there was no effort after the 10 game win streak

pretty sure we were in first place then

from december on, it was the worst sabres hockey I have ever seen, including bankrupt years and nolan part II


worst thing is we added montour, and the D looked worse, no clue how that is possible
- homiedclown

Good post

I seriously think it has some deep roots with berglund being shunned. Something hurt everyone's feelings.

My fan reflex is they wanted a top 8 guy.

Who said go for broke?

Too many people ignore the middle ground - in everything.
- Der Kaiser

This

Especially on the last sentence

Fitz is this you?


Seriously, you are going to stand by the tank regardless.

To some degree , I actually agree with you.

Just giving you some friendly jabs, it's been slow around here lately.

Sabres are going to actually try and win next year.
These tank guys are definitely hard to find.
The skill is for sure later in the draft

We need to plug in some tough guys to play against

Which should be easier, then finding dahlin, eichel and mitts. That was alot of anguish.
- Boss34

Huh?
I argued with him more than anyone about his “tanking” nonsense

1) we weren’t in a position where we’d be able to “tank” for Hughes or Kakko

2) there’s guys picked in the teens EVERY YEAR that outperform guys picked Top10

3) the Sabres weren’t even doing anything to “tank” anyways- Botts wasn’t purposely having Housley ice a bad lineup

4) cheering for your team to lose under those circumstances is not something I’d do
Was i “all in” for McEichel? Yes
Ditto for Dahlin
I was not cheering for my team to lose so we could pick (for example) a guy like Krebs over a guy like Newhook

5) I’d have rather seen us make the playoffs & pick in the teens
Once it became clear we weren’t gonna make the playoffs... then yes, i did see the value in us dropping down the standings
But i still cheered for my team to win
Bc I’m not a sh!tty fan

I never said anything about having to tank next year though. Botts has a whole offseason to add to this roster. I just don’t understand what trades Botts was going to make this year that were going to make us a playoff team without selling off multiple prospects and picks that would have been worth it. We got Montour, which I thought was impressive. The rest of the deals made though league wide included rentals.

Niederiter would have been nice but the Wild coveted a 21-24 year old Centre which they got in Victor Rask. Tanner Pearson is a nothing player. McCann is nice but Pittsburgh had to take back Bjugstad who is another cap burden we don’t need.

Would keeping ROR have made us a playoff team ? We had the Eichel-ROR duo for multiple years and it led us to Dahlin. We are going to get a top 6 forward at pick 7 that will fit in with our timeline better then ROR would have anyways. We just need to hope Thompson becomes a contributor and the STL pick adds to the pipeline or is moved to bring in immediate help. We have the cap space to make FA signings and trades to win as soon as next year.
- Pegullaville

You did say (roughly) to “tank until we get enough talent to be able to challenge teams like Tampa, etc” though

I don’t think whoever we pick 7th puts us there

By your logic,
we still need to tank a few more years to acquire even more top end talent

I think we agree %100 on the Sabres being p*says.
They lack toughness and if they are going to ever compete in the Stanley cup playoffs, they need to add muscle.

Okposo- were stuck
Larry or girgs could be the 16th guy on a playoff team

Way too many below average guys
- Boss34

Huh?
I argued with him more than anyone about his “tanking” nonsense

1) we weren’t in a position where we’d be able to “tank” for Hughes or Kakko

2) there’s guys picked in the teens EVERY YEAR that outperform guys picked Top10

3) the Sabres weren’t even doing anything to “tank” anyways- Botts wasn’t purposely having Housley ice a bad lineup

4) cheering for your team to lose under those circumstances is not something I’d do
Was i “all in” for McEichel? Yes
Ditto for Dahlin
I was not cheering for my team to lose so we could pick (for example) a guy like Krebs over a guy like Newhook

5) I’d have rather seen us make the playoffs & pick in the teens
Once it became clear we weren’t gonna make the playoffs... then yes, i did see the value in us dropping down the standings
But i still cheered for my team to win
Bc I’m not a sh!tty fan
- jdfitz77

Fitz, this is all sugar coating.
"Dropping down the standings", "losing with dignity" and "tanking" are the same damn thing.
C'mon man. The degree to which we openly cheered for losses is really irrelevant, and changed based on circumstances and the results; i.e. guarantee of top 2 picks in a 2 man horse race versus lottery system where 1 could fall to 4 but 10 very good players closely rated.

What I see above is your best attempt to rationalize tanking based on the right circumstances and in those circumstances fans are absolved of rooting to "drop down the srandings"

90% of the fan base cheered for the Sabres to lose games to get McEichel. I know I did, and this board was jammed with those who thought the same. We are all "guilty".
Did we all do it for Dahlin, no, not really...but we all wanted to finish last, and we didn't have to root for losses...cause that team didn't need help to lose, it was pitiful. The same with this last season starting in Mid-December...no one had to openly root for it, it happened due to inept play of the roster, save literally 2 - 3 players.

Stop holding yourself as a better fan. It simply isn't true. You are rationalizing you pro rank during McEichel and chastising others for Cozens/Turcott versus Newhook. You have now stated repeatedly that it might be best for the Sabres to "tank" again for the upcoming season because the Sabres could use another top end talent.