LTS

Two of those goals are on the damn captain. Eichel blew coverage on one and then, if he actually checks a player, interrupts the play on another. He's not solely to blame, but he's got a lot of 'splainin to do. And, when you are playing a team that has the most SHG in the league.. perhaps maybe, just maybe, you should be concerned when they gain control of the puck short-handed. Ottawa bucks the trend and watches teams fall back waiting for the dump. They use that to gain an attack advantage and capitalize on it. They actually do this 5 on 5 as well. They may not be skilled, but their tactics say that Smith is doing some great coaching. It sure as hell plays against the Sabres weakenesses.

Here's the thing. I'm giving the credit. But there are things to consider here. Did this happen? I didn't see it, but that's one thing. It's timing of when you make moves. This is the pain of hindsight. Yes. They needed to fill Bouwmeester's spot. This is where the timing of things can bite you in the ass or pay dividends. As the reigning Cup champs, they can afford to overpay. One could argue that acquiring Skinner was similar. The Sabres got to know Skinner and he re-signed. His goal totals this year, notwithstanding. But, at the time, Scandella was worth some amount. If Bouwmeester doesn't collapse do you think that Scandella gets moved for this? Botterill made the low cost move to try and acquire a forward who had proven relatively serviceable in past years but was falling out of favor in Calgary. It did not work out. It happens. I can be called a Botterill apologist, but I'm not apologizing for Botterill. I'm accepting that the timing of when someone chooses to act has to be judged on that moment. It's not always obvious what will occur after the action is taken. Botterill looks like he squandered assets and the media is already jumping on this. Of course they are, because it sells. It doesn't mean that's what happened. Just like choosing when to buy or sell a stock, you make a decision at a point in time. If three weeks later that company makes an announcement that raises stocks through the roof are you fool for having sold? No. You have to act on what you know at the time. That said.. Bergevin managed to flip Scandella into something more than he paid for. Good on him.... bad on us. This time.

What's the relative +/- on that being accurate? Jason Botterill: "Hey, it says you guys have a guy with "check" in his name. Our PR staff thinks we can spell his name right on a sweater, interested in trading him?"

No, it's not confirmed. They can talk to other teams if the Sabres allow it. Which, while not being reported, probably has also happened. I don't think the Sabres are playing hard ball with Bogosian. They can't afford that negativity with players in the league. They likely orchestrated the whole scenario. "Zach, we can't move you, your salary is too much. We can waive you, you can choose not to report, and we can suspend you. We can terminate your contract and you'll lose some money. But you'll be free to sign with another team. These teams were interested, but the money was too much. You might want to talk to them." It's a deal or no deal. Waive, suspend, terminate.. just as GA said above.

That's a long name for that stat, my guess is it won't translate well on charts.

Be curious to see how tonight goes. Larsson? That whole line is important. If they let him go it better be for something good.. and I hope he comes back. You don't get a line like the GLO line very often... when you do, you want to keep it together unless they know with as much certainty possible that someone else can fill the role.

I read it that way too, but there's a big difference. It's not like the flu shot actually prevents the flu, and it tends to NOT kill anyone. Coronavirus has no vaccine, so it's not like we could take one if we wanted and it doesn't appear to be as discriminatory. The flu isn't a joke, neither is this. I mean, if we really want to talk about dangers to longevity let's chat about all those who live a lifestyle just taunting a heart attack.

Score a hat trick.. get traded. See, teams do care about recent performance. ?

Perhaps.. but it might also be plausible that they get an offer for a player.. *cough* Ristolainen *cough* that would reduce their chances this season but set them up great for next season... in which case they go the other way. Hopefully it'll be an interesting time. Sadly I am at our HQ in Little Rock on Monday.. I usually take a de facto sick day those days.. I planned poorly.

You know.. you bring it up again, but the flu shot doesn't prevent the flu. Why do you insist on this measuring stick when its clearly broken? https://www.cdc.gov/flu/prevent/misconceptions.htm

Until his contract is terminated, they can't just go nuts. In fact, he could report tomorrow and they'd eat the money. Before they make any move to use that cap space they need to make sure he can't suddenly show up in Rochester. So, they almost have to terminate his contract. Which really works out in Bogosian's favor... let's say a team will pay him $750k to fill in a 7th slot on a playoff run. That wasn't going to be a trade a team would make given his current salary, but now that team can sign him straight away right? So Bogosian might walk away from money, but he gets a shot on a playoff team. In fact, it's quite possible that some team said they would sign him if the contract was terminated. Possibilities....

