nfreeman

Happy 4th! BBQ! Swimming! Beer! Hockey talk!

No. Eichel missed 21 games, which is about a quarter of the season. They went 7-9-5 without him and 26-28-7 with him. And, on Feb. 18, they were 26-23-10 and on the fringes of the playoff picture -- and then fell off the table, losing 8 out of 9 (and 10 out of 12), and going 7-14-2 to finish the season. A well-coached team doesn't go to pieces like that. OTOH, I can totally see the first paragraph being an accurate theory of how it played out, and you are right that Bylsma got more wins out of the team overall than Phil has so far. But like someone mentioned, the fact that Phil might not have the right stuff doesn't mean that DDB did have it.

IMHO it's just way too early to judge GMTM's drafts. We have no idea whether any of Pu, Olofsson, Guhle, Fitzgerald, Borgen, etc. will develop into good players. As for the rest: it's hard to deny that his term was a crashing failure. The team was a dysfunctional train wreck. He's the one who put it together, and he's responsible for the results.

All I can say is that the Athletic's Sabres coverage over the last week or so has been excellent -- including a new Kris Baker piece on the developmental camp -- and far superior to TBN's coverage.

I could be mistaken but I don’t think he’s unrestricted for another 4 seasons.

NFW would I give Reino more than 2 years. I hope I’m wrong, but so far he seems fundamentally unserious and entitled — ie someone who needs external motivation, and exactly the wrong kind of guy to give a long-term deal to.

Thank you SDS.

I’m envisioning a Foligno body type, but a bit less edge, substantially better offensive instincts and a bitchen one-timer.

It’s going to be this fall. Hutton will be solid, Dahlin will be the real deal, Eichel will wear the C and raise himself and everyone else, Sheary and Berglund will be good and a couple of kids will make splashes.

I listened to Jeremy White’s interview of an STL Blues beat writer from this morning a little while ago. (I think he may have been a local AP writer.) In any case, it’s in the WGR audio vault, and I would recommend it. He spoke very highly of all three guys the Sabres acquired. He said Berglund, who was drafted by the Blues and played 10 years for them, is automatic for 17 to 23 goals per year, and is a smart player and good skater. As for Sobotka, he was drafted by the Bruins, played three years for them, was traded to St. Louis, played 4 years for them, went to the KHL for 3 years, and returned last year to St. Louis. The writer mentioned that in his first stint with St. Louis, Sobotka played with a good amount of edge and physicality, but in the KHL, he was relied on to create more offense. As a result, when he returned to St. Louis, he showed more offensive game but less physicality. It got me kind of psyched. I think these guys are all going to be solid NHL players. Go Sabres.

As others have said -- excellent work here sir. And yet this cracked me up...

Welcome Utica! Dude. Did you just refer to yourself in the 3rd person?

I'd like to see: Sheary - Eichel - Thompson ERod - Casey - Reino Sobotka - Berglund - KO CJ Smith - Zemgus - Baptiste (Probably a bit ambitious for Thompson though. Ideally KO would return to peak form and earn that #1 RW spot.)

I think the Scandella trade was an excellent move. I think the re-stocking of Rochester has been executed well and will pay dividends. I think the decision to move on from Lehner was the right call (although I'm less sure about Hutton). I think that deciding that the team was fundamentally flawed and needed major changes was a correct, and difficult decision. Now, whether JB chose the right guys in Kane and ROR to move out remains to be seen -- but they both seem like logical choices to me.

You are certainly right that the pros make mistakes on prospects all the time. As I mentioned in the ROR thread though, I think there are many elements, both on-ice and off-ice, that are simply not visible to fans but that are visible to coaches and management. Again, it's way too early to make this call.

It's something -- true -- but it's something that we really don't know much about. Let's see how they do before we conclude that JB is a bozo.

We also have no idea how JB ranked STL's prospects. It's quite possible Thompson was his #1 (or #2 or #3 or whatever).

Well, if Nylander blooms in ROR's absence and suddenly the Sabres have a legit scoring winger instead of a washout, I'll gladly fight through my shock to add that to the plus side of the ROR trade ledger!

Here's something else about JB: there aren't many big moves he's made that have had enough time to ripen into a state where it's fair to evaluate them. I don't think there's been a big move that has proven to be a failure. Scandella -- good move Mittlestadt -- looks good (this could certainly be categorized as too soon) Housley -- too soon to evaluate Kane trade -- too soon ROR trade -- too soon Fasching trade -- too soon Hutton -- too soon Beaulieu -- we've probably seen enough, but it was a minor move Antipin -- same Chad Johnson -- minor move Pouliot -- minor move Josefsson -- minor move Wilson -- minor move

I assume you mean bottom-6 scoring? Overall the depth in the organization seems much improved in just one year. It's quite reasonable for you to be skeptical of their judgment given last season's debacle. But I think a new GM (and coach) need time to be fairly evaluated. Why would this trade help Nylander? Because ROR is COR's brother, and COR was a DB to Nylander? (Not challenging, just asking.)

Yerdon is a good addition. So far I'm quite happy with The Athletic, btw.

Except that the guys who have both professional experience and physical proximity to the situation clearly determined that getting rid of ROR was needed to improve the team. They made that determination being fully aware of ROR's numbers. Some people create more problems than they solve. I agree with this.

Well, I know you know that the Bills finally made the playoffs, and are finally run by a group of non-bozos, and finally drafted a potential franchise QB. I think the Sabres, too, finally have the right guy running things. TP hasn't delivered results yet, but it's not for lack of trying.

I was actually referring to ROR, not Berglund and Sobotka. In particular, my point was that despite putting up numbers and undeniably doing certain things well, it's quite possible that when everything -- including his effects on his teammates -- is factored in, ROR isn't actually "good."

Regarding the Hall trade -- my recollection is that while there were noises from Edmonton about a shakeup, Hall wasn't openly put up for auction in the same way that ROR was, and when the trade happened, most hockey observers were somewhat blindsided. There is of course no way to know for sure, but I thought the Sabres' roster last year was well above DFL level. In the past 3 seasons, they went from 81 to 78 to 62 points. They came out completely dead too many times to count. Something was very wrong, and it went well beyond having a lousy roster, IMHO. If they hadn't made this or a shakeup change -- which appears to have been your preference -- would you have expected better results next season? Respectfully, you are using stats as a proxy for "good," and while I understand the reasons for doing so, there's more to being a good player than putting up numbers, and there's more to being a bad player than failing to put up numbers. Sometimes there are people at work who appear to be good at their jobs but in reality detract more than they add.