The Official 2014-15 Regular Season Talk Thread

[BlueNGold]

Re: The Official 2014-15 Regular Season Talk Thread

Maybe I just haven't been paying much attention but I think it would be an overreaction for the Bruins to fire both Julien and Chiarelli. I think it's fair they get at least another season to try to turn things around. It's not like they went straight to the bottom of the league the way a lot of B's fans make it sound.

[Perceptor]

Re: The Official 2014-15 Regular Season Talk Thread

Didn't MacT say the same rebuilding crap in 2013 when he got the job. They weren't far away then and still not that far away now?? Huh?

[rdnk]

Re: The Official 2014-15 Regular Season Talk Thread

Wouldn't surprise me if they rebounded next year, though I think Chara's age has probably closed their title window. He's just such an irreplaceable difference maker.

There seems to be nothing more difficult to replace than a no. 1 D. I like Hamilton, but he's no Chara. They never found that guy to replace Boychuk; McQuiad, Bartkowski ect. never ran with the job. Won't get any easier next season; Krejci and Krug get bumps in salary, they have RFA's to pay and Soderberg is a UFA.

[Perceptor]

Re: The Official 2014-15 Regular Season Talk Thread

Chiarelli fired

[TheMatrix31]

Re: The Official 2014-15 Regular Season Talk Thread

lol, Puck Daddy put up my essay then immediately took it down when loser Sabres fans dug around and found tweets of mine that were deemed unsavory by the Perpetual Outrage Brigade.

Naturally, Wyshynski and the rest of the crew appeased. Because nothing satisfies a mob quite like another scalp.

Unfortunately, I knew this was going to happen going in. It was a little bit of a social experiment and it didn't fail me. Sabres fans did what I thought they would, and so did Yahoo.

Spoiler

I wasn't around for "No Goal, " but I knew that the Sabres were for me.

I wasn't around for the 2006 run to the Eastern Conference Finals, but I knew that the Sabres were for me.

I wasn't around for July 1, 2007, but I knew that the Sabres were for me.

You see, I've felt my fair share of sports pain. I'm a Phoenix Suns, Houston Texans, and Atlanta Braves fan, too. I know all too well about getting close and falling flat year after year. I know all too well about referee screwjobs. I know all too well about injuries derailing teams destined for championship glory. I know all too well about having to let beloved players go. I know.
What I also know is that I fell in love with those teams because of the way they did things as an organization. Class, honor, respect, pride, dignity. They all did things the right way. I knew I could take pride in the team no matter what, regardless of any season result. I found a lot of myself in the teams I rooted for. It's a big reason why I fell in love with the Sabres. It wasn't until I grew so frustrated with the direction in which the NBA was heading that I decided to become a full-time hockey fan. I needed to fill the void that was left by the corrupted, manufactured NBA.

I had been a very casual hockey fan my entire life. I wanted a northern team that didn't have much success but still had a great, intelligent, energetic fanbase. Starting around 2008 or so, I started watching Sabres games because I used to use them in old hockey games and took notice of Ryan Miller and Thomas Vanek. Then, lifelong Sabres fan and billionaire Terry Pegula bought the team. What a dream that was. A guy who had all the resources in the world and was a lifelong fan of the team? Stanley Cup contention was not far off. I started to feel connected with the team and relished rivalries with Boston and Philadelphia, even staying home on Easter Sunday 2011 to watch Ville Leino stab millions of Sabres fans in the heart with his overtime killer. These are the things that create hockey fans for life. I found myself wishing that I started watching hockey earlier in my life so that I'd know as much about it as I do other sports.

Since then, the Sabres have fallen from grace. What was deemed "Hockey Heaven" has been dragged to the depths of Hockey Hell. A dark, desolate dungeon of despair where the Sabres and their fans would seemingly languish in for all of eternity. Alas the emergence of Connor McDavid and Jack Eichel as "generational talent" gave the Sabres and other despondent franchises hope. A light at the end of the tunnel. The Sabres management decided they would strip the team down and lose on purpose in a not-so-inconspicuous attempt to secure one of those two and change the course of their franchise forever.

