What would’ve happened if Danny Briere and Chris Drury didn’t leave the Buffalo Sabres?

What would’ve happened if Danny Briere and Chris Drury didn’t leave the Buffalo Sabres?

Today in the Lockdown Sabres podcast, we ask AI to predict the past, the present, and the future for the Buffalo Sabres. That’s coming up here on Lockdown Sabres. [Music] You’re Locked on Sabres, your daily podcast on the Buffalo Sabres, part of the Locked On podcast network, your team every day. What is up everybody and welcome in to this Tuesday edition of the Locked on Sabers podcast and thanks for making us your first listen every day. We are free and available wherever you get your podcast. You can check us out on our YouTube channel, hit the like and subscribe button. You could be a part of our Locked Oners text club as well by heading over to joinsubtex.com/lockedon savers. Today’s episode is presented by FanDuel. Right now, new FanDuel customers can get $150 in bonus bets if your first $5 bet wins. Sneaky Joe Debbiosi here on a Tuesday. We usually don’t record episodes on Tuesday in the summer, but I’m going to be in Rochester for Bill’s camp over the next three days. So, getting an episode in here now because I’m going to be away for the next couple of days. And today on the show, we’re going to have some fun with all the AI stuff going on on the internet today. Let’s take that to the Buffalo Sabres. We are going to have chat GPT predict some questions about the Sabres in the past and also the upcoming season. So, we’ll have a little bit of fun with that. A little bit of a mailbag edition of the show later on as well. So, lot to get to on today’s show. If you would again like to become a part of our Lockdown Sabers text club, join subtext.comlockdowns at Lockdowns. Check us out on Twitter or of course you can always hit us up on Blue Sky on there, Sneaky Joe Sports. So, we last episode, you want to check it out, we the last couple episodes really, we went through breakout candidates for the Buffalo Sabres on our last show last uh two episodes ago. Last show, Tage Thompson and his MVP candidacy for this year. And I got some feedback on that that kind of the same of what I was saying. It’s such a long shot, but it’s not impossible that Taige could have that type of year. And I do feel like he’s more likely than Dene. So, you want to check all of that out in full, hit us up on our feed, go back one episode, YouTube, Spotify, Apple Podcast, Odyssey app, wherever you may be listening. So, today we’re in the summer. Have some fun, look through some nostalgia, and with all this new chap GPT stuff, it’s not even really that new anymore. Um, and many of you are, you know, going to be able to do this on your own and maybe even have done this on your own, but for those that don’t, it’s pretty simple. you just plug it in a question to chat GPT and you’ll let it run wild. So had a couple of things that I went through today um to kind of bring this to you. So some nostalgia briier and Drury was one place I wanted to start the tank what’s going to happen this season. A lot to get to um in this little exercise and I’ve got my own takes on what would have happened as well. just kind of, you know, the biggest questions. And I worked with the text club a little bit on this on what are the biggest questions that you would want to go back, the biggest whatifs for the Buffalo Sabres. And you know, you could go find things in the 90s and the 80s and the 70s, but me only being 30 years old, I’m going to pretty much keep this past 2000. And where do I start for that? Well, it’s obviously July 1st of 2007, which is in my Sabres lifetime still the darkest singular day that I’ve had as a Buffalo Sabres fan. watching two of my childhood favorites, idols, especially Brier, he and Drury to leave on the same day within minutes of each other, maybe it was hours, felt like minutes, was obviously gut-wrenching. And it did pretty much kill any chance of winning a Stanley Cup thereafter. They were able to make the playoffs a couple of times, but they certainly were not in contention. So that’s where I wanted to start. Predict what would have happened if Danny Brier and Chris Drury had stayed with the Buffalo Sabres past 2007. That’s given the Sabres a lot. Right back in that day, it seemed as though they were really only committed to signing one of the two and it surprised them to get neither, but that they would have been okay only getting one of the two. And I think as the story goes, they were more invested in Drury being the one that came back and that obviously did not happen. So I asked Chad GPT, what would have happened if Brier and Drury stayed with the Sabres past 2007? And obviously again, what happened? Sabres missed the playoffs um a bunch of times thereafter. The Sabres, according to chat GPT, make the playoffs in the next couple of seasons, likely a top four seed. Their offense remains elite with Briier, Drury, Vanic, Roy, Palmville, and Stafford. Ryan Miller continues to progress. Possible second round or conference final appearance perhaps facing the Penguins early. That’s the 0708 season. 