do they belong in the HOF?


I think they would look good on the islanders second line next season
- homiedclown

If they'd have won that Cup against Boston, then I'd say yes for sure
Imagine if they were on the Leafs or Habs for their whole careers?
I think ppl don't really know just how good they've been bc they're out west.
They'd get my HOF vote

Agree on Nyi, great fit
A team looking to take the next step & go from playoff team to true contender
Minnesota, Nashville, Tampa if they lose Stamkos, Florida if they lose Jagr
Or a team that wants to get back to the playoffs...
Montreal, Boston, Calgary, Arizona, Carolina, Ottawa

Idk that they'd work for all those teams?
But a couple could be interested

Well, you guys did better than the Oilers, so congratz on that.
You guys found a great defender in Risto. He is exactly what any team would want. The thing that sucks was that you couldn't have a Risto-Myer pairing due to that kane trade, but still, Kane has been a fantastic player for you guys. As for Eichel, not as good as McDavid, but he is still going to be your #1 center for a long time.

However, I still think Talbot is better than Lehner.

Well, you guys did better than the Oilers, so congratz on that.
You guys found a great defender in Risto. He is exactly what any team would want. The thing that sucks was that you couldn't have a Risto-Myer pairing due to that kane trade, but still, Kane has been a fantastic player for you guys. As for Eichel, not as good as McDavid, but he is still going to be your #1 center for a long time.

However, I still think Talbot is better than Lehner.
- EdmHockeyMan

Tbd on the goalies...
Lehner looked pretty darn good when healthy
But can he actually stay healthy?

Assuming u guys get one of the Fins...
Who do u think u trade?

Well, you guys did better than the Oilers, so congratz on that.
You guys found a great defender in Risto. He is exactly what any team would want. The thing that sucks was that you couldn't have a Risto-Myer pairing due to that kane trade, but still, Kane has been a fantastic player for you guys. As for Eichel, not as good as McDavid, but he is still going to be your #1 center for a long time.

However, I still think Talbot is better than Lehner.
- EdmHockeyMan

Hey! Our goalie could beat up your goalie!

Edit: Good on the Oilers going out like that at Rexall. Give the fans a good memory to go out on in a time with not so many of them.

Also. I'd take Lehner over Talbot. It just goes to show how much a defense can make a goalie. Talbot's numbers from last 2 years to this year. I think he's an average starting goalie which would be an upgrade for you guys for sure, but I think Lehner is that and more. He can take over games. He's a lot like Ryan Miller in that he's not flashy but he just stops the puck and will let an easy one in every once and a while. Also the whole time we watched him this year he was hurt and I know 21 games isn't a huge sample size, but he still put up .924 and 2.47 with 1 SO to Talbot's 54 games .917 2.56 with 3 SO and again that's Lehner hurt with a high ankle sprain, plus he likes to punch dudes that's always a plus. And if one person says Miller sucks but thinks Quick is awesome needs to have their heads examined; they have eerily similar numbers career wise. Yet, one guy had one really good playoffs and all of a sudden he's Patrick Roy 2.0. I could go all night about the misconceptions about Quick.

So damn pessimistic. I guess we could be yearly basement dwellers like the Oilers and be disappointed every year with #1 overall picks. The guys we tanked for are a very big reason why we aren't finishing at the bottom. The tank worked. Everything is working. Almost a 30pt increase from last year. You gotta get off that tank wagon and join the rest of us.
- Smittyx36

I don't know what to tell you. The reason this team improved is because of the four additions to this team plus the emergence of Ristolainen.
Gionta, Moulson, Girgensons, all had dips in production. Bogosian was terrible for 75% of the season then went on an offensive tear.

Other rookies McCabe, Pysyk, Nelson. Have all looked good but again are new additions. This finish will only leave people thinking another year of this team growing could yield better results but people are too quick to forget how awful this team looked against Florida, Philadelphia and other teams out west that out skilled us and were much quicker than us. We still need a few players to be an automatic every year playoff team and getting a guy who could help us right away in the draft would've been huge. Now we have to hope and pray Murray can find a way to trade for a top pairing defenseman hope to sign Stamkos or the next best guy and realize that a lot of his "vets" who started producing against the likes of Columbus and a beaten up Montreal aren't part of the future of this team and then maybe we can see some real progress in this organization because this sure feels a lot like a Bills 7-9 8-8 type season. Not good enough for the playoffs but not bad enough for a superstar.

