It's so cute when you try and make yourself sound more intelligent than you really are by using all those big words.
- Rayven

I'm not intelligent. Stop that nonsense.

and because of that you need more blue collar guys that are going to make this team miserable to play against.
- Homer

Being "miserable to play against" isn't going to win you any championships. It might get you into the playoffs, and might even create a feel-good story, but the standard needs to be much, much higher than that. I want to win championships, not lovable mediocrity.

If someone wants Mike Weber as a "throw-in" to land an impact top 6 forward or top 2 defenseman, I do that deal yesterday.
- buffalofan19

Well obviously. That should go without saying.

This I could not agree more with, although I think they need more passion in their play from top to bottom.
- kingcong39

Winning cures a lot of that. It's a lot easier to play harder when things are worth playing for. You get that by improving your top end talent. Everyone likes to point out "the hardest working team in hockey", but they forget that team also had the best goaltender on the planet.

Tell Rob Ray that
- sbroads24

To be fair he was good at losing his clothes.

Everyone falls in love with the grinders, the ones that you can get anywhere.
- buffalofan19

I think it's okay to love the grinders; every team needs them in order to be successful. I've never understood why the bottom six on this team gets so much attention, good or bad. IMO, it's always been about forwards 1-6 and defensemen 1-4 on this team. They just need to get better in those areas, period. They need better players at those positions.

I think we've got a legit top line winger in Vanek. A borderline 1st/2nd line winger in Pommer. Two top pairing d-men in Myers and Ehrhoff and that's about it. It's way to early to judge Foligno, Ennis and Hodgson at this point in their careers, so I wouldn't be in a hurry to move those three because they show a lot of promise. Throw Ott in there as a keeper and that's about it. That's an awful lot of areas where we can get better.

Well obviously. That should go without saying.
- Powerslave

You would think, but if it were so obvious the words "Mike Weber" and "untouchable" would never be used in the same sentence.

The 3 and 4 guys (Leo/Regehr) need to be upgraded at this point, IMO.
- Powerslave

Exactly. Good post PS.
Therein lies a big problem not to mention Myers.

Compare Myers numbers to Webers from last year. There not even close. Myers was a plus player, Weber was a -19. Myers had 23 pts and 8 goals, Weber had 3 pts
- sbroads24

And look at the lettuce being thrown at Myers and not at Weber.

and because of that you need more blue collar guys that are going to make this team miserable to play against.
- Homer

Agreed!

Being "miserable to play against" isn't going to win you any championships. It might get you into the playoffs, and might even create a feel-good story, but the standard needs to be much, much higher than that. I want to win championships, not lovable mediocrity.
- buffalofan19

You could argue that Boston, LA and Chicago were pretty miserable to play against in their respective championship years. Those teams had a perfect mix of skill and grit and those are the models we should be trying to duplicate.

and because of that you need more blue collar guys that are going to make this team miserable to play against.
- Homer

Both points are true, actually.

Another scorer on the 2nd line, and a couple more guys who are just pr!cks to deal with.

Perhaps all wrapped into one (D. Brown, Hartnell, Marchand, Backes, Kunitz, etc)

And look at the lettuce being thrown at Myers and not at Weber.

- BuffaloHardHat

I agree with you he needs to be much better. But his success or demise is much more important to the franchise than that from Weber.

And look at the lettuce being thrown at Myers and not at Weber.

- BuffaloHardHat

Tossing Myers' salad?

What?!?!

Being "miserable to play against" isn't going to win you any championships. It might get you into the playoffs, and might even create a feel-good story, but the standard needs to be much, much higher than that. I want to win championships, not lovable mediocrity.
- buffalofan19

Well I do too, everybody does, but aquiring this top notch talent that you need to acheive this lofty goal is much, much, much more easier said than done.

The least this team could be is tough to play against and entertaining while trying to find that talent, but they cant even do that right.

You could argue that Boston, LA and Chicago were pretty miserable to play against in their respective championship years. Those teams had a perfect mix of skill and grit and those are the models we should be trying to duplicate.
- The_Inkwell

They were miserable to play against because they had top end talent though. Chicago's top 6 was 2nd to probably only Pittsburgh, and both Tim Thomas and Jonathan Quick had ridiculous numbers. Make no mistake, their best players won those cups for them, not their grinders. Having effective grinders definitely helps, but without their best players playing their best hockey, it would have meant nothing.

You could argue that Boston, LA and Chicago were pretty miserable to play against in their respective championship years. Those teams had a perfect mix of skill and grit and those are the models we should be trying to duplicate.
- The_Inkwell

This times infinite.

I agree with you he needs to be much better. But his success or demise is much more important to the franchise than that from Weber.
- sbroads24

Why doesn't Myers play on the #1 PK unit and Weber does?
Weber has been well worth his 950,000 this season and needs to be resigned in my opinion.
We also need 1 more dman in Weber's mold. I hope that dman is Mcnabb.

Tossing Myers' salad?

What?!?!


- Powerslave

Well I do too, everybody does, but aquiring this top notch talent that you need to acheive this lofty goal is much, much, much more easier said than done.

The least this team could be is tough to play against and entertaining while trying to find that talent, but they cant even do that right.
- Homer

Was Pittsburgh that way before they landed Crosby and Malkin? What about Chicago before Toews, Kane, and Keith? If this trainwreck of a season lands the Sabres one of Drouin, MacKinnon, or Seth Jones, and they are as good as advertised, and eventually gets them back into championship contention, then it will all be worth it. I don't care how "tough" they are or aren't. If you don't win, you fail, period.

The least this team could be is tough to play against and entertaining while trying to find that talent, but they cant even do that right.
- Homer

Thank you! Sometimes I think this franchise forgets that people actually pay to watch this product. There have been so many games this season where I've thought "why am I wasting my time watching this?" It's no wonder the arena is dead on most nights.

This times infinite.


- Powerslave

I never said grit was meaningless. I said it was meaningless without top end talent first. They definitely had the perfect mix of skill and grit, but they achieved it by acquiring the "skill" part first. We seem obsessed with doing it backwards.

IU
- IndianaSabresFan

Ipfw

I'm not intelligent. Stop that nonsense.
- BuffaloHardHat

I never said grit was meaningless. I said it was meaningless without top end talent first. They definitely had the perfect mix of skill and grit, but they achieved it by acquiring the "skill" part first. We seem obsessed with doing it backwards.
- buffalofan19

Actually, we seem obsessed with having an entire team of 3rd liners.