2008 to 2010. What’s kind of interesting here is they chat TBD is more confident that the Sabres would have been capable of winning a Stanley Cup 2009, 2008, 200 2009, 2010 more in that very next year. Give Ryan Miller a couple of years to cook and get to being one of the league’s top top goalenders with Briier and Drury still there, Vanic reaching his prime, Palmville reaching his prime, and maybe that 2010 year would have been the best year for it all coming together because you probably still would have had a very good briier. Drury kind of fell off a little bit by that point and then those other guys were really hitting their stride. Could they have win a cup? Chat GPT says yes, but not guaranteed because not because of anything the Sabres had. Pittsburgh, Boston, Washington were all showing up at that time. most realistic shot they have is 2009, right before Boston hits full stride. That’s right around Miller’s 2010 Vzna season. And with Drury and Brier on the roster, that would have given them their best chance to win the Stanley Cup. Anything disagreeable there? I think for the most part, that’s on point. Now, I I threw another question at it. Here’s one thought experiment that I have not ever had about the Sabres from 2006 that Chat GPT brought up. I asked another follow-up, what happens if the Sabres defenseman don’t all get hurt in the 2006 Stanley Cup playoffs? They lost obviously Tapo Numinan, Dmitri Kenan, Henrik Tinder, um Jay McKe of course in game seven and that if they had had all those players, you don’t have to have Nathan Pa, you don’t have Doug Janick, you don’t have to have Jeff Gilson, Roy Fitzpatrick and chat GPT predicts the Sabres would have won that series in six. They would have beat the Carolina if they had stayed healthy on the blue line. I’m not even getting them Tim Connelly back, just the blue line. They beat Carolina in six and then they go to the finals against the eight-seated Edmonton Oilers who chat GPT. Their roster was solid, but Buffalo had more speed, more skill, and more depth, particularly up front. Sabres aggressive fourline system likely would overwhelm all of the Oilers defenseman minus Chris Pronger. Sabres win the cup in five or six games. is they were arguably the best team of with Ottawa in that entire playoff and that they would have beaten Edmonton in five or six games. Now, it’s like, all right, yep, of course, we we all think that, right? Like, we’re not disagreeing with that at all. But here’s the one thing that it brought up. It kind of went further than 06. I wasn’t expecting that. Like, I’m just asking if they’re going to win the cup. Ripple effects. It goes into free agency in 2007. First cup in franchise history means Danny Briier and Chris Jury become legends and stay long-term ownership motivated to retain the core that won the Stanley Cup. That’s a thought experiment I had never considered. The Buffalo Sabres defensive injuries in that ‘ 06 series against Carolina. Often I will say and believe that those injuries cost the Buffalo Sabres the Stanley Cup in 2006. Did it also with that cost them four, five more goes at it? Because that’s probably right. I don’t want to I don’t want to assume that it’s right because Tom Galisano wanted to break even and you are assuming he would have acted differently with a cup in his back pocket which I kind of want to say yes that he would have that there’s no way that it would have been allowed he would have allowed it. I I think Larry Quinn maybe is a better person to to point to here that they would have allowed those two to leave after winning the cup. Legends of the team that had won it and Drury maybe would have been more motivated to stay and Briier would have been more mo everyone would have been more motivated to stay. How often do you see a cup team like that have its nucleus broken up that quickly after? It probably doesn’t happen. They probably get extensions right after winning the Stanley Cup, I think. So those injuries might not just have cost you a cup in 06 cuz I believe that it did but the ripple effect of that is those two stay and you have a long stretch of contention and that’s what you cost yourself and that you might have actually lost out on multiple Stanley Cups by those injuries happening. Again, it’s their own fault. It’s not to absolve them of losing Brier and Drury back then, but that’s probably right. And I never thought of it that way that those injuries really cost them more than just the Stanley Cup if as if that, you know, sounds like it can make any any sense at all. So, there’s uh there’s that first question there. Um, anything else in that that I really wanted? Uh, could have sparked could have sparked a short dynasty window from 2006 to 2009. uh depending on retention of those players. I I wouldn’t go that far. Dynasty to me is three Stanley Cups and maybe they get to two. I doubt they would have got to three. I mean, there were other great teams. Crosby was arriving and Ovetchkin was arriving. And again, like part of this is Drury did collapse as a player after leaving the Buffalo Sabres. Briier went on to have a great career in Philadelphia and was a clutch player in the playoffs. Drury went to the New York Rangers and after having a 37 goal 69 point season with the Buffalo Sabres, he never reached 60 goals again and he never topped 25 goals and by 2009 2010. He’s a 14goal 32 point player. He plays one more year and that is it. He had health issues and that was a part of it. But there’s not a long period of sustained success by Drury in those years. Um there is by Briier and but that still would have been obviously critical to them maintaining as a as a cup contender when we come back. Two more chat GPT questions that I wanted to run through. What would have happened had the Sabres not tanked in 2015 and what’s going to happen this year 2526 that’s coming up here on Lockdown Sabres. Today’s episode of the Lockdown Sabres podcast presented by FanDuel Sportsbook. Summer sports are in full swing and whether you are all about baseball under the lights or golf on the green or high stakes soccer action, got the Premier League start in a couple weeks, I cannot wait. FanDuel is the best way to make every game even more exciting. You’re already following the action, so now why not throw a little money to make it a little bit more thrilling. 