nfreeman

Wow -- yes. Nicely done!

Ski weekend with wife, one of my best friends and his wife! Sabres angle: spent part of the day skiing with my friend’s friend, who is from Goteborg, Sweden, and was a Frolunda season-ticket-holder for 20 years. When I told him I was from Buffalo we immediately got into a good conversation on Dahlin and Olofsson.

So you think if a fan attends a hockey game and boos, he should be ejected?

Hextall was GM for 4 seasons in Philly, during which they made the playoffs twice and got bounced in the 1st round both times. Ferguson was GM for 4 seasons in Toronto, during which they made the playoffs once and won one round. No thank you.

This isn't really a clear answer to my question. Just to be clear: if someone offered, say, the 23rd pick in the 1st round this year plus a 3rd-rounder for Reino, would you say yes?

Works for me.

Immediate removal from where? The message board? The arena? Again: are you saying that if someone posts "Hutton sucks" or "Reinhart sucks" on this message board, they should be banned from the board? Banned from the arena? Other?

I don't think anyone minds you making your case about Reino in this thread, or updating it as further facts emerge. But it's kinda annoying to saturate other threads with it. On the topic at hand: while I think Reino is a good player and want to keep him, I too have been concerned about overpaying Reino because their highly-paid core is going to include Eichel, Dahlin and Skinner as locks, and there is room only for 1 or 2 more big contracts. If Reino gets one of those slots, there may not be room to bring in another highly-paid guy that could contribute more than Reino. However, I think dumping Reino for picks and prospects because we don't want to pay him, say, $7MM per year x 7 years is likely to make the team worse, not better. I'll also note that even @LGR4GM and other Reino supporters (like me) are fine with trading Reino in a package for a no-BS really good 2C or similar difference-maker. That's the easy case. The hard question is the picks/prospects dump. So, I'll ask you and the other "trade Reino" advocates: what is the LEAST you would be willing to trade Reino for?

I think the stat @Claude Balls posted is telling, although not really because of trade deadline-related issues. IMHO, it's telling because it shows that, in each year that JB has been here, the Sabres have been out of it by the trade deadline and have run for the bus thereafter. The results speak for themselves.

RK is accountable for this mission-critical failure. I'm starting to think that both he and JB are going to get canned, and that it will be justified if it happens.

#1 and #2 are between the players and the NHL/AHL. I don't think anyone here would mind if the players tried to negotiated better rights on those items. Regarding #3 -- what kind of repercussions do you have in mind? If I post on a message board that Hutton sucks and the Sabres need a better goalie, what should happen to me? Who should be in charge of deciding my punishment?

What rights in particular are you advocating for? They have a bundle of rights that they've negotiated and agreed to in the CBA.

How much better than 13th in the Eastern Conference do you think the Sabres are? If they don't fire JB, where do you expect them to finish next year? I think most people here are pleased with the improvements on D -- they just think it's not enough of an accomplishment to outweigh the team's overall failure to improve in the standings during JB's tenure here. Same question for you: If they don't fire JB, where do you expect them to finish next year?

What does this mean? Do you think the team is good? Is this a serious question? It's not clear whether you're trolling or just from outer space.

@dudacek’s response is far superior, but I’ll note that Gillis took over a team that had missed the playoffs 2 out of the prior 3 years (not just the year before as I had posted previously) and immediately got them to the playoffs 5 years in a row.

Mike Gillis was GM in Vancouver for 6 seasons. After missing the playoffs the season before hiring him, they made the playoffs in his 1st 5 seasons, including winning the first round in his 1st 2 seasons, winning the President's Trophy and making the SCF in his 3rd season, and then getting bounced in the 1st round in his 4th and 5th seasons. He got canned after missing the playoffs in his 6th season. Holy mackerel does that sound like a massive improvement for the Sabres. Yes please.

The existence of the salary cap helps, not hinders, the Sabres.

I agree with all of this, but I think JB also inherited Moulson’s bad contract in addition to the 3 you mentioned. Minor clarification.

Well, I think this was the idea with GMTM and JB (although a few of us at the time noted that Ottawa was generally pretty lousy while GMTM was there).

I agree with the bolded about a million percent. The thing is, if the Sabres end up with the #7 pick, and JB traded it plus Risto for a good center, and then signed a good goalie, and then Cozens and TT both had good camps -- we'd all be very psyched for the start of next season. And it's reasonably likely that JB can pull off those 2 moves (and that Cozens and TT look good in camp) -- but I just feel like it's more likely that he won't pull off both of those moves. I also think both of those are critical, and long overdue.

OK, so we know that TP wants stability and a professionally run organization, and doesn't like the reputation that the Sabres have for hiring and firing people too often. We also know that he doesn't like being embarrassed -- and that there have been a few incidents this year (a number of trade demands from players, Duane's call going national, the Scandella trade debacle) that have been embarrassing in addition to the chronic suckitude. We also know that TP has poured a huge amount of cash into the franchise, has almost certainly lost millions of dollars each year and has nothing to show for it other than a perennially crappy team, a ton of empty seats and a fan base that is both increasingly fed up and apathetic. We also know that there are rumblings from respectable sources that TP is considering getting rid of JB. And we know that they have 66 pts with 17 games left. What is TP gonna do? I voted that he is going to wait and see how the season ends up, that the minimum points to save JB is 86 and that I would advise him to wait and see before deciding.

Do you not think this season's final point total will factor into TP's decision?

They have 66 pts with 17 games left, 8 of which are at home and 9 on the road. If they go 8-9 in their last 17, they’ll finish with 82 pts — ie 4 pts better than the final year of TM and DDB. That probably gets JB canned. If they go 7-10 in their last 17, they’ll finish with 80 points, and I’d say JB getting canned is a certainty at that point. An extra OTL pt here or there might make all the difference in the world.

I’ll say it: with Eichel seemingly hindered by injury, Reino has not stepped up in the past couple of games, which were critical games. He did zero last night vs Vegas.

Every team has injuries, and hiccups, and puck bounces. The Sabres have played some good hockey and plenty of terrible hockey, including the stretch right after the ASG, when they had a golden opportunity to jump into the playoff race with home games against lousy teams and instead crapped the bed. JB is accountable for the ultimate results. Those results include the last quarter of this season. If his 3-year results represent a net 2-point improvement over the last guy -- that's not good enough.