I hate the idea of tanking. I hate the word "tank." Mostly because it's been used in recent years to describe sports teams that are in transition. There's a difference between "tanking" and teams merely in transition and shifting or building assets. I saw it with my Suns, and in 2013-14 they were expected to win 20 games and ended up winning 48 and missing the playoffs by one game. Not once did appease calls to lose on purpose. The Texans went 2-14 in 2013 and instead of expecting to just "be bad anyway" they fought back with new coaching and went 9-7 in 2014 with their oh-so-special #1 pick not even contributing. The word "tanking" is for teams that lose on purpose and the Buffalo Sabres, Arizona Coyotes, and Edmonton Oilers have done that throughout the 2014-15 NHL season. It's despicable.

The problem is that Buffalo Sports has a losing culture. You cannot foster a winning culture by losing on purpose. There's this sentiment that has spread through the sports world in recent years like a cancer that "if you ain't first, you're last." Unfortunately, that sentiment is now more than just a line in a crappy Will Ferrell movie. It's the hypnotic chant of all downtrodden franchises and their fanbases. Ask the Kings from a couple years ago if they would have rather missed the playoffs instead of sneaking in as a #8. Because they established a winning culture, missing the playoffs this year is unthinkable to Kings fans I know. Ask the Flyers and Canadiens from a couple years ago if they would have rather missed the playoffs instead of both going on miracle runs to the Eastern Conference Finals. Ask the Oilers if years and years of high draft picks means anything without the management and scouting to back it up. You can't win if you're not in. People are worried about the "Ninth Place Treadmill" but here I am worrying about the "Edmonton Treadmill." Losers should never be rewarded for losing, and most times, they're not.

I understand that "generational talent" means a lot in sports. Across all sports, single players have helped shift their team's future. For every Hall-of-Famer, though, there's quite a few busts. The point is, the draft is a crapshoot and will always be a crapshoot no matter what. If you have proper management and scouting, you will be able to identify players no matter your draft slot. Some of the best franchises in sports have done an ********* job drafting late and developing talent. A team with good management and scouting doesn't require #1 picks to succeed. If draft picks were the cure to every sports franchise's ills, perpetual laughing stocks would be perpetual world champions. If Tim Murray was as great as Sabres fans seem to think he is, he wouldn't need to lose on purpose to procure a draft pick to get a star. To base your franchise's entire future on losing on purpose just to get a guy who hasn't proven it on the professional level is foolish at best and repulsive at worst. I've simply seen too many horror stories to ever put *that* level of faith into the draft.

Not only are fans cheering this on, but so are members of the media. Buffalo sports media is rife with radio hosts and social media writers that openly root for the team to lose on purpose. And it's not confined to local media. National sports writers have embraced this and encourage it constantly. It's beyond a joke at this point. And when fans see their thought leaders confirming this "strategy," all it does is perpetuate the notion that it's a good idea. Was there any other time in sports history where blatant losing on purpose would be welcomed and encouraged and joked about like this? If the Rangers or Canucks or Leafs were blatantly losing on purpose, would it be so widely cheered? Likely not. It's shameful. It's ruined the integrity of the sport. Just like with Tim Donaghy and other corrupt officials in basketball. Once you start doubting the legitimacy of what you're watching, it's all over.

I frequent a very popular Sabres message board and what used to be a fountain of knowledge for me and a way to connect with longtime Sabres fans is now an insufferable cesspool of cultists marching to that single, solitary drumbeat. Openly rooting for the team to lose, berating anyone who expresses even the slightest morsel of happiness at a win, all the while clamoring for growth from the team. What exactly do you think will grow on a team that loses on purpose? How exactly do you plan on dispelling years and decades of losing Buffalo sports culture by losing on purpose? How exactly do you cultivate players like Zemgus Girgensons, Rasmus Ristolainen, Nikita Zadorov and others by doing this? Players across the league who might have decided to sign in Buffalo may have taken fan passion into account along with the loads of cash we'd throw at them, but why would anyone want to play for such ingrates who would start rooting for the other team at the drop of a hat? What an embarrassment. I was castigated beyond belief for rooting for Buffalo to beat Boston a couple weeks back because if we're going to be losing on purpose, I at least wanted to beat our most hated rivals and help prevent them from making the playoffs too. If I have to put up with losing on purpose, I want Boston to lose too.

I am absolutely repulsed to call myself a Sabres fan. Why would I want to be associated with a team that's doing this? I'm a new hockey fan and these last couple years have done nothing to encourage me to immerse myself further with the Sabres. I've dealt with losing teams before but I can't stomach this. Conform or be cast out.