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Worked with some of our texters and our locked on sabers text club and uh we’re throwing some questions at chat GPT of the Buffalo Sabres and they are uh they’re spitting them back. Um, couple of responses on those Briier Drury predictions. Um, one textter, it’s very hard to not see to see them not winning a cup. Um, looking up teams that lost championships because of injuries and the 06 Sabres were right on top of that. Obviously, that is uh very true. Um, anyways, let’s get to a couple more questions uh that I spit into there or threw into there. One of which is the tank. I have a strong opinion on what would have happened. I have a strong opinion that the Sabres should have tanked in 2015. Um they they did and it worked to get Jack Eel, but the team never got good and the team never became a Stanley Cup level team which is what the whole thing was about. So had they not tanked chat GPT says Buffalo tries to compete or at least play honestly they aren’t a playoff team but they finish mid to bottom 25th through 27th in the 20145 season. They lose out in McDavid and Eel but they likely get either Dylan Stro, Mitch Marner, maybe Matthew Barzel. Um Marner is the guy that it mentions the most but no franchise center. So very different rebuild path. So, no Michael means no face of the franchise. Maybe the rebuild is slower, but more organically without one savior figure. They might, and this is the maybe the most interesting part of this, it says they might keep some veterans longer. Ryan O’Reilly trade could have been different. And that is probably right. And I don’t believe all the smoke from back then. It wasn’t even really smoke. It was rumor that Eel and O’Reilly didn’t get along. I mean, I’m not saying they were best of friends, but I don’t really think it was the it was not even close to the reason that O’Reilly got traded out of there. Now, just because that’s not true doesn’t mean that the trade could have gone down differently. If Eel’s not here and they don’t have a franchise centerman riding right behind Ryan O’Reilly, they’re not trading Ryan O’Reilly. I don’t think he was a number one center on a team that already had a number one center right behind him. So, he was seen then as expendable because you’ve got Eel that’s going to play 20 plus minutes a night at number one center. If you don’t have that guy, you can’t afford to get rid of Ryan O’Reilly. So, Ryan O’Reilly probably stays. And listen, I I was supportive of the tank and I think that it worked to get Jack Eel. And I think that the reasons they were bad after had nothing to do with the tank. It was about poor management. That doesn’t mean they couldn’t have been successful without tanking because if you go O’Reilly and Marner at the top of your lineup and O’Reilly stays longterm, that could work. You still have to build a round up of the blue line though. And that was really the biggest problem of those teams was the blue line. That never got corrected. So they still would have had to done that. They would have had to do that. Um, so that was one about that that I thought was pretty interesting. Um, same thing though, like the the final prediction of what would have happened is that it would have been a more balanced rebuild, but a slower rebuild. They would avoided front office turmoil, cultural instability, um, potentially better long-term cohesion, but still not ever developing into a contender. And like that to me doesn’t sound that much better um personally. So it’s still telling you like it might have been smoother, but they never would have gotten really really good if they hadn’t done that. So I guess that kind of tells you that there was nothing that could have happened maybe that would have had them be successful because you just can’t hire those GMs and coaches and expect, you know, to get to get good results. I think um I did also put in there nothing really that interesting about this one. what would have happened if the Sabres had let Jack Eel get his neck surgery in 2021 and it was there’s a much better chance that he would have stayed. Um Sabres stayed committed to Eel. They he is more open to coming back. They rebuild around him. Um Dene Power Thompson Cousins and Quinn all develop under Eel at the top of the lineup as they would be playing in smaller roles. Um, Eko leads a formidable core that’s still, you know, under he’s still under 30 by the time they all hit their prime. Um, so basically it’s it’s kind of saying that like, okay, Eel would have been more willing to come back if you let him get his surgery and if you had refused to trade him and his happiness would have improved as that young core started to show what they were capable of, which they did in the next couple of years. Um, so I that would be with Don Granado. It I and I believe that too. I really do believe if the Sabres had told Eel, “No, we’re not trading you.” He He wanted to trade if they were going to rebuild. No, we’re going to keep you anyway. Here you go. You can get your artificial disc replacement. They let him do that. It’s not nearly as ugly. He comes back in eventually and Don Granado would have held that together, that he would have had that relationship just good enough to maintain it while the other guys are getting good. and that they all when they all got good, Michael would have still been on the team and they would have been a playoff team and then everybody would have been happy. That’s that’s kind of what I think was possible if they had just let him get the surgery. Um, obviously there’s no way of knowing. Uh, last thing, what will happen this year 25 26 what is going to happen this season? I answered this question on locked on NHL game night last week. How many points will the Sabres have? Not only was I lower than what chat GPT predicts for the Sabres this year, I was significantly lower than what they predict. So, one positive prediction coming from uh some AI here and uh on the Buffalo Sabres coming up here on Lockdown Savers. Today’s episode of Lockdown Sabers presented by Monarch Money. 