DarthEbriate

Huh... I didn't know our defencemen were allowed to stickhandle and drive down the boards in the o-zone.

Help us, Linus-Ullmark, you're our only hope! If he wants to be here, then yes re-sign Ullmark to a mid-to-low starter salary for 3-4 years. In that $3.9-4.4M range. The hits on him on the lower side are the obvious: injury history and no playoff experience. But he's a solid 1B if not elite. And he's awesome in shootouts. We can do much, much worse. Heck, we've been doing much, much worse. And half the league's teams would probably be better with him in their crease. He may not be the leader Miller was, or the superstar Hasek was, but he's capable of being a .920 guy with a good defense and definitely capable of playing hot for a couple weeks needed to steal a playoff series.

What the hell. Tonight... General, count me in.

I’m good with any hockey operations consultant/president type as long as the line of demarcation with ownership is clear. The owners can have final say on any ethical/moral standings [edit: and yes, the total budget for the team - either to the cap or "I just want to make a little extra cash on the side"], but I don’t want them involved in any day-to-day personnel operations, player salary determinations, trade valuations, or any scouting/hiring practices. Leave that to the hockey people that you hate. For example, if a player drunkenly drives his vehicle into … I dunno, a Tim Hortons or something, and flees the scene: then yes, the owner is well within their rights to say: “Unacceptable actions detrimental to the team. Move this player immediately.” What the owner cannot be allowed to say is, two years later after a moral incident, after very solid statistical campaigns as arguably far-and-away the best overall player on the team, when due a roster bonus, “Move this person immediately before payment for utter garbage that will cripple our franchise for years.” Then no. The owner is not acting with any interest to the franchise. And that’s where a hockey person and trusted team take the lead. They wait another day and then make the trade, money be damned. Or even better, they say, “Hey --- everybody go enjoy the offseason. This season ended poorly. We get it. Go rest up, and come back ready to go.” Likewise, we can call this the “Ehrhoff Principle” – an owner is welcome to say, “Did you see Player X in the recent Stanley Cup/Olympics/World Juniors? We gotta sign/trade for/draft him and that’s an order! And if we sign, it’s gotta be the biggest money so that everyone know we mean business and Buffalo has cash available. Look, a squirrel!” To which the hockey people need to be able, willing, and incentivized to say: “Thank you. We’ll take that under advisement.” And then make a fair market valuation, do scouting diligence, and make a reasonable inquiry. And be well prepared to offer Ehrhoff $4M x 6, or say “Leino, wanna play wing for $3M x 5?”, or trade Skinner at the deadline, or get a goalie with functioning eyes and stick with Kahun and a grinder… heck, even Wayne Simmonds vs. signing Taylor Hall, or any of the poor personnel/contract decisions that’ve been made that had to have been approved/pushed for by the owners. tl;dr Let people do the job you hired them to do.

Always two there are. A GM... and an apprentice. Once you start rolling in the third... folks start getting their limbs lopped off. Or just cut in half and needing spider droid leg assemblies.

No. They disappear and rehab. When they start practicing again they'll resurface to talk. Just like we've not heard from Girgensons or McCabe or Ullmark while he was out, too. Maybe if Eichel were a constant presence on social media he might do something, but that would be discouraged. The team doesn't want him talking about rehab and how close or not close he is to returning. For a true big-name presence (Eichel doesn't compare) when Aaron Rodgers broke his collarbone -- both times -- he basically disappeared into the depths of IR until right before coming back. The only notes were the "he's throwing again" and "he's practicing again", but it was otherwise silent.

I do need to point out that at least GM Kheevyn got 2 picks for Staal, as for some bizarre reason JBot had had a team that missed the playoffs every season yet also had an overall draft pick deficit (6 picks per draft).

The cap space could be helpful in moving Hall. I still don't see how STL could do trade for him without a player waiving their NTC to come here... which is ridiculous unless they just want the early offseason. But even 1.6 could allow us to get a better player in return for Hall. If Hall were having a great season, a 1st + prospect + maybe some throw-in (like a 4th) would be the expectation. But he's not the same since his knee injury and especially not the same since joining our marooned-in-space star cruiser. He was always foremost a playmaker, but now that's all he is. Honestly, my expectation for him is the same as Staal. He's a UFA veteran rental in the top 6 who should at least get us a 2nd. His salary and everyone else being up against the cap means we almost have to take back player/salary for him with lower pick(s) to supplement.