"How dare you cheer for the team you chose to root for?"
"Don't you know that losing now means winning later?"
"McEichel!"

After the last couple weeks with Sabres fans at First Niagara straight up cheering opposing teams' goals, I reached a breaking point. What's happening with the Sabres goes against everything I stand for but it would be cheap to just stop rooting for them and root for others. I look on at teams like the Flames, Jets Senators and Wild who didn't lay down and were absolutely killing themselves just to make the playoffs this year. They play fast and hungry and never, ever stopped. They built on what they had and that's admirable as hell. And next year they'll keep building. I find myself rooting for anything that pisses Sabres fans off at this point. From wins to ruin lotto chances to rooting for one of (or both) McDavid and Eichel to bust just to teach the draft fetishists a lesson. Nothing against those players, of course. It's not their fault. Even if one of them came to Buffalo, I would feel guilty knowing how the team got them. I wouldn't feel right rooting for them. I know the vast majority of others don't feel the way I do as winning is the only thing. To me, winning means nothing when the team you root for and fans you root with are detestable in every way.

The team last year was unbearable.

This year, it's even worse. This franchise is unwatchable. For a person trying to develop and hone his love for the game, these last couple years have been completely detrimental to my own development and I'm sick of it. Give me a chance to fall---and stay----in love. If you're going to be bad, at least be entertaining. We haven't been. The team is downright abhorrent. Nothing will develop the players more than meaningful hockey. The goal for any hockey team is Stanley Cups, but we spend six months of our year watching a team night-in, night-out so we should be entertained and thrilled too. If that means a playoff chase that falls short, okay. If that means a first round exit, that's okay too. Just build. Languishing and hoping draft picks pan out is not building, no matter what anyone says. It's throwing a bunch of crap together hoping that it will all click at once and suddenly you won't be bad anymore.


If you're as bad as the Sabres are, one player will not change your fortunes. One player will not make you go from worst to first. So when does it stop? Do the Sabres fans want to lose on purpose next year too because "McEichel won't be able to do it alone!"? Just throw away another year of players' careers and people's hard-earned money and valuable time watching this "product"? This is the cycle you risk entering when you start down this path. The problem with the NBA2K/Maddenification of sports is that it's never enough. Fans say, "We did it the other way, so let's try this way now!" But what if that doesn't work? Then you've squandered years only to find yourself in the same place. You've stunted the development of what good prospects the Sabres may have to work with. You've wasted what precious few years of Rick Jeanneret we have left. You've pissed away all the goodwill that your fans, including new ones such as myself have built for you. Some gamble.

You have made fans comfortably numb.

This entire sham of an arrangement has zapped much of my desire for the sport. I find myself barely even watching other games this season and not getting nearly as much pleasure out of them as I did through even last year's playoffs. It's hard to give a damn when you've been beaten into indifference. I know the Sabres and their fans will read this and say that losing a fan like me is no big deal. Most teams that do this get criticized for losing on purpose but once the star comes, the pathetic means by which they acquired that star are forgotten. They won't care and I don't blame them. After all, how many bandwagon fans will be gained once The Savior shows his face? I think it's a very big deal, though. It's not often that hockey gets a brand new fan that's not a kid and quite frankly, the sport needs to draw more people in if it ever hopes to gain true relevance in the landscape of American sports. I became a hockey fan because I was hungry for something else after years of being inundated with the garbage associated with basketball. I wanted to become a Sabres fan. I didn't just jump on a bandwagon due to a hot playoff run or a potential superstar.

That interest? Faded.

That passion? Gone.

It's turned into anger and resentment. I feel like I've gotten a raw deal, and I'm closer than I have ever been to finding a new hockey home, if I even want to keep watching at all.

[redsox4evur]

Re: The Official 2014-15 Regular Season Talk Thread

Maybe I just haven't been paying much attention but I think it would be an overreaction for the Bruins to fire both Julien and Chiarelli. I think it's fair they get at least another season to try to turn things around. It's not like they went straight to the bottom of the league the way a lot of B's fans make it sound.

I've been trying to respond to this for awhile.

There are multiple reasons why Chiarelli was rightly fired. And I will tell you why Claude should be fired.

