Georgia Blizzard

Good riddance to Eichel. I'm glad it's finally over. If I'm being honest, I do not wish him well, why would I ? For me to feel good about this entire saga, I hope Eichel never becomes a superstar and HoFamer and I hope Krebs, Tuch and the 1st do. Why would I or anyone feel good if Eichel becomes an all time great wearing a different sweater ? I don't wish harm to him and I hope he recovers from his injury, but, I don't wish any success for him on the ice. If that makes me an ass, I'm an ass.

Let him sit and rot until we get a fair return. At some point he should have the b***s to put his money where his mouth is and get the ADR procedure

Great thread and discussion. Do you think Jack's agent is polling other GM's as to their willingness to allow Jack to have the ADR surgery ? If that number is large, wouldn't his agent be shouting it from the tree tops to paint the Sabres as out of sync with the rest of the league ? I also agree with the previous post that the NFLPA would be doing the same, if they agreed with the ADR approach, they would be vocally advocating for it as well. What this tells me is that Jack's doc is out of sync with the prevailing thinking. I think the only way out for Eichel is to get the fusion surgery, recover and force a trade at that point.

Agree. If I were Eichel and I wanted to get leverage and I had the confidence he claims in this procedure, I would be running to have the surgery and putting the pressure back on the Sabres. There is NO WAY under that scenario that the Sabres void his contract. (Unless someone tells me if they void his contract he remains under Sabres control, anyone know this answer ?) As for GMKA, those folks that are bitching about him not making a deal will be the first people to bitch about the deal he does make. The guy is in a no win situation. The one truth, over the short term it really doesn't matter to the Sabres if they make a deal, the bottom line, they are going to stink this year and Eichel's salary keeps them above the salary floor, so, what's the harm. To me, under this scenario, Eichel is more harmed by not being able to address his injury and play again, which reverts me back to my first point.

Lame is an understatement ! Is Jan 6th some kind of joke ?

"Another lost season, Sabres on the clock (again)"

Tank level bad. Unwatchable, which is why I cancelled Center Ice for the first time in a decade.

Dumb and Dumber or SS Incompetent

Great idea. Great incentive for folks to get vaccinated. They are still social distancing and wearing masks, right ? Temp checks are next to worthless with so many folks not having that symptom, yet, still being infected. They should actually go one step further and require all folks to be vaccinated in order to attend, but, I think that will wait until vaccines are widely available, probably in May

I think the difference between a rebuild strategy and a tank strategy, is that, in the former, the organization (top to bottom) maintains a passion to win. In the tank strategy, losing became not only acceptable, but, encouraged by all except the coach and team. In full disclosure, I was 100% on board and the fan that cheered failure. That culture that we were all complicit in creating is destroying this franchise

I think my epiphany regarding the tank was the harm it did to the culture. I believe it created a losing mindset that we can't get rid of. I agree 100% that the post-losing part of the tank has been bad; i.e. trades, draft picks etc. But, watching what McDermott did with the Bills that first year has convinced me that you play EVERY game to WIN.

"The Tank" was a strategy to WIN longer term, by, losing in the short term. That strategy failed. You are arguing the "WIN longer term" portion failed and the "losing in the short term" succeeded. We are saying the same thing. The key difference, for me, NOW, is that by losing in short term, we inadvertently created a culture of losing that we can't eradicate ourselves from in order to win in the long term. The Bills chose a different path and it worked.

I haven't posted in a couple of years. I haven't watched a full Sabres game in a couple of years, hell, I can't even find highlights that are worth watching. I WAS WRONG ! The tank was a bad idea. I thought it was a great idea at the time. I was pissed when the Bills fought to make playoffs in McDermott's first year. I thought he should have tanked that year for higher draft picks. Again, I WAS WRONG! The Bills built a winning culture by constantly trying to win. That's where the Sabres went wrong. They learned how to lose, and don't give me that nonsense that no one is left from those teams, the infection is in the franchise and remains to this day.

WTF ??????????????!!!!!!!!!!! I guess inaction is better than action with this GM Assuming he survives this off season, he needs Tage, Mitts and Cozens to be great, because his moves outside the draft have SUCKED

JR (John Robert Eichel)

Hasek is best player to ever wear uniform. Perreault is 2nd best, but, the most important and meant most to the franchise I see the Bills the same way. I think Bruce Smith was the best player to ever wear uniform. Jim Kelly is 2nd, but, was the most important and meant the most to the franchise.

My two cents. New Bills stadium will be built in Orchard Park adjacent to the west of current New Era Field on ECC land. The economics do not support a downtown stadium and Pegula has spoken at length about the economics. In the end, "the fan" ultimately must pay for all infrastructure investments under the NFL business model. In Buffalo, there are not enough fans (or corporations) with enough money to build a $1B stadium. With infrastructure and land plus actual stadium, that's what a downtown Bills stadium will cost.

got it, agree on that point. NBA is clearly seeing a shift of power from owner/gm to player. NHLer's have always lagged the other leagues on that dimension

Lebron - yes, he had to bail on Cleveland, but Kawhi and Durant ?? --- they both left solid teams, hell, at one point Durant was playing side by side with 2 other MVP's and Kawhi left one of the best run organizations in team sports As for McD, he is stuck, but, he chose to be stuck by signing for 8 years --

Interesting. I do everything right handed except hockey. I started playing and naturally shot lefty from the moment I hit the ice. Never gave it any thought and the coach never asked which arm we threw with or batted with, go figure. Edit: I do slide on my left side in baseball.

To St Louis fans everywhere, YOU'RE WELCOME.

Too many variables at this point to know whether it makes sense, but: If Mittelstadt doesn't show marked improvement and you don't trade for a 2C, you might not have an option. In addition, Skinner resigns, Tage, Nylander and Olofsson are ready, you have an abundance of wingers

Bottom line, you can do these things in parallel. I agree analytics are not the biggest area of need and not the first thing to correct, but, you MUST invest in the capability and you MUST be prepared to use it after you solve some of the more pressing needs. And, in today's NHL, you can't win without it.

Great coaches can do both, get players to focus on common goal AND use analytics to help them get there. The two are not mutually exclusive. I think that's the point most of us are making. It's like a race car driver having a faster car than his competitors. The faster car doesn't make a bad racer a good racer and doesn't win the race on it's own, but, it gives the driver of that car an edge or a leg up on his competition.

The fear of analytics some of you have is puzzling. Coaches and teams have been using analytics for decades, just in a different form. That's what manually studying film, using stop watches etc. was back in the day it was the analytics. The difference today, is the ability to factor in many many more variables and to do this EASILY because of technology. Properly used, modern day analytics mitigates paralysis, it actually creates clarity and allows for action and more importantly, correction. You can't think of it as mountains of data, it might start out that way, but AI, computing horsepower and the right analytics turns it into actionable information. Coaches that use these tools have a superior advantage over coaches that don't. Having said that, it won't turn a bad coach into a good coach, but, if you have two good coaches, it will make the one that uses it great.