Speculation: How to turn it around...

[MayDayMayDay]

Lord knows my saying something is just gonna throw a hex now on the whole dang thing, but for arguments sake... Imagine it's two months from now, and after this abysmal start to the season, the Sabres have turned it around and turned it on. To everyone's surprise, they've just clinched a playoff berth and are sitting pretty somewhere in between the 5-8 seed, prompting the experts to put their first round matchup on "upset alert". A random hockey fan walks up to you on the street and asks you to describe how it happened. What do you say??

Click to read more...

 

[Beerz]

Lord knows my saying something is just gonna throw a hex now on the whole dang thing, but for arguments sake... Imagine it's two months from now, and after this abysmal start to the season, the Sabres have turned it around and turned it on. To everyone's surprise, they've just clinched a playoff berth and are sitting pretty somewhere in between the 5-8 seed, prompting the experts to put their first round matchup on "upset alert". A random hockey fan walks up to you on the street and asks you to describe how it happened. What do you say??

We fired Ruff...

 

[schpaff]

Fire everyone..nuke FNC..find sabretooth and lance him..steal Pegula's money and build the best outhouse for all Sabre fans who know better! Winning!

 

[Royisgone]

We lanced Sabretooth. Definitely.

 

[omglolnub]

We fired Ruff...

/thread

 

[MayDayMayDay]

/thread

Yea might as well. Thought this might have elicited more thoughtful contributions. Meh.

 

[omglolnub]

Yea might as well. Thought this might have elicited more thoughtful contributions. Meh.

I mean, if this were almost any other team in the league, Ruff would've been canned for this season's performance, based on expectations of how the club should perform (easily make the playoffs at least, imho). Not even talking about past seasons or anything. Ruff simply would be a mid-season firing most organizations would do. But hey, this is Buffalo!

 

[Beerz]

Yea might as well. Thought this might have elicited more thoughtful contributions. Meh.

I wasn't being serious..... I thought I'd throw it in before it turned into that...

I think what turned it around would be a dynamic trade.... the RoR sort ..or even a Perry/Ryan move...

All of that coupled with our D playing up to their standards...especially Myers.

We SHOULD have a decent top 4 pairing...right now we only have Ehrhoff and Sekera that are playing acceptable hockey.

 

[jBuds]

A handful of things would have to happen:

- Myers wakes up, eats 25 mins a game, and gets on the scoresheet. A true number one defenseman works wonders for teams in terms of being tougher to play against

- Vanek's "hot start" ends up being routine and there's no drop off

- Stafford goes on a classic uptick (but a very extended one), allowing other teams to alleviate focus from Vanek and his line, which in turn allows Pommer to score even more goals, chain reaction style

- the PP starts to click

- a transaction is made that sparks some sort of run (trade)

- Miller maintains a Vezina level of play

- Foligno begins to work, Ott continues to pester and hit, and opponents find it tough to stay focused on us without engaging in shenanigans

- we get a spark from someone from Rochester in some form: be it added offense from the back in Pysyk, or added meanness in McNab ... Something

And we'd need 90-100% of these things to happen for us to creep into playoff position, much less 5th overall in the East. And it's arguable that that's impossible with this current coach.

 

[TehDoak]

Every now and then I get a little bit lonely and you're never coming around
Turn around every now and then I get a little bit tired of listening to the sound of my tears
Turn around every now and then I get a little bit nervous that the best of all the years have gone by
Turn around every now and then I get a little bit terrified and then I see the look in your eyes

Every now and then I fall aparttttttt

 

[SatanwasaSlovak]

All the roads except the one to Boston gets blown up. We play Boston until the beginning of the playoffs and Vanek breaks Gretzkys records with a 7-point per game pace.

 

[LGBuffalo]

A handful of things would have to happen:

- Myers wakes up, eats 25 mins a game, and gets on the scoresheet. A true number one defenseman works wonders for teams in terms of being tougher to play against

- Vanek's "hot start" ends up being routine and there's no drop off

- Stafford goes on a classic uptick (but a very extended one), allowing other teams to alleviate focus from Vanek and his line, which in turn allows Pommer to score even more goals, chain reaction style

- the PP starts to click

- a transaction is made that sparks some sort of run (trade)

- Miller maintains a Vezina level of play

- Foligno begins to work, Ott continues to pester and hit, and opponents find it tough to stay focused on us without engaging in shenanigans

- we get a spark from someone from Rochester in some form: be it added offense from the back in Pysyk, or added meanness in McNab ... Something

And we'd need 90-100% of these things to happen for us to creep into playoff position, much less 5th overall in the East. And it's arguable that that's impossible with this current coach.

This pretty much sums it up. While it seems like they're playing a better brand of lousy lately, the internal problems are still there. However, if it all turned around, I think most of it would be centered around strong defensive play. Myers regaining Calder-Myers form; Weber and/or Leopold to improve, etc. Additionally, any type of consistent secondary scoring would really help. I really hope that FES can start playing a better puck-possession style, like they did last year. Having two lines that are rolling would go a long way in helping this team make a play-off run, imo.

 

[Crazy Tasty]

Every now and then I get a little bit lonely and you're never coming around
Turn around every now and then I get a little bit tired of listening to the sound of my tears
Turn around every now and then I get a little bit nervous that the best of all the years have gone by
Turn around every now and then I get a little bit terrified and then I see the look in your eyes

Every now and then I fall aparttttttt

A little NSFW...

 

[BUCKSHOT]

Every now and then I get a little bit lonely and you're never coming around
Turn around every now and then I get a little bit tired of listening to the sound of my tears
Turn around every now and then I get a little bit nervous that the best of all the years have gone by
Turn around every now and then I get a little bit terrified and then I see the look in your eyes

Every now and then I fall aparttttttt

Bonnie Tyler, was my favorite song when I was 10-11 (ish) so long ago I have the record