Chiarelli
1. Can't ****ing draft. First rounds pick every year with him at the helm. Zach Hamill, Joe Colborne, Jordan Caron, Seguin, Hamilton, no pick in 2012, Pastrnak. Now how many of those picks worked for the BRUINS. You could argue 3 at most. I will get to Seguin later. But the list is Seguin, Hamilton, and Pastrnak to a point. And go look at guys drafted after those picks. Right after Hamill was Couture. Next wing after Colborne was Eberle.
2. Is an average at best trader. He has some highlights but those include raping the Maple Leafs in trades. Andrew Raycroft for Tuukka and the Kessel trade. Also the Peverley and Kelly trade was good. Gave up Blake Wheeler and some other guys. But Pevs and Kelly were integral to the Cup. Now some lowlights. Seguin is the biggest one. Now, I know in Claude's system he wouldn't be the kid he is now. But trading him because off ice issues so early is crap. He also got crap in return. The only guys left are Eriksson, Morrow and Smith. None of which warrant a Seguin type return. Also he traded Johnny Boychuk and did nothing to replace him this year. Essentially traded for Brett Connolly. Couldn't close on the Iginla trade. Decides to trade Boychuk over guys like Campbell, Paille, etc.
3. Contract Extensions/signings. Chris Kelly has 1 20 goal season and gets a 4 year 12MM contract. Reilly Smith 1 20 goal season 2 years 6.85MM. Greg Campbell 3 years 4.8MM. Dan Paille 3 years 3.9MM. So all in all cap management. Structure of Iginla's contract, which was reason why Boychuk was traded.

Go find the press conference given Wed. 4/15 from Charlie Jacobs and Cam Neely and you will here why he should have been fired.

Claude

1. Line Management Rarely mixes up lines when the team is struggling. Also has a line that is doing well late this season in Lucic-Spooner-Pastrnak and he breaks up the line for some unknown reason. Also played Greg Campbell for 15 minutes one night late this season and only played Pastrnak 8 minutes. And Pastrnak is their most skilled player. Also when down 3-1 to the Habs in the playoffs, and he had the 4th line out for a large amount of time. When they needed to score twice just to tie the game.
2. Can't/won't develop young guys He doesn't like to play young guys. As I stated in my last point played Campbell 15 minutes Pasta 8. Only reason why Pastrnak played because they didn't have a RW who could put the puck in the net. Spooner had a great preseason. Led the team in scoring Claude has him assigned to Providence because he has to work on his defense.
3. System-oriented Cares too much about his system. As stated before with Spooner. Probably should have been on the 4th line this year but gets sent back to Providence to work on defensive game.

[rdnk]

Re: The Official 2014-15 Regular Season Talk Thread

I agree with the majority of what you are saying. However, I think considering the the hole he dug (which was some awful cap management), the Boychuk deal was the right one to make. He flipped Boychuk for Connolly more or less, which is solid asset management. Trading Paille and Campbell doesn't clear up much space because you have to replace them on the roster, and to move Kelly you'd have to give up an asset. They had the defensive depth to experiment with the Bartkowski's and Krugs to replace him; the problem was not filling the hole at the deadline when they didn't work out.

Chiarelli also gave up a ton for Kaberle, and although they won the cup it was more in spite of Kaberle. Peverly was instrumental in winning the cup, but they paid a heavy price. The Horton, Recchi and Seidenberg trades were great. Getting Boychuk for Matt Handricks from the Avs was great. Trading Versteeg for nothing was awful.

Chiarelli is responsible for the 2006-2014 drafts.
2006: Kessel, Lucic and Marchand. Nailed it
2007: 20 games out of 6 picks. Total failure.
2008: Joe Colborne (Flames via Leafs) and Michael Hutchinson (Jets). Failure from a Bruins perspective.
2009: 5 picks, Caron was the only hit, which is a liberal usage of the term for a 1st round 3rd liner. Was traded for a crusty old Talbot.
2010: Seguin and Spooner are hits.
2011: Hamilton is a hit. Khoklachev will probably make the NHL, but he's not a good fit with Julien.
2012: Griffith in the 5th is a hit. Subban is a top prospect.

2013 and 2014 are too soon to tell, but Pastrnak is promising. Chiarelli is an awful drafter though. Only 2 hits after round 2 (Marchand and Griffith), and only 1 after round 3 (Griffith). Krejci and Bergeron were already in place before he got there.

