Drunkard

Do I even need to type anything at this point? He sucks.

Like some sweet grey pit stains? Keeping gray as a secondary color when they switched back to blue and gold was the second worst decision the team made after that ugly slug logo.

And Murray is still better than Botterill.

In a world where Tim Murray was a complete disaster for acquiring 4 legitimate top 6 forwards, then Jason Botterill is a complete moron or a spineless weenie for running 2 of them off the team while only acquiring 1 and giving that one a horrible contract.

Res Ipsa Loquitor - the things speaks for itself. Horrible trade means he's either a complete moron or he's a spineless weenie. Either way we lose.

We just see it differently. I don't see how Murray wasted it all. He inherited a team with absolutely nothing worthwhile on the roster and a bunch of picks and futures. With the 50 contract limit there was literally no way he could have made all those picks. He managed to turn a roster that had Zemgus Girgensons as its top center and he built a top 6 that had 4 good pieces including 2 quality prime aged centers and 2 quality prime aged wingers in Eichel, Reinhart, O'Reilly, and Kane. He definitely screwed up in choosing Moulson and Okposo to round out that top 6 but he gave us a quality center spine that put Girgensons back in the bottom 6. Botterill got rid of 2 of those pieces and replaced them with one piece that is now under a much less favorable contract. He still hasn't found a replacement top 6 center and even when he does the odds that the FNG will be anywhere near the caliber of O'Reilly are somewhere between slim and none. Who knows though? Maybe Johansson manages to adequately fill in at 2nd line center and some of his other darts turn into diamonds in the rough as well. Remembering how the team fell apart after 48 and 23 left though, I'm not a fan of the bubble gum and duct tape approach to the center position.

Gotcha. If it just came from the internet then it's nothing. I thought the shirts were for sale in the Sabres store or NHL.com or something.

I guess I was off on the timing of Murray's hiring but if he was here for 3.5 seasons and they intentionally lost for 1.5 seasons that's still 40% of his tenure. I agree that Murray overspent on some bad contracts (mainly Moulson and Okposo plus trading for Bogosian) but the rest of the contracts were short term and not really bad considering where the team was from a competitive standpoint. You certainly attempt to paint a rosy picture of Botterill's meager accomplishments and how he was saddled with such a horrible starting point but that's fool's gold as well. When Murray got his top centers were Cody Hodgson, Tyler Ennis, Johan Larsson, and Zemgus Girgensons. When Botterill got here he inherited Jack Eichel, Ryan O'Reilly, Zemgus Girgensons, and Johan Larrson. And you're actually trying to argue that Botterill had a more difficult starting point? Not a chance. From where I'm standing he didn't methodically clean out anything either. He ran out the clock on Moulson's contract before demoting him near the end and is doing the same with Okposo and Bogosian. He took a great contract with no protections for O'Reilly (a top 6 center) and spent that money (plus some) on a winger that he now has locked up until he's 35 at big money and has a full NMC. He took another top 6 winger in Kane and instead of keeping him or trying to get a good piece for him, held out for some idiotic 4 pieces including a 1st round pick nonsense that nobody was going to spend on a pending UFA and stuck to his ridiculous ask until it was nearly too late and ending up selling him off for a conditional pick that he was lucky turned into a 1st and some nobody who isn't even here any more.

That's why I said maybe. I have no idea but that's the only link I see between soccer and the Buffalo Sabres.

That's fine. You're welcome to your opinion. I think Botterill is worse than Murray in everything except communication with the owner. Murray's teams didn't go anywhere but most of his tenure his team was designed to lose on purpose to secure some top end talent. By the time Botterill got here it was supposed to be all about winning but he's had less success than Murray when Botterill is supposedly trying to win. People tend to defend whoever is here and then shred them after they leave so the majority of people who are defending Botterill now will join me in criticizing him after he's gone. I look forward to that because: 1. It will be nice to actually agree with the majority opinion again. 2. I don't think the team will really turn a corner until he is replaced with someone who can evaluate talent instead of relying on volume shooting as his plan A in order to find diamonds in the rough.

You can't win games 0-0 and I don't recall seeing Binnington scoring any goals or winning any faceoffs. Yes, his performance was critical to the Blues winning the cup, but so was O'Reilly's. O'Reilly was an integral part of the team and their winning of the cup and he was awarded the Conn Smythe in recognition of it. The fact that Armstrong was able to add O'Reilly and Tyler Bozak while shedding dead weight like Berglund and Sobotka played a big part as well. Ultimately it's a team game and they were fortunate to have the stars align for them.

Maybe it's in homage to Krueger.

I can't wait for the Botterill was a complete disaster for the Sabres thread that will come in a year or two after he gets fired.

