Buffalo Sabres have lost 11 in a row.

[KeyserSoze81]

And if they’d stayed they would’ve had success together.

But they wouldn't have, specifically because they surrounded them with terrible coaching, substance abuse-addled veterans (ROR, Robin Lehner), and immature morons like Evander Kane. Buffalo had a limited window to turn things around with Eichel and Reinhart, and they missed it. Eichel wanted out, and Reinhart wanted out after Eichel was leaving.

They managed to alienate their best player by not listening to his wishes. The injury might have been unlucky, the way they handled it was idiotic.

Eichel had requested a trade a year before. It was already over. The injury was a vehicle by Eichel's camp to push the issue to a head - if they were on better ground, I guarantee that they would have reached a reasonable reconciliation (despite gross mismanagement by the Sabres).

I am not excusing the Sabres; indeed, I hate them and want the franchise to fold rather than ruining the few good memories of the sport that I still possess. But you cannot keep unhappy talent around forever and somehow achieve success.

 

[Schennanigans]

I don’t understand them struggling this mightily. You’d think they no talent on the team to suck this bad.

 

[Lafleurs Guy]

What did Sakic's org do until getting their grubby little mitts on a certain Patrick Roy and Mike Keane? As a Habs fan I remember that trade. 29 years later and I still remember. Maybe you're just too young to remember.

I remember it well.

What they didn’t do was trade Joe Sakic.

 

[Lafleurs Guy]

But they wouldn't have, specifically because they surrounded them with terrible coaching, substance abuse-addled veterans (ROR, Robin Lehner), and immature morons like Evander Kane. Buffalo had a limited window to turn things around with Eichel and Reinhart, and they missed it. Eichel wanted out, and Reinhart wanted out after Eichel was leaving.

Okay. But giving away those players certainly didn’t help. So why would they want to repeat those mistakes?

Eichel had requested a trade a year before. It was already over. The injury was a vehicle by Eichel's camp to push the issue to a head - if they were on better ground, I guarantee that they would have reached a reasonable reconciliation (despite gross mismanagement by the Sabres).

Sure. Bad luck and they made it worse. I’m not defending what went down there. Just saying that people using this as an argument against rebuilding are missing the point- it’s not rebuilding if you trade your best player/prospects away. That’s an aborted rebuild and it sucks.

I am not excusing the Sabres; indeed, I hate them and want the franchise to fold rather than ruining the few good memories of the sport that I still possess. But you cannot keep unhappy talent around forever and somehow achieve success.

Sure. That was a unique case and as I said, it’s bad luck - whether they exacerbated it or not.