[redsox4evur]

Re: The Official 2014-15 Regular Season Talk Thread

I agree with the majority of what you are saying. However, I think considering the the hole he dug (which was some awful cap management), the Boychuk deal was the right one to make. He flipped Boychuk for Connolly more or less, which is solid asset management. Trading Paille and Campbell doesn't clear up much space because you have to replace them on the roster, and to move Kelly you'd have to give up an asset. They had the defensive depth to experiment with the Bartkowski's and Krugs to replace him; the problem was not filling the hole at the deadline when they didn't work out.

Chiarelli also gave up a ton for Kaberle, and although they won the cup it was more in spite of Kaberle. Peverly was instrumental in winning the cup, but they paid a heavy price. The Horton, Recchi and Seidenberg trades were great. Getting Boychuk for Matt Handricks from the Avs was great. Trading Versteeg for nothing was awful.

Chiarelli is responsible for the 2006-2014 drafts.
2006: Kessel, Lucic and Marchand. Nailed it
2007: 20 games out of 6 picks. Total failure.
2008: Joe Colborne (Flames via Leafs) and Michael Hutchinson (Jets). Failure from a Bruins perspective.
2009: 5 picks, Caron was the only hit, which is a liberal usage of the term for a 1st round 3rd liner. Was traded for a crusty old Talbot.
2010: Seguin and Spooner are hits.
2011: Hamilton is a hit. Khoklachev will probably make the NHL, but he's not a good fit with Julien.
2012: Griffith in the 5th is a hit. Subban is a top prospect.

2013 and 2014 are too soon to tell, but Pastrnak is promising. Chiarelli is an awful drafter though. Only 2 hits after round 2 (Marchand and Griffith), and only 1 after round 3 (Griffith). Krejci and Bergeron were already in place before he got there.

He was not the GM for that draft. Draft was held on April 20th and he signed his contract on May 26. So 95% of that cup roster was inherited through Mike O'Connell and Jeff Gorton. Gorton was the de facto GM during the 06 draft not Chiarelli. Chiarelli had just signed less than a month before the draft. So he had no idea who the Bruins wanted or were interested in. I completely disagree with you on Boychuk. You can't make that trade at the time he made it. You don't go and trade a top 4 defenseman the day before the season starts. Also I know Campbell and Paille weren't enough but they should moved those 2 and either Bartkowski or McQuaid. Boom I just saved you a little over 4 million in cap space. And also how the **** do you call Caron a hit? And please you cannot credit Chiarelli with a hit on Seguin for 2 reasons 1. Everyone and their grandmother knew he was a top 2 pick. There was no chance they were not going to take either Taylor or Tyler in that draft. 2. He was traded too early to see if he could develop in our system. And Spooner hasn't shown enough in the NHL to be a hit yet either. I put him in the same boat as Pasta. And like I said Chiarelli decent trader. You touched on all of his good trades. But you missed trading for Mezsaros, trading a first for Jagr, the return for Seguin, Boychuk too early/late, not getting Iginla straight from Calgary.

[slickdtc]

Re: The Official 2014-15 Regular Season Talk Thread

Flyers have fired Berube.

Goodness, the ignorance of Flyers fans calling for Laviolette back. Dude, he didn't work here either.

I don't think Berube was the problem (not the solution either) but with the rumors swirling, it had to happen.

I don't know if it's the coach that will make the difference for the Flyers. We need a top D, which don't grow on trees. We've got some prospects, so it's really just a waiting game. I like what I've heard from Hextall. If the idiots don't run him out of town before he's able to develop those prospects, he's probably the guy we want running our team. But if I know anything about Philly hockey, it's that we eat our own too quickly (and sometimes just because) so I won't be shocked if that's exactly what happens. Then we'll bitch when Hexy builds a contender elsewhere. We deserve this purgatory we're in.

Hey, we've got a 6.5% chance at McDavid...

[slickdtc]

Re: The Official 2014-15 Regular Season Talk Thread

lol, Puck Daddy put up my essay then immediately took it down when loser Sabres fans dug around and found tweets of mine that were deemed unsavory by the Perpetual Outrage Brigade.



Naturally, Wyshynski and the rest of the crew appeased. Because nothing satisfies a mob quite like another scalp.



