AP An “embarrassing” performance last night in Toronto has produced no shortage of harsh words about the Buffalo Sabres.
From the Globe and Mail’s James Mirtle:
The Buffalo Sabres looked like an American Hockey League team all game, unable to skate with the Toronto Maple Leafs (!) and incapable of mustering more than 10 harmless shots.
…
Buffalo was bad last year, but nothing quite like this. Their 52-point season was good (bad?) for dead last, putting them 14 behind the 29th place Florida Panthers, but they managed to hang in more games despite a lack of offence.
Then they lost two of their better NHL players in Ryan Miller and Christian Ehrhoff and are dressing a group of minor leaguers and kids on many nights. Other than [Josh] Gorges, Brian Gionta, Cody Hodgson, Matt Moulson, Tyler Myers and Drew Stafford, there’s simply not much there.
And this is how the Buffalo News led its game story:
There have been some horrible, downright despicable performances by the Sabres since they were founded in 1970. Pity anyone who watched one worse than Tuesday’s outing.
Buffalo’s 10th game of 2014-15 had folks looking to the calendar to see when this season will be over. Only 24 weeks and 72 games left!
You get the picture. And if, somehow, you still don’t, consider these stats:
— The Sabres have scored 10 goals in 10 games. Yep, that’s just one per game.
— They’ve already been shut out four times.
— They still haven’t scored on the power play, despite 56:51 of time with the man advantage.
— They’ve been out-shot by an average margin of 36.7 to 21.8.
Think coach Ted Nolan might be getting a little fed up? We’ll leave you with this, from Sabres practice this morning:
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- Hard to BeLeaf - Oct 29, 2014 at 12:48 PM
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I had a feeling this reaction would happen if the Leafs won the game.
If the Leafs lost, the panic parade would still be on. Everyone would be happy the Leafs lost. Buffalo would have been praised as a great rebuild team.
If the Leafs won, they’d blame Buffalo for tanking the season. They can’t give the Leafs credit, so Buffalo must be flopping the season. Can’t possibly be the Leafs played a good game.
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- kaptaanamerica - Oct 29, 2014 at 6:09 PM
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i’m curious, are you off your meds? the leafs get the most biased favourable coverage cuz of all the scum suckers at Bell and Rogers who own the f*ing team??? why would they knock the leafs? it’s their own team!! even before that the scum at CBC would give them favourable coverage cuz they broadcast them every Saturday night. now that Montreal is on in English on Saturday nights, forget about the leafs being shoved down people’s throats.
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- Hard to BeLeaf - Oct 29, 2014 at 9:09 PM
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Did you even read my comment? Has nothing to do with who gets the most air time.
Leafs get the most air time in Canada because morons like you who claim to cheer for OTHER teams spend WAY more time following the Leafs than their own teams. Ratings is Ratings. That has nothing to do with Rogers and Bell buying the team. It was like that before too.
Love em or Hate em. People can’t resist watching the Leafs.
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- stophatingonthesabres - Oct 29, 2014 at 9:30 PM
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they are not taking, they just don’t have enough talent yet.
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- stophatingonthesabres - Oct 29, 2014 at 9:31 PM
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they are not taking, they just don’t have enough talent yet!
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- truculenttrooper - Oct 30, 2014 at 9:39 AM
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Blame the media whether the Leafs win or lose? Go outside maybe it’s just a viamin d deficiency good man.
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- c9castine - Oct 29, 2014 at 12:52 PM
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You lose like that and the next day your coach has to scream at you to wake the f up?
Being bad is one thing. Florida and the isles were bad for years but they still worked hard and you had to show up to beat them. These guys are high paid pros….no excuse
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- endusersolutions2013 - Oct 29, 2014 at 12:57 PM
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Actually they are very competitive, currently neck and neck with Carolina for the year end sweepstakes;)
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- hosewater2 - Oct 29, 2014 at 12:59 PM
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Bring back the Draft Lottery, maybe that would prevent the tanking.
