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The Lesson in the Sabres Horrendous Season


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You win.

My point is the Pegula's have no clue on hiring the right people, especially with the Sabres (been going on much longer than Bills).

Plus, they seem very arrogant when confronted about this dilemma.

Again, they lucked out with McDermott & Beane

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54 minutes ago, IronyAbounds said:

https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/everything-that-could-go-wrong-for-the-buffalo-sabres-has-gone-wrong/?ex_cid=538twitter

 

No, this isn't a post about the Sabres, per se, it is the cautionary tale for the Bills. As the Sabres' horrendous season starkly demonstrates, improvement and optimistic signs of growth in one season do automatically translate to continued improvement and growth in the next. Everyone expected the Sabres to be better this year, but as the article points out a multitude of factors, some random, others not, obliterated the hoped for playoff push. Similarly, the reasonable expectation is that the Bills will be better this year and could easily be Super Bowl contenders. Yet, all it might take is a single injury (e.g., Allen) and the best laid plans are demolished. Covid could also continue to have some effect on the season. You always have to have an eye on the future in the NFL or any sport, but it is also important to seize every opportunity to win now (which is why the KC loss was hard to stomach). It's a difficult balancing act, and so far Beane seems to have done a good job. I'm very hopeful for 2021, but fingers crossed that the Sabres' experience won't be repeated by the Bills.

I agree u can't expect 1 season to correlate with the next we've seen plenty of teams peak over the years only to fall on there faces the next.  Eagles, Rams, Falcons, Jags, Bears, Vikings are just a few examples of this over the last few yrs.  

 

What separates the Bills I believe is #1 They have a legitimate Elite franchise QB in Josh Allen and #2 The front office and Head Coach don't go to work everyday thinking about the previous success of 2020 season. They'll leave that to all or most of the people on these boards to talk about. With that being said the Bills might not go 13-3 next season but they might be a better team even with 11 wins. Even if they don't win as much they can still win the Superbowl. We just seen a 11 win team in Bucs do just that. We even seen some 9-7 teams win it all .  

 

The answer to all this though is can the Bills make the adjustments to the counter adjustments others team will make against us. 

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31 minutes ago, Beast said:

 

Lynn? Give me a feeaking break. He took over as interim. Doug Whaley was on board when Terry Pegula took the team over.

Yeah, but Ryan was a horrible hire.  Absolutely horrible.  If you recall, we had a very good defense at that point run by Jim Schwartz.  I would have been pretty happy to see what Schwartz could have done as HC.  Ryan destroyed that good defense.  He stunk as a HC.

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16 minutes ago, st pete gogolak said:

Yeah, but Ryan was a horrible hire.  Absolutely horrible.  If you recall, we had a very good defense at that point run by Jim Schwartz.  I would have been pretty happy to see what Schwartz could have done as HC.  Ryan destroyed that good defense.  He stunk as a HC.

As new owners, they also had a serpent spitting poison in their ear known as Russ. 

Edited by The Wiz
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1 hour ago, MJS said:

That's a weak correlation. The Bills and Sabres haven't been a similar trajectory at all.

 

If there's any correlation between the two teams, it's the Bills of years past with the Sabres of present (and past). It's not like the Sabres suddenly got bad, at best they've regressed from mediocre to bad this year. Bills were mediocre for forever and it wasn't just this years Josh Allen that pulled them out of it.  They landed a good coach (anyone remember when people fretted that McDermott clapped a lot?) and GM and were able to build a strong team. For the Sabres that's the correlation you're looking for. Easier said than done, though. 

 

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Every year you start at 0-0.  The difference between the Bills and Sabres is EFFORT!  Under McDermott this team puts up a fight, gives it their all, every weak.  Leading by example Josh Allen.  Contrast this with the talented Jack Eichel.  A guy that I suspect was always the best player on the ice coming into the league and just doesn't have the same "hunger" a guy like Allen has, or has just lost his drive because of all the losing.

