darksabre

That seems like a lot of money to have tied up on defense.

The Sabres have really done me a great service over the last 13 years. Not once have I had to burn a hole in my wallet for merchandise.

This is a conspiracy theory I'm on board with.

I would bet that the structure under Kreuger is going to look something like a Presidential cabinet.

lol this post is wide right

Lincoln Mark V!

Simply put, it's just that the Sabres jerseys from 1970 to 1996 featured a much more vibrant shade of blue. They changed it in 1996-97, despite literally no one wanting that. And somehow, 23 years of fan screaming later, they STILL haven't put it back to the way it was. It is, perhaps, the most protracted avoidance of easy fan service in the history of fan service.

The camera on my Pixel 3A is pretty darn good too. But I admit that I'm just not one of those people who takes pictures.

I'm this way too, which is why Josie takes all of our pictures. I think if I had an actual camera I would do more, but her iphone is better than anything I have.

That Granato hire looks more interesting now

I find it remarkable as well. In fact I would venture that I am gobsmacked that so many people think Nylander is going to stick at some point this year.

Sabres twitter must spend every day digging for any scrap of indication that the Sabres might switch the colors. It's quite Quixotic.

Maybe. I'm pretty sure Gudas is made of Teflon. He's only managed to be suspended three times in his career.

When you want to be the bad guys

Could the term left on his contract have been a deterrent? Players with five years left on a deal don't typically get traded...

We'll see. Either way, I think if he doesn't piss the Pegulas off he'll get more leash than GMTM did.

And honestly, GMTM probably would have gotten more time if he had been better at the actual day to day management part of the job. He was focused on talent evaluation and probably was doing okay at it. But having no idea what was going on with Bylsma and his team was what got him fired. Botterill will get more time than GMTM simply by actually doing every part of his job and doing it professionally.

I only have so much info to base my conjecture on, but I think it mostly boils down to the simple question of: who's team is it? The Sabres were, for all intents and purposes, O'Reilly's team before they became Jack's team. Who's team was the Avalanche when he was there? I think what we have is that a line needed to be drawn about who's team this is, and it's obviously Jack's. An unpredictable future will allow us to evaluate with hindsight whether that is a good thing or not.

Good catch, you're right. Everyone was wearing A's after Gionta left. It doesn't change my core argument though.

I think the trick here is that the veteran leadership thing had run its course. With Jack signing his long term deal and becoming the defacto captain of the team I don't think there was room for him and O'Reilly to share leadership duties, especially with guys like Bogo and Okposo very much in Jack's corner on things. I get the feeling Jack wanted to lead the team his way and O'Reilly wasn't on the same page with him a lot of the time. We know there was conflict between them, although the extent of it was probably overblown. But I don't know if stripping the C off of O'Reilly and giving it to Jack would have made things any better. FWIW, I don't think this is an indictment of either Jack or Ryan. I just think these are two guys who don't "fit" together. And as @dudacek has said, we tend to undervalue things like fit around here.

Bitch about how Botterill is a stupid failure without being able to see into the future to know if that actually ends up being the case?

I said back before O'Reilly was traded that, if it happened, it was never going to be for reasons you could look at on paper. And I also said the return wasn't going to be what people wanted because of that. His production was never an issue. It was always "other things" that were going to see him out the door, and I think every GM in the league knew it when O'Reilly was on the block. My assertions continue to be correct, but whatever I guess.

There is a lot of research that shows most men don't really "grow up" until their mid to late 20s. There's a lot of evidence in the criminal justice community that says men tend to "age out" of crime around that time, and I have to imagine there are plenty of men who aren't criminals who don't age out of certain behaviors until well into their 20s.

If anything this proves my point. On the Sabres that self-imposed pressure manifested itself negatively. On the Blues, in a locker room where other guys can take the edge off for him following a loss and comments like that, you end up with a much better result. You end up with an O'Reilly who comes out in game 7 and looks relaxed, not wound up tight. It's a lot easier to play the best game of your life if you're not worrying about needing to play the best game of your life because your teammates are there with you sharing that load.