Just got back from Chi-town. Some random observations:

Geeez, the Untied Center is f-ing loud! When the Hawks score, you might want to put in some earplugs....and it goes on for a little longer than goal celebrations at HSBC.

For a guy who, I thought, was on the down-swing career-wise, Turco made some really nice saves (we were behind him for periods 1 & 3).

NO CUPHOLDERS on the seasts at the UC! WTF? That little addition makes a WORLD of difference!

Holy shit...between the NHL & NBA, they have tons of banners in the rafters. Always more impressive in person.

Was NOT a good night to flag down a cab outside the UC. Had to walk blocks towrd downtown to get one. Yikes!

And finally: Maybe it was more noticeable in person, but as much as Sabre fans are complaining here about bad calls, there really were a bunch of calls that should've been made on Sabres that weren't, particularly, if I remember correctly, a Connolly hook in the 2nd.

My son had a Miller jersey on, and believe it or not, the ONLY ones to make any comments about it were Chicago CHICKS! My son told them to fuck off. (Just kidding)

If you're ever going to check out a Sabre away game, Chicago is a good place to start.

And oh yea:

Take the "C" from Rivet

and....

Get rid of Darcy. Team needs solid top 2 lines. Until they do that, you will never convince me that the front office gives a shit about the cup.

Rivet is an invisible captain. Our next captain should be visible.

I will not doubt ridding ourselves of Darcy. It is obvious he disappears when we are on a losing streak. He is afraid to make beneficial changes to the team to start winning.

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Let's go Buffalo!

AHH DARCY SUXXXX! FIRE HIM!!!

/thread

Can this be locked/deleted now?

Although, as to not come off as a complete jerk, I do agree that Rivet's leadership does not seem to be showing. Maybe a change in the captaincy would not be such a bad thing.

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Rest in Peace Nani. 10/3/10

Gerbacity



"Grier coming in over the line. He leaves it to Gaustad. The shot. THEY SCOOOREE!! RING UP ANOTHER ONE FOR THE GOOSE!!! HONK IF YA HEAR THE GOOSE!! 3-0 BUFFALO!"

I agree that with Miller in net, the addition of one-three serious forwards could get us in cup contending form. I do get the feeling that the owners aren't invested for a serious cup run and won't be until they start losing big money from ticket sales etc. I don't like Darcy much but the problem is above him.

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i was at that game too. i was in the upper deck behind lalime for periods 1 and 3.

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Check out my website: http://www.artistzero.com

"That wasn't very nice...I do believe you killed my hat."

Driver of the FIRE LINDY RUFF Bandwagon since 2008.

Ummm Darcy still has to work with an internal budget, if we want real talent in here, get owners who want to win the Cup.

If Darcy is givin free reign over a team, I would bet his teams would make serious pushes towards a cup every year.

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That's almost always the case, honestly. I disdain complaints about the officiating if the complaints are centered on one team. They rarely call things on one team but not another. If they're not calling them on the opponent, chances are they're not calling them on your team, either, but you don't notice; however, if you visit other forums around the league, opposing fans certainly do (while not noticing what their team gets away with).

One of my sports fan pet peeves.

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Miles to go before I sleep

‎"Love knows not its own depth until the hour of separation."
-Khalil Gibran

ZOMG Darcy NEEDS TO GET FIRED! I don't need any factual information or any understanding of how being a GM works! I know from NHL 11 dawg! Dane Cook is funny! ZOMG!

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"Counting all the assholes in the room, I'm definitely not alone!" ~ Michael Poulsen, Volbeat, Still Standing.

Ref's will be biased, but then call some penalties on the other team just to make it look even on paper. This method is very inconsistent, and the only real thing I want out of the refs is consistency. If you call hooking on Buffalo, then the next hook from (whatever team Buffalo is playing) better damn well be called. If they want to let a few interference calls go from (whatever team Buffalo is playing), then they better damn well let a few interference calls go from Buffalo.

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So you got to sit under all those Bulls championship banners, while I sat under a bunch of Stanley Cup banners.

Neener, neener, neener!

Darcy has not made the best use of an internal budget. When goal scorers are available at low prices, he should have made a move to sign one.

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Let's go Buffalo!

And who are these low price goal scorers?

I don't know anyone who can score 30+ goals signed for less than 5 million dollars it seems right now.

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Darcy had free reign over the team and was allowed to spend to the cap from the lockout until this year, and he's only gotten them to the conference finals.

He failed miserably in keeping those teams together, and bet on the wrong players.

Guess he's thinking about retirement, I still say once Pominville comes back that he should be it. I thought he was outstanding during the rotating captaincy season in 07/08

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"...they came down into the stands and asked if I knew how to do play by play. I said...No. But. I'll take a shot at it if you want".- Rick Jeanneret

I think that was a matter of catching Pominville at the right time. Pominville is always an end-of-season player, and always plays above standards. He was the captain at that time during the rotation. He still is consistently an above-and-beyond player towards the end of the season.

