nfreeman

You’d fire RK? i would not, at this point anyway. But I would hire PLV as an assistant and put him in charge of special teams (although he’s going to hold out for a HC job and probably get one soon).

When “the refs” gave the Bills the benefit of 2 personal fouls and a long pass interference call (which was a complete phantom call) on their last, ill-fated drive vs Baltimore, was that because they wanted the Bills to win?

Do you think they did see such things and chose not to call them because they wanted Houston to win?

Do you think they lost because of "the refs?"

IMHO, Houston got better QB play, better coaching and the better of the matchups between their stud WR and our stud CB and between their QB and our D generally. The Bills went conservative in the 2nd half, AND their execution down the stretch was terrible. Even so, they would’ve won in OT had either Knox or (I think) Ford executed a standard block in Allen’s designed run in OT — which might be more a statement on Houston being a mediocre playoff team than on anything the Bills did. I’d be fine moving in from Daboll. The O didn’t produce nearly enough TDs this year or against a lousy Houston D yesterday. But moving on from Allen would be insane. he had some good and some bad yesterday IMHO like he frequently does, but it was his first full year as a starter and the sky is the limit. He needs another good offensive lineman and a true #1 WR plus more experience and he could be a huge star.

Getting nervous.

I’m going on record as being skeptical that this is a thing. separately:

The aroma of a home cooked meal when you walk in the door after coming home from work.

It got merged into the other very recent and very similar JBot thread. Perhaps you might check around in the logical places next time.

Why do I feel like I just read this post in another thread?

I believe you were one of many who were pretty firmly against a Reino-for-Laine trade when I floated it last summer. Any 2nd thoughts?

I understand the pessimism but do not agree. The Sabres are currently 6 games under DeLuca .500. They have 15 games between now and Feb. 11 (by which point presumably both Skinner and VO will be back), with 25 games left in the season after that. They probably need to get to no worse than 4 games under DeLuca .500 while Skinner and VO are out -- so they need to go, say, 9-6 in the next 15 games, and then 15-10 in the last 25. Certainly their season to date shouldn't make anyone confident that this will happen, but it's not impossible. The next 15 games include the following 9 very winnable games: Florida Vancouver 2 vs Detroit Nashville Ottawa Montreal Rangers Anaheim Will the Sabres win all 9? Probably not, but they might beat some of the better teams too. RK will get them to buy in and they won't quit.

That stinks. At least it's not a torn ligament or something similar, which looked possible last night.

Yes indeedly. Regarding goaltending, I think Ullmark has had a pretty decent year, although certainly not top 25% in the NHL, which is what they really need.

It looks like he scores most of his goals from in close, which is what RK has been preaching. He's a vet with a cup ring and a good productive track record who's in a contract year and who waived a NTC to come here. I'm IN on this move.

Not exactly. He was a 40-pt player last year (34 pts in 65 games), below that 2 years ago (25 pts in 70 games), and a 40-pt player 3 years ago (44 pts in 82 games). He's had an unproductive 1st half this year, and as I noted above is likely in decline, but again was a 40-pt guy last year.

You are right -- I was more pointing it out as a nuance in the play that I found interesting. Perhaps the Oiler who got screened should've crashed into Reino to force the ref to make a call?

Holy mackerel I hope he's OK.

I think there is a very good chance that Frolik will be an upgrade over the non-Reino RWs, who have all been pretty bad.

^^^^That view of the Eichel rush confirms that one of the Sabres set a pick for him at the Sabres' blue line. I think it was Reino, but not sure. Speaking of Reino, he had another one of those games where he does zero for 2 periods and then makes a bunch of good plays thereafter.

I think the PK problems primarily stem from goaltending and coaching, not the play of the 2 forwards on the PK. So I'm skeptical that Frolik will make much of a difference there.

Good to see ya sir! Don’t be a stranger.

Some data on Frolik: - 6’1”, 190 - he turns 32 next month. - he’s from the same town in the Czech Republic as Jagr is. - hockeydb and nhl.com list him as a RW; hockey reference lists him as a LW. - 3 years in Florida, then 2 in Chicago, then 2 in Winnipeg, then 4 in Calgary before this season. - in his 2 Winnipeg seasons and his 1st 2 years in Calgary, he was a pretty steady 40-point guy. He dropped off in his 3rd season to 25 points in 70 games, bounced back last year to a 40-point pace again, but had a poor start to this year with 10 points in 38 games. So he is likely in decline. - as others have noted, he’s a UFA after this season, so this isn’t a long-term move. It’s certainly reasonable to think though that they’ll get more out of Frolik for the remainder of this year than they would’ve gotten from Scandy.

Did RK or anyone else give an update on Victor?

This is a perfectly fine move. Scandy had negative trade value at the end of last season. RK was able to rehabilitate his value and the Sabres were able to get a pick for him, clearing some cap space and easing the logjam at D so Miller doesn’t need to be healthy-scratched. It’s not the good forward we need but that wasn’t going to happen in a Scandy trade.