nfreeman

Well, I'd say that all of us humans, even Sabrespace moderators, are not fully formed and have room for improvement. In all seriousness: McD wants to win more than we do. I am pretty confident that McD will take a long, dispassionate look at himself and his staff in the offseason and will be able to make whatever tough decisions he deems necessary. From the fans' perspective, since we need to be cold and clinical in evaluating whether a coaching change is needed, I think the question is: do the expected benefits outweigh the costs? i.e. would the Bills actually be better off, and advance further in the playoffs if, say, they traded a first-round pick to NO for the rights to Sean Payton? Or would the inevitable transition hiccups, the loss of the first-rounder, the unsettling effect on the roster, the increased scrutiny and pressure, etc. bring about worse results, as we are now seeing with the Florida Panthers, who won the President's trophy last season, flamed out in the playoffs and then decided to play fantasy GM and traded their leading scorer and 2nd-best defenseman and replaced their coach, and are now greatly diminished?

Well, maybe I should let you answer your own question: What I'll add is this: McD joined the biggest laughingstock franchise in the NFL. They weren't just lousy on the field, with a league-record streak of missing the playoffs -- they were an embarrassment off the field, to the point where well-regarded assistant coaches around the NFL would issue press releases stating that they weren't interested in taking the HC job with the Bills. Then they brought in McD. Now, they make the playoffs every year and usually advance, stars from around the league want to come here, alumni of their organization get hired to run other teams, half of their games are on national TV, their players get plenty of league-wide recognition and they are generally viewed as a model, professional franchise. They lost yesterday to the defending AFC champs, after winning a playoff game the week before and after a season in which, among other things, their franchise QB injured his throwing elbow, they lost their best defensive player and their top safety, who is an important team leader, for the season to injury, their best run-stuffer missed the game with an injury, their best DT was impaired with a shoulder injury, one of their guys more or less was dead on the ground in front of them in a game 20 days previously before being defibrillated back to life, their TE's kid brother collapsed and died on the football field just before the season, their city was hit by a deadly blizzard that killed 40 people and caused them to lose a home game and they had to break in a rookie OC. That is an enormous number of physical and psychological obstacles to overcome. But they lost 3 games by a total of 8 points, advanced in the playoffs and then got taken apart by a very good team that has now won 10 in a row and is firing on all cylinders. The idea of moving on from McD is insanity, IMHO. My thoughts on McD are immediately above. I won't repeat them here, but I will say that if you think we are in coach purgatory, you must not remember the Mularkey/Jauron/Gailey/Rex/other losers era very well. We disagree about Knox. I think he's a very good TE. The D line was indeed manhandled yesterday. But as noted above its best player, who is also the team's best defensive player, was missing, as was their best run-stuffer, and Oliver, their 2nd-best DL, was impaired by injury as well. You are also right that Tre White's return to form is uncertain. I think he's the kind of guy who will make it back, and that assuming he won't based on substandard performance after joining the team 10 weeks into the season, after a major knee injury and missing all of training camp and the first 10 weeks of the season, is a faulty assumption, but YMMV. I think Hyde is at least as good as Poyer and that it's at least 50/50 that Hyde and White will return in full form next season. We'll see.

This will be an interesting offseason. The Bills are facing a number of important decisions and have a number of important on-field positions that clearly need upgrades: - Poyer - Edmunds - Both coordinators - WR2 - O-line The good news is that they are well equipped at the most important positions -- QB, WR1 and HC -- as well as TE, D-line, CB, 1 S and 1 LB. This isn't a rebuild. They just need to take a hard look at themselves and upgrade what wasn't working. Doing so will likely mean letting go of Poyer and Edmunds, as both will be too expensive to retain, even though they are good players.

Complete butt-whipping.

That shot a minute ago with the twilight blue sky and the lights was awesome. Best thing about the game so far.

Edmunds is a good player, but it would be insane to pay him $20MM per year. He is getting completely worked in this game.

This isn't a coaching issue. The Bills lost their best defensive player, without whom they have a mediocre pass rush, and they are playing a great QB, at the top of his game, who always gets rid of it quickly anyway, and who has a number of elite targets to throw to. Meanwhile, Josh is playing with an injury that has (IMHO) affected his accuracy and is otherwise playing with one arm tied behind his back due to a crappy O-line, with an LT whose guy is in the backfield, on Josh's blind side, on seemingly every play. He also has a rookie offensive coordinator and a set of targets that are several notches below Cinci's. Cinci is also in a great groove, having won 9 in a row..

Again: Dion Dawkins stinks.

They needed that.

Dion Dawkins stinks.

At least the stadium looks nice in those wide shots coming back from commercials in between Cincy TDs.

JFC.

Holy mackerel I am tense for this game.

I'd say TT uses his size as an integral part of his game in protecting the puck while making plays and in waging puck battles along the boards, both of which he is very good at, but not in playing a hitting, physical game, which is I think what you are alluding to.

