...

I thought the consensus was that he only screwed up one trade, and there's not consensus on whether he was forced to make it..? But, seriously, even JBot must know trading anything more than a 7th for Vesey is stupid.

Do we not trust Botterill to recognize this, too?

Sabres were #12 in the PK. That's Girgs and Angry Larry for the most part.

The audacity! Pulling out numbers. Shamefull.

I'm very torn on Risto. On the one hand, the numbers back up a trade, on the other, if he can get his D game sorted out, he'd be the guy we'd want back in a trade.

Vesey? WTH. FWIW, I agree with your sentiment on Friedman, @LGR4GM. I don't believe the source(s) who confirm trades or contracts are the same feeding him info on trade talks. The former are likely league sources while the latter are team sources. He likely gets a sense of the landscape from the team sources and extrapolates from there/that.

Isn't that Binnington's story? When he came in, he played well enough to lift the Blues out of the dumps, but by the time the playoffs got here, if their D broke down, he was 50/50 on being able to carry the games.

The text equivalent to Angry Birds.

I don't see the validity of these evaluations without first knowing the actual reasons for the ROR trade. Without facts, it's all speculation, and these "evaluations" are built on gossamer wings, worth nothing, watering down...nay...destroying...the quality of the subsequent discussions. This is why we're stuck in this circle of ROR nonsense, because everyone knows no one knows a thing other than what happened superficially, and some are happy to exclude facts and context for the sake of discussion, while others know a fundamentally worthless discussion is made even more worthless by the exclusion of the facts and context.

My question is what do we gain from recognizing/admitting/knowing, in hindsight (especially), that the Sabres lost that trade? What do we do with this insight?

Some sanity. Thank God.

Clearly not, because ROR won the Cup and JBot is still here. What are you thinking?

Impossible. The man who made the trade still runs the team, and the ownership who haven't yet fired the man who made the trade still owns the team. Clearly we remain in the Valley of Fail and shall remain there until "things change". Until "things change", this team's attempts to improve are for naught.

Sour grapes lower your IQ. Are you a moderator?

The hyperbole in this post hurts. Ow.

Hey man, why don't you go do something about it then in the real world. Otherwise, the persistent bitching here isn't going to change or do jack-sh%t to what is.

All...summer...long. As I said in the game thread, there is no way the Sabres were in a position to do what the Blues did. In no position to capitalize on what ROR brings. The comparisons are folly and thoroughly ridiculous.

"HOLY F&%K! YEAAAAHHHHH"

Let's get real, the Sabres the past few seasons could not have done what the Blues did.

Now all we need is for Boston to take a penalty.

I love it. The overflow crowd is at Busch Stadium.

YES!

That's some playoff hockey right there.

Wow.