MTL is holding TBL's 2nd round pick (#56-64) and that's what we should have gotten for him as soon as we agreed to retain 1/2 his salary. After quarantine, they're getting him for 1/3 of the season (much more than a typical 1/7 of a season at a standard trade deadline), plus playoffs. They're not guaranteed to make it yet, but they're in 4th position with 5+ games in hand on the teams trailing them in the standings, so their odds are really good. Standard established top-6 vet rental = 2nd round pick. If Bergevin were trading Staal to a contender, he'd net a 2nd (just like Scandella last season). And all this said, I'm glad we got something for him. Check. All the positive experience/leadership things we said about getting him this offseason will be said about him again when he gets to Montreal. It's another little detail they should've paid for. Even at the end here on the Team of Discontent the players liked him off the ice, he's good in the room, etc. He'll go to Montreal, get re-motivated by the chance at winning and playing in the playoffs and be fine. (And I don't mean great, I mean fine. He'll be asked to play bottom 6 center, benefit from better coaching and motivated coworkers, and look more like a real hockey player again.)

GM Kheevyn's phone had better be ringing off the hook after he traded a veteran Cup-winning veteran center and retained salary for a 3rd and 5th. A 3rd is expected to get to the AHL. A 5th is a complete crapshoot, but basically isn't going to amount to anything. And yes, Staal was unfocused, borderline-negligent garbage this season and we're better off without him. But once you sell an asset well below value, you'll have to fight to get anything close to market value for the rest of the garbage. Into the garbage chute, GM. MTL Bergevin is happy to trade with us. Now STL is happy to trade with us. Cap-wise I don't see how STL can manages it unless it's absurd (Hall plus 50% retention for Sundqvist, Dunn, and Kyrou). All their contracts are on NTCs.

The standard rate on a veteran rental with Staal’s prior pedigree is a 2. So it had better be Tampa’s late 2nd. And out of sheer decency MTL should add the 4th they swindled from JBot last season. Accept nothing less.

Ready, are you? What know you of ready? For 14 straight games have we suffered Sabres losses. Our own counsel will we keep on when to start a Game Day Thread. A 'Spacer must have the deepest commitment, the most serious take. <talking to The Concept Of> This 'Space long have I watched. Never their minds on where they were. Hmmm? Who they were playing tonight! Hmph. Trading Eichel for 4 picks? Heh! Fixing the defense? JJ's first shootout 0-fer for another team. Heh! The Concept Of the 'Space craves these things. <turning to us all> You are reckless! And watch, we will. Yes, yes. Bad hockey. Come. We must drink.

<Arttu dragging us across the floor in a net, torso and limbs all a-jumble > Of course I feel better! I'm still taking more of a hiatus, but seriously... all I had to do was step away from the Sabres for like... 2 losses in a couple days... and the solution presents itself? I should have taken a break earlier. I can't believe he's gone. (I just lost a whole planet of people to that ball, and you're moping about one old guy who self-sacrificed so he could talk to you in your brain??? Selfish! I'm totally going to fall for the a-hole pilot now.) Hey, we're not out of the this yet. GM Sheevyn still needs to firesale the rentals for the playoffs, get what he can, and the players need to start looking like they've played competitive hockey before again. And... hopefully the owners will get an NHL coach, and NHL AGM, heck, even a President of Hockey just to provide the vision. Here they come! cue the music <Tie Fighter Attack or Here They Come> depending on your source material.

Side note: I also have come to the realization I'm paying way too much attention to a horribly run and ineffective franchise that really isn't giving me back enough joy for the investment. So --- I'll be back. Just like the Emperor, somehow I'll return. But I'm planning to get away until the trade deadline. Keep the spirits up, 'Spacers. GM Sheevyn will hopefully throw Chancellor RaKru over some railing-less pit soon and we'll get a real coach. And then get a goalie. And get going on a brighter future. Stanley Cups are built on hope! I'll miss y'all in the meantime. True. Heck, maybe Terry even was the driver. Either way.

