The Sabres are sticking with their team motto: Commitment to Mediocrity

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Sabres Hockey: Commitment to Mediocrity

I think the big scoring issue has to do with the playoffs and not the regular season.

The team was 10th in the league in Goals For per Game last year. That isn't that bad especially since Vanek, Pominville, and a few others had off years.

The biggest scoring issue I see is a lack of guys that are built for the playoffs.

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Sabres Hockey: Commitment to Mediocrity

Their biggest problem is the assumption that players are automatically going to be better because they're a year older. That's just not always true.

Derek Roy has been the same player for the last couple seasons. So has Drew Stafford. Expecting that either player is going to be anything substantially different next year is a pipe dream.

Chris Butler was being hailed as a future stalwart of the defense when he was first called up and played so well. Last year he couldn't stay in the lineup ahead of Sekera.

Since the salary cap has been implemented, Darcy has become married to his players. As an organization, they refuse to admit that a player has reached his potential, and won't get much better, or cling to the hope that a player is going to get substantially better based on experience.

They don't need to make crazy moves, or blow it up. They need to be able to admit that they made a mistake with a player and move on, or take upgrades when they're available.

I'm not ready to bail on Butler. I can chalk up last year to a sophomore slump.

And I can understand if they try and hold onto Stafford. But, I would be shopping him in a deal to a team that is looking for cap relief.

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Sabres Hockey: Commitment to Mediocrity

This, and come to think of it. Zherdov is far and away the LAST guy they want to add to that mix. But yo know, I don't see a quick fix in free agency anywhere, I think it's going to take a shrewd trade.

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"I love that you know how to do that." Cheryl/Carol/Crystal

"And I love that I have an erection that doesn't involve homeless people." Kreiger

I don't see that happening, for one thing his cap hit is only like 2 million, that's not a great deal of relief when you look at the big picture. Furthermore, he is in fact capable of putting up 45-55 points, that's pretty much what you're going to get out of Zherdov for 2 million more.

Stafford is a guy I don't particularly like on the team, but they could do worse, and he is still young enough to have the word "potential" mean something.

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"I love that you know how to do that." Cheryl/Carol/Crystal

"And I love that I have an erection that doesn't involve homeless people." Kreiger

He's got about twenty-thirty games in to this season before I kick him off the "potential" cliff

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"I can't really hear what Jeremy says, because I got my two Stanley Cup Rings plugging my ears...." -Patrick Roy in reference to Jeremy Roenick's trash talking

How are you measuring this? By production?

I know Derek has become a better player year after year. He improved his face off percentages, and nobody seemed to notice. He's also learning to be better on the defensive side of the puck. I saw multiple times this season plays where Derek came back and made some diving poke checks and shot blocks to prevent goals or passes that would have lead to great opportunities.

No one who continues to play in this league stays the same player year after year. They're always learning, always adapting.

The only reason people shit on Roy (and I'm not saying that's what you're doing, Squanto... just making a point) is because he isn't Joe Thornton.

Butler had a bad season last year. Call it a sophomore slump. These things happen.

How many years did Campbell flat out suck until he finally reached his potential?

My point is, these guys are professional athletes. Each season, we really won't know what to expect. Some guys will have off years in numbers, some will have great ones.

But in my mind, the surest bet is seeing the guys that struggled the previous year play great hockey the following one.

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Wheelhouse