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- zielinski18 - Oct 29, 2014 at 3:01 PM
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There is a lottery…
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- erbaker67 - Oct 29, 2014 at 1:18 PM
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Are the Leafs that good or are the Sabres that bad? Not trying to troll or anything but the Leafs have not been playing good hockey as of late, nor have the Sabres. Wasnt able to watch the game last night, I did see the highlights which looked like two goals were scored from beyond the goal line. Again, I havent had a chance to see both teams play a lot this year.
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- pjblake2redwings - Oct 29, 2014 at 2:26 PM
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I hope so much that they do not get McDavid or Eichel. Managment put this team together to lose on purpose and they should be fined for giving their fans this product rather than rewarded with #1 or #2 pick
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- lilroot9 - Oct 29, 2014 at 2:43 PM
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So I see why you say that, but what else could they have done this offseason to help that?
Sign free agents? They did that and are still getting wacked.
Try to resign NHL talented players, that want to play else where? Tried that, but had to trade them to get something for them leaving (a must for any NHL team).
Not buy out Erhoff? He wanted out bad and this was the last year to do it without a penalty, so to prevent the room for getting bad, he just bought him out (for fear of the recapture penalty later on).
Play rookies and young players even if they are not ready? If they did that and were losing, people would say they are doing that on purpose too.
Trade picks for roster older roster players, even if their current roster would not even make them contend for a playoff spot? That would be bad long term, and they are focusing on the rebuild, much like Edmonton, Flordia, Calgary and others have been doing for years. (or Blackhawks, Pittsburgh did before they got their stars)
So I understand your issues with it, but really, what can they do?
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- hosewater2 - Oct 29, 2014 at 2:57 PM
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Me too, and I hate seeing a premier generational talent like McDavid go to a backwater like Buffalo NY.
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- kaptaanamerica - Oct 29, 2014 at 6:05 PM
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oh so all the scum suckers don’t want Buffalo to get McDavid now. Buffalo sucks bad not due to the mgmt not spending money. they spent money but due to idiotic GM decisions (not unlike the Oilers) they are in last. they totally deserve the first pick, the same way any team in the past that has sucked got the first overall. just like the Pens got lemieux and the Nords got that scum lindros. pittsburgh was given crosby to stabilize the team. so why doesn’t buffalo deserve a generational player? tampa got stamkos and the oilers, well they got like 5 first overall picks and they still suck.
all the haters wish their team would get mcdavid. but screw them, i hope buffalo gets him and gets eichel too somehow..
lols… carolina is bad but that’s probably cuz of injuries.
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- stophatingonthesabres - Oct 29, 2014 at 9:48 PM
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you will eat your words when we become good, we have good managment now but when we had darcy regier he put us so deep in a hole that we cant play much better with the way our team is right now, btw we are not tanking tim murray said this in an interview and the players them selfs think it is a realistic goal to make the playoffs.
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- travishenryskid - Oct 29, 2014 at 2:31 PM
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Other than Gionta, Hodgson, Moulson and Stafford, there is simply not much there? He listed probably the most invisible players in a pretty invisible group. Myers, Ennis, Girgensons and Gorges look like the only NHLers on this team.
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- kaptaanamerica - Oct 29, 2014 at 6:06 PM
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hodgson sucks. he’s a fourth liner now…. kassian is a 3rd line presence baby… booyah b*tches.
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- stophatingonthesabres - Oct 29, 2014 at 9:51 PM
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no he isn’t dumbass.
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- kaptaanamerica - Oct 30, 2014 at 3:41 AM
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lols, yes he is, at least for now… until he sucks it up and starts playing.. he’s on the fourth line…
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- canadabaseball - Oct 29, 2014 at 4:05 PM
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The sabers will finish lat and lose the lottery and get the 2nd pick
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- travishenryskid - Oct 29, 2014 at 4:39 PM
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Cool, I’ll take Jack Eichel every day of the week.
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