Randall Flagg

Legitimately no reason this franchise shouldn't be near or at Colorado's level of skill and success. Colorado bottomed out in 2016-2017 with something like 48 points, playing hockey on par with the tank Sabres. They made the playoffs the year after with a very flawed but exciting team, continued to address needs and get stronger so that they won a round last year, and then added Donskoi, Kadri, and Burakovsky to get ready to send their young core deep into the playoffs. Its very easy to construct a ladder for the Sabres that lines up with Colorado, or is just one year behind, and yet these two teams didn't appear to be playing the same sport. it literally didn't even have to come close to being as miserable of a path as it has been. We have a bag full of meek and reactive hockey players

That was the last truly important regular season moment we have had.

Burakovsky wouldn't have cost much more than Vesey did

Schopp had some relatively tough questions in there. Jason touching on what we talked about a few days back - it's not as simple as taking a guy's goal column and assuming you'll continue to get that no matter what position you put them in on your team. I understand that Vesey, Sheary are below their goal scoring norms, but Jimmy was a second liner by ice time on the Rangers, scored goals in their transition-based offense, and was still mediocre enough that they were willing to part with him for a 3rd despite desperately needing depth scoring almost as bad as we do. We shoved him in our bottom six, where he's playing a different game. You can't just map the goal column anywhere you want, a huge part of NHL skill evaluation is taking into account development, role changes, potential chemistry. The fact that Jason has swung and missed so many times, as far as production taking a hit when these mediocre players hit our bottom six, tells me that he's just bad at doing it, rather than unlucky. Skinner is the only guy I'd really say isn't scoring as much as you'd expect him to on this team. Johansson, Vesey, Sheary, Sobotka since last year, Berglund last year, Thompson, Mitts, otherwise what these guys are giving us shouldn't have been surprising. Plenty more names if you go back to his first year

We have one natural NHL center in the lineup tonight by my count, after our other one is missing with illness

Yeah, it seemed like a pretty sentimental way to say "see y'all for a bunch of road games still and then again for the same type of deal next year!"

Rick is ready for the stretch run?

There is no doubt in my mind that when the Sabres are actually playing in important spring games again, we're going to notice that Sam is our most "clutch" player. Random thought of the day.

I assume that the Jags will stay in London that week? Sucks to be their second opponent then.

People WANT to be enthusiastic about the Sabres. I was at Sabres vs Blues last spring and in the closing few minutes, the Zemgus/Larry line made a point to start finishing every check with some force, and the crowd started going nuts and buzzing like crazy even though we didn't really generate many chances. For the last few minutes of the game it was as loud as a building can get for non-goal plays in the NHL regular season and was a symbol that we're here, ready, waiting for a product to be excited about, and will find that excitement in the smallest little thing if they'd just give that to us

To be fair, this all stems from the same single interview with his dad I'm pretty sure, and it was a year ago around the time when these stories were hot, so it becomes less weird in that light maybe? But his dad has always been one of THOSE sports dads, too.

You would love if the Sabres played like the Islanders, though. The hockey, and atmosphere it brings, can be utterly electric. Go watch the game that Tavares returned to Long Island last season. It was probably the most entertaining regular season game I watched last year. I'm not taking shots at the Hurricanes' style, as I am the original guy-who-noticed-the-Canes-before-they-got-good But that chart doesn't give us any real info about the styles the teams play relative to each other Also, I just saw that the stats are not only 5v5, but score adjusted. We're probably talking less than one shot attempt per period difference between these two teams on a game-by-game basis, so this chart really is kinda goofy and illustrates why a lot of stats guys don't ever think about or look at corsi anymore

In 99% of sports cases, what is called the flu is actually norovirus, an incredibly contagious stomach bug. Whatever the levels of influenza symptoms, they are not an absence of respiratory symptoms in place of the digestive symptoms that are prevalent in these situations And it's true that some people don't have as strong symptoms as others, when influenza goes through the locker room, it wouldn't result in most of these players having a relatively mild dose of it and being able to fight through it, and being better within a few days, even if some of them felt that way. I believe McDavid had the actual influenza virus last year. But anyway, the original point stands - I hate that everyone calls every form of sickness imaginable, the flu I'd come into my office in grad school, "where were ya yesterday bud?" to a friend. "Oh, I had the flu." Oh, you had the flu for a day, and now you're better? Because if you just have the cold you sound like you have, fine. But if you actually have influenza you had better get the ***** out of this room right now thank you very much

I hate nothing more than how "the flu" becomes a catch-all phrase for any sickness. If you have the flu, you will remember the illness for the rest of your life, and it will be based in your respiratory system. Our players likely have norovirus or a different form of stomach bug. Or a different respiratory infection otherwise called "colds" by normal people. If the influenza virus was going around the locker room, we probably wouldn't see the relevant players for a few games, as Bruce Smith at his physical peak was incapable of standing up without passing out when he had the influenza virus