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Use code locked on NHL at monarchmoney.com for 50% off your first year. That’s monarchmoney.comnhl for half off your first year. Sneaky Jody Biosi back here in the lockdown savers podcast just playing around with uh chat GBT today and the Buffalo Sabres. And the final question that I put in there, how many points will the Buffalo Sabres have in 2025 26? When I answered this question last week on lockdown NHL game night, my answer was 75 to 80 points. That was to me the most likely outcome. It’s possible they could be below that and be the worst team in the league. I do think that’s possible. It’s also possible they have a lucky goalie year. They have a they get improve on the power play and they’re better defensively and they get 95 points. I thought that was possible, but my sweet spot was 75 to 80. That’s what I think is most likely this season. Not fun, right? Not fun at all. That’d be horrible. It would be horrendous. The team maybe gets blown up after that if that’s the type of season they have. So, obviously rooting against that. Threw it into chat chat. TPT. What does chat GPT say about this season? And it starts going through it. Thompson, Dalene, point totals, Tuck being a major contributor. It says Josh Norris and Jack Quinn offset the loss of JJ Purka. Uh Norris it has at 51 points, which to me isn’t that great of an offset. Jack Quinn at 48 points. That’s actually pretty good, I think, for Jack Quinn this year. Um, newcomers Michael Kessler, Josh Don, Connor Timonss will help with depth and experience and being tougher to play against. Um, despite offensive depth issues, the Sabres get better defensively and get better goalending to push upward. And that’s interesting. Getting better goalending. That’s not assumed by me, but possible. Certainly possible. Final prediction. Projected point total for the Buffalo Sabres. Most likely outcome 88 to 92 points. Way higher. 10 to 15 points higher than what I said. 88 to 92 points. 88 would be, according to this, a marginal improvement over last year, but still short of the playoff uh pace. Um 90 to 92, a realistic push. If internal scoring picks up and defensive goending improves, that can get them to make it. 95 plus points would require major key breakouts and a few setbacks and that’s beyond what it projects anyway. 88 to 92 points but that is giving them a lot of credit for hey the defense and the goalending is going to get better. It takes a step forward. Um Atlantic division coming down a little bit. Boston really is important to that is a part of this as well. That is a higher total than I thought. Now, I think that’s also a higher total than what the current vibes are from the fan base. I think a 92point season, I think right now fans would sign on the dotted line for a 92 point season. And that would be knowing you’re probably not making the playoffs. It’s possible you could make if I told you right now you can have a 92 point season and that’s a 30% chance of making the playoffs today. You might take that because you know I’m going to have a fun season. There’s progress. I’m close again and I’m still giving myself a chance. Not a great chance but a chance of getting in. I think that is I think fans would take that. I I think unless you really want Kevin Adams fired, which I’ve heard that from some fans as well. So, um, good a nice positive projection on the Buffalo Sabres. I’ll remember that for any other projections we start getting, uh, in the next month about the Sabres season is that, hey, remember AI had him at 92 points, 88 to 92, but who’s counting? All right, that’s going to do it for us today here on the Lockdown Sabres podcast. I’m at Bill’s training camp for the next couple of days, so I’ll be away, but I’ll be checking the text club. You got a question you want to hit me up with, feel free to throw it in there. If you want to sign up, you can do that as well. And um we’ll either be back on Friday or we’ll um we’ll talk on Monday. So either Friday or Monday. Got to see how my schedule works with camp, which has been a little bit back and forth lately, but um we’ll keep you updated on Twitter and on the text club for when that’s going to be as we roll closer to the season and maybe we get some news between now and then. That’d be great. That’ll do for us. Be sure to check out Locked on NHL for all your hockey talk throughout the off seasonason. They’re available on YouTube and wherever you get your podcast. And we’ll talk to you next time here on the Lockdown Savers podcast, part of the Lockdown Podcast Network, your team every day.

What would the Buffalo Sabres have accomplished if Daniel Briere and Chris Drury never left the team? What happens if the team didn’t have all it’s defensemen get hurt in 2006? What about if the Sabres never tanked in 2015?

Sneaky Joe asks AI some of the biggest ‘what ifs’ in Buffalo Sabres history, including a long ripple effect that would’ve started with a Stanley Cup in 2006. Plus, what AI thinks the Sabres will do in 2025-26, a much more positive prediction than what Joe thinks of this team.

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