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TrueBlueGED

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Posts posted by TrueBlueGED

  1. 22 hours ago, GoPre said:

    Jedi Fallen Order was a great game start to finish.  Finished my first play through this morning.  Highly recommend this game.  Story and gameplay were fantastic.  Maybe best Star Wars game ever?  Never played Knights of the Old Republic.  Battlefront 2 in the PS2 days was a must play. 

    Started Shadow of the Tomb Raider today.  I expected a let down because of reviews in 2018, but right now I’m enjoying it very much.  Game play isn’t as shoot em’ up as the first two, but it’s still a blast. Glad I did not pass on this game.  

    If you have even a minimal interest in RPGs, you owe it to yourself to play. 

    • Like (+1) 1
  2. 21 minutes ago, darksabre said:

    But Wawrow would have had to write a completely different set of words for that to be the case. His tweet is pretty clear that Lafontaine hired him to fail on purpose.

    It's certainly possible that Wawrow's source told him that, but I have a hard time believing reality is that simple. 

  3. 16 hours ago, GASabresIUFAN said:

    LOL, no he wasn't.  He destroyed our farm system.  Made Roch into a joke and spent us into cap hell that Jbot is still digging out of.  TM is a Mike Milbury or Craig Button bad GM.  Jbot isn't even close to that bad.

    No matter how many times you say this, it's still not true. Tim Murray is responsible for 20% of the team's cap usage. Sure, Bogosian and Okposo are bad cap usage, but Murray clearly isn't why we have no cap space when 80% of the cap are contracts signed by Botterill. 

    • Like (+1) 1
  4. 34 minutes ago, Brawndo said:

    Botterill has given us a lot of evidence that he will not be capable of constructing a roster able to compete for the Stanley Cup. 
     

    This offseason is critical with the cap space available and the decisions that need to be made on the pending RFAs, does anyone have faith that he can get it done?  

    Getting to this point without moving a defenseman, the 31 Thoughts Podcast mentioning Ehlers was available this summer, coupled with the bad trades he had made. I’m going with he is not the GM we are looking for. 
     

    That being said I do believe that Botterill gets another year, but the Sabres do hire Ray Shero as President of Hockey Ops as another voice in the room so they can point and say “we did something!”

    ?????

  5. 2 minutes ago, Curt said:

    There definitely is a difference and my remarks were not a defense of the job Botterill has done.  The results just haven’t been there and his moves have been a mixed bag.

    Thats an interesting point regarding the contract length, but who knows.  I couldn’t say how the Pegulas view having a lame duck in there.

    When does Botterill’s contract end?  Was it a 4 year deal?

    4 years is what's been reported recently. I don't recall hearing anything when he was hired about it though. 

  6. 12 minutes ago, WildCard said:

    It comes down to how long you think it takes to be good at that job. How long did it take Stevey Y to show progress in Tampa? Probably not 3 years to be honest. 

    I mean you're probably right; it's the same argument I had for firing Byslma. But ***** is it just annoying to go through it all again. Whomever we replace him with is going to need at least 2 years to get his plan underway, and even then there's no guarantee that will work. Just keep spinning the wheel, waiting 2-3 years, and trying again. 

    I don't need the team to instantly be a finished product any more than I need a drafted prospect to instantly be a complete player. But I need to see signs that point to a general level of competence and progression. Botterill hasn't shown any of those signs. 

    I also think it's a red herring to suggest a new GM needs 2 years to get their program running. Not every GM is going to come in and pretend there's no evidence of what the roster is. Find a guy who says "The last 3 years have value for assessing the players even thought it was with a different coach/GM" and you've cleared the biggest hurdle to a quicker turnaround. 

    • Like (+1) 1
  7. Just now, WildCard said:

    I don't want to enter Browns territory of constant turnover.

    Is 3-year turnover for the GM really worse than letting a GM who has demonstrated zero team-building acumen toss around $30 million in cap space which can have ramifications for years? 

    • Like (+1) 1
  8. 22 minutes ago, WildCard said:

    Makes sense. Remember when we were in our last GM search and the talks all were that the NHL was involved and wanted to make sure we got a legit guy? Botterill is 100% viewed around the league as a smart, capable GM. I want to give him one more year myself

    So was Peter Chiarelli when Edmonton hired him. 

