Thorny

This is about where I'm at I think. Botterill has nothing to show for his first two full years as GM, he's achieved nothing, whether at the NHL level or the AHL. Frankly, a good argument could be made that if you can't field a playoff team in 3 full years, it's time to go. Like you I'm not quite there right now, but this coming season needs to be, at the very least, an "eliminated in the last couple days" type deal. I still absolutely think the only reasonable barometer of success next year is playoffs, that needs to be the goal. If they fall short, they've failed. But that doesn't mean I'm calling for the GM's head. If we stink for 3 seasons though he should be gonzo.

I think we'll get a pretty good idea on how hot his seat is based on his offseason moves.

Carolina has dominated this series at 5 v 5

3rd overall in the regular season and couldn't get a playoff win....? Well, at least it's not Tampa collapse bad.

Is there a flaw with the type of team we are trying to build organizationally? Botterill has the Sabres and Amerks doing the same type of thing, right?

Amerks need a big goal here.

I tend to agree with this, I'm not sure how much the turnover rate would factor in. But from what we've heard, it does appear McLellan, at least, turned down the Sabres, for reasons only know to him. It's trusting the wording of that article that said we failed to grab him, and it could be wrong, but I don't believe it's been contradicted elsewhere.

Of course he was.

I'd wager if it's there's an inherent bias to how he picks, and there clearly is, there's going to be some presence of it even in a top pick. It is probably easier to distinguish clear separation at that point, so it allows the higher likelihood that a CHL player gets picked there, but in close cases I still believe league is factoring in with a top pick. We can guess about who he might have picked, or look at all his picks. Moving players into that league to play doesn't really have much specifically to do with draft strategy. He's going to select an American this year with the first pick. And it'll probably be 3 straight years with no CHL players.

If the Sabres have moved on to Martin I'd venture the wording that the Sabres FAILED to land McLellan seems more accurate. So I'd say that's certainly possible not only guys like that have said no, but also some of the vets.

Agree. Also, I don't agree with the post you were responding to, that he'd be likely to get them to the playoffs next year. If he did that, he might actually have been a good choice.

Botterill is a man with a haircut (and strategies) you can set your watch to. - Grandpa Simpson Mine Pittsburgh, draft college-bound prospects and Europeans, and "Rochester first". Jury still out.

I've already explained, it was the result of both the cross check (minor) and then also the contact from Stastny. Eakin is not responsible for Stastny's incidental contact. If you trip a player on a breakaway and he goes into the post and breaks his leg, it's not a major! You can't just look at the "end result".

Going in circles. To each their own here. If Pavelski gets up and walks away the actions of Eakin are never talked about again or even mentioned. A freak accident resulted after Eakin committed, at most, a minor penalty, and Eakin got dinged for it. Dumb call.