Unfortunately, I knew this was going to happen going in. It was a little bit of a social experiment and it didn't fail me. Sabres fans did what I thought they would, and so did Yahoo.

Spoiler

I wasn't around for "No Goal, " but I knew that the Sabres were for me.



I wasn't around for the 2006 run to the Eastern Conference Finals, but I knew that the Sabres were for me.



I wasn't around for July 1, 2007, but I knew that the Sabres were for me.



You see, I've felt my fair share of sports pain. I'm a Phoenix Suns, Houston Texans, and Atlanta Braves fan, too. I know all too well about getting close and falling flat year after year. I know all too well about referee screwjobs. I know all too well about injuries derailing teams destined for championship glory. I know all too well about having to let beloved players go. I know.

What I also know is that I fell in love with those teams because of the way they did things as an organization. Class, honor, respect, pride, dignity. They all did things the right way. I knew I could take pride in the team no matter what, regardless of any season result. I found a lot of myself in the teams I rooted for. It's a big reason why I fell in love with the Sabres. It wasn't until I grew so frustrated with the direction in which the NBA was heading that I decided to become a full-time hockey fan. I needed to fill the void that was left by the corrupted, manufactured NBA.



I had been a very casual hockey fan my entire life. I wanted a northern team that didn't have much success but still had a great, intelligent, energetic fanbase. Starting around 2008 or so, I started watching Sabres games because I used to use them in old hockey games and took notice of Ryan Miller and Thomas Vanek. Then, lifelong Sabres fan and billionaire Terry Pegula bought the team. What a dream that was. A guy who had all the resources in the world and was a lifelong fan of the team? Stanley Cup contention was not far off. I started to feel connected with the team and relished rivalries with Boston and Philadelphia, even staying home on Easter Sunday 2011 to watch Ville Leino stab millions of Sabres fans in the heart with his overtime killer. These are the things that create hockey fans for life. I found myself wishing that I started watching hockey earlier in my life so that I'd know as much about it as I do other sports.



Since then, the Sabres have fallen from grace. What was deemed "Hockey Heaven" has been dragged to the depths of Hockey Hell. A dark, desolate dungeon of despair where the Sabres and their fans would seemingly languish in for all of eternity. Alas the emergence of Connor McDavid and Jack Eichel as "generational talent" gave the Sabres and other despondent franchises hope. A light at the end of the tunnel. The Sabres management decided they would strip the team down and lose on purpose in a not-so-inconspicuous attempt to secure one of those two and change the course of their franchise forever.



I hate the idea of tanking. I hate the word "tank." Mostly because it's been used in recent years to describe sports teams that are in transition. There's a difference between "tanking" and teams merely in transition and shifting or building assets. I saw it with my Suns, and in 2013-14 they were expected to win 20 games and ended up winning 48 and missing the playoffs by one game. Not once did appease calls to lose on purpose. The Texans went 2-14 in 2013 and instead of expecting to just "be bad anyway" they fought back with new coaching and went 9-7 in 2014 with their oh-so-special #1 pick not even contributing. The word "tanking" is for teams that lose on purpose and the Buffalo Sabres, Arizona Coyotes, and Edmonton Oilers have done that throughout the 2014-15 NHL season. It's despicable.



The problem is that Buffalo Sports has a losing culture. You cannot foster a winning culture by losing on purpose. There's this sentiment that has spread through the sports world in recent years like a cancer that "if you ain't first, you're last." Unfortunately, that sentiment is now more than just a line in a crappy Will Ferrell movie. It's the hypnotic chant of all downtrodden franchises and their fanbases. Ask the Kings from a couple years ago if they would have rather missed the playoffs instead of sneaking in as a #8. Because they established a winning culture, missing the playoffs this year is unthinkable to Kings fans I know. Ask the Flyers and Canadiens from a couple years ago if they would have rather missed the playoffs instead of both going on miracle runs to the Eastern Conference Finals. Ask the Oilers if years and years of high draft picks means anything without the management and scouting to back it up. You can't win if you're not in. People are worried about the "Ninth Place Treadmill" but here I am worrying about the "Edmonton Treadmill." Losers should never be rewarded for losing, and most times, they're not.