Plus the Sabres are a physically and mentally weak team and the coaching staff doesn't seem to be able to get this group motivated.  What said it all to me was a game a few weeks ago where the team needed a spark and got it from Cozens engaging in a fight.  Wow, a rookie being the only guy to step up.  Pathetic.  I've seen more contact and physicality in pairs ice dancing than these guys show night after night.  Contrast this with Feliciano and Dawkins getting into it against the Chiefs coming to their QB's defense.  The Bills have heart and passion for the game.  The Sabres are a bunch of guys going through the motions for 3 periods cashing big paychecks a couple times a month.  Bad goaltending sure but even teams with bad goaltending go out there trying to win.      

 

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1 hour ago, nucci said:

How far back do you want to go? The Bills have been at the absolute bottom many times

 

Sorry, I should have been more clear.  Let's say a decade.  84-85 was the pits.  Also, the Sabres have sucked for going on 15 years.  While the Bills playoff drought lasted a long time, they weren't perennially bad like the Sabres.

Edited by Freddie's Dead
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May not be as good record wise but i expect the team to be a little better overall , with the defense and running game being better. 

 

Could an injury derail the season? Sure , but thats not the Sabres problem,  honestly not sure what their problem is but the Bills and Sabres are not comparable from an organizational structure standpoint, i.e. The process and McDermott 's coaching and Beane's talent acquisitions are what makes the Bills great.

 

 

 

 

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2 hours ago, IronyAbounds said:

https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/everything-that-could-go-wrong-for-the-buffalo-sabres-has-gone-wrong/?ex_cid=538twitter

 

No, this isn't a post about the Sabres, per se, it is the cautionary tale for the Bills. As the Sabres' horrendous season starkly demonstrates, improvement and optimistic signs of growth in one season do automatically translate to continued improvement and growth in the next. Everyone expected the Sabres to be better this year, but as the article points out a multitude of factors, some random, others not, obliterated the hoped for playoff push. Similarly, the reasonable expectation is that the Bills will be better this year and could easily be Super Bowl contenders. Yet, all it might take is a single injury (e.g., Allen) and the best laid plans are demolished. Covid could also continue to have some effect on the season. You always have to have an eye on the future in the NFL or any sport, but it is also important to seize every opportunity to win now (which is why the KC loss was hard to stomach). It's a difficult balancing act, and so far Beane seems to have done a good job. I'm very hopeful for 2021, but fingers crossed that the Sabres' experience won't be repeated by the Bills.

The Bills trend has not been one season.  Look at the Bill's trend since 2017.

 

This is truly apples and oranges.

 

The Sabres are a poorly run organization.  The Bills have top level management and are a class operation from top to bottom.

 

 

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1 hour ago, I'm Spartacus said:

 

Rex Ryan and Anthony Lynn, then McDermott

Doug Whaley, then Beane

Whaley was already here.  Ryan was a bad hire.  Lynn is the product of what a team does when they fire the coach during the season... have an interim coach that is already on the team.  They made 1 GM hire and 2 HC hires.

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6 minutes ago, I am the egg man said:

The hires after Ruff and Regier just get worse.

 

They haven't even hit on a Rex Ryan level type since.

 

Sad but true.

 

I wanted that coach from Sweden, cant remember his name but all i remember is he was a lot different than the usual NHL coaching hires and i was all for that, curious how he's doing now?

 

 

 

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I really don’t feel there is any comparison here at all. I never had high expectations for the Sabres this season. The division was always going to be a bloodbath, the goaltending and defense were always shaky. I did expect the offense to be better, but they really just had Jack and Hall as proven commodities. Things happen, but the Sabres had absolutely no where near the expectations that the Bills will have, for good reason. This parallel would be more comparable if this happened to say, the Tampa Bay Lightning. 

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Yes, if a guy like Josh gets hurt all bets are off.  Losing a starting QB hoses every team in the NFL.  
 

As far as the Sabres, they should get McD and Beane consulted in on the next HC puck.  Get a guy that is in sync with Adams as to how to build the team, specifically the kind of players needed, and give them the control to get rid of guys who don’t buy in.  Personally I’d start with Eichel.

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