Mustache of God

I'll be surprised if the Sabres can win 4 of their remaining 16 games. Looking at the schedule, there's no way they even sniff 80 points. But hey, we almost had meaningful March games, so that's progress.

It's amazing that team that had 6 or 7 pending UFAs, whose not qualifying for the playoffs has, what, a conditional 4th round pick and the rights to Kahun after the season ends? #assetmanagement

If Toronto beats San Jose tonight we'll be 14 points out of a playoff spot.

I don't understand why any UFA, especially the ones who have been trapped here for years, would willingly re-sign here. The only way I see that happening is if JBOTS severely overpays them to do so, which would be another addition to the heap of fireable offenses.

I hate when skilled players play down in lower divisions and just dominate. Where's the fun in that? On an aside, it's got to be really tough to be the one of the best players at your sport in the world, playing a game you've loved your entire life. And then you retire. What's left? Do high level beer leagues even compare? I guess you start coaching and pass your love of the game on in that way?

As much as I'd like to see JBOT canned, i think his long term plan was to treat this off-season as the overhaul since we have so many contracts set to come off the books (Hunwick, Sobotka, Bogo, Frolin/Scandella) similar to what Beane did with the bills in McDermott's second season. I think this was the "vision" he sold the to Pegulas which is why he's got such a long leash. However, the lack of improvement is disturbing. Mostly all of the forward talent he's brought in have been small swings and big misses (Vesey, Frolik, every non-draft pick piece of the ROR trade, Sheary, Skinner looks bad and that contract is going to hurt in a few years, the Reinhart bridge was mistake IMHO). His defensive philosophy was also a head-scratcher. I've never seen a team have to dress 7 D and 11 F, which I believe caused unnecessary tension in the room and never let the D get comfortable with their roles. I think he gets one more off-season for the sake of continuity and being able to start to work in his draft picks to build his "vision" as most of middling players he's brought in have been "placeholders", but he certainly doesn't deserve it. My guess is he gets fired in 10-11 months when we're in the same place next year, outside of the playoff picture, but not too far off, just need to string together a few wins and we collapse just like we are doing now.

I think we already know how "good" Jbots is. I have zero faith in his ability to evaluate forward talent. Who has he brought onto this team whose excelled offensively? Earlier I'd say Skinner but he's a freaking disaster now and we are stuck paying him $9M/year for 7 more years. Every other forward acquisition has resulted in under producing garbage.

Bills should sign Brady so he can sit behind Allen for a few seasons to learn the ropes.

I can't believe I just saw a Sabres winger throw a hit on the forecheck. What team is this?

Ugh, these NBCSN blackoutus on the Nhl.tv piss me off so much. Reddit's nhl streams got shut down. I've never heard of this goalie, but sounds like he's good? Let's break him, emotionally.

My prediction is the Sabres come out flat and it's doom & gloom for ~10 pages of the GDT and then we ***** rally hard in the 3rd and pull of a sneaky win in OT.

What stings the most about Casey is that he was such a highly touted prospect by people outside of the organization....which, at least for me, raised my expectations on him significantly which then made this whole situation even more disappointing.

We had 3 first round picks in last years draft. The time to get a 2C was using some of those picks in a package to land one. Whatever JBOT does this summer be it overpaying a UFA or overpaying via trade, I don't have faith it'll be the right move. Maybe we luck out and land a lottery pick, hopefully that's used to trade for a real 2C who can help the team immediately.

This was the first case of Pegula meddling, right? Leino eliminates us from the playoffs and Terry tells Darcy to go over pay him?

Is that the Wayne train?

TOR & FLA both won last night so this, like every game for the remainder of the season, is MUST WIN.

Rodriguez - Marlue is not a pairing I'd ever thought I'd see.

So with Sobotka presumably being done, that leaves us with Tage Thomspon and Ryan Johnson from the ROR trade? Hoping both of these guys work out.

^ is this true? Any idea of what was offered?

That second line better produce, they're raking in $18.5M , compared to $14.4 from our #1 line

I really, really, really want to see them not come out flat on this road trip. The game vs COL will be a huge statement. Are they the same old Sabres or are we actually starting to turn a corner?

He just wants to make that one guy throw up on himself with a cup ring.

Skinner needs to get on a goal streak and the deadline acquisitions need to contribute. If those two things happen, then maybe.

Kid played in Germany for four years and Ralph is German? I get the feeling European players really like him, so I'm guessing it'll be a good fit based on my blanket stereotype that Ralph works well with euros

I woke up today thinking we'd trade away some of our UFAs for 2021 mid-round picks, so I'm pleasantly surprised. I give Botteril a B+ for simply not tying his shoes together and falling over. This next run of games are crucial. My gut says we'll shoot ourselves in the foot and drop the next three, but, maybe we can get some Krueger magic, or maybe Skinner can not go another 20 goalless games and maybe we keep things interesting into March.