I don't know what to tell you. The reason this team improved is because of the four additions to this team plus the emergence of Ristolainen.
Gionta, Moulson, Girgensons, all had dips in production. Bogosian was terrible for 75% of the season then went on an offensive tear.

Other rookies McCabe, Pysyk, Nelson. Have all looked good but again are new additions. This finish will only leave people thinking another year of this team growing could yield better results but people are too quick to forget how awful this team looked against Florida, Philadelphia and other teams out west that out skilled us and were much quicker than us. We still need a few players to be an automatic every year playoff team and getting a guy who could help us right away in the draft would've been huge. Now we have to hope and pray Murray can find a way to trade for a top pairing defenseman hope to sign Stamkos or the next best guy and realize that a lot of his "vets" who started producing against the likes of Columbus and a beaten up Montreal aren't part of the future of this team and then maybe we can see some real progress in this organization because this sure feels a lot like a Bills 7-9 8-8 type season. Not good enough for the playoffs but not bad enough for a superstar.
- bluengold12

You also have to remember how we beat LA and ANA(I don't really count that one because ANA was truly awful the first game), and then pushed them both to the limit later in the season same with San Jose both very close games with us taking one. I look at November and see it as a huge boost. 13 games, went 6-5-2 against the Stars, Preds and Blues twice each, the Hurricanes, who are better than the Sabres, Tampa twice, Florida, the Isles, and Vancouver. Only two teams not currently in the playoffs. I'd say doing that in the 2nd month of the season was a pretty damn good thing.

And who gives a single, solitary, flying fvck about why the team improved as much as they did. They improved! It's like saying I had (consensual)sex with (insert perfect person). Does it really matter why/how? Of course not. The end result is what they're playing for and they've already blown straight past most "experts" picks of 5-7 wins and 10-15 points more than last season given player movement and their expected wins vs the players they were replacing. And the second half went even better than most. If you told people that the Sabres could end up with 83 points, but no lower than 79 they'd tell you you were crazy, except for the crazy ones who thought we'd make the playoffs this year. For people with normal expectations we were expecting about a 15-20 point increase. And all those one goal games that we coughed up a goal late went to OT and then lost? Add in those 5 or 6 points, add in let's say 3 more in shootouts if we were competent in them. So far we're up to 8 or 9 more points and we're at at least 88 points. How many one goal games did we have? I stopped counting at 22 when I got to January. Let's say 3 of those go our way with a win and 3 we lose in OT instead of regulation and that puts us at 97 points.That's in the playoffs.

I'm not making this sound like it'll be a piece of cake, but all they have to do is learn how to close out games, add that insurance goal at the end, get competent in the shootout to steal maybe 4 games a year like that, get a couple of bounces like having our #1 goalie play more than 20 games and we're a playoff team. We're really not that far. Jack and Sam and Robin are only going to get better. Evander and ROR will have more time to jell with the team in general, Risto should get better still, he's still young. A healthy Bogo is a good Bogo offensively at least, plus you know Murray isn't going to sit on his hands. Whether that's Stamkos, or maybe he aims lower and snags Hoffman, or Schwartz, or Drouin. And a defenseman like I don't know really. I'm running out of steam and fell asleep writing this, and you have an immediate upgrade on the backend. Boom. You have a recipe for success for years and years. This is just the beginning.

Rant over.

Edit: Rant restarted, I could see us being this years Panthers next year.

Rant over, again.

You also have to remember how we beat LA and ANA(I don't really count that one because ANA was truly awful the first game), and then pushed them both to the limit later in the season same with San Jose both very close games with us taking one. I look at November and see it as a huge boost. 13 games, went 6-5-2 against the Stars, Preds and Blues twice each, the Hurricanes, who are better than the Sabres, Tampa twice, Florida, the Isles, and Vancouver. Only two teams not currently in the playoffs. I'd say doing that in the 2nd month of the season was a pretty damn good thing.

And who gives a single, solitary, flying fvck about why the team improved as much as they did. They improved! It's like saying I had (consensual)sex with (insert perfect person). Does it really matter why/how? Of course not. The end result is what they're playing for and they've already blown straight past most "experts" picks of 5-7 wins and 10-15 points more than last season given player movement and their expected wins vs the players they were replacing. And the second half went even better than most. If you told people that the Sabres could end up with 83 points, but no lower than 79 they'd tell you you were crazy, except for the crazy ones who thought we'd make the playoffs this year. For people with normal expectations we were expecting about a 15-20 point increase. And all those one goal games that we coughed up a goal late went to OT and then lost? Add in those 5 or 6 points, add in let's say 3 more in shootouts if we were competent in them. So far we're up to 8 or 9 more points and we're at at least 88 points. How many one goal games did we have? I stopped counting at 22 when I got to January. Let's say 3 of those go our way with a win and 3 we lose in OT instead of regulation and that puts us at 97 points.That's in the playoffs.

