Oneonta Buffalo Fan

Hecht and Lydman are veterans and can be good teachers for some of our younger guys. That's why I don't think getting rid of them is the right this to do. Maxi on the other hand is a so-so player. He's not the type of playerwho's going to pass the puck to another player on a 2-1. He always tries to do to much with the puck and creates turnovers. I just don't see Maxi in the same light has I did last year. He's a completely different player.

Someone needs to explain to me why we need other DE. Schobel is good and the split between Denney and Kelsay was effective 2 years ago.

So you really met him?

Well it finally is official.... we are not going to the playoffs. I'm not sure really what to feel right now because like the players, I'm stunned. We were tops in the conference the last 2 years and everything feel apart this year. Here's how I analyze the season.... The team was very inconsistent. Granted injuries and how young of a team we are but losing 10 straight is inexcusable. There's no way you should have a stretch games like that. Adversity. I hope the season really toughens up the team, especially the young guys. YOU CAN'T GET NERVOUS WHEN THE OTHER TEAM SCORES AND YOU HAVE THE LEAD! I just hope the team learns from this. Where was the leadership? During the season I barely saw anyone stepping up on this team and taking control of a game. I give Roy and Pominville and I guess Vanek the pass because they WERE the reason we were alive the entire season. We need another leader for this team, but I'll get to that later as you will see. Now let's take a look at each position and see what the team needs to do during the offseason. LW - I think we are generally safe here. Vanek is still in the top 3 best players on the team, Bernier will be better next year, Paille is an above average player, and Peters......well.....he a great fighter ! I don't think we need to improve here because I think that these guys being as young as they are will still get better. RW - Again I think we might be good here. Pominville will continue to be the MVP of the Sabres, Kotalik will being to become Stafford's teacher since he's the veteran of the bunch, Kaleta will only get better, and Stafford still has so much potential. Now as you can see I didn't include someone......Maxi. Before you guys say that he needs to be on the team go back and watch some of his games. Have you noticed he's not much of a passer and how much he tries to do with the puck. HE'S A TURNOVER MACHINE! Granted he's a great 1 vs 1 player but he's just not an all-around good player. I think it's time we think about trading Max and try and see if we can get another veteran or draft pick for him. C - Might need to do something here. Roy, Connolly, and Hecht are safe. Gaustad seems to be the one I can't put my finger on. He's still a young player will a lot of room for improvement. The only problem that I see wrong with him is his aggressiveness to go after the puck. He was very inconsistent and seemed hesitant to take the hit in the other end. Nevertheless, I still think he will be on the team next year because of his continuing potential and his assists. Mair I think is gone. He just hasn't played well and I think this is one of the areas that we need to get another veteran player to help Hecht teach this team. D - The achilles heel of this team. This is going to be an interesting area to see what they do. Tallinder, Lydman, and Spacek are guaranteed safe because they played hard all year and are good veteran TEACHERS for our young defensemen (Sekera and Weber). I think everyone else, maybe except Numminen, needs to go. Pratt is getting up there in age, Paetsch seems to nervous out on the ice, and Kalinin just doesn't do enough to help out the defense. We definetly need to get at least 2 good defensemen. We could draft 2 defensemen with both our first round picks or what I think is the way to go....trade up in the draft to get the best young defensemen and sign the best defensemen in FA. This is going to be very interesting. G - I don't know what to make of Miller. He looked great the previous 2 years but he just fell apart this year. I can't tell if we are seeing the true side of Miller because the previous to years we had a good defense to mask his not so great skills or if it was just an off year. I'm not sure what to make of him, but I think we should draft a quality young goalie just in case. One that can back up Miller and learn from him. I hope this was just a bad year for Miller. Overall I only see us needing to do 2 things this offseason, improving the defense and possibly trading Maxi while he still has trade value. I saw the team this year like the Bills were last year. They were Inconsistent, very young, and have a lot of potential. I think this year will be a good this for all these young guys. It will show them to play hard for 60 minutes, work hard for next season so they don't have to go through the emotions of missing the playoffs, and listen to the veteran players learn how to improve their game. I don't think we are far from making the playoffs because our young guys will be motivated to make the playoffs and the defense will be better.

He needed the gloves because he's not used to the cold weather. I bet he's up in Alsaka right now training to handle the cold weather.

One more ......you can't watch the final drive of a game.

......you have a heart surgery every week.

About time they released him.

Now I know the preseason mean nothing but this is going to be a very hard preseason. I see us only winning 2 games.

Funny. I just don't see why everyone is making a big deal of this. It's the offseason and if Leinart wants to party let him. I don't see how people think that what he's doing now will affect him in 3 months.

http://sports.espn.go.com/nfl/news/story?id=3326646 He needs to be banned from the NFL. This is enough.

Well we're gonna find out April 9th.

Just listen to it on ESPN.com. I can't believe some people wanted him in Buffalo. SEE! HE HAS MAJOR CHARACTER ISSUES!

Gotta love what Jauron is doing. Doesn't it seem like only we know be thinking and not others. I think that's just awesome.

Funny April fools joke. It had me for a second.

Lol. Uses the "ok"/"looks good" one a lot.

I wouldn't mind seing us taking him in the 3rd round. He sounds better than Fred Davis.

It's possible. Hey, we have a better shot at taking the division this year now that Samuel and Gay are out of the picture. Evans should have big games.

Excellent.

WINNERS!!! 4-3 BUFFALO!

The Packers interested in JP...hmm.....maybe we can give them JP and our 4th round pick to get there 3rd round pick.

I'm not going to pick a favorite. I see the Sabres being like the Bills last season. Hey we lost our last 3 games like the Sabres are doing over their last 10 game but I'm not going to jump all over Tom. The Sabres like the Bills are a young and very inexperienced team and most of their guys have never been put in a position where they have so much pressure to make the playoffs. I know that both team will be better next season because like what the Bills are doing with their defense, that all the Sabres need to focus on. Both Golisano and Wilson are even. They are both great owners.

ESPN has officially confirmed it. http://sports.espn.go.com/ncb/news/story?id=3324439

I think we should use Losman to trade down or trade down and get another Qb from another team.

I agree he's a reach. It just make you wonder who we will select at #11 or if we will trade down. Nevertheless, I'm confident that whatever we do or pick on draft day is going to be the right choice. Want proof of that....look at our drafts from the past 2 years. GREAT!