Randall Flagg

20-60

Whatcha lookin for there?

Don't read too much into that, kids use the fire emoji to indicate pretty much anything they think is a good thing, no matter how mild.

That was me trying to spice things up, no intention for it to be literal! We all know he was busy making Bills roster decisions ?

So is it a bad football take to have zero interest in seeing Allen play again until Barkley's Fitz cycle hits the bad part, however soon that may be? I wanted him sitting all year in the first place, but now we know how bad the weapons are and that his elbow is all screwed up.

Edit: Fair enough. Though, I was correct to assume that you don't believe that part of my take, which I think is a reasonable assumption given that it's the root of the argument you didnt' like, and that you went on to say that you indeed didn't believe it. Actually yes, I don't think I did put words in your mouth given your initial response. So be it. I really try not to do that, that's why I'm making sure!

Point out one single thing I claim you said. One single thing. And that's fine. You've not convinced me that the trade and its background don't stand out among any other decision Botterill has ever made, and I haven't convinced you that it looks weird. Life shall move on!

Well those aren't all the words he's ever said. There were plenty of times, even through last season, he emphasized the importance of the center position and how we are privileged to be set there for years, specifically calling Jack and ROR out by name as implicitly the two most important pieces the franchise had. And I'm sure he's aware of leadership transfers and upgrades that don't require gutting something you feel so important, even the ugly stripping of Joe Thornton's captaincy, which worked just fine for the Sharks, or what the Avalanche did two offseasons ago. So that's why, even with that press conference, I still find it weird. And weird things happen, so you're absolutely right Terry could have been lounging in FLorida completely unaware of the decision being made. I just think it's too weird and completely reasonable for Terry to be like "hey, we suck with the guys that make our franchise look bad running into Tim Hortons, getting in trouble (Kane) in other ways, and apparently not leading, so do your thing please Jason"

That makes a lot of sense too. See, I can absolutely get on the logical bandwagon of "we need to change the core, and he's the most logical core piece to move while still getting great value" even if I hate the return independent of the decision! I just balk at "we're better without and because of ROR's sadness" or "St. Louis (who has now matched the point pace we had 72 hours ago) is doing worse cuz ROR." and then need to take Sabrespace timeouts.

Wouldn't that be a blast

Suggesting something like it, sure. I certainly don't have proof and won't claim it as absolute. It just looks weird in the set of all things Botterill has ever said and done. FTR, I also wouldn't be surprised if moving on from Kane is something that was just as much desired by TP as by Jason.

The Kane deal was typical though. Last place team, upcoming UFA, trade deadline. That happens every year, and the value was there. The ROR deal was a sketchy value deal with a self-imposed deadline of a current-good-player still in his 20s with 5 years left of team control. It was quite distinct. And Botterill, in his tenure, both in words and actions, expressed far more belief in ROR as a member of the team going forward than Kane. I think Terry wanted to move on from ROR more than Jason did.

The Pats have 1 TD pass in their last 3 games. Also this was great

Another thing that has changed: Phil doing little things like recognizing the need to minimize Skinner's time in the defensive zone, the benefits of letting Kyle and Scandella work their way back to a previous form away from the limelight of top lines and pairings, Phil quickly fixing lineup mistakes. He's grown too.

Tough to beat 2 straight Sabres wins, a Bills blowout of the Jets, and the Pats getting stomped (blah blah draft pick whatever)

Bills have 38 points rn, anyone want to change their minds? hehe

I'm still not sure I know who believed ROR was a problem. Every move Botterill makes has a distinct Jason feel to it. Sheary. Skinner. Scandella. There's one single move that sticks out as quite different from the rest, with a deadline that Jason didn't impose himself. I wouldn't be surprised at all if Terry is the one who asked nicely for the Tim Hortons guy with the bad quote in the locker room cleanout to be moved.

It could also be said that, despite believing in themselves and building camaraderie last year, it was overshadowed by playing the league's worst at many positions. And now there's some good hockey ability for that stuff to actually help. Again, I think I've found the best way to say what I think - it's important to be a team and when you've got team-building stuff going for you it'll help, but it doesn't get fixed before the hockey team does, pretty much by definition. I could run through forty billion examples again, but I don't think anyone wants to read that. It's going to help them down the stretch that they're forming these bonds and whatever. But the reason they're better at hockey can 100% be traced to the hockey itself. And the locker room stuff will help keep it going and make it easier. I've never taken interviews seriously whatsoever and I think 99.99999% of the time nobody else should either. These guys are taught to be robots. The robots on good teams say all the good robot things, and the robots on bad teams say all the bad and annoying robot things.

I lol'ed when McD did that

Who is that McKenzie character and will he remain good at punt returns?

Hughes and Milano too.

Barkley the GOAT

*6 goals per game

Zay looking like he might become useful is one of the best developments of this disaster season.

And there's still plenty of time for this guy to fall apart, but it's further reinforcement that Peterman should never have been on this roster Also I hope Teller is good, he has had a great game so far