Sabre fan

Yep were tanking and we are not even trying! With the other teams around us in the standings playing well and winning we look good for maybe 2nd or 3rd last. Yet another high pick. Maybe that was JBotto's plan all along this year? Maybe what he meant by "meaningful games in March" was it means something to keep losing as we can get another high draft position. hell maybe we'll win the stupid lottery for once and draft first! Nah the NHL will never let that happen. We'll probably get bumped down as usual. OV is slumping so look out! He is due for a big game. Although the Sabres tend to lose the so-called "easy" or "winnable" games and beat the better teams. Thus, we will win 4-2...

agreed...those B announcers are absolutely pathetic. They are one bunch where I always turn down the volume as I simply cannot listen to their rhetoric and BS...mind you Boston is pretty good. Give them the Sabres for a while and they'd change their tune. I sure wish we could just win one lousy Cup for RJ; or for that matter, maybe just play a stinkin' playoff game

The cap goes up so JBotto will immediately over-spend with Sam and give him some big long contract to celebrate. Playing Sam alongside jack all year has allowed him (Sam) to inflate his numbers so that he will be in line for a big raise this summer. Not sure if that is on the GM or coach but both are basically responsible. Just as both are responsible for playing their other big fish Skinner wasting away on a under-achieving 2nd line. The smart money would be for sure to seek out a experienced proven goalie and that ever-elusive 2nd line center this team so desperately needs. But knowing JBotto he'll piss away the money on over-inflated contracts...

Yep...the Ducks and Ryan Miller in relief held on to beat the laughs 2-1...we are looking more and more at a nice low pick. Hell we are tanking and we are not even trying to! Tonight should be very interesting as we play Philly in the City of Brotherly Love LOL. Philly is everything that we should want our team to be. They totally rebuilt that team and got rid of some terrible contracts and drafted well and made some good trades and they are now a very good team, and still have lots of good prospects coming too. The big argument that JBotto needs four or five years loses it's reasoning when one looks at what Philly has done in a very short period of time. Hell even Ottawa seems to be heading in the right direction after giving away their 1st picks and trading away anyone who seemed any good they still are starting to win and they play with heart and determination and grit, three things sadly lacking from our beloved Sabres.

Now here is a brawl...

totally agree...I stated in another thread that anyone who thinks that nastiness and grit is goner should have watched Boston Florida. It was fun! They actually looked like they cared and wanted to win. Don;t see that much in Sabreland these days

Philly won again last night...for sure they are everything we would love the Sabres to be...big fast aggreesive nasty when it is necessary and play that up-tempo game. I agree Hextall got a bum deal and he certainly built that team and cleaned up the mess he inherited. JBotto inherited ROR EK and Lehner in goal and immediately got ird of all 3 for basically nothing. I know there are still people who defend these trades but the truth is you simply cannot give away that kind of talent for basically nothing and not pay the price. Hell I'd take Hextall as GM and LIndy back as coach. Anything would be better then this disaster we have now

No grit left in hockey? Anyone who thinks or believes that should watch Boston/Florida last night. They were running each other and there were fights and the game had a playoff feel in intensity and pace. Win or lose, every team that plays Boston knows they were in a game. I totally agree this team (Sabres) needs to be far more aggreesive and assertive. Look on the bight side Ottawa has got rid of most of their better players yet are playing better and they may pass us yet so we may very well get that top 5 pick. Hell we're tanking and we are not even trying to...

yet again this year this is pretty much all we have to look forward to isn't it? The way we are going maybe even Ottawa will pass us. And to think we are not even trying to lose this year!

I am all in for bringing back Darcy and Lindy...at least their teams had heart and passion, something badly missing around here since they left

very good point here...how is it that Philly can re-invent itself in such a short span of time and yes even have prospects not yet in the NHL yet we keep hearing that we have to be patient with JBotto as he does his "rebuild". Philly even got rid of their bad contracts while JBotto now has Skinner signed to a very scary contract. I guess the difference is that we are use to losing and being told to be patient (we've heard that for how many years now?) while places like Philly will not accept losing period...

the thing I do not understand with how Ralphie has gone about things this year is that we continue to throw Sam out there with jack and obviously that in itself makes Sam look better then he may actually be. I think the true and best indicator would have been to actually throw Sam on the 2nd line with say Vesey and whoever and see how he performs not riding Jack's back. In essence what we have done is allow Sam to inflate his numbers (even though they are still not great this year) playing with Jack in his contract year which is not very bright. Looks like JBotto will overpay Sam and then we'll have both Skinner and Sam being overpaid and under-performing. If they give Sam say $7 mil for 7 years both those contracts will haunt this team for years to come. Ralphie has totally misused Skinner for that matter leaving the 2nd highest paid player wasting away on the 2nd line...

Not all are onboard with tanking or the act of purposely losing...I kinda get the feeling Pat was dead against it and left because he could not go along with the tank years...ex GMTM was hired to purposely lose to get McDavid and that was seen as the way to the promised land. Even after getting bumped down ex GMTM did in fact get jack and ROR and immediately strengthen the team down the center, where it has been debated is where one must start to build any team.

not sure if you all saw this post from John Vogl but it tells us a lot about what is going on and how Jack is feeling these days (not good)... Jack Eichel is one of the NHL’s elite talents, there’s no question about that. Unfortunately, those talents have not been able to be properly utilized. Similar to how the Edmonton Oilers couldn’t fully put it together even with Connor McDavid on board, the Buffalo Sabres just haven’t been able to take the next step. For a player like Eichel who wears his heart on his sleeve and certainly does more than his fair share of the work, it’s particularly tough to keep ending up in the league basement. There’s no greater example of that than this imagery provided by John Vogl. Following their 3rd game of a four-game road trip (also their 3rd loss of that four game road trip), Eichel was apparently feeling so devastated he didn’t even take his uniform off. Jack Eichel still in full uniform long after every other Sabres player had left the locker room. Realization that it’s over is here: “Big picture sucks, obviously,” Eichel said. Ralph Krueger: "Now with the unraveling of this road trip, there’s a lot of pain here. ... We feel pain right now. There’s nothing I can say that’s going to make this pretty, but we definitely will stay on the growth path that we are on." I think it is safe to say that the losing year after year is starting to get to Jack. Might he ask for a trade? Gotta think he is becoming more and more removed from this dysfunctional organization...