The Sabres would be foolish to make a trade that jeopardized success in the future for a minor chance at success this year. It's a tough decision, but this team is not built for a deep playoff run.

Do we know how many of Housley's 132 points we can shave off as they were scored at forward? Dahlin is involved with 20.5% of the Sabres scoring. Jack, by comparison is involved in 43.5% John Carlson is 34% for the Caps Roman Josi is 39.4% for the Preds. Quinn Hughes is 24% for the Canucks. He's getting there. I can't complain about him. The Sabres lack of total offense doesn't help. I have no idea how many of the points Carlson, Josi, and Hughes score on the power play, but given the anemic scoring rate of the Sabres PP, I am sure that's holding Dahlin back a bit as well.

I... I think you're right!

An outbreak in Tokyo wouldn't be good. Not that we have any idea how long this whole thing will last, but with the Summer Olympics there in 5 months, it won't help. I am sure there is still lots of facilities prep happening. Any kind of shutdown would be brutal.

Technically the only "garbage plate" is at Nick Tahou's. It's trademarked or whatever. So, you get a lot of variations on the name around town but the most common I see on menus is simply to refer to it as a plate, for the name of the restaurant and plate. But I think that in Rochester if you were to say, "Let's get a plate." most people will know what you mean.

So very true. I understand the situation that leads to this. Don't have to like it, but I understand it. I would say things were missed in accordance to the way things are missed in a playoff hockey game. Basically only egregious penalties or those that are in and around the net during a scoring opportunity were generally called. But yes, I would imagine Leafs fans would be upset. When the officials screw their team on a Stanley Cup clinching goal, I'll almost feel sorry for them. Well.... I get you are fired up and all, but I'm not doling out $70 per ticket before fees to get the cheapest seat in the house. It only goes up from there. That the Leafs fans will pay exorbitant amounts of money to travel to Buffalo to see their team speaks of the passion of the fan base and the nature of capitalism. It blows.. no doubt. Perhaps only allow STH to redeem tickets for the games against the Leafs and Canadiens in person at the box office? Or allow them to be traded in for some value so the Sabres could control the sale of the tickets? Not gonna try and solve the problem. Keep beating the Leafs and less of their fans will want to show up....

That was a lot of fun... a whole lot of fun. I still hate all the Leafs fans there. Perhaps the toll to cross the Peace Bridge should be $50 on the nights the Leafs play? If I lived in Buffalo still I'd consider hanging signs thank the Leafs fans for their time and money as they returned home. Great game... the team can play.. but they need more unfortunately. Still a little soft in the D zone. You want Botterill to get a forward... can he do it without giving up too much? I'd love for it to happen.

Yes, I agree with this. But do you know what the plan was? Do I? Since we don't know, we have to look at the actions of those involved and attempt to decipher the plan. The plan, when Botterill came on, was not win right away. It was to establish competition across the organization. That has happened. The question that all of us want to know is when that translates into the next phase, winning more games and competing for the playoffs. However unpopular it might be, my opinion is that this wasn't the year they were going to make the changes necessary to do that. At least not at the expense of the next few seasons. They weren't going to be better than Tampa and Boston and perhaps almost as competitive as the rest of the division without making changes. At the moment, that appears to be where they stand. So, you may be holding someone accountable for their record before the organization is holding them accountable. Of course you can do that, but that doesn't mean the GM isn't doing his job, it just means you don't like the job he's doing. So, the entire point is allowing for the possibility that what you and others want and expect is not what the organization is working towards. He could also suck as a GM. I allow for that as well. Personally I don't have enough evidence to believe that yet. It doesn't mean I won't at some point if the evidence presents itself.