I understand that "generational talent" means a lot in sports. Across all sports, single players have helped shift their team's future. For every Hall-of-Famer, though, there's quite a few busts. The point is, the draft is a crapshoot and will always be a crapshoot no matter what. If you have proper management and scouting, you will be able to identify players no matter your draft slot. Some of the best franchises in sports have done an ********* job drafting late and developing talent. A team with good management and scouting doesn't require #1 picks to succeed. If draft picks were the cure to every sports franchise's ills, perpetual laughing stocks would be perpetual world champions. If Tim Murray was as great as Sabres fans seem to think he is, he wouldn't need to lose on purpose to procure a draft pick to get a star. To base your franchise's entire future on losing on purpose just to get a guy who hasn't proven it on the professional level is foolish at best and repulsive at worst. I've simply seen too many horror stories to ever put *that* level of faith into the draft.



Not only are fans cheering this on, but so are members of the media. Buffalo sports media is rife with radio hosts and social media writers that openly root for the team to lose on purpose. And it's not confined to local media. National sports writers have embraced this and encourage it constantly. It's beyond a joke at this point. And when fans see their thought leaders confirming this "strategy," all it does is perpetuate the notion that it's a good idea. Was there any other time in sports history where blatant losing on purpose would be welcomed and encouraged and joked about like this? If the Rangers or Canucks or Leafs were blatantly losing on purpose, would it be so widely cheered? Likely not. It's shameful. It's ruined the integrity of the sport. Just like with Tim Donaghy and other corrupt officials in basketball. Once you start doubting the legitimacy of what you're watching, it's all over.



I frequent a very popular Sabres message board and what used to be a fountain of knowledge for me and a way to connect with longtime Sabres fans is now an insufferable cesspool of cultists marching to that single, solitary drumbeat. Openly rooting for the team to lose, berating anyone who expresses even the slightest morsel of happiness at a win, all the while clamoring for growth from the team. What exactly do you think will grow on a team that loses on purpose? How exactly do you plan on dispelling years and decades of losing Buffalo sports culture by losing on purpose? How exactly do you cultivate players like Zemgus Girgensons, Rasmus Ristolainen, Nikita Zadorov and others by doing this? Players across the league who might have decided to sign in Buffalo may have taken fan passion into account along with the loads of cash we'd throw at them, but why would anyone want to play for such ingrates who would start rooting for the other team at the drop of a hat? What an embarrassment. I was castigated beyond belief for rooting for Buffalo to beat Boston a couple weeks back because if we're going to be losing on purpose, I at least wanted to beat our most hated rivals and help prevent them from making the playoffs too. If I have to put up with losing on purpose, I want Boston to lose too.



I am absolutely repulsed to call myself a Sabres fan. Why would I want to be associated with a team that's doing this? I'm a new hockey fan and these last couple years have done nothing to encourage me to immerse myself further with the Sabres. I've dealt with losing teams before but I can't stomach this. Conform or be cast out.



"How dare you cheer for the team you chose to root for?"

"Don't you know that losing now means winning later?"

"McEichel!"



After the last couple weeks with Sabres fans at First Niagara straight up cheering opposing teams' goals, I reached a breaking point. What's happening with the Sabres goes against everything I stand for but it would be cheap to just stop rooting for them and root for others. I look on at teams like the Flames, Jets Senators and Wild who didn't lay down and were absolutely killing themselves just to make the playoffs this year. They play fast and hungry and never, ever stopped. They built on what they had and that's admirable as hell. And next year they'll keep building. I find myself rooting for anything that pisses Sabres fans off at this point. From wins to ruin lotto chances to rooting for one of (or both) McDavid and Eichel to bust just to teach the draft fetishists a lesson. Nothing against those players, of course. It's not their fault. Even if one of them came to Buffalo, I would feel guilty knowing how the team got them. I wouldn't feel right rooting for them. I know the vast majority of others don't feel the way I do as winning is the only thing. To me, winning means nothing when the team you root for and fans you root with are detestable in every way.



The team last year was unbearable.



This year, it's even worse. This franchise is unwatchable. For a person trying to develop and hone his love for the game, these last couple years have been completely detrimental to my own development and I'm sick of it. Give me a chance to fall---and stay----in love. If you're going to be bad, at least be entertaining. We haven't been. The team is downright abhorrent. Nothing will develop the players more than meaningful hockey. The goal for any hockey team is Stanley Cups, but we spend six months of our year watching a team night-in, night-out so we should be entertained and thrilled too. If that means a playoff chase that falls short, okay. If that means a first round exit, that's okay too. Just build. Languishing and hoping draft picks pan out is not building, no matter what anyone says. It's throwing a bunch of crap together hoping that it will all click at once and suddenly you won't be bad anymore.





