Randall Flagg

Not thrilled at having an interim with the names available. We will see what happens at HC.

I cannot wait for the first season in a decade where the most anticipated day is because of a hockey game and not something like tomorrow

Sucks that we are here again. Let this be the last time for many years.

I remember trying that show a few years back and ditching it immediately upon completion of that first episode

Nailed what many of us can't put into words. Superficially, financially, in a vacuum, one can logically discuss the merits of keeping Ralph around in a season like this. But when you're in the real world and dealing with actual humans inside and outside of your building, where stuff like the bolded are tangible if not measurable, it feels like we are recklessly dancing with the devil. Flirting with the edge of some proverbial cliff, playing a bit too much a bit too close to the edge. To get out of this the Sabres need to spend every ounce of energy they have fighting and clawing to fix it. Upgrading every little thing they can. Turning over every rock for any modicum of improvement. This desperation should never leave us until we take our week off to party with the cup.

What about an offseason that involved hiring Housley, and bringing in the following players: Pouliot, Nolan, Josefson, Beaulieu, Tennyson, Griffith, to fill out the roster, creating the conditions so terrible that they led to ROR breaking? Or two consecutive seasons of watching a team fall from first in the league to out of the playoffs by 20 points over the span of months and months, without lifting a finger to do anything about it? Allowing his coaches to use Vlad Sobotka as 2C? Bringing up Mitts a year too soon, cutting his ELC a year short, assuming he or Berglund would be fine centers? What about flipping Scandella for a 4th, watching another team flip him for a 2nd, and then trading that 4th for Michael Frolik, who was so bad that even Ralph wound up needing to healthy scratch him as often as possible (noting that while Scandella was likely to leave, he and Jokiharju were easily our best pairing last year, and Joki has plummeted since) What about giving Reinhart contracts that essentially walk him to leaving as a UFA if we don't trade him this summer? What about trading the first pick of the 6th round, for a 6th rounder the FOLLOWING year from TORONTO, a team certainly not picking first in any round anytime soon, while just after that Detroit traded their 6th for a HIGHER value pick? And while I don't mean to DEFEND GMTM, who I was fine with firing, He took a roster of Foligno - Ennis - Stafford Stewart - Girgensons - Gionta Moulson - Hodgson - Flynn Deslauriers - Larsson - Mitchell Weber - Myers Benoit - Meszaros Zadorov - Risto with Reinhart waiting in juniors, 3 first round picks, and a few second rounders (the first rounders were all mid/late besides the Eichel one, and people act like it's trivial to turn this stash into meaningful hockey players when it's definitely not) and immediately created the best team we've had since 2011-12 with it, a team whose point total Jason Botterill's Sabres couldn't once match in 3 seasons. I don't know about you, but that roster and a few extra first and second round picks is not something that any old GM can make into a powerhouse (which is why the tank was a ***** idea) He did use that pile of assets for a Selke and Conn Smythe capable center (when everyone was shitting on the guy, I was saying he was usage tweaks from being a 75 point Selke winning center, and I have the receipts), a 30 goal winger, and a goalie that wound up winning a Vezina (yeah, he gets deducted marks for not being present enough to be the one to help Lehner out of what he was going through). Most people were alright-to-thrilled with all of the moves as they happened. To me there is a CHASM between the competence of these two guys as GMs. It's not even close, even though I don't want EITHER of them as my GM

Not thrilled about NE loading up like that but when do teams that behave that way ever have it work out for them?

That has stuck with me too. Vogl also said the same thing.

I'd definitely request footage from last year and training camp I'm convinced that for a team to be bottom of the barrel at 5v5 scoring chance generation for so long, we have to be missing something at practice lol

Did he really not do an interview?

I'd pay money to be able to watch footage of 5 different teams' practices over the span of a couple months to compare to ours

Its gotta be today that does it... right?

I'm at the gym. No LTS sightings yet.

Running an analysis comparing facemask saturation levels between NHL coaches. It's not looking good for Krueger. Bone dry!

I'm not positive, but I think this is one of those special things the NHL likes to do every now and then just to make sure we can't take them too seriously.

Uhhh, since when do they review penalty calls?

You mean, after he stopped being a severe alcoholic with wildly intense mental health episodes while playing?

Yes I'm watching the game, and no I'm not pinning THIS GAME on Hutton. Address the actual points I'm making, not the ones you're building in your head. For three consecutive seasons, the Sabres inexplicably put their season in the hands of a young, injury-prone, unproven goalie, and a horrendous backup named Hutton. They have paid the price for doing so each time. Last year, the Sabres crept back into the playoff picture after that disastrous 11 game stretch from Hutton I mentioned. But Ullmark got hurt. Hutton held his game together for about a week, as the Sabres won a handful of games. The most important game of the year came, where Buffalo was visiting the second worst team in the NHL, Ottawa. Buffalo scored 5 goals, but lost in regulation, thanks to Carter Hutton, and the tailspin began. They will continue to pay a steep price as long as they keep on bringing in guys who fall in the bottom 7 goalies out of 50+ to play >2500 minutes over the last three years in high danger save percentage numbers (ie, when you control for the team in front of you, as you so often like to emphasize)

Now do the 6 games before that lmao. or how about the 11 game winless streak he had last year, during which he allowed 5 or more goals 7 times, as we fell out of a playoff spot after a hot start, despite playing reasonably good hockey? A stretch during which his SP was 0.866, while Linus (a mediocre goalie) was rolling with a 0.910 with the same team during the same span. Or the similar streak he had the season before? Nobody, not one, single, poster, believes goaltending is the only problem. Nobody thinks we are good. Nobody. But you are the only one that doesn't see what all of the film, regular stats, advanced stats show together - that Hutton is a dreadful goalie during his Sabre tenure, and that any team starting him for an extended period of time will lose a lot of games.

Oshie has far more skill than any Sabre I've seen since Briere

I don't see one goal, I see 2 seasons of submarining attempts to make the playoffs, and then a third season with horrendous overall play that doesn't matter as much because the team sucks too.

I know you're a goalie so you're partial to them, but that goal was trash and Hutton continues to be among the worst goalies to dress in the NHL each year he spends with us.

Yuck

This might be the worst "skill" display I've seen the Sabres have this year - passing and stickhandling are all over the place. But it's the best skating period I've seen by far. I don't mind watching a team that skates its balls off.

The last time the Sabres won a game in regulation in the month of March was March 31st, 2018 - that wild game in Nashville where we scored like 4 times on a 5 minute PP, and won 7-4. Since then, we are 3-21-2 in three consecutive months of March, all 3 wins coming in OT or SO.