Buffalo Sabres and NHL 2023-2024

[Gregg]

I know as Bills fans many (me included) have called for McDermott to be fired when things weren't going well. But Granato really should be fired. The Sabres have too much talent as they proved last year to be playing like this. Didn't Craig Berube get fired recently from the Blues. He actually won a Cup with them. Why not give him a call. A new voice behind the bench is definitely needed though.

[PromoTheRobot]

13 minutes ago, billsfanmiamioh said:

Calling out the fans, passing off the blame and not admitting they quit was “handling it well?”. They got absolutely smoked at home by a horrible team. The defensive effort was worse than my men’s league team. He’s a Chris Kelsay. Nice guy but a career loser who’s made a lot of money but hasn’t really done anything to justify it. 

I think in the true Buffalo fashion, we overvalue some of our talent. Sure they have some young, offensive firepower but that’s it. Too many of them show flashes but have no consistency. 

 

Nobody knows how to play defense and we have no capable goaltending night in and night out. Many nights they simply have no effort or urgency. Points to bad coaching and poor roster construction. They teased us with last year but they are still fundamentally broken. Time to make big changes but I don’t see it happening. 

 

I disagree with you on our goaltending. Both Levi and UPL have been solid. (Comrie not so much.) But Domenic Hasek couldn't save this team the way it plays defense at times.

 

Remember how we all said Linus Ullmark sucked? How did he do once he got to Boston? He won a Vezina.

[May Day 10]

18 minutes ago, PromoTheRobot said:

 

I disagree with you on our goaltending. Both Levi and UPL have been solid. (Comrie not so much.) But Domenic Hasek couldn't save this team the way it plays defense at times.

 

Remember how we all said Linus Ullmark sucked? How did he do once he got to Boston? He won a Vezina.

 

I think the majority thought Ullmark was good.  Maybe even a/the franchise goalie.  The thing with him and his free agency was that he was going to demand long term and some dollars, the Sabres would likely need to slightly overpay, and he had a dubious injury history to that point.  

[Gregg]

https://www.msn.com/en-us/sports/nhl/5-candidates-who-can-replace-don-granato-as-next-sabres-head-coach/ar-AA1lNYlK?ocid=entnewsntp&pc=DCTS&cvid=7727ed23c6f9430fb276a821ee4e02e2&ei=19

[4merper4mer]

3 hours ago, billsfanmiamioh said:

Calling out the fans, passing off the blame and not admitting they quit was “handling it well?”. They got absolutely smoked at home by a horrible team. The defensive effort was worse than my men’s league team. He’s a Chris Kelsay. Nice guy but a career loser who’s made a lot of money but hasn’t really done anything to justify it. 

I think in the true Buffalo fashion, we overvalue some of our talent. Sure they have some young, offensive firepower but that’s it. Too many of them show flashes but have no consistency. 

 

Nobody knows how to play defense and we have no capable goaltending night in and night out. Many nights they simply have no effort or urgency. Points to bad coaching and poor roster construction. They teased us with last year but they are still fundamentally broken. Time to make big changes but I don’t see it happening. 

In the linked clip he did not call out the fans in any way.  He said he understood.  The reporter said something about it looking like the team quit.  He disagreed with the reporter in a direct but respectful way.  Completely professional.

[BillsFan4]

3 hours ago, PromoTheRobot said:

 

I disagree with you on our goaltending. Both Levi and UPL have been solid. (Comrie not so much.) But Domenic Hasek couldn't save this team the way it plays defense at times.

 

Remember how we all said Linus Ullmark sucked? How did he do once he got to Boston? He won a Vezina.

Ullmark never sucked here. Whoever said that was wrong.

 

https://www.hockey-reference.com/players/u/ullmali01.html

 

He was in the .913 to .917 sv% area, something Buffalo hasn’t even come close to matching since he left, and it’s not like Buffalo played good team defense while Ullmark was here either.

Ullmark’s worst ever season in Buffalo was a .905 sv% one season. That .905 is still better than anything we’ve had since he left. I believe the best save % Buffalo has seen since he left was .901 from Craig Anderson one season in light duty spot starts (not a true starter’s workload like Ullmark). Otherwise, all of Buffalo’s goalies have been consistently in the sub-.900 sv% area year in and year out since Ullmark left.

 

currently, all 3 of our goalies once again sit in the .800’s this season. That’s well below league average. We haven’t had anything close to league average since Ullmark.