I like them, too. I'm not sure if they'll do 2 games against other conferences or whether I'll buy two sets of tickets when the Sabres make it to Seattle or Vancouver next -- probably still just the one game -- but it is a cool idea all around. Big, fun weekends. And some animosity to build up from one game to the next.

I refuse to go back and watch. But... I don't even remember Ruhwedel falling to the ice. So, was it just the most pathetic slew-foot attempt? Like, the ref couldn't figure out what it was and so it went uncalled?

A lot of unknowns on that list. But another strike against JBot if Krueger managed anything at or above median salary in the league considering he'd coached 1/2 a season of sub.500 hockey in the NHL and hadn't done so in years. And then to get a dull staff and a non-event attacking system as his Xs and Os? Like... that was his plan and not something radical? Fleeced. You'd never hire someone like that at an above average salary at a regular day-to-day job. He's so Chancellor Valorum. Vote of no confidence! Now, sit down and look bewildered.

Meanwhile, the Flames hired Sutter, the king of low-event hockey coaching and incomprehensible short dialog motivation (same-Krueger's coaching style and anti-Krueger's speaking skills) and the Flames immediately got a bump, actually winning back-to-back games. Not a chance. Boudreau is a proven NHL coach who's looking for a multiyear deal at full price, as he should. He'll get Seattle or another team next season that isn't a complete trainwreck up top. KA can't be coach because he has a GM job to do and no AGM or aide to assist in that role. But --- jettison the RaKru escape pods, and his staff --- and get an interim in, immediately. It's way past time. Now it's just beating a dead tauntaun that has already provided all the temporary warmth it could by November... of 2019.

GM Sheevyn should not throw the goalies under the bus in a press conference. He should acquire a goalie and kick Hutton to the taxi squad (or send JJ down to the AHL and keep Hutton as the backup, whatever works) and say that their play was admirable but that he saw an opportunity to add competition and did so. Yes, we had just lost Ullmark at the time and from the entire paragraph in the article he's talking mainly about Ullmark. The lack of anything 5 on 5 was what was killing us then. Well, since then the PP has gone silent, Eichel is out, Cozens is out, and the bottom has fallen out. It doesn't absolve GM Sheevyn from not getting an NHL-caliber goalie to be on the taxi squad or replace Hutton outright to go into the season, knowing about the condensed schedule and Ullmark's injury last year. In hindsight of course, but having Jared Allen and Tyler Toffoli would've been so much better than Taylor Hall. As a comparison for salary.

Nothing. As we expected. Risto was his usual self, but hardly selected anyone, let along Aston-Reece or Ruhwedel. I think Ray said that Skinner took a shot at Ruhwedel -- I'm not going back to view it, so take my words with a grain of Crait soil -- but it looked to me like Skinner simply pivoted to his backwards stride to get moving in the other direction and happened to collide with Ruhwedel and maybe their legs tangled a bit. If it was going after Ruhwedel then it was the lamest attempt possible. Now my complete speculation: it was probably the only footage the production team found that early in the game of a Sabre within 10 feet of Ruhwedel so they used it. This team would have to grow a spine first before they learned how to show any backbone whatsoever.

Hmm... Victor didn't appear to get everything on that one.

Yup. The motivation is palpable.

Agreed. I just think Beniers and Eklund go before Power, and possibly 2-3 others, too. So I'm spitballing ways we'd take him. I can see us taking him at 4 or 5 if we fall in the lottery. But without Eichel or Ullmark for a some more weeks, I think we're going to sink below some of the other teams at the bottom of the standings.

The fans must be remembering Hutton from his Saint Louis days, and believing a whole bunch in Staal regaining his earlier days. It's entirely possible they'd be buoyed by getting out of Buffalo, but it'd be a terrible trade on paper. If COL needs the cap space, they can move Compher easily at any time (i.e. the. draft), but it'd make sense to keep him for the playoffs where you need the depth.

Risto's the only guy playing physical thus far. No surprise there.