So, they are 1 over Deluca .500 and about to start a 4-game roadie: Dallas STL Winnipeg Minnesota 0-4 or 1-3 and the Sabres have a big problem. 2-2 isn't a disaster but it is a missed opportunity 3-1 gets them very close to a playoff spot 4-0 and a bunch of us are going to make some ridiculous predictions. BTW, the Sabres have been much better on the road this season than at home. And they are getting decent-to-good goaltending now. And I think Comrie is going to start bringing it too.

Well, sure. Probably more accurate to say his ceiling is a poor man's Toews.

If he finishes with above 75 pts his AAV is going to start with an 8.

Different players, but Connolly definitely had a few beauties rushing up the left side and then shooting in tight from his (right) forehand that looked like Cozens' goal today. True, but a huge factor in this is that Connolly couldn't stay healthy. But I think you're right that Cozens will do his part. I agree with most of this, and there are certainly shades of Bergeron and Marchand in Cozens and Krebs. Cozens is more fiery and a bit faster than Bergeron, and more mistake-prone, although that will improve with experience. The comparable/ceiling I like for Krebs is Jonathan Toews, although Krebs' hands aren't as good as Toews' or Marchand's. Krebs is also plenty fiery and edgy as you point out. I also agree that TT has been in a bit of a funk, but not that it's due to floating/lack of desire. I think he gets a ton of attention from the opposition, is trying to figure out how to overcome it, and is over-stickhandling and perhaps overthinking his play generally. I agree that Quinn needs to get stronger, like pretty much all players his age, but I don't see him shying away from traffic. I see him playing a very forceful, direct game that frequently takes him into traffic where he can't quite push his way past the defender. Don't forget this beauty from a couple of weeks ago! Separately: that was an enjoyable win, but there was certainly a dropoff in intensity relative to the Islanders game the other night. Anaheim really stinks. Zegras looked pretty good. I expected more from McTavish. Also, the idea of trading VO is officially nuts. He's going to get at least 35 this year and next year if he stays healthy.

I'll be the first to admit that Mitts has turned things around in the last 7-8 games, and that GA accordingly is, at least at present, somewhat vindicated for his unflagging support of Mitts (despite it being largely based on fiction and delusion for most of Mitts' career). Mitts-Jost-VO are no longer getting caved in on every shift and in fact are usually getting the better of play. It's a great development for the Sabres, especially since Quinn and JJP have fallen off the table in terms of scoring. However, I can't agree with Hecht as a comparable. Their skill sets and styles of play have pretty much nothing in common. Hecht was a tough 2-way Swiss army knife player with decent but limited hands and skill who was a pretty good skater. Mitts has very good hands and scoring touch, but is an average skater, doesn't play a 200-foot game and isn't tough or versatile.

I can't agree with this. Everyone knew (except Thorny, evidently) that they had 1 chance in 5 to get McD. TP would never have signed off on those odds. The plan had to be Eichel, and if it ended up being McD, that would be a bonus. I agree with just about all of this, with the critical exception that it was a 20% chance, not 25% (although that makes your underlying argument stronger anyway). The NHL changed the odds the year before the Eichel tank, which made it an even stupider plan.

Even with that gross 5-out-of-6 losing streak, they are still at Deluca .500. If they can rip off 3 or 4 wins in a row, they will be very much on the bubble. But they can't have another 6-game stretch like that one we just cleared. It's there for them if they can play hard every night. And BTW, they are getting pretty good goaltending from UPL.

There are plenty of legit reasons to be interested in Eichel drama: - It bears on whether KA made the right call in moving on from him -- and thus on whether KA has the right stuff to make important decisions for the franchise. - It bears on how good Eichel actually is -- not just how skilled, but actually how much he actually contributes to the team winning -- and thus whether the return we got for him in trade was a good return -- and thus how good KA is at obtaining good returns in trades. - It bears on the wisdom of betting the franchise on one guy, which is what the Sabres decided to do when they burned everything to the ground to get him. - It bears on how important character, as opposed to skill, is when evaluating a player -- although admittedly this assumes that Eichel's character isn't as good as his skill, which could be wrong. - As noted upthread by @Getpucksdeep, it bears on fantasy hockey, which is really important.

I'm not bitter -- I'm just interested.

Are you saying that @Doohickie should consolidate his posts so he doesn’t take over 90% of the thread? I generally agree but would point out that TT did exactly this and made a great pass to Skinner, setting him up all alone in the slot with about 3 minutes left for what could’ve been the GWG. Unfortunately Skinner missed but it was a great draw-the-D-and-dish by TT. Separately: every now and then this team does something wonderful, like coming back for a thrilling win on Ryan Miller night. It reminds us why we’re here and why we care. Go Sabres.

This, this, a thousand times this. Von was what the Bills were dying for last year and what they still need desperately.