Don't you understand? Carolina takes roughly FOUR MORE SHOT ATTEMPTS per game than the Islanders! And nearly EIGHT MORE shot attempts allowed per game!! Never mind that hockeyviz tells us the bulk of these shot differences come from meaningless point shots allowed in NYI's case. We don't want to be the Islanders, because these stats tell us they are identical to carolina save for one fewer back-foot point shot being blocked per period, and two or three more of these shots allowed per period

This is not what it is - I have seen this claim become the norm over the last year and a half. I have asked every single person here and on hfboards I've seen make the claim to provide a valid/legitimate source that proves he did ask to be traded. This has probably happened 15 times now - are you going to be the first person to be able to come up with the proof? Because not one other person has produced anything. I certainly think it's POSSIBLE that he requested a trade, but that information has never been made available to the public. I do know that in his own words, he wanted to be back, and in his father's words, ROR called him at one point, incredibly upset that "they think it's my fault, Dad, they think I'm the problem" or something to that effect:https://www.sportsradio1270.com/the-column-by-jerry-sullivan/ "According to Pierre LeBrun, O’Reilly told his parents after the trade from the Sabres, “They think it’s my fault.” “He was disappointed,” his mother Bonnie said. “He kind of felt, ‘They think I’m the problem.’ We said to him, ‘We know you’re not.’ Wherever you go, just keep doing what you’re doing. He got over it and was thrilled to go to St. Louis.” " Another excerpt from a Buffalo News article: https://buffalonews.com/2019/06/12/st-louis-blues-stanley-cup-ryan-oreilly-nhl-jordan-binnington/ "O'Reilly never wanted to be traded when he said he had lost his passion for the game. He told TSN that last year at the World Championships, saying he was looking forward to playing with Rasmus Dahlin. His father reiterated the point on the Garden ice Wednesday night. "His comment about being complacent with losing and we have a culture where we're not doing the hard work was what he believed," Brian O'Reilly said. "We've always told our kids if you want to find the truth, you've got to remove and point out what's false. And he pointed out the falsehood. There are false things and he called them out. "He had no intention of leaving. He wanted to stay there and build it. But once something leaves your mouth, people pick up anything they want from it and make it into anything they want. I guess that's what happened. We love Buffalo. I have the greatest respect for Terry (owner Terry Pegula). They treated him so well. I love the city. It was so nice to drive three hours and go to games. We were happy there. But they decided to move on." Jason fallaciously identified ROR as a problem and decided he wanted to move him out, probably in conjunction with securing a nice long rebuilding window so he can remain employed for a long time. Meanwhile, Jason has given us two more seasons of untouched stretches of abominable hockey that continues to erode the mental state of the team and kick the can of really fixing this thing down the road

Cozens certainly could do that. In the meantime, a smart organization assumes it won't happen and builds the best possible roster it can, including in that potential position that Cozens could in theory impact, so that if it does happen, it pushes the team even further along towards cup contention status.

I didn't see this part of the game. What happened? in his absence id go 28-22-27

Did you move back to WNY?

Is this the same feeling that made you state that we would sweep Tampa this year? If so, we're doomed ? Sidenote, why are the emojis here now trash?

You could both be right. They only need one offseason's worth of very good work to get it done. But it might not all get done in one offseason especially if more mistakes get made

I don't pay a lot of attention to them - was it Kim that hired Jason?

7-15-3 against the Eastern Conference since October 11th. That's 7 wins in 25 games against the teams we battle for playoff spots

Forgot I phrased it that way last night, but you know what I mean. He'll be the "hockey czar" but that doesn't mean he needs to be able to do the jobs of everyone below him, he just needs to be able to watch them intelligently

I'm sure it's so many unknowable things, but one of the ones I like to keep highlighting is that, each of the last three seasons, we've gone through several unthinkably bad stretches that most franchises only see one of every few years (losing 22 games out of 29, or stretches even worse, stuff like that). I went through and picked a couple out, and we've gone through like 5 two-month stretches of severe ineptitude in the standings, and I think the psyche of these players gets worse and worse each one of them, because we have not once made a move of significance to address the root issues of those stretches. It took only one season of it to burn out a guy like O'Reilly, who had basically been on incompetent teams his whole career outside of one Avs season. It's wearing on Eichel, but he's younger. A guy like Hutton isn't used to this, because the Blues and Preds were quite solid many of his years there. I really think the psychological impact of sitting on our hands for many long stretches of being the worst team in the NHL during those stretches permanently impacts these guys. It's miserable for us, but it's literally dominating their day-to-day LIVES.