if you dont think there's any excuses, my guess is your expectations were too high. and ill wager the solid play in the 2nd half last year in alot of semi meaningless games has alot to do with it as well.

you started a rebuild with very little in the cupboards and its only what? year 4?
that seems like a long time- but when you were as bad as the sabres were to begin with, its a long climb back. which often seems to be forgotten

and dont forget the misses murray's had in bogo, lehner etc.

reinhart being a quality young player, but not at the level you hoped when you drafted him as franchise cornerstone certainly doesnt help either.
(reminds me alot of nuge in that sense. a quality young player that can really help a team. but if youre depending on him to carry you to alot of wins as a backbone piece- the results probably aint gonna be favourable)

one thing that you were able to nab is a true top pairing minute eater early int he rebuild. be thankful for that as its tough to find. and youd probably be much worse without that homerun

you guys got some solid pieces to build around (ror, eichel, risto), but realistically, youre probably still pretty far from being even a middling team

no hate or troll intended at all. just watched the game today and checked the standings is all
- HB77

Ryan O'Reilly has 11 goals in his last 57 games, and is being paid 7.5 million and is viewed as the next Jesus Christ (I mean Chris Drury)

That embodies what's wrong with this rebuild

reinhart has points in 6 straight games, and you a$$clowns are ripping him


and 14 points in the last 18 games
- homiedclown

Excuse 'em wah?

Ryan O'Reilly has 11 goals in his last 57 games, and is being paid 7.5 million and is viewed as the next Jesus Christ (I mean Chris Drury)

That embodies what's wrong with this rebuild
- sbroads24

Yeah I think everyone has the superstar shades on for O'Reilly but I think he's been underwhelming.

Yeah I think everyone has the superstar shades on for O'Reilly but I think he's been underwhelming.
- Buffalo--Sabres

Trade 'em he sucks!

"Shouts the Informed Hockey Experts"

Ryan O'Reilly has 11 goals in his last 57 games, and is being paid 7.5 million and is viewed as the next Jesus Christ (I mean Chris Drury)

That embodies what's wrong with this rebuild
- sbroads24

I have a bigger issue with ror's production at 7 per than a 21 year old kid putting up a point per game on entry level deal

reinhart is putting up second line numbers in his 3rd season

his defensive is as good as anyone on this team

Yeah I think everyone has the superstar shades on for O'Reilly but I think he's been underwhelming.
- Buffalo--Sabres

he is a second line player


they need to pass the torch to eichel for the top line when ror comes back

I have a bigger issue with ror's production at 7 per than a 21 year old kid putting up a point per game on entry level deal

reinhart is putting up second line numbers in his 3rd season

his defensive is as good as anyone on this team
- homiedclown

This Poster is Correct !

again, and again, and again.....

if you dont think there's any excuses, my guess is your expectations were too high. and ill wager the solid play in the 2nd half last year in alot of semi meaningless games has alot to do with it as well.

you started a rebuild with very little in the cupboards and its only what? year 4?
that seems like a long time- but when you were as bad as the sabres were to begin with, its a long climb back. which often seems to be forgotten

and dont forget the misses murray's had in bogo, lehner etc.

reinhart being a quality young player, but not at the level you hoped when you drafted him as franchise cornerstone certainly doesnt help either.
(reminds me alot of nuge in that sense. a quality young player that can really help a team. but if youre depending on him to carry you to alot of wins as a backbone piece- the results probably aint gonna be favourable)

one thing that you were able to nab is a true top pairing minute eater early int he rebuild. be thankful for that as its tough to find. and youd probably be much worse without that homerun

you guys got some solid pieces to build around (ror, eichel, risto), but realistically, youre probably still pretty far from being even a middling team

no hate or troll intended at all. just watched the game today and checked the standings is all
- HB77

I agree with all of that except the Lehner "miss" he's an above average goalie. And Thankfully we have Eichel to be the franchise cornerstone so Reinhart's less than spectacular play(to date) isn't as big of a kick in the nuts as it could've been.

A handful of people here have unrealistic expectations. Hindsight is a wonderful thing. Should they be better? Absolutely. I've said it like 5 times now, but they are 5th in the league in scoring chances for at 5v5. The PP is 4th(last time I looked the other day), the PK really misses Ugwand though, they're inexplicably bad this year, but as we all know, special teams don't matter. They're doing something right to get all those chances, but they're just not able to bury them. Okposo had a wide open look today and put it off the corner where the crossbar and post meet. They're average in GA. This team should be better than it is. Period.

I have a bigger issue with ror's production at 7 per than a 21 year old kid putting up a point per game on entry level deal

reinhart is putting up second line numbers in his 3rd season

his defensive is as good as anyone on this team
- homiedclown

2nd.

ROR might not be scoring goals but his points per game are actually higher than his career average.

I think a congrats are in order to the Pegulas.
Both teams are terribly run.
Both teams are in long playoff draughts.
Both teams suck
Neither team has a direction.

Congrats Pegula.

