BetweenThePipes00

I hear you all, that epic post was not meant as a defense of Bylsma so much as a possible explanation for some of the things he has done. As Smell says, GMTM will surely make his opinion known when he feels they should be playing a different kind of game. We'll see if Bylsma can adjust. (By the way, I was actually talking about Lindy's Buffalo teams when I mentioned he changes his style.) I do find this ironic ... before Bylsma was hired in PGH, Therrien basically was tasked with teaching the kids to play reaponsible 2-way hockey (including his famous "I think it's our goal to be the worst defensive team in hockey" postgame rant) ... eventually it wore thin and they brought Bylsma in and he got credit for setting them free and they ended up winninh a Cup. Then he reverted back to boring hockey too. I think it's just in old-school coaches' DNA to see any weakness in their team and try to hide it with "put it behind them! Make them play below their goal line! They'll have to come 200 feet against us! 4th and 3? PUNT!" OK sorry that last one just slipped out. You get the point. I have no love for Disco Dan. I also don't think we'd get much different at this point with another coach ... 18 months from now? That's different.

Thanks, good to be back. I have no idea, perhaps they totally could still play differently, I don't know enough about systems. That point came to me just as a re-listened so I put it in there. Also it could be argued if he wants them to try things then why do they not try anything but that same boring style. But I do think the main point that they are going to keep tinkering with who plays with whom applies no matter what. Not only long-term but for this season. As bad as they have been, they are ahead of last year's pace. They got better the second half last season, perhaps because once Bylsma knew what he had, he deployed it better. Let's just hope whoever the coach is when they are good doesn't need a half-season to figure these things out. Injuries were certainly a factor in this area this season.

I apologize, this is really long-winded ... especially bad since I haven't been around but whatever, here goes ... Forgive me if this was mentioned in any way a couple weeks ago, I don't think it was ... but with all the talk of how bad Bylsma is (and he may well be, I am indifferent at this point), I can't get out of my head some things GMTM said on WGR a couple weeks ago (Dec. 16) ... I just went back and re-listened to it ... first of all, big picture I think this quote says a lot: "I never make a suggestion, it's just 'Really, you like those two guys together?!' or something like that.... All it does is create discussion. I've said that 100 times — "You're not going anywhere, guys. Think outside the box a little bit, discuss things, lots of talks, even if somebody brings up something crazy, it doesn't matter. I bring up crazy things every day to them." Obviously emphasis on bold part is mine. Now, we can argue whether they ever do anything "outside the box," but to me the bold part is big. I think it's possible much of the tinkering with lines and especially the defense pairings is all just experimenting and gathering information. We might not like to hear that they aren't doing every single possible thing to win THIS game RIGHT now ... but that's not a bad thing to me. It's not another tank; they want to win, but they also need to find out who can do what and who clicks with whom. They are trying to build a team that will contend for years, not just squeak into the playoffs this season, and no one is getting fired if they don't make it. Many won't like that, I am just saying that's what I think is happening. Now, drilling down into two specific things that drive a lot of us crazy ... 1. Risto's partner and why would they ever take McCabe away from him when it worked so well ... This was on Dec. 16, when Kulikov was playing but Bogosian was still out. When asked about McCabe with Risto, he said he's "Happy with him but not quite sure how he will handle those kind of minutes long term. Will Kulikov in that spot make us a better team? I'm not quite sure, there's still some experimenting to do. But I'm extremely happy with how (McCabe) has played in that spot." Two thoughts: First, whether you think he's trying to justify his trade or he just likes Kulikov, he has to make a decision on him. He's in the last year of his deal. He needs to see him play with different guys and in all situations. It's easy to connect the dots and see that Bylsma understands this and is going to use him even though he hasn't been great because he knows what his GM needs. Second, I think they know now 55-29 is a good pair. They can always go back to it. They are also still searching for someone to play with 47, so they will probably give 29 looks there too, especially if GMTM sees McCabe as a 3-4 guy long-term and wants someone else — 77 or Guhle or someone he needs to go get — with Risto. 2. Bylsma's stretch-pass, chip-it-in system sucks and why don't we take better advantage of speed and skill GMTM addressed it directly: "I think our transition game will come, but right now our O-fence comes from the O-fensive zone and small ice, so I think that as a coaching staff that we should emphasize that and keep working at that." Even the guy building the team knows they don't have the speed and skill yet to play a different kind of game. He says he doesn't micromanage the coaches, but they sure know what he is thinking. Not saying either GMTM or Bylsma wants to play this way forever, I suspect it will change as the team changes. Maybe the COACH will even be changed at that point, but no one every imagined Lindy with the highest-scoring team in the NHL either. But right now they don't have the speed and skill to carry pucks in (other than Eichel) all the time. Drafting Nylander with all those defensemen on the board (6 of the next 10 picks) was a clue to me GMTM still wants more speed and skill. I guess all that is a long way of saying Bylsma maybe has to coach the team he has and not the team we all wish he had. It's not there yet. (Personally, I am OK with that. I know many are not and want them to forgot the future and make the playoffs. I want them to worry about being real contenders from when Eichel is 22 until he retires. This is more of a GMTM point and not Bylsma, but if that means NOT starting the clock on Guhle and Nylander this season so that they are still on their entry level contracts when Eichel is 23 and Reinhart is 24 and Risto is 25, then I am 100% for that because that is when they can win big, when they have good young players still cheap.)