However, I've always been a proponent of Pominville being the captain. If we're gonna go by leading by example, I'd pick Roy or Pominville. They're consistently the top point getters on the team, and the league's shift to more "lead-by-example" captains (i.e. Toews, Crosby, Sedin, etc.) has seemingly worked for these teams.

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Girgensons for captain. Team Keep Nick DesLauriers forever.

@TJLuckman550

You mean "lead by example high point producers"? I think Grier would be a candidate but who knows how much longer he'll be here?

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"...they came down into the stands and asked if I knew how to do play by play. I said...No. But. I'll take a shot at it if you want".- Rick Jeanneret

That's exactly what I mean. Toews, Crosby, Sedin... none of them are really locker room guys. The "locker room" captain is more or less of a dying breed in the NHL. Might as well follow the trend that seems to be working.

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Girgensons for captain. Team Keep Nick DesLauriers forever.

@TJLuckman550

Well it takes more then one or two years most of the time to build a team to win a cup without top draft picks.

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What he's saying is that they've been so close, only to be dismantled before they can get any closer. It doesn't help that Darcy had some miserable drafts before he finally hit on Vanek, then a few more misses, and then he finally found his groove (seemingly) when he selected both Myers and Ennis. Seeing as they're still junior eligible, it's not fair to rate Kassian or Pysyk yet.

1997- Mika Noronen 21st overall (bust- never really made it out of the AHL, passed by Miller, a 5th round pick)
1998- Dmitri Kalinin 18th overall (bust- never lived up to expectations)
1999- Barrett Heisten 20th overall (bust- never even played a significant amount of time in NHL)
2000- Artem Kryukov 15th overall (bust- never played in the NHL)
2001- Jiri Novotny 22nd overall (bust- couldn't find his game, even with extensive NHL time. In KHL now)
2002- Daniel Paille 20th overall (borderline- couldn't do much with Sabres. Streaky, more often bad streaks)
2003- Thomas Vanek 5th overall (hit)
2004- Drew Stafford 13th overall (borderline, closer to hit. Streaky, but has more positive streaks. "Has potential" as we say)
2005- Marek Zagrapan 13th overall (bust- In the KHL now. Never played an NHL game)
2006- Dennis Perrsonn 24th overall (borderline, closer to bust. Has never made any indication of even being close to making the team)
2007- No 1st round pick- traded to Washington

That's a ton of failure in the 1st round for Darcy ever since he's had control of the draft. Of course, he makes up for it by finding good role-players (Gaustad in the 7th, Kaleta in 6th) in the later rounds, not to mention skill players like Derek Roy and Jason Pominville, 2nd-round finds.

Darcy has also never seemed to find defense in the draft, either (Myers seemingly being the exception).

I don't know. Combine this on top of the fact that Darcy has had a full cap to spend to each and every season up until now, the onus seems to be on him for the past 12 seasons before this.

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Girgensons for captain. Team Keep Nick DesLauriers forever.

@TJLuckman550

Of course the window of opportunity for many teams is open for a fairly brief amount of time. Many commentators around WNY acknowledged with the loss of Drury & Briere, that the window had now been closed. Many fans rejected this idea, figuring anything can happen. I have never believed that.

Consider that the odds of a team going far are based on so many variables, including:
players coming in
players leaving
players on the upswing of their career
players peaking
players on the downslide
free agency
injuries

The list goes on.

Also consider the multitude of variables affecting all the teams they play in the course of a season and how those variables effect the liklihood of winning against all those teams night after night.

A team is this amorphous thing that is constanly in flux, which makes it especially difficult for most managers to maintain at a consistant level. Many things do have to align properly for a great record to be built, but obviously the most important thing is a STRONG and TALENTED CORE. That, IMHO is the singualr most important factor outweighing all those other variables, which is why I believe, in spite of what some say here, that you are not likely to luck your way into the cup with a mixed bag of talent at your core. Not absolutely impossible, but highly improbable.

Darcy and his bosses seem to want to gamble instead of purposely stacking the deck in their favor. And this front office "we love our players" nonsense makes me laugh. They sure didn't love Kennedy, especially when he wanted more money. What's that? They were just being financially judicious? Oh, well why then didn't they pick him up for the 550k before the Rangers snagged him? They could've, but chose not to---even though that is a lot less $$$ than they were already paying him last season. But I thought they loved their players, especially one that had been nurtured through the system, especially a hometown boy for cryin' out loud?

No, in reality, what they love is $$$. I cannot blame them, it IS a business, which is why I am convinced, under this ownership, that decisions are made weighing the cost of winning a cup vs. the cost of just keeping fans hanging on.

Of course there is a chance the GM isn't as intuitive as some like to think.

In either case, change the GM and change the core.

Cups don't fall into a team's lap, you have to go get them.