Sabres beat Carolina finally reach 500 but upcoming schedule is not kind

[Buffalo Rick]

The Sabres are not out of it if you look at how well they have been playing and Luukenen has been fabulous. But now that they  have reached the elusive .500 they go to Florida and Tampa, the first being far tougher, and then Vegas and Jets are in. A split here and a run after that would give them a shot of running someone down.  But I sure wish Quinn had not been injured.  I have seen no moves by Adams.  Cant stand what he has done. The only smart thing was sticking with Luukenen

[OccamsRazor]

Don't worry another top 5 pick and you'll be ready i swear this time is for real!!!

[JR Ewing]

The Sabres are a Bettman-500, but not a true .500 team. They've won 27 games and lost 32...

 

[TropicalFruitGirl26]

Yea, Buffalo is technically under .500 still....and likely will stay that way.

If I am the front office, I examine every aspect of the team and see where the regressions were and see what can be done to not have this happen again next season.....and while they are at it, of course, try to get whatever they can for older players or expiring contracts they know they aren't really interested in keeping long term.
Get the analytics guys in on that too, they'd probably be a world of help looking at trends and helping to predict future performance based on personnel.

I think with 20+ games left, and the Sabres 11 pts behind the wild card spots, their best bet is to look past this season starting now.
The players on the ice, of course, should try to continue to win......their job isn't to worry about the future of the franchise and long term competitiveness. Only to win when they step onto the ice if they can.

Front office though? Definitely some hard looks need to be made at this team.

[Buffalo Rick]

On 2/26/2024 at 11:15 AM, TropicalFruitGirl26 said:

Yea, Buffalo is technically under .500 still....and likely will stay that way.

If I am the front office, I examine every aspect of the team and see where the regressions were and see what can be done to not have this happen again next season.....and while they are at it, of course, try to get whatever they can for older players or expiring contracts they know they aren't really interested in keeping long term.
Get the analytics guys in on that too, they'd probably be a world of help looking at trends and helping to predict future performance based on personnel.

I think with 20+ games left, and the Sabres 11 pts behind the wild card spots, their best bet is to look past this season starting now.
The players on the ice, of course, should try to continue to win......their job isn't to worry about the future of the franchise and long term competitiveness. Only to win when they step onto the ice if they can.

Front office though? Definitely some hard looks need to be made at this team.

Well they just traded Middlestadt for a young defenseman.  Not sure what to think.  The Sabres are just young and players in early 20s are not going to win vs 30 plus yr old veterans most of the time.  Luukenen has been a bright spot.  Need a reliable backup as the loss to Winnipeg was first time I think I’ve ever seen Sabres start a goalie back to back nights.

[TropicalFruitGirl26]

2 minutes ago, Buffalo Rick said:

Well they just traded Middlestadt for a young defenseman.  Not sure what to think.  The Sabres are just young and players in early 20s are not going to win vs 30 plus yr old veterans most of the time.  Luukenen has been a bright spot.  Need a reliable backup as the loss to Winnipeg was first time I think I’ve ever seen Sabres start a goalie back to back nights.

 

Since the Sabres don't look like they will be making the playoffs, I think they did absolutely wonderfully in that trade.

Sure, Mittelstadt is having a career year (or close to it....would have to look more closely at the numbers), but how many times  have the Sabres given "the ball" to Mittel, and he hasn't lived up to it yet?
Your team did what most GM's SHOULD do.... trade away a still good player when he is on a 'high', like Mittelstadt is, if he has shown in the past that he is inconsistent at best.

And when the return is a potential steal in Bown Byram, well now....like I said...Sabres did wonderfully.

Dahlin, Power, Byram.
Those are three very, very dynamic type defenseman who are still very young, and while Dahlin is obviously the most NHL established of the three, once the other two learn to be true NHL'ers, the Sabres will have a very dangerous potential for offense comeing from that blue line to support the forward lines.

If those three young players can do well as part of the Buffalo defensive core, then all the Sabres would need to do is find established stay at home type defensemen (easier to acquire than dynamic puck movers like those guys), to compliment those young players.

But I even think those three young players can be more than just offensive types.
All three can turn out to be very good two way players.
If that happens, then this is a landslide win of a trade for the Sabres.....and Atlantic division rivals will have nightmares trying to contain the Buffalo top six AND attacks from the blue line, while having trouble getting through the neutral zone past those guys as well.

Not making the playoffs sucks for your team, I get it, and the regression is disappointing, but I think the team has done very well in trying to reset things moving forward again for next season, and having Byram in there with the two young blueliners you already have helps give optimism.

[Buffalo Rick]

8 hours ago, TropicalFruitGirl26 said:

 

Since the Sabres don't look like they will be making the playoffs, I think they did absolutely wonderfully in that trade.

Sure, Mittelstadt is having a career year (or close to it....would have to look more closely at the numbers), but how many times  have the Sabres given "the ball" to Mittel, and he hasn't lived up to it yet?
Your team did what most GM's SHOULD do.... trade away a still good player when he is on a 'high', like Mittelstadt is, if he has shown in the past that he is inconsistent at best.

And when the return is a potential steal in Bown Byram, well now....like I said...Sabres did wonderfully.

Dahlin, Power, Byram.
Those are three very, very dynamic type defenseman who are still very young, and while Dahlin is obviously the most NHL established of the three, once the other two learn to be true NHL'ers, the Sabres will have a very dangerous potential for offense comeing from that blue line to support the forward lines.

If those three young players can do well as part of the Buffalo defensive core, then all the Sabres would need to do is find established stay at home type defensemen (easier to acquire than dynamic puck movers like those guys), to compliment those young players.

But I even think those three young players can be more than just offensive types.
All three can turn out to be very good two way players.
If that happens, then this is a landslide win of a trade for the Sabres.....and Atlantic division rivals will have nightmares trying to contain the Buffalo top six AND attacks from the blue line, while having trouble getting through the neutral zone past those guys as well.

Not making the playoffs sucks for your team, I get it, and the regression is disappointing, but I think the team has done very well in trying to reset things moving forward again for next season, and having Byram in there with the two young blueliners you already have helps give optimism.

I still would fire Adams for how he handled the Eichel situation. But that aside, Making the playoffs just to be eliminated after on round really matters not that much.  My biggest worry moving forward would be the Sabres being able to sign these young guys without them being stolen from teams like the Rangers and such.  The injury to Quinn to me was huge  It kept them from moving forward this year.  He is a big piece in the lineup they now have and they could not afford to have him go down again.  They need to get a couple of good forwards.  Trade that big guy they got from the Wild.  And likely time for Okposo to go also.