If you're as bad as the Sabres are, one player will not change your fortunes. One player will not make you go from worst to first. So when does it stop? Do the Sabres fans want to lose on purpose next year too because "McEichel won't be able to do it alone!"? Just throw away another year of players' careers and people's hard-earned money and valuable time watching this "product"? This is the cycle you risk entering when you start down this path. The problem with the NBA2K/Maddenification of sports is that it's never enough. Fans say, "We did it the other way, so let's try this way now!" But what if that doesn't work? Then you've squandered years only to find yourself in the same place. You've stunted the development of what good prospects the Sabres may have to work with. You've wasted what precious few years of Rick Jeanneret we have left. You've pissed away all the goodwill that your fans, including new ones such as myself have built for you. Some gamble.



You have made fans comfortably numb.



This entire sham of an arrangement has zapped much of my desire for the sport. I find myself barely even watching other games this season and not getting nearly as much pleasure out of them as I did through even last year's playoffs. It's hard to give a damn when you've been beaten into indifference. I know the Sabres and their fans will read this and say that losing a fan like me is no big deal. Most teams that do this get criticized for losing on purpose but once the star comes, the pathetic means by which they acquired that star are forgotten. They won't care and I don't blame them. After all, how many bandwagon fans will be gained once The Savior shows his face? I think it's a very big deal, though. It's not often that hockey gets a brand new fan that's not a kid and quite frankly, the sport needs to draw more people in if it ever hopes to gain true relevance in the landscape of American sports. I became a hockey fan because I was hungry for something else after years of being inundated with the garbage associated with basketball. I wanted to become a Sabres fan. I didn't just jump on a bandwagon due to a hot playoff run or a potential superstar.



That interest? Faded.



That passion? Gone.



It's turned into anger and resentment. I feel like I've gotten a raw deal, and I'm closer than I have ever been to finding a new hockey home, if I even want to keep watching at all.

This was truly a great read, Matrix. People like you get forgotten about in teams and fan bases infatuation with getting the best pick possible. You don't cultivate a rabid fanbase the way they've gone about things.

Flyers may be foolishly hellbent on competing for the short term, but it's better then taking the licks Buffalo has for just the CHANCE of a franchise changing player. I think McDavid is a legit slam dunk who's probably as close to a Crosby as has come out since, but openly cheering against your team makes no sense. Hold that crap in. Those fans and columnists should be ashamed and not let back in to watch or cover the Sabres.

Plenty of room on the Flyers "bandwagon." I know how much you like us! We are damn passionate though, foolishly so at (all the) time.

[jyoung]

Re: The Official 2014-15 Regular Season Talk Thread

Looks like the draft order gets decided Saturday at 8 PM EST.

I'm pulling for Columbus, since they could use a dynamic forward and they played to win down the stretch instead of tanking.

[TheMatrix31]

Re: The Official 2014-15 Regular Season Talk Thread

Out of those teams, I'd like to see the Stars get him.

As for me jumping on the Flyers wagon, I appreciate the offer but ain't no way that's happening, lol.

[Kobalt]

Re: The Official 2014-15 Regular Season Talk Thread

So the Stars gave John Klingberg a 7 year deal (4.25M AAV) after 65 games in the NHL. Good player.

Out of those teams, I'd like to see the Stars get him.

As for me jumping on the Flyers wagon, I appreciate the offer but ain't no way that's happening, lol.

Benn-McDavid-Seguin.... omg

[TheMatrix31]

Re: The Official 2014-15 Regular Season Talk Thread

My goodness.

[slickdtc]

The Official 2014-15 Regular Season Talk Thread

Spezza still has something to offer too, right? Don't follow the Stars at all.

What exactly happened to them this season anyway? They've got some good players. Too top heavy? No notable defensemen to shoulder the load a la the Flyers?

As for me jumping on the Flyers wagon, I appreciate the offer but ain't no way that's happening, lol.

I knew it was a longshot! LOL

As for the draft, obviously as a fan I want the Flyers to win it, but any of those teams after Edmonton and before LA sound good to me.