Kinda interesting that ex GMTM was brought in to actually lose and tank and get what was suppose to me McDavid. With our dreaded curse, we of course lost the 1st pick and as a consolation prize got Jack. Jack, truth be known, is no McDavid (but very good). After failing to get McDavid GMTM made one of the biggest steals in recent NHL history getting ROR for not much of anything. He also got EK (a premier power forward) and lehner for goal and to be honest I really thought that this team was heading in the right direction. I still think we'd be better off if we stayed put and still had that team. Anyways, ex GMTM gets the boot and in comes JBotto who's mandate is to rebuild and win. Well his rebuild has been anything but stellar and we are not winning much more then we were. So the question becomes why some are so quick to give JBotto a pass for yet another year (year 4) when ex GMTM only got 3 years and he was ordered or rold to throw away at least one or two of those years by upper management. Either way, I miss LINDY... (and Darcy for that matter). remember when this team had passion and heart ???? That left when Lindy got run out of town.

YES PLEASE

I'll say it...I miss Lindy and Darcy. At least they worked well together and had such passion. Their teams had passion (remember those great brawls with Ottawa, Philly Boston etc). Their teams looked like they actually cared. They played with something long missing here; heart.

strange some are quick to try and defend JBotto but dumped all over ex GMTM when the sad truth is JBotto has indeed made a host of poor hockey decisions thus far. While everyone is trying to say that the ROR trade was "forced" on JBotto, it sure does reek of his kind of trade (great asset gone for basically nothing). It was obvious that JBotto wanted most of ex GMTM's guys gone so that this team was his team. he gave away the best assets he inherited not named jack when he lost the aforementioned ROR, EK and Lehner for basically a bag of hockey pucks. he simply could not afford to give away those players and have nothing to show in return. I sure do miss Lindy and Darcy who worked well as a team and had such passion. Their teams likewise had that passion that is so sadly missing here since they were booted out. I'd take Lindy back in a heartbeat. Players cared when he was coaching...now they look like they care about only one thing...payday

so I get the impression that just because there are empty seats at many home games these days, those seats are still PAID for just empty? I would also assume that empty seats at say Florida are NOT PAID FOR and just not sold? makes one wonder how Florida can keep a team...

that is scary! nevertheless in JBotto's defenseI did think Johansson would turn out better then he has. Clealy that was a band-aid solution when he was unable to secure a bonafide 2nd center. or yes he thought Mitts would be the guy (which is pretty bad thinking) The scary part is that unless we trade Sam, there really is no hope of getting anybody half-decent for next year. FA clearly has no one of any real interest so unless we fleece some other team of a stud 2nd center we are looking at another long season next year (and I have no faith JBotto can fleece anybody the way Ex GMTM fleeced Colorado for ROR). Good teams are built down the center and you need those big, strong centers . JBotto has not seemed to buy into that theory as of yet...

Yeah you had to trade at least one...and you are right money was the issue. But both shoul dhad been somehow signed (or one signed and the other traded).

Kinda think that this organization has re-booted far too many times for them to actually try and bring in yet another new GM (or coach as most new GM's will want their own coach). Still think a big problem stems from giving away or losing good talent and getting basically nothing in return. The beginning of the end seemed to start way back when we lost both Briere and Drury to free agency when we should have traded them, at the deadline and got something of significance in return (remember both were highly coveted and in big demand;hence they both signed big contracts at free agency). Fast forward a few years and GMTM is giving away far too much for far too little, but then he does make two significant moves to bring in two really good players in EK and ROR. For all of Ex GMTM's fails, these two guys should have given us some reason to rejoice and feel we are on the right track to something (anything?). Then we juice GMTM and bring in the "can't fail" JBotto, who immediately takes it upon himself to get rid of both EK and ROR for basically nothing. JBotto traded his two big fish for a bunch of little fish-fry that in the end amount to just bottom feeders and leaving one good line and 3 lines of 3rd or 4th liners. Getting Kahun for two of those 3rd and 4th liners was a good move, but we need that elusive 2nd center and 2nd winger to play with Skinner (although I still cannot figure out how we continue to waste a 9 million player on the 2nd line with a bunch of nobody's). When he gave away EK and ROR he gave away his best chances at getting a 2nd line center in a hockey trade. They don;t grow on trees and just about every team is in search for one of those at some point. I fear we will be right where we are now next season too. OMG I cannot take another season of this...

if we have any chance of playoffs (which I sincerely doubt) isn;t Florida a better hope to catch? The Laughs seem to be hitting their stride (again) after losing a bunch and looking terrible doing so. Their "D" is awful but they sure can score. Vegas has won like 7 in a row I read somewhere? Should be interesting with Lehner in goal

sorry Frolik...anyways is he actually signed for next year (God I hope not)??? anybody know

while I did and do think they overpaid for a very one-dimensional player, I think it is even sillier to bury him on as line with guys not anywhere near capable of helping Skinner out. he clearly needs a center to feed him, but then again so does most goal scorers. Right now we have Sam riding Jack's back and running up numbers so that he will be the next to get a over-inflated contract. Is Sam that good or is it just that he plays with Jack?