PASabreFan

That's becoming pretty obvious. Botterill has a history of being taken in trades and a history of sitting on his hands. He even said recently that as a "young GM" he has to figure out what fellow GMs trust. This franchise can no longer afford to wait for on the job training to kick in. Jason would probably be fine in the cap guru role like he did in Pittsburgh — although look at the Sabres' situation.

Almost exactly 10 years ago, I created a thread that asked people to associate one word with each decade of Sabres hockey. https://www.sabrespace.com/community/topic/16348-four-decades-of-sabres-hockey/ In almost the blink of an eye, here we are again. (And because there was a Year Zero for Sabres hockey, we don't have to debate whether this is truly the end of a Sabres' decade. Right?) Picking up where I left off: 70s: Fever 80s: Letdown 90s: Close 00s: Change (would go with Taro's Letdown if I could go back in time) 10s: Stupid Your turn.

Unless they're Easter eggs.

@therealbarry?

OK, my bad. The point is the same. If I want Botterill fired, I am under no obligation to name his replacement. One thing has nothing to do with the other. Unless we're back to the idiotic defense of Lindy Ruff — there's no one out there who's better!

Terrible. The average hockey fan is not expected to know who the hockey president candidates are. And of course that's all you know. It's not an argument for not having a hockey president. "You don't know what you don't know."

And now with Skinner lost, hoo boy! As Lance "Scandy" Lysowski wrote in today's paper: "The absence of a 40-goal scorer could have a significant impact on an offense that has scored only five goals in its past four games." Seriously, what will the Sabres do without Skinner?

Thanks a bunch. The victory was won. There was no homework. But, noooo, you had to remind Mrs. DePasquale she forgot to assign it. At 2:29.

Everything we know about Ralphie so far is that he's not going to break up his top line to try and "get Skinner going." It's up to Jeff. However, if Eichel cools off and Skinner keeps showing some spark with added ice time, the coach might have to give in to the Tweetie Birds and Aud Clubbers.

Right. Why would we want someone deemed by the head coach as an "amazing" example of a player who bought into the system and was playing a solid role in the team's early success?

No offense, but I'm not sure you've been watching that closely. This is a playoff bubble team already in just half a season of RaKru Magic™. It's a pretty good hockey team that doesn't need to be nuked again. An elite center and a number one goalie have emerged — enormous developments along with the epiphany of Olofsson. If Skinner emerges from post-contract coma (which started after he secured said contract the first half of last season) you're essentially adding a top-line winger to the team. Things are not trending in the right direction at the moment, but the playoffs are still a very real possibility. Watch your trigger finger, Mr. Raygun.

P.S. This is funny. The line that got me choked up, I heard as "Christmas toys all around me." The line actually is "Christmas joys all around me." The mind is cool.

It's amazing to me how many extremely popular pop culture type things I've never seen or heard. I've never seen that movie. I've never seen Christmas Vacation — can't stand Chevy Chase. I don't think I've seen any Star Wars movies ever. Give me a good drama or biopic. Comedies, animated, sci-fi, action are not for me. I know I'm missing some good ones. On another Home Alone note, I took a nap yesterday while listening to Christmas music on public radio — popular songs but in an orchestral style with a choir. A British tenor sang a Christmas song I don't think I've heard, and it was so powerful and moving one of the lines instantly had me welled up with tears as I was vividly transported to the floor of my living room, Christmas circa 1976, surrounded by Clue, Perfection and Coleco Stanley Cup board hockey. It was John Williams' "Somewhere in My Memory" and it's from Home Alone. Who knew (other than everybody else).

The Sabres need to become a playoff team on a regular basis so we can start seeing games like that for what they are. For long periods of time in franchise history, fans would have just shaken their heads and said, "We ran into a hot goalie." For obvious reasons, now a game like that is looked at much differently. 37 chances! Boo! They don't create enough!

Good news, I guess. I like him and his punchable face.

Someone cut my brake lines. I'm serious. But Elaine did do a nice job of editing that release, so maybe I want to live.

Because when they see me they think they're in heaven?

I deny that! I'm not fat.

Is it the Billy Joel concert in August? You can join me and @New Scotland (NS). We'll be camping alonside Orchard Crick by the stadium. No Pressure.

Tonight a bearded fat man will come down your chimney!

They had a ton of scoring chances. All scoring chances are dangerous by definition. It's what they did with their chances that was the problem.

Eichel's had a poor game.

Anderson stole a goal off the stick of Chi Chi.

Unbelievable.

No animals were harmed during that power play.