  9. 17 hours ago, Curt said:

    Sooo, anyway, with regards to Botterill......

    Im on record as saying I think he sold Pegula on a slow rebuild and that his job was safe until after the 2020-21 season.  However, I also think that Pegula is sensitive to the public perception surrounding the team.  I feel like if anything gets Botterill fired, it will be the increased negative press on a national level, and Pegulas reaction to it, even moreso than the team’s poor performance.

    Well, I think there's a difference between a slow rebuild and one with literally no tangible progress. I also think if Botterill sold them on a 4-5 year process that he'd probably have gotten at least a 5 year contract. Nobody thinks it's a good idea to have him a lame duck in the critical year of his plan, right? 

    2 hours ago, LTS said:

    If anyone wants me to say it..

    Botterill is not the problem, not yet.  The problem is recovering from the mistakes that were made prior.  This off-season is the critical off-season for him.  This is when so many salaries come off the books. The roster can be remade as he would like.  If he fails at that, then he should be gone.  If he even looks like he is failing at that then he should be gone. But at the moment, I can't fire the guy.  Pegulas are to blame for this mess. 

    Instability in the front office in the first few years of ownership and a clear lack of understanding of the game of hockey kept the Sabres from getting any big names (although Botterill was considered an up and comer).  Firing him now would only enhance that image.  I can only imagine who would want to come lead the Sabres at that point.

     

     

     

    Three contracts on the team were inherited from Murray. That's it. This is Botterill's team. Looking at the forwards Botterill has brought in over his three years here, one of them (Skinner) has had an unquestionably positive impact. And even that was only true last year, not this season. Why should he have the opportunity to spend cap space when he has demonstrated an inability to use it well over three seasons? 

  10. 8 hours ago, Randall Flagg said:

    And pi's input shouldn't be lost or ignored either.

    dudacek just has me feeling like I do when watching Bolt run 9.58, or watching Eichel slice through defenders and pick corners 

    It should, actually. He's making bad faith arguments to cause a ruckus. Shame this one is far less entertaining than his comically incorrect Matthews shtick. The best part is most of what he's trying to prove with respect to certain stats and team success have been analyzed longitudinally elsewhere, and his arguments thoroughly obliterated. 

  11. 27 minutes ago, pi2000 said:

    The Sabres are bad at a lot of things, we know that.   

    But what are those things exactly?

    Let's take a look at how they compare to their peers when looking at the intangibles; face-offs, blocked shots, hits and takeaways.

    Note: Season rankings below are for players who have played 25 or more NHL games.

    Also, I'm going to highlight where Sam Reinhart ranks for each category.    He'll want big bucks this offseason so let's take a look at where he ranks league wide in those categories. 

     

    Face-off win %  (min 40 faceoffs taken)

    Top 3 Sabres (out of 221 players with 25+ games at 40+ faceoffs): 
    78th Okposo
    115th Larsson
    140th Eichel
    ...
    212th Reinhart


    Blocked shots/60min

    Top 3 Sabres (out of 597 players):
    77th McCabe
    189th Jokiharju
    220th Ristolainen
    ...
    558th Reinhart


    Hits/60min

    Top 3 Sabres (out of 597 players):
    88th Ristolainen
    110th Girgensons
    144th Miller
    ...
    486th Reinhart
     

    Takeaways/60min

    Top 3 Sabres (out of 597 players):
    20th Frolik
    141st Eichel
    143rd Vesey
    ...
    438th Reinhart

    I'm not even gonna bother explaining why these are key metrics for playing winning hockey... everybody here should know that already.      Most of these intangibles simply require effort, courage and determination.    You look at top teams like St. Louis and Tampa, they both have multiple players in the top 50 in each of these categories.    You can't win without doing these things well, it's a shame they haven't figured this out yet.

    And this why some of us are hesitant to throw a large long term deal at Sam Reinhart, he scores well, but other than that he's largely a liability in every other facet of the game.     Is that the kind of guy this team needs to get them to the playoffs?    A skilled guy who can put up points, but doesn't do anything else at even a remotely average level? 