Of course. Facial recognition is just the next step in the process. Big business collectively already has most of your secrets at this point so they have to invent new ways to get the rest, even if you don't use give it away voluntarily by putting it on Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram. Google has your search history and every place you've ever gone since you've had a cell phone in your pocket thanks to Google Maps. Netflix, Hulu, Amazon Prime, HBO, etc. have documented evidence of all the shows you watch and Visa, Amazon, and Walmart have your financial information and purchase history. I was listening to NPR on the way to work the other day and they are developing some new brain reading technology that will soon be used to give people Jedi/Telepathy powers on your future Xbox, PlayStation, and Nintendo consoles. Anyone who plays it will have their brain waves mapped and cataloged for our alien overlords. Might as well spit in a tube and send it to Ancestry.com or 23 and me so they'll have your DNA on file. It may save you from the alien probe or maybe they'll do it anyway just for kicks.

The valuable depth was more of a reference to thinking Berglund and Sobotka had any sort of value whatsoever. I have more faith in his defensive pickups (you basically have to) but it doesn't mean any of them will be ready to replace Ristolainen this season. I'd rather not see them get rushed into a position they aren't ready for anyway. That's what happened with Mittelstadt.

Of course. His hair isn't even gray yet. No need to rush things. By that point Botterill will be on his 20th coach and the new coach will definitely need an evaluation season.

It's too bad our GM resembles that remark. If he didn't he wouldn't need to trade Ristolainen to fix his 2C mistake.

YouTube is blocked here at my job so I can post a link but I nominate basically any play where Sobotka is on the ice.

You could say the same thing about all of our defenders except for Dahlin. All of the FNG's Botterill has brought in seem to be puck movers not the traditional stay at home, clog the passing lanes, lifting sticks, and clear the crease type guys. Why should Ristolainen be held to a higher standard than Montour, Miller, Bogosian, McCabe, Jokiharju, or the rest of the lot?

We'll see if Krueger agrees. Just because Botterill has managed to assemble a small army of warm bodies who play defense doesn't mean any of them will be good enough to take Ristolainen's spot in the lineup this season. And given his track record of what he considers valuable depth, I don't think Ristolainen has much reason to sweat it. I'd say I like Ristolainen's chances at keeping a spot in the top 4 and a spot on the power play (maybe he'll drop down to 2nd unit, I don't know if Krueger prefers to play just one defenseman per unit or any of that so we'll see). I'd personally be happy to see his usage reduced from being treated like the love child of Shea Weber and Bobby Orr to that of a typical top 4 defenseman.

I know it's a crazy concept, but maybe it would be better for the overall performance of the team if players had to earn their spots instead of just trading away players who are better to make room for younger ones who aren't as good yet. I hear winning teams do this all the time.

Favorite Sabres 1. Rob Ray 2. Dominik Hasek 3. Patrick Kaleta Non Sabres 1. Mark Messier 2. John Scott 3. Denis Potvin Hated 1. All Bruins 2. All Flyers 3. All Bruins again

The may not need him in the sense that they have other warm bodies on the roster, but if we want to take ownership serious about now being the time to actually start winning then it would be irresponsible to just throw the next man up into Ristolainen's spot and hope for the best. Bogosian and Pilut won't be ready to start the season. Scandella, Nelson, and Hunwick are mediocre on their best days at this point, Miller was sheltered in Vegas and Jokiharju hasn't even accrued a full season of playing in the NHL. That leaves Dahlin, Montour, and McCabe as other players who can play in the top 4 but none of them have played the type of minutes that Ristolainen played last season. Sure we can roll the dice with those guys and hope that Jokiharju or Miller can step up and nab the remaining spot in the top 4 but if any of those guys prove not to be able to handle those minutes the season will be toast and it will be another year lost.

They are all just a guy until proven otherwise. It doesn't mean they suck or they won't improve over time, but I don't think the collective lot of them are good enough to push Ristolainen down to the 3rd pair this season. Miller didn't do any heavy lifting in Vegas and Jokiharju (or however you spell it) has only played half a season in the NHL so he's technically still a prospect. Montour seems to me much more of the puck moving/offensive oriented type defenseman rather than a guy who can be thrown to the wolves, and the rest of the guys on the right hand side either haven't proven to be any better than Ristolainen (Bogosian, Nelson) or are still too early in their development (Borgen) to just assume not only that they'll be better than Ristolainen, but they'll be ready to take over his minutes this upcoming season.

If he stays, he definitely won't be on the 3rd pair, no matter how many JAGs our dart throwing GM brings in. Also, there's a difference between sheltering him and just not treating him like he's Shea Weber in his prime. Giving him less than 24 minutes a game and less than 60% of his zone starts in the defensive doesn't mean he's being sheltered. If you apply that logic to Ristolainen, then doesn't it apply to Dahlin, Montour, Bogosian, McCabe, and the rest of our defensive roster? Were they all sheltered just because they weren't saddled with predominantly difficult minutes? Because none of those players were asked to carry the water for the amount of time that he has and I think @Randall Flagg or somebody else mentioned that when Montour played the same type of minutes Ristolainen did that he got his teeth kicked in in much the same fashion. Does that mean Botterill traded Guhle and a 1st round pick for a worthless defenseman that needed to be sheltered? Or could it simply be that most defenseman who aren't Shea Weber in his prime would perform poorly when thrown into the deep end with no little to no help?