Ryan O'Reilly has 11 goals in his last 57 games, and is being paid 7.5 million and is viewed as the next Jesus Christ (I mean Chris Drury)

That embodies what's wrong with this rebuild
- sbroads24

See my above on ROR.

if you dont think there's any excuses, my guess is your expectations were too high. and ill wager the solid play in the 2nd half last year in alot of semi meaningless games has alot to do with it as well.

you started a rebuild with very little in the cupboards and its only what? year 4?
that seems like a long time- but when you were as bad as the sabres were to begin with, its a long climb back. which often seems to be forgotten

and dont forget the misses murray's had in bogo, lehner etc.

reinhart being a quality young player, but not at the level you hoped when you drafted him as franchise cornerstone certainly doesnt help either.
(reminds me alot of nuge in that sense. a quality young player that can really help a team. but if youre depending on him to carry you to alot of wins as a backbone piece- the results probably aint gonna be favourable)

one thing that you were able to nab is a true top pairing minute eater early int he rebuild. be thankful for that as its tough to find. and youd probably be much worse without that homerun

you guys got some solid pieces to build around (ror, eichel, risto), but realistically, youre probably still pretty far from being even a middling team

no hate or troll intended at all. just watched the game today and checked the standings is all
- HB77

I think the talent we have should be good enough to be middling. Anywhere from 8-10. The vets are severely under achieving across the board

I think a congrats are in order to the Pegulas.
Both teams are terribly run.
Both teams are in long playoff draughts.
Both teams suck
Neither team has a direction.

Congrats Pegula.
- ImThatGuy

I mean, down is technically a direction right? #glasshalffulll

Interesting question.


If you were the Bruins, which choice do you make?

1. two horrid losses to the lowly Sabres

or

2. two wins, one more difficult than the other, but solid and but lose David Backes Indefinitely

Interesting question.


If you were the Bruins, which choice do you make?

1. two horrid losses to the lowly Sabres

or

2. two wins, one more difficult than the other, but solid and but lose David Backes Indefinitely
- MEBSabresFAN

2.

I agree with all of that except the Lehner "miss" he's an above average goalie. And Thankfully we have Eichel to be the franchise cornerstone so Reinhart's less than spectacular play(to date) isn't as big of a kick in the nuts as it could've been.

A handful of people here have unrealistic expectations. Hindsight is a wonderful thing. Should they be better? Absolutely. I've said it like 5 times now, but they are 5th in the league in scoring chances for at 5v5. The PP is 4th(last time I looked the other day), the PK really misses Ugwand though, they're inexplicably bad this year, but as we all know, special teams don't matter. They're doing something right to get all those chances, but they're just not able to bury them. Okposo had a wide open look today and put it off the corner where the crossbar and post meet. They're average in GA. This team should be better than it is. Period.
- Wetbandit1

fair enough

always easy to point out deficiencies from the outside looking in. i see 1/10th of the sabres games you do, so most of my thoughts are face value at best in small samples.


as far as lehner, i just kinda thought because hes such a fuking bandaid.

and yep to the eichel carrying reinhart comment. connor and leon make life so much easier for the oilers. nuge just has to be a good two way player to be effective. doesnt need to dominate to help us win like in the past when we were desperate for him to carry us. cause we saw how that turned out

Ryan O'Reilly has 11 goals in his last 57 games, and is being paid 7.5 million and is viewed as the next Jesus Christ (I mean Chris Drury)

That embodies what's wrong with this rebuild
- sbroads24

what are his point totals in that time?

an elite defensive 2c behind jack that chips in around 50-60 per would be pretty great under any scenario

what are his point totals in that time?

an elite defensive 2c behind jack that chips in around 50-60 per would be pretty great under any scenario
- HB77

**elite** is the problem term here. My point is that this teams talent is over rated.

Ryan O'Reilly is a very good player, he is not elite, and is not worth a 50 million dollar contract.

He scores points 5 on 5 like a 3rd liner

jesus that's a bad miss

jesus that's a bad miss
- Sabresfan-365

lol

Yeah I think everyone has the superstar shades on for O'Reilly but I think he's been underwhelming.
- Buffalo--Sabres

I think a lot of people look at O'reilly as they would a 1st overall. "Why isn't he carrying the team? Why doesn't he have a 90 point season?" He's a really good hockey player, but he's a piece to the puzzle, not the main piece. Eichel is a main piece and maybe he can't even do it alone. Let's take what we can get for the deadweight on this team at the deadline. Hope we land a top 3 pick, and build Eichel's team with the C on his jersey this offseason. Adding a couple of snipers, Nylander and maybe Nico at the draft would seriously turn this organization around.

**elite** is the problem term here. My point is that this teams talent is over rated.

Ryan O'Reilly is a very good player, he is not elite, and is not worth a 50 million dollar contract.

He scores points 5 on 5 like a 3rd liner
- sbroads24

Hes probably not worth 7.5 aav, but he doesnt even crack the list of overpaid players they have to get off this team. He at least brings a lot of value in a lot of areas including 5v5 despite the scoring. Bogosian, Gorges, Kulikov, Moulson literally bring somewhere between nothing and negative value.

lol
- rmiethaner

New Jersey's quietly putting together a decent future.


MCleod, Zacha, Santini, Speers few others plus that Hall trade.

**elite** is the problem term here. My point is that this teams talent is over rated.

Ryan O'Reilly is a very good player, he is not elite, and is not worth a 50 million dollar contract.

He scores points 5 on 5 like a 3rd liner
- sbroads24

i was referring to his defensive abilities. but of course you can refute those as well if thats what you mean.

hes among a handful of the better two way centers in the game, no? not in toews or bergeron class of course, but a tier below..
as i said, if youve got a 2nd line center that can be a effective as he is at both ends-youre in a comfortable spot.

i wont argue that hes not worth 50 mil as thats pretty huge dollars, but i was sorta under the impression your center position in the top 6 was absolutely NOT one of the teams issues

i was referring to his defensive abilities. but of course you can refute those as well if thats what you mean.

hes among a handful of the better two way centers in the game, no? not in toews or bergeron class of course, but a tier below..
as i said, if youve got a 2nd line center that can be a effective as he is at both ends-youre in a comfortable spot.

i wont argue that hes not worth 50 mil as thats pretty huge dollars, but i was sorta under the impression your center position in the top 6 was absolutely NOT one of the teams issues
- HB77

It's not.

Hes just upset like the rest of us.