    Being low on statistics that the likes of McCabe, Risto, Okposo, and Frolik are high on is the best compliment you can give a player. Congrats on inadvertently illustrating Reinhart's value. 

    • Like (+1) 1
  12. 31 minutes ago, Crusader1969 said:

    what if the plan all along was just to get through this season? 

    I'll say this about the whole debacle. if Hutton was remotely average since October, they'd be right in the thick of a play-off race.

    I believe the Fix isn't that far off.

    1) a better goaltending Tandem. is Ullmark with Johansson enough? or do they need to get a stop gap till UPL?

    2) get rid of the remainder of the Riff-raff - Bogasian, Sheery and all the other UFA's have to let go, do not resign Erod

    3) get a legit center - above everything else, they have to get this done - and another RW.
      I think they have a good start to the bottom 6 with a player pool of Okposo, Cozens, Mitts, Thompson, Asplund, Lazar and Johansson. Find another JAG to compliment, outside the organization. 

    Whats the Cap space ? $30Million I believe. no reason they can't over-haul the roster...just need to get through the next 30ish games.

     

     

    Botterill's forward acquisitions should give no confidence he'll use that cap space effectively.

    • Like (+1) 4
  13. 1 hour ago, darksabre said:

    I'm mostly joking, but man, it's weird that he's doing this kind of stuff at 34 when he should be losing a step. But maybe he's just got that dad strength or something. 

    Well, I think he has lost a step in other ways, it's just that his shot is still lethal and the team around him enables him to maximize it. He doesn't skate quite like he used to and his physical game isn't anywhere close to where it once was. But he's still smart, can find the right spots, and let it rip. 

  14. 1 hour ago, Randall Flagg said:

    After scoring 14 goals in his last 7 games, with 3 hat tricks in the last 6 comprising 9 of those goals, Ovechkin has hit 40 goals on the season, in 53 games.

    Best goal scorer of all time. He may not top Gretzky's career total (though I kinda think he will), but adjusting for era, I don't think there's even an argument. 

    1 hour ago, darksabre said:

    There's no way he's not using PEDs, right?

     

    Shush, you! 

    • Haha (+1) 1
  15. 20 minutes ago, dudacek said:

    Other than this October, when has Skinner been good in the past year?

    So, Skinner is good because even though he can’t drive play by himself, he yaps and gets emotional.

    Reinhart is bad because he can’t drive play by himself and he doesn’t yap or get emotional.

    That Sam is trusted in defensive situations and Jeff is not, has outscored Jeff by 9 goals and 29 points in the past calendar year and doesn’t go into long protracted slumps is on the coach.

    Am I getting this right?

    I honestly think Skinner was still playing well last year even when he wasn't scoring. Sometimes the puck just doesn't go in the net. He's been bad this year, for sure. 

    • Like (+1) 1
  16. 28 minutes ago, bob_sauve28 said:

    Like who? 

    Yes, he is a finisher, not a passer, not a hitter and lately not even a finisher. We signed a guy forever for lots of money that had a contract year. 

    Jack Eichel? The guy who helped Skinner get 40 goals and is a perfect match? Did you hibernate through last season? 

    • Like (+1) 3
  17. 2 minutes ago, Curt said:

    I do.  Some pro expert analysts said it was a good haul.

    Not just the analysts, but people here in this board were adding up the points for Berglund and Sobotka and saying we wouldn't lose much. 

    • Like (+1) 2
  18. 1 hour ago, bob_sauve28 said:

    That's a problem I had with Skinner, actually, he is a one man show. He has never worked with anyone else well. But ok, I'm sure a good center would help him. I still think the contract is outrageous...especially the length 

    Yea, we have to go all the way back to....last season...to see him working well with another player. It's Botterill's fault for not getting another viable center, but it's not his fault that Krueger has chosen to treat Skinner and Eichel like the world would end if they skate together. 

    22 minutes ago, Doohickie said:

    I think Mojo is a decent player, he simply isn't an NHL center.

    Correct. Johansson is a useful middle-6 winger who has been forced to play 2C because the GM stinks. 

    • Like (+1) 1
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