nbcsports.com/2021/10/11/bills-chiefs-afc-nfl-week-5-fmia-peter-king/ In Peter King’s football morning in America column that comes out every Monday he mentioned this: Crosby mentioned that he didn’t think the laces were facing the right way.

This wasn’t one of the games being exclusively broadcast on ESPN + (I can see how my post was confusing though). They mentioned it during the game broadcast today. I think the Boston game coming up is the first one exclusively on ESPN +.

I didn’t see those devices listed on the fox sports site but I’ll try downloading the fox sports app on the consoles and see if I can get the 4k broadcasts on either.

Wings are best without either one! Just give me some crispy wings in hot/BBQ/honey mustard (etc) sauce.

Just looked. It’s also on MSG (at least in the local market). BTW, did you see this? https://www.nhl.com/sabres/news/buffalo-sabres-national-tv-schedule-2021-22-espn-hulu-tnt/c-326166946 there are 8 Sabres games that will appear exclusively on ESPN+/Hulu. So even if you get MSG or NHL network, or you pay for ESPN with your cable subscription, you won’t get those games. That’s some BS.