As I’ve wrote on the site a few times, I had become pretty detached from watching the Sabres over the last two seasons. I was fine with the tank and understood why they wanted to do this, but there was no way I was going to sit there and watch really crappy hockey. Sorry, but this site doesn’t pay me enough to put myself through that.
So for this year with the additions of Eichel-Kane-O’Reilly, I dropped 100 bucks for NHL.com Gamecenter for just the Sabres. For the most part, my expectations ranged around the Sabres being probably 20th overall in the NHL. I was not expecting playoffs, but I was banking on being entertained. On some nights, its been there…but for the most part, the nights have been extremely boring and frustrating. Look, its easy to say the Sabres are much more “fun” because we were subjected to watching probably the worst hockey in team history over the last two years. Watching someone play Blades of Steel on Nintendo would be more entertaining than watching the Nolan teams.
Even with the bottoming out to accentuate the product for this season, I thought the Sabres were going to score a ton of goals while giving up a bunch. I was right on one of those theories. The Sabres have given up the 8th most goals in the NHL while scoring the 5th fewest goals. The Sabres have scored a goal or less in 18 games this year which is ranked 4th in the NHL. They have scored 2 or fewer goals at home in 18 games which are the most in the NHL for a home. The Sabres lack of goal production is due in large part because the depth on this team is deplorable. The three guys we thought would score 60+ goals between them (Ennis/Zemgus/Moulson) have just 12 goals. If you aren’t scoring goals, the entertainment is going to lack.
Now, here’s where the lack of communication comes into play. Just because I’m not thrilled with the on ice product because of losing and a lack of scoring doesn’t mean there are zero positives. The young core on this team has done well. Eichel and Reinhart have 32 goals between them. O’Reilly has been great for most of this season. Kane is getting in on a lot of scoring chances. Those are the guys I give a crap about because the bottom of this team isn’t going to be around here in two years. Those guys should/hopefully be here for the next decade.
Now, when those guys struggle, the Sabres are going to struggle because their depth sucks. However, its not an indictment against the young core because you can’t expect them at this juncture in their careers to be point a game players. The hope is that they ultimately keep getting better and evolving with age.
What ends up dissolving is the lack of communication within fans and the media. You don’t have to be a super optimistic shill who sits on Twitter every night and yells at anyone who is pissed off that the Sabres have allowed 11 goals in their last two games. On the other hand, if you couldn’t deal with the tank and the besmirching of the hockey gods, and this is the only way you can get back at those who were down with the tank by calling them suckers, then you have never watched a team rebuilding.
In a world where black and white takes are the norm and reaction to the reaction jades us, I tend to “try” to be a little more of a nuance thinker who won’t let others dictate my thoughts and even admit to not knowing what will happen. Yeah, I’m not thrilled the Sabres are this bad, but I do think the Sabres are on the right track. Now, it is going to be a marathon to find out if there’s a light at the end of tunnel or just the light of a train colliding with us.
However, the journey doesn’t have to only consist of choosing between roses and rainbows or daggers and torches.
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