I was at that game! I have mentioned it before on here, I was like 13 and went with my grandfather and I remember it vividly because it was the first time I wasn't treated like a little kid at the game ... no buying me trinkets or all kinds of junk food, it was a Sunday night back end of a home-and-home we were there watch and talk hockey. Big debate on the escalator to the Oranges about whether they should break the back-and-forth goalie rotation and stick with Barrasso since he played in Quebec (they didn't, Sauve played). One of the Stastnys scored shorthanded I believe in the second, Cyr tied it on the PP in the third ... Hunter knocked out Rammer's teeth, Nords coach Michel Bergeron was all pissed about something and standing on the bench and got several beers thrown at him. Great game, ended in a 1-1 tie. Great times.

That video is amazing ... I think they somehow put the radio audio over the video after or something ... at around the 6:50 mark of the video Darling throws it to a commercial in the audio and says "This is Sabres hockey on WGR Buffalo" ... granted, channel 2 was also WGR back then but were home games ever on Ch. 2 back then? As far back as I remember Ch.2 had all road games and home games were on cable, but I was only 2 years old at this point ... For the record, I think Mike Ramsey should be the first D-man with his number in the rafters, so that sums up where I stand on that issue. Twice as many All-Star Games as Gare, played almost twice as long for the Sabres (14 yrs to 8 yrs). Played big minutes, all situations, against top opponents and was never a minus despite playing on some bad teams, including the 86-87 team that was last overall.

OK now I have the Match Game song in my head.

Haha we'll see ... I do think we will start over, but not sure we can keep each season's tower intact while we do it ... we'll see ... Yeah and he's actually standing on the arm of the couch to do it ... my wife loves it. (yeah, right)

Haha yeah well if we had he'd probably want to sleep in it anyway, no way it would be on that wall.

Not a bad way to finish off the boy's 8th birthday ... Jack scores and he gets to add a puck to the Eichel Tower ...

On C.J.'s birthday no less ... he's in for a surprise when he gets home from school. Actually that is not THE Eichel Tower t-shirt ... Store716 reached out to us, but I told them if we did a shirt I wanted it to be for charity. They said OK, we'll do our own thing ... and now they are doing it for charity anyway, which we would totally have been on board with ... but that's OK, hopefully we will get something put together and we can help someone else as well. While we hope to do something of our own with some sort of image of the Tower, I am certainly all for people supporting Make-A-Wish. But stay tuned ...

You greatly over-estimate my tech savvy ... As it is, half the time I am watching behind on the DVR because of the boy's hockey or baseball commitments ... with so many more eyes on it I am going to need to get a little more organized here haha

Sounded to me like he just wants the current rules actually enforced ... your point remains but kind of suggests he is not trying to cheat as much as others.

HA you may need to start a twitter account of bad Eichel puns

The Eichel Tower twitter account hit 1,000 followers today ... after the game Saturday Jeremy White from WGR was tweeting about it, and the Sabres official account finally followed as well and tweeted a picture of it, and ever since it is going nuts, almost 600 new followers in less than 48 hours. My son is having a blast seeing all these people see his idea.

He had to be thinking he was just going to shoot because of the time but ... Still odd to guess low blocker and open up 5-hole, right?

Big construction on the Eichel Tower today! Follow the progress here: https://twitter.com/EichelTower615

Bettman is a clown but he had little choice here. He can't admit he thinks Wideman was concussed, and he can't look soft on violence against an official. Given that it's not a high-profile player ... and anon-playoff team ... I totally understand the ruling.

Sheetz is far superior to Wawa. Being down South I mostly miss Buffalo food but Sheetz is one of the few Western Pa. things I also miss.

He's more of a lawyer than I am. Or he at least played one on message boards.

Maybe an attorney like Smell can correct me here but I don't think it was really up to Bettman and the NHL to control how long this process took ... the NHLPA filed the appeal and it followed the procedures which were collectively bargained. The decision was handed down by an independent arbiter. If the NHLPA doesn't like how long it took, they can negotiate a different system into the next CBA. No doubt it is skewed against the player but a lot of individual issues in CBAs are not split right down the middle from a fairness standpoint on their own. Again, I say this all with the big caveat that I am no lawyer ...

Hey, cut me some slack, I haven't been around much! Your high-level sarcasm was lost on me. I think because you snuck Galchenyuk in the middle. Subtle. I would have put him last. I don't know that he HATES them, but I agree I have heard he doesn't prefer Russians.

Again, it's all relative. Even though all goalies are stopping way more shots than 30 years ago, some are still going to be liabilities. The Stars' goalies were a liability last season and they missed the playoffs because of it. Whether they wear the current gear or we put them in stuff from 1974, there are going to be great ones and bad ones and a bunch in the middle. I see no reason why any of this should come into play when discussing whether increasing scoring is NECESSARY. I think it is, you think it's not, and we are arguing basically because we both like to argue. I hope we are at least entertaining.

But you JUST said that the league and the players WANT it this way to prop up the crappy goalies. Which is it? Based on this statement, it doesn't matter one way or the other what the crappy goalies are wearing, so why are you so dead set against trimming the gear?

Dude, Galchenyuk is from Milwaukee. But then so was Stafford. Maybe GMTM hates Cheeseheads.

It's all relative to the rest of the league. The guys with the most goals will always be worth more money. The guys with 12 now might have 20, but the big money is still going to the guys with 50 or 60. The cap is still the cap. Stamkos and Ovechkin are not suddenly going to make less money just because Marcus Foligno has a fluke 18-goal season. I think it's clear you like things the way they are, and that is fine. Hell, I watch as much hockey as I ever have. I just don't think it HAS to stay this way because the league is protecting the "parity of goaltending." I think you have put way more thought into the subject than the NHL has.