...

Time to grow up, Mitts.

McCabe increasing his trade value.

Do it again and again. Just like that.

Sobotka is trash.

I like Minney's controlling the play below the net.

Why, Jack? Take the shot! Eichel is among the worst offenders of avoiding taking shots.

The Sabres need to win tonight. Fans are being aggressive toward each other over nothing. No where in my post or the post of others' that preceded mine is there anything deserving of this response.

I think someone is looking for an even larger payday where ever he can find it.

This would also mean they're locked into that roster for a while, right?

i want to believe this angle.

There is no denying that this is all how it appears. At least as far as Phil goes. It doesn't help the performance of the team is wildly inconsistent. I wonder if his weaknesses as a coach are affecting the players' motivation.

The follow up is important. I think we would reasonably expect more nuance to Phil's approach here, but the record doesn't support the existence of nuance. This is really not a good narrative for Phil.

Awesome. Let the ideological bullying begin. This thread will be dynamic and marvelous with it, and we'll all learn to fall in line with mediated sociopolitical thought.

What does that matter? Would he be smarter for watching CNN or MSNBC?

Samson on the third line. I guess Phil doesn't read Sabrespace.

Craziness. Elie is definitely not this team's problem.

Who is responsible for locker room culture? Phil? Jack? JBotts? Did Phil see what KO was talking about in that Bove Tweet and do nothing about it?

Wow. This is the best thing KO has done...for the fans. Who thinks team leadership isn't important? Eichel is in over his head being the face of this team.

I think a closer examination of how VGK were able to so well last season would help shed light on this riddle.

Like a lot of things, we're going to have be happy with disagreeing on McCabe. I'm not certain where you get he's overrated, though. I get the sense Risto and Bogo are rated well above him.

McCabe might be the most solid defender we have in terms of not screwing up and being responsible. Obviously they all have their faults, but if we have to give up one of our better defenders in a trade (that's worth it), I think McCabe should be spared if at all possible. Tough call, but between Risto, Bogo and McCabe, the former two's faults put them ahead of McCabe in the hierarchy IMHO.

I don't understand what you mean.

Phil should have started the season in the AHL, like Tage and Mitts.

Whatever we may think, in real hockey culture my guess is the captain means a bit more than the guy who can talk to the refs and lead the practices. I think the captain does set the tone of the locker room which, in my opinion and certainly not verified by any metric, affects the play on the ice. It is ridiculous to think that the captain can "carry a team" all by his lonesome and certainly I haven't suggested that. Assuming that I, or anyone else who talks about it, believe that's what a captain is supposed to do is as insulting as thinking every religious person believes God is some dude actually wearing robes, actually sitting in the clouds. None the less, as stated above, I do think the captain sets the tone for the team and that translates across the roster. Some players buy in to the captain and side with him, look to him for direction and leadership, maybe others don't like him and therefore are surly toward the idea of the person who is the captain actually being the captain. Whatever realistic human drama you can conceive of is likely within the dynamic inside the team. So what if Jack is feeling overwhelmed by being "the face of the team", the focal point? If he's out there, distracted, unfocused, how do you think that might affect someone like Dahlin? I dislike making overly long posts because I dislike reading them, so hopefully I can finish my point succinctly. We've seen the argument "they get paid enough, they should be self-motivated" applied to how players respond to coaches. The argument against this is that a good coach ought to be able to reach/inspire/focus his team. Fine, but if it's acceptable reasoning that a good coach should be able to get a response from the team, then it's also acceptable to consider that the team's own leader, the captain, should be able to get a response from the team as well. You can argue the degrees to which this might have an impact, either coach or captain, but we're not talking robots here, it likely does have an effect. Just like a good teacher versus a poor teacher attempting to reach kids with the same material. The talent of the roster is another story and, really, this roster hasn't changed much since the 10 game streak. I contend that, while of course the streak was beyond sustainable, the team that made that happen is still there and they should be able to get more wins of that ilk than they have been getting lately. In other words, I think they're playing below, maybe well below, the cumulative talent level of the team and that is because it lacks the type of leadership that reinforces on-ice discipline and in-game engagement. Who leads the list of people responsible for that? The coach and the captain in my book.

I suppose you see the captain's role as on-ice liaison, team administrator, and nothing more.