I'm not making this sound like it'll be a piece of cake, but all they have to do is learn how to close out games, add that insurance goal at the end, get competent in the shootout to steal maybe 4 games a year like that, get a couple of bounces like having our #1 goalie play more than 20 games and we're a playoff team. We're really not that far. Jack and Sam and Robin are only going to get better. Evander and ROR will have more time to jell with the team in general, Risto should get better still, he's still young. A healthy Bogo is a good Bogo offensively at least, plus you know Murray isn't going to sit on his hands. Whether that's Stamkos, or maybe he aims lower and snags Hoffman, or Schwartz, or Drouin. And a defenseman like I don't know really. I'm running out of steam and fell asleep writing this, and you have an immediate upgrade on the backend. Boom. You have a recipe for success for years and years. This is just the beginning.

Rant over.

Edit: Rant restarted, I could see us being this years Panthers next year.

Rant over, again.
- Wetbandit1

You're still missing the point. We've had the easiest schedule in the last two months in the NHL pretty much and we've still manged to look just okay in some of the wins we got like the pathetic amount of shots we created in a win against a probably worn down New Jersey team after realizing they aren't making the playoffs. This team is muddled with a bunch of guys who are far too inconsistent to be relied on consistently.

As far as I'm concerned Eichel, Reinhart and O'Riley should hopefully continue on their given paths.

Kane if he can stay healthy and out of trouble should do a little better than this year

Ristolainen will hopefully be a bitter in his own end or get a better defensive partner then an aging vet. And you also hope McCabe can improve even more into a bonified 2nd pairing defenseman.

They have too much of the same thing. They need to get faster and become better in their own end as a team. Bogosian was healthy for most of the season. He missed a bit very early on but was still very bad in his own end. Maybe he can be a Cody Franson in his prime type player (Awful in his own end yet good in the offensive zone) but not at that price. I think getting another blue chip all star would have ensured this team makes it to the playoffs every year for the next ten years. Now it's all up to chance. Hopefully they give Eichel someone (frank)ing skilled to play with next year who can score goals and (frank)ing skate because they don't have that right now.

There's no Domi or Taresenko or Huberdeau on this team

I'm sorry i'm am glad we have Eichel thrilled but, we should have McDavid. Kid is unreal, we got screwed.
- SABRES 89

I'm glad we have Eichel, we'll see who wins the cup first. Get over it, this is getting old

Think how different we'd look with McDavid & Ekblad
I know Murray said Reinhart was their guy, but I'm pretty sure they'd still have taken Ekblad
- jdfitz77

Nope gmtm said many times reinhart was the #1 guy on their board in 2014. The need for C was greater than the need for d then too. I'll leave you to do the math

Nope gmtm said many times reinhart was the #1 guy on their board in 2014. The need for C was greater than the need for d then too. I'll leave you to do the math
- turbo044

What was he supposed to say?
Plus, Ekblad was the better prospect
Maybe we'd have traded down though

Someone please tell me that we're mad because we're improving and rising in the standings.

Well, you guys did better than the Oilers, so congratz on that.
You guys found a great defender in Risto. He is exactly what any team would want. The thing that sucks was that you couldn't have a Risto-Myer pairing due to that kane trade, but still, Kane has been a fantastic player for you guys. As for Eichel, not as good as McDavid, but he is still going to be your #1 center for a long time.

However, I still think Talbot is better than Lehner.
- EdmHockeyMan

We like Eichel, we'll keep him.... Going to be one of the best players for years to come. Glad you like Talbot, we'll keep our guy.

........

I'm not making this sound like it'll be a piece of cake, but all they have to do is learn how to close out games, add that insurance goal at the end, get competent in the shootout to steal maybe 4 games a year like that, get a couple of bounces like having our #1 goalie play more than 20 games and we're a playoff team. We're really not that far. Jack and Sam and Robin are only going to get better. Evander and ROR will have more time to jell with the team in general, Risto should get better still, he's still young. A healthy Bogo is a good Bogo offensively at least, plus you know Murray isn't going to sit on his hands. Whether that's Stamkos, or maybe he aims lower and snags Hoffman, or Schwartz, or Drouin. And a defenseman like I don't know really. I'm running out of steam and fell asleep writing this, and you have an immediate upgrade on the backend. Boom. You have a recipe for success for years and years. This is just the beginning.