 

and he wanted to stay here + was very well liked in the room. Adams let him walk over a couple/few extra years of term. To replace him with…. 🤷‍♂️

3 hours ago, May Day 10 said:

 

I think the majority thought Ullmark was good.  Maybe even a/the franchise goalie.  The thing with him and his free agency was that he was going to demand long term and some dollars, the Sabres would likely need to slightly overpay, and he had a dubious injury history to that point.  

From the reports I read, Ullmark wanted to stay but wanted a 5 or 6yr deal. Adams was only willing to go 2-3 years.

 

seems incredibly stupid to me to let him walk over 2-3 years of term when you had nobody to replace him with. But hey, he saved Terry a few bucks right? lol

 

 

 

edit - sorry, as you can all probably tell, I am not in a good place with the Sabres right now. I think I probably need to stop watching again for a while. Just so bummed to see them back to looking like a joke. This was the first time I was legitimately looking forward to the Sabres season in years.

Edited December 21, 2023 by BillsFan4

[PromoTheRobot]

3 hours ago, May Day 10 said:

 

I think the majority thought Ullmark was good.  Maybe even a/the franchise goalie.  The thing with him and his free agency was that he was going to demand long term and some dollars, the Sabres would likely need to slightly overpay, and he had a dubious injury history to that point.  

 

I don't know. Everyone in SabreSpace was certain Ullmark was trash in game day threads. And they're never wrong.

Edited December 21, 2023 by PromoTheRobot

[QCity]

7 hours ago, Gregg said:

https://www.msn.com/en-us/sports/nhl/5-candidates-who-can-replace-don-granato-as-next-sabres-head-coach/ar-AA1lNYlK?ocid=entnewsntp&pc=DCTS&cvid=7727ed23c6f9430fb276a821ee4e02e2&ei=19

 

I'd welcome Berube or Gallant, what we have now is clearly not working. This team has far more talent than the Flyers but Torts has those guys ready to skate through walls and look at their record.

 

Adams needs to be looked at as well - the man moves at a glacial pace. His plan to sit back and wait for all these kids to grow up into NHL players is dubious at best. We've learned from Tim Murray that you can't rush a rebuild and now it feels like the opposite is happening with Adams stalling his rebuild.

 

 

Edited December 21, 2023 by QCity

[Fleezoid]

What's the over/under for tonight's game. 15.5?

[Simon]

1 hour ago, Fleezoid said:

What's the over/under for tonight's game. 15.5?

 

No, that's the spread.....

[QCity]

3 hours ago, Fleezoid said:

What's the over/under for tonight's game. 15.5?

 

It's 12.5 right now...

 

[Simon]

Kyle with 2 unassisted, one a shorty and leading the team in hits.

Seems like they're finally playing like they mean it but it actually sort of pisses me off that it's taken this many games and hard questions to finally get that kind of effort from them.

Wonder how long it will continue...

[Fleezoid]

1 hour ago, QCity said:

 

It's 12.5 right now...

 

 

I'm more right than I thought. For all the wrong reasons!

[4merper4mer]

22 minutes ago, Simon said:

Kyle with 2 unassisted, one a shorty and leading the team in hits.

Seems like they're finally playing like they mean it but it actually sort of pisses me off that it's taken this many games and hard questions to finally get that kind of effort from them.

Wonder how long it will continue...

It’s the weirdest thing I’ve ever seen.  Crush some top end team, get destroyed, lather, rinse, repeat.

[Fleezoid]

Soooo, Greenway and Skinner? The magic formula? The Sabres bipolar continues.

 

(It's crap I have to say this, but for those that say i'm  slighting the disorder, it's just a reference. I know someone will take offense)

[BillsPride12]

If they wanna impress me do it again on Saturday 

[PromoTheRobot]

So who had the Sabres hanging 9 on the Leafs? 😂

[May Day 10]

I figured the Sabres would come out with some fire after all the embarrassment. 

 

And Samsonov... woof

 

[Jauronimo]

11 hours ago, Simon said:

Kyle with 2 unassisted, one a shorty and leading the team in hits.

Seems like they're finally playing like they mean it but it actually sort of pisses me off that it's taken this many games and hard questions to finally get that kind of effort from them.

Wonder how long it will continue...

I thoroughly expect the Sabres to give up 6 first period goals in their next outing.  They have no concept of momentum.

 

[BillsPride12]

1 hour ago, Jauronimo said:

I thoroughly expect the Sabres to give up 6 first period goals in their next outing.  They have no concept of momentum.

 

Yup...until they prove otherwise this is how I feel.