Oh no. Heaven forbid we engage in conversation on a discussion forum. I've never said anyone needs to adopt my stance, that's just pure garbage coming from you. I guess you are content to just complain about the output and not think about how it could be made to be better. I get it, it's not your job. That's the job of the GM. Your job is to do what exactly? Be a cranky-pants? I allow for possibilities. You know, like when Pilut was sent down and people freaked the hell out only for him to be recalled the next day? If we go into this all accepting that we don't have all the information, then why should any of else feel like we should be able to determine what is or is not exactly happening? Fair. Truth. Perhaps it's Greene's experience? I don't know.

The same schtick they do at baseball games. Kids love it.

There's always opportunity cost. It goes both ways. You are playing with the power of hindsight. There are so many factors that come into play. The only people who know what could have been done and what wasn't done are those involved. When Botterill acquired Miller perhaps he thought he would be able to move one of the other defense? But then it didn't happen. So now you have more defense than you need and as a result you have to deal with that. Now you have to play Bogosian and you hope he shows some signs of life so you can make a move, but he doesn't. Now you are stuck with him. I could easily justify Miller by saying that you acquire an asset whose value will be realized when you move Ristolainen. Until then, you have to have some level of roster flexibility and sometimes players have to sit. There are all kinds of possibilities, but in the world of the NHL trades that only happened within the past year might not always realize their full value until a few seasons later. Then you look at what transpired and perhaps you can make some guesses as to what and wasn't possible or what a GM was trying to do. The Sabres might have been able to make the moves you made. It might have led to success. It also would have opened up any number of other potential negative outcomes in the future. It might not have. That's the way it goes. I think there's reasonable counter points so that nothing should be considered a slam dunk in either direction.

For every trade made. Anyone who asserts the Sabres should have made that trade needs to deliver a proposal that would beat the trade that was made. Otherwise, it's hot air.

Hindsight is dangerous. Let's run through your scenarios. The Avs traded a 2020 2nd and 3rd plus an AHL forward for Burkovsky. The Sabres traded a 2021 2nd and a 2022 5th for Miller. Ostensibly you are saying the Sabres should have traded their 2020 2nd and 3rd. The 2020 3rd they don't have because they used that to get Jeff Skinner. The same 3rd round pick people now want back so the Sabres can offer sheet Cirelli? Which, if they traded their 2020 2nd round pick would be even harder to do. Let's look at JT Miller (I've broken this one down before) Vancouver traded a conditional 2020 first, a 2019 third, and a goalie. Buffalo traded a 2019 first, and Brendan Guhle. The timing here matters as well as this trade occurred well before JT Miller was on the market. So, in hindsight, you'd be saying Botterill should not have made a move back then because those assets, in theory, could be used to get something a few months later. Nevermind, and I argued why, Tampa didn't care about a 2019 1st round pick. Or Montour to get Kadri Avs traded Barrie, Kerfoot, and a 2020 6th and retained salary Buffalo would have traded Montour and whom? and retained salary to get Kadri? And he would help how? You believe Scandella at the deadline gets more than a 4th but Scandella doesn't get more than a 4th when the team acquiring him does so long before the deadline? I don't think that's how it works. Scandella, before the deadline, was ONLY worth a 4th, and he'd be worth less later. And that 4th only gets you Frolik... that's it. The Sabres don't have an embarassment of riches on defense, they just have a lot of defense. Ristolainen's value before this season was crap. He's improved it quite a bit I would think and perhaps he gets moved, but it might not be during the season because those big moves don't usually happen until the off-season. Montour? Hard to say, you could move him. You are then banking on Jokiharju stepping up more.. if that doesn't happen then you get fans criticizing the GM for putting faith in a D player when he clearly should have known he would suck (just like talking about Bogo). Hindsight is dangerous... because you have to remove yourself and the knowledge you have now to understand the knowledge you had at the time. By your logic on the JT Miller trade, perhaps Botterill is holding onto his assets now so he can make a JT Miller like trade in the off-season.

Yes, he clearly has mental health issues as a result of playing hockey. That is not in question. He should not be chiming in on situations like this. Simply because people will bring up incidents from his past, prior to his current mental health state, that are not explained away so easily. Carcillo was always about the drama. He played it up on the ice when he played. I'm not going to dismiss his drama now because of it. It would be different if he had always been a nice guy and now was suddenly acting completely different. In this case, he's acting in line with how he's acted in the past. Perhaps he's always had mental health issues, but that won't change that he should just be quiet.