Rant over.

Edit: Rant restarted, I could see us being this years Panthers next year.

Rant over, again.
- Wetbandit1

This is a solid post. I see we've developed a bad habit of "must be bad, must get high pick." We've done that poop. We got our superstar. There comes a day where this group of talent must progress, and with progression comes wins (hopefully). Yeah, we might miss out on the top picks. Whoopdie (frank)ing doo. We've already got a bunch of top picks and ROR plays like one. Risto was a top 10 pick and by all signs he'll be our #1 for a very long time. Holy poop, I can't believe we're complaining about winning.

Someone please tell me that we're mad because we're improving and rising in the standings.
- TheSabresTaco

I'm not mad at all. Glad the kids are learning how to win. A couple d-man, and one or two more top 6 guys and we're there. Plus with the new rules we still have a chance at a top pick
I don't want to be the next team to use the Edm 7 year rebuild plan (or whatever its been).

I'm not mad at all. Glad the kids are learning how to win. A couple d-man, and one or two more top 6 guys and we're there. Plus with the new rules we still have a chance at a top pick
I don't want to be the next team to use the Edm 7 year rebuild plan (or whatever its been).
- gordong

Sorry to the next EDM fan that catches this post, but they're (frank)ing pathetic. Maybe Chars and Mac can turn that tire fire around. But they need an overhaul. As in trade Hall and/or Eberle for real defense. it's incredible how bad they've been despite their heavy collections of 1st overalls. And they picked the wrong defenseman in Nurse.

And to the bolded....exactly. What fan base would want that? I can tell you one thing, most of them are pretty (frank)ing sick of being awful.

Honestly, I cannot find a single guy on the roster of either of these two teams who I think fits with our franchise right now.
- Der Kaiser

Seth Jones?

not that it would ever happen but i would take him

I'm glad we have Eichel, we'll see who wins the cup first. Get over it, this is getting old
- turbo044

I don't need to get over it, it's my opinion, you don't like it that's on you.

I don't need to get over it, it's my opinion, you don't like it that's on you.
- SABRES 89

- IndianaSabresFan

I'll jump with her

- IndianaSabresFan

this is a good post

I'll jump with her
- SABRES 89

the water looks like a prison toilet

I'll jump with her
- SABRES 89

with ---> in

I'm not mad at all. Glad the kids are learning how to win. A couple d-man, and one or two more top 6 guys and we're there. Plus with the new rules we still have a chance at a top pick
I don't want to be the next team to use the Edm 7 year rebuild plan (or whatever its been).
- gordong

this was year 9 for us

Ok, I'll try it again. This time it's HockeyBuzz2 password is hockeybuzz I guess hardhat is getting me from beyond.

http://bracketchallenge.nhl.com/#/league/129172

If it doesn't work this time I give up.
- Wetbandit1

in...

I don't know what to tell you. The reason this team improved is because of the four additions to this team plus the emergence of Ristolainen.
Gionta, Moulson, Girgensons, all had dips in production. Bogosian was terrible for 75% of the season then went on an offensive tear.

Other rookies McCabe, Pysyk, Nelson. Have all looked good but again are new additions. This finish will only leave people thinking another year of this team growing could yield better results but people are too quick to forget how awful this team looked against Florida, Philadelphia and other teams out west that out skilled us and were much quicker than us. We still need a few players to be an automatic every year playoff team and getting a guy who could help us right away in the draft would've been huge. Now we have to hope and pray Murray can find a way to trade for a top pairing defenseman hope to sign Stamkos or the next best guy and realize that a lot of his "vets" who started producing against the likes of Columbus and a beaten up Montreal aren't part of the future of this team and then maybe we can see some real progress in this organization because this sure feels a lot like a Bills 7-9 8-8 type season. Not good enough for the playoffs but not bad enough for a superstar.
- bluengold12

this team is young and will only get better. They guys that didn't produce consistently or at all are on the 3rd and 4th line. I'm really not worried about them. Plus gmtm has already shown in his short time here that he will make big moves to get players. I have faith in him that he will improve this team in the offseason.

The only negative I take from this year is zemgus regressing and ennis missing almost all year. Adding a healthy ennis is like signing a good free agent during the offseason.