matter2003

Yeah and the problem is there are at least 3 or 4 teams they will need to leapfrog to get into a playoff position and those teams seemingly are winning almost every night and the Sabres go on good stretches and either stay the same number of points back or sometimes even lose ground. If they can get to 90 points this year I will deem that a fairly successful season. Right now they are on a pace for about 85 so they need to improve slightly to reach that. The roster clearly isn't where they want it to be yet. Hoping Cozens is ready next year and they continue to add pieces via trade for next season.

Hopefully this can give us proper goal or no goal calls when situations arise like earlier in the year when the Sabres appeared to have scored a goal since the goalie's entire glove was in the net with the puck in it but they ruled no goal because they couldn't "see" the puck, even though there is no possible way it could not have been in the net.

Do they admire all the number book takers?

See Bills, Buffalo

Just like the message said.. "And their eyes wil sing a song of great hate" I wonder if the places they stay and where they play look like one great big alleyway

Very valid points...

When will MLB take some responsibility for the players being able to do this for so long with virtually NO oversight and weak drug testing policies? THEY enabled it to happen, presumably because it brought offensive excitement to what was a dead ball era prior and they were loving it until the players got caught and then they pretended they had no knowledge of anything. Please...they KNEW what was going on and they turned a blind eye towards it. But now they want to make the players involved to be pariahs when they were the ones who enabled it? Complete hypocrisy on MLB's part.

Clemens not getting in is a joke. Regardless of if he used at some point, he was dominant even BEFORE that so it didn't even matter. Same with Bonds.

Who is trading for a guy playing like an AHLer with that contract?

Holy secondary scoring all of a sudden...Sabres have been piling up goals and most have not been from Eichel and Reinhart...very interesting

Who would have thought the Sabres might actually be better without Skinner and Olafsson??

Gallant seems to have a way of wearing out his welcome in places...this is the second time he got canned that wasn't necessarily related to performance...something tells me he rubs his bosses the wrong way repeatedly and after a while they only are going to deal with so much of it.

Damn Sabres have a thing for getting opposing coaches fired apparently...

Really? It looked like he was pretty effective when he boxed out his man and slammed home the rebound the other night from 5 feet in front of the net

I see it looks like the Sabres will have $35 million or so next year on the cap but let's not forget they also only have 19 players under contract next year at this time! Yeah they have a lot of RFA's that will be relatively cheap to resign but Olaffsson likely is going to get a bridge deal and Montour might be getting a bridge deal or long term contract as well... That $35 million can be gone pretty quick with the number of players they need to resign/sign and that $6 million Okposo is carrying around is a huge detriment moving forward over the next 3 years.

Don't be so sure of that...Seattle will have the cap space and can buy him out. For the right price they can do it. I mean Toronto moved Clarkson's contract for a guy who had to retire due to injuries, that was the most unmovable contract there was--a guy that would cost a ton of money on the cap that wouldn't even be able to play and they still moved it.

Risto is a physical presence and on top of that has a nasty streak in him, so he is an ideal player to put in front of the net because he is likely giving as much punishment in that spot as he is receiving.

Reinhart is NOT a 2C. He does not play well at Center. Yes, it would be nice if he was because that would help solve our issues. But he isn't. He is a complimentary winger on a top line that will consistently get you 65-75 points most years. People need to give up on the notion that Reinhart can become a 2C on this team. He is NEVER going to be that...every attempt at putting him at center throughout his time in the NHL has failed miserably. Some players just cannot handle the extra responsibility of being a center and are better suited to play wing in the NHL. Reinhart is one of those players, nothing wrong with that. People just need to stop trying to put a square peg in a round hole with him and wanting him to be the 2C on this team. You can't force a player into a role he is not suited for and just hope he somehow figures it out. If that was going to happen he would have done it already, as they have tried several times. Paul Hamilton has noted the same thing multiple times on his WGR spots and has gone so far as to say Reinhart is "awful" at center. In my mind, JBotts need to do whatever he needs to do to get Seattle to take Okposo's contract off our hands and sweeten the deal with prospects or picks and then sign Reinhart to an extension. I'd rather be paying $7-8 million for Reinhart and his 65-75 points on the top line for the next 5 or 6 years than paying Okposo $6 million to play a 3rd line checking/grinding role on the LOG line even though he is pretty good at it...you can get a guy that fits that role for about $850K and use that extra money to sign Reinhart to an extension. We don't need to create another major scoring hole on a team that doesn't score enough as it is. As the poster mentioning trying to find an 80, 90 or 100 point player, and getting rid of Reinhart's 65-75 points, every team in the league wants those...they don't just grow on trees you know. Far more likely you would replace him with a guy getting 45-55 points.

Reinhart is NOT good at center. He has been tried there several times throughout his career and he does not do well. Paul Hamilton has brought this up several times on WGR on his spots also. He is a winger in the NHL, plain and simple. You can't force a player to fit into a role that he doesn't do well at when there is another role he does much better at. Yeah, ideally he WOULD be a 2C for us but he IS NOT AND NEVER WILL BE a 2C in this league. He is a good complimentary scoring winger on a top line and that is valuable in itself too. I mean I'd rather be paying Reinhart $7 million a year than Okposo...work out a deal where you can dump Okposo's contract on Seattle no matter what you have to give up and pay Reinhart.

Sabres PP showing signs of life...went 2 for 3 last night and now has gone 6 for 14 after going 2 for 29...maybe Kreuger is figuring some things out...putting Risto in front of the net seems to be paying dividends

Guess all the secondary scoring decided to come out in one game...now they can go another 5 or 6 games with none of these players registering a single point.

Because he is a highly gifted player that SHOULD be better at making things happen than he is...certainly much better than repeatedly shooting a puck into the shin pads of a onrushing defender.

Probably...for as bad as Housley was last year, the PK was actually decent, ranking 12th overall.

I think the fixes need to start on special teams...you cannot have amongst the worst special teams in all 4 categories, the categories being: 1) PP 2) PK 3) Shorthanded goals for 4) Shorthanded goals against The Sabres are among the worst teams in the league at all of these...something needs to give, they cannot kill themselves game in and game out by poor special temas and think they are going to win. Not sure what they need to do to fix it but whatever they are doing clearly is not working. For as bad as the team was under Housley last year, they were actually pretty decent at penalty killing ranking 12th. What changed that has made this team so much worse?

Hammond has started sucking in the AHL tho after a strong start. Hard to think if he isn't stopping pucks well in the AHL that he will be doing it better at the NHL level.