thewookie1

I'd guess Botts conceived the idea, Pegula effectively hand cuffed his ability to deal him, Botts trades ROR in order to not look out-of-touch to ownership while doing exactly that to the fans.

Hmm, I imagine this scenario: January 2018 Botts to Pegula: I'm thinking about trading ROR to bolster our team depth elsewhere. Pegula: Why? Botts: I believe he may be the case of the rift in the locker room Pegula: Alright June 2018 Pegula: I thought you were trading ROR? I'm not all that happy with his post-season comments. Not to mention his drunken escapades after I gave him a contract.... Botts: I'm trying; big trades are difficult in-season due to the salary cap Pegula: Well, get it done before his bonus is needing to be paid Botts: Why? Pegula: I'm done paying that guy a dime to play elsewhere after trashing our franchise. Botts: Ok, I guess. I do have a couple trades in the works with Montreal and Carolina so ideally he'll be gone at the draft. June 30th 2018 Botts: Carolina wants the bonus paid Terry Pegula: Then send him somewhere else, I'm not paying him to play in Carolina Botts: I'll try but I'm only getting weak offers Pegula: I have faith in you July 1st 2018 Botts: Well this really sucks, I have only three options St. Louis, Montreal, or keep him. Montreal's offer is less than I wanted and is in the division, St. Louis is in the West and is offering a 1st but I have to pick up salary to make it work, or I can keep him but Mr. Pegula will be rather curious as to why I said he was a locker room cancer and then chose to hold onto him. Carolina is still offering me Lindholm and Skinner but they need the bonus paid. Well, I guess I'll bite the bullet and take St. Louis's offer since its the least likely to hurt us directly and they are offering the most NHL-caliber players and a 1st. Berglund is a 3C, Sobotka a 4C whom both have playoff experience; Berglund could shelter Mitts to start the year. Tage Thompson is a big shooter and we have no one like that so that seems ideal and you can't go wrong with a 1st and a later 2nd.

What’s up with Trochek and why are some Florida fans wanting to trade him?

Hmm, the irony of a beer conversation taking place on a 20 year old’s thread. scratch that, he turned 21 near Thanksgiving this year

Matthews shouldn’t even be an MVP candidate seeing as he’s got far more support around him and isn’t blowing his teammates out of the water. 1. Hasek - did the most with the least 2. Roy - incredible player and par with Hasek 3. Brodeur - great goalie with longevity but was, to at least some level, aided by his team’s system

Ugh, can't stand the Leafs. I wish they'd go get spayed and neutered like the Prices Right always talks about. It seemed like the LOG line and Eichel showed up at 7:00. Reinhart seemed unable to play any offense most of the game yet made two great backchecks. Dahlin is looking good. I get the sense Dahlin sent it to MoJo for a quick back and forth before he tried to get it to Eichel but MoJo overthought it and flubbed it.

No, unless its for a Bogosian level player. I never want to help my divisional rival, especially them, in any way regardless if it even helps us more.

We are playoff bound everyone!

Another solid win, they are playing again like they did in October. A team game where our LOG line sets a tone and our top players play like top players. Eichel has truly embraced his captaincy it seems; we saw it some last year but it ebbed away as the season fell apart. This year he's kept it together through the highs and the lows with a consistent desire to help his team win. Please Botts, send young Mitts to Rochester and let him regain his confidence.

I agree with Pi for once; its very odd that he'd request a trade after all we've done for him.

Well say hello to Galchenyuk I guess

Our #1 should be locked in a safe. mitts I’m a bit more torn on.

I only remember a few things about the Aud as it closed when I hadn’t even turned 6. The YMCA song A Kendall Oil sponsor over one of the entries to the bowl that was near me Parking under the skyway The stars on the metro rail station According to my father; my great-grandparents’ seats were very close to the bench and technically couldn’t be reached without crossing over where the players walked out. If need be an usher would actually stop the Sabres going to the bench so they could go to their seats. Supposedly they had brief conversations with many of the players in the 70s and 80s and when I was a toddler I was given many high-fives by the players. God do I wish I could actually remember that!

I still think Mitts agent had a handshake agreement with Botts about no AHL time. After all, he did send Thompson down and Cozens to the WHL so Mitts seems to have some special situation attached to him. Id guess when Botts made the agreement he expected Mitts to take off immediately based on his WJC and thus the AHL was never a problem. Yet instead he’s struggled and likely should have started the year in Rochester. Botts won’t go back on his agreement and unless Mitts tells him he wants some time to fix stuff in Rochester he can’t send him down. Its a lot like how the ROR trade is very much odd in comparison to all his other trades in terms of design and asset movement

It was certainly odd; I almost wonder if McDavid's existence gives them this false sense of being able to just out skate anyone. Thing is Eichel can come damn close to going stride for stride with him if need be. More likely however they were somewhat off since they haven't played many games in OT this year.

I'd take Galchenyuk but only on a cheap price. He's somehow burned out of three teams in less than two years so that gives me pause though still.

It’s a way to show they have a pulse. Plus it could wake some players up

They have before against Buffalo. I can recall a game against Toronto 2 years ago where they picked a Sabre to open the lane and score. Regardless I’m sick of losing and I’m sick of waiting for Botts to do something.

I didn’t catch it but regardless what a tacky way to screw a team in OT when it is usually let go in OT.

I don’t really feel that was a penalty in OT. Virtanen effectively stepped into Jokis stick. Not to mention where the hell was the whistle before Eichel scored?

In case you hadn’t noticed, he had drawn the penalty, then was out there the entire two minutes and beyond. He could barely move by the time of the goal’s shot. Scandella shouldn’t be deking when an exhausted centerman is back on D Otherwise I’d agree that was a bad play by him but you could see how exhausted he was

Bogo needed a conditioning stint McCabe went from our solid dependable Dman in October to a train wreck. Miller is sitting for unknown reason. ugh

Trade McCabe and Bogo. If no one wants them jettison them to waivers. Montour isn’t good at LD and it drops his skill. Find a partner for Risto in the market. Our Defense is literally Jokiharu

From Friedman's 31 Thoughts 4. Okay, let’s look at some other things. On Nov. 16, Jack Eichel scored four goals in a 4–2 win over Ottawa. Watch him before a face-off with 30 seconds left and the Senators’ net empty: https://www.sportsnet.ca/hockey/nhl/31-thoughts-code-conduct-coming-nhl/ Someone told me he was telling players not to focus on giving him the puck for a fourth goal, but to play smart and safe. Asked about it last week, though, he said he was actually trying to put Jimmy Vesey in position to score. The winger had no goals in 15 games to that point. “Maybe an empty-netter gets him going,” the Sabres captain added. A small thing, but a big thing. His efforts in dragging the Sabres out of their struggles have not gone unnoticed.

Great game by the Sabres, the Leafs were saved by Anderson and Anderson alone. Also that glove save looks like it should of been a goal and had the situation been reversed I'm guessing its called a good goal.