Not really since that "one defencemen" is a top pairing guy we need, not exactly easy to come by. D could go either way, leafs still have Phaneuf, Rielly and Gardiner is pretty good offensively. Saying it's "absolutely better" while having a left side of Donovan, Gorges and Colaiacavo (the latter two will probably wind up only playing 50 games combined because of injuries) is far fetched. - Sabresfan-365
Theres gotta be two moves left. Cant see penciling in ochotanko for 25-30 games. Hopefully a d shakes loose somewhere and we can get them without overpaying. I think especially for the young centers development, there needs to be at least average play from the d and in net. On paper, it doesnt look like we are there yet.
Location: "___________ stinks."-Sabres89, NY Joined: 07.26.2008
Aug 27 @ 8:37 AM ET
Theres gotta be two moves left. Cant see penciling in ochotanko for 25-30 games. Hopefully a d shakes loose somewhere and we can get them without overpaying. I think especially for the young centers development, there needs to be at least average play from the d and in net. On paper, it doesnt look like we are there yet. - rover16
Nobody truly expects that the team is "there" yet though. Most of us have a realistic expectation that we'll be closer to the bottom still this year than the top.
Nobody truly expects that the team is "there" yet though. Most of us have a realistic expectation that we'll be closer to the bottom still this year than the top. - HonkFortheGoose
Exactly, I'm merely hoping for more competitive games... ones that aren't so ugly i turn them off by first intermission. Everyone who whispers about us sneaking into a playoff spot need to be smacked.
Exactly, I'm merely hoping for more competitive games... ones that aren't so ugly i turn them off by first intermission. Everyone who whispers about us sneaking into a playoff spot need to be smacked. - Havic3814
Nobody truly expects that the team is "there" yet though. Most of us have a realistic expectation that we'll be closer to the bottom still this year than the top. - HonkFortheGoose
I'd be interested to see some sort of wrapup of teams' activity this offseason to see where that may place Buffalo. Obviously they made some serious moves, and any teams that were bad yet didn't make many changes/no good changes have a good shot of being passed by the Sabres.
We can't take the last 2 seasons point totals seriously as a gauge for what they'll do this season (54 and 52 points the last two seasons). More realistically the worst team is about 10 points higher than what Buffalo has put up over these 2 tank seasons.
Another thing to note, I went back an extra handful of seasons (skipping the short season) and the 20th place teams in those years had point totals of: 88 (07/08, counting upwards from here), 88, 88, 87, 88
25th, in the same order of years: 80, 79, 80, 80, 80
So to hit that 25th range (25th last year had 78 points) means an increase of 24+ points (from 54 to 78). Not too unrealistic, considering a more realistic cellar team gets about 62 points in a season, and the Sabres made some serious upgrades
TLDR: I don't disagree with you that they aren't there yet, just giving additional insight.
Location: "___________ stinks."-Sabres89, NY Joined: 07.26.2008
Aug 27 @ 8:56 AM ET
I'd be interested to see some sort of wrapup of teams' activity this offseason to see where that may place Buffalo. Obviously they made some serious moves, and any teams that were bad yet didn't make many changes/no good changes have a good shot of being passed by the Sabres.
We can't take the last 2 seasons point totals seriously as a gauge for what they'll do this season (54 and 52 points the last two seasons). More realistically the worst team is about 10 points higher than what Buffalo has put up over these 2 tank seasons.
Another thing to note, I went back an extra handful of seasons (skipping the short season) and the 20th place teams in those years had point totals of: 88 (07/08, counting upwards from here), 88, 88, 87, 88
25th, in the same order of years: 80, 79, 80, 80, 80
So to hit that 25th range (25th last year had 78 points) means an increase of 24+ points (from 54 to 78). Not too unrealistic, considering a more realistic cellar team gets about 62 points in a season, and the Sabres made some serious upgrades
TLDR: I don't disagree with you that they aren't there yet, just giving additional insight. - stashu
I agree 100%. The team was purposely built to fail the last 2 years. That's not the case this year. Of course there are still a lot of question marks, but overall, this team SHOULD be more successful but there's definitely going to be growing pains.
I'd be interested to see some sort of wrapup of teams' activity this offseason to see where that may place Buffalo. Obviously they made some serious moves, and any teams that were bad yet didn't make many changes/no good changes have a good shot of being passed by the Sabres.
We can't take the last 2 seasons point totals seriously as a gauge for what they'll do this season (54 and 52 points the last two seasons). More realistically the worst team is about 10 points higher than what Buffalo has put up over these 2 tank seasons.
Another thing to note, I went back an extra handful of seasons (skipping the short season) and the 20th place teams in those years had point totals of: 88 (07/08, counting upwards from here), 88, 88, 87, 88
25th, in the same order of years: 80, 79, 80, 80, 80
So to hit that 25th range (25th last year had 78 points) means an increase of 24+ points (from 54 to 78). Not too unrealistic, considering a more realistic cellar team gets about 62 points in a season, and the Sabres made some serious upgrades
TLDR: I don't disagree with you that they aren't there yet, just giving additional insight. - stashu
I think it's a win-win. We finally get a watchable product and the high pick could be the solution to our defensive problems.
