Kruppstahl

Bettman is so f-ing unlikeable. Holy *****.

FFS start the draft. NHL!

I agree it is too early to move Mittelstadt, but it's also way too early to declare him a future 2C stud. The jury is very much out on him right now.

No, I don't have a video of that. But I do have this video of a 1981 tilt between Ruff and Paul Baxter, complete with a Mike Lange play by play!

Here we go down the slippery slope of ever increasing complexity to video replays and challenges. It will get a lot worse than it is now. This will not end well. I wish they would throw it all out tomorrow.

Don't agree at all with your "untouchable" list. We have very little value to trade right now. Risto is probably near the top of the list in terms of the team looking to move him and in terms of perceived value. I think Mittelstadt would have some value, but it is too early to trade him. We need more time to see what we have there.

Kim's qualifications are zero. Terry has, from day one, struck me as a meathead, especially considering he is a billionaire and some sort of engineer. Their ownership of both teams has gone very poorly so far. For Buffalo sports fans who are just happy to have retained their teams regardless of competence, Pegula is a great owner. For those wanting more, he has been terrible.

I would almost kill for them to go back to only playing the organ, eliminating the "goal song" crap, and having the public address announcer revert to Milt Ellis' classic, professional, low key delivery instead of this cheer leader crap they do nowadays.

Who wears the "A" has little to do with the problems facing this franchise. Regarding Jack's maturity, Rob Ray commented on this all last season during his game day segments on WGR. I always value Rob's take b/c he knows what it's like to be a player, and b/c of his history, he has a different sort of relationship with the current players. How a player interacts with a journalist or someone like Paul Hamilton only tells you how that player interacts with a journalist. The way in which the same player interacts with Rob "off the record" and away from a camera tells you much more about the real person behind the player persona. Rayzor commented that Jack was much more mature last season. The biggest problem I see with Eichel is that he does not bring his best game to the ice every time we play. He fades in and out period to period, or game to game, or sometimes for stretches of games. The other huge problem we have (having just watched pretty much every game of the NHL playoffs in their entireties) is that the best teams in the league are not distinguished by having 1 or 2 of 3 big names. Every team in the league has those guys. The best teams have 4 lines of contributors who make a difference. The Sabres lack of depth has to be our biggest problem right now.

Seeing as ROR just won the Conn Smythe, I guess he somehow found his love of the game again! St. Louis and Buffalo: 2 early expansion teams, same color schemes, both on polar opposites of the hockey spectrum.

Hah! ROR gets the Conn Smythe just to rub salt into the wounds! Congratulations to ST. Louis. We can only hope the Sabres develop into this type of team some day.

He was indeed targeted, though perhaps incorrectly. If that makes sense. DR police are investigating that now. Gunman arrived at the club on motorcycle, got off, directly approached Ortiz, and shot him point-blank in the back. The good news is the bullet didn't hit anything important, he is doing fine out of surgery, and should make a full recovery.

This is the great fear! But as I just wrote in the Skinner thread, this is the world we are living in now in terms of money and term for a proven 40 goal scorer. It's ridiculous. Skinner has an edgy, chippy thing built into his game. I think it's the only way he knows how to play and I think that is why his production has been pretty consistent throughout his career. I think he'll be OK but who knows; he could definitely pull a Stafford on us and disappear. Then we are stuck with this god awful K for a long time. Next CBA ownership needs to figure out how to undo these guaranteed Ks. They have killed the sport.

The money and years in a world with guaranteed Ks are definitely not fine. But that is where we are at these days and that's the world the Sabres have to compete in. The one thing that makes me think Skinner will not turn into another Drew Stafford is that he has a natural feisty/chippy edge to his game and he is one of the most difficult Sabres to play against on a nightly basis. It's a built-in component to his game and I think that will mean his production does not tail off now that he has the big K.

Reinhart was the No. 1 forward in the world in the year of his draft. If he can't play center, who the hell can?

My prediction of Boston in 6 is now looking highly unlikely. LOL

If you are suggesting this organization's woes are limited to Housley as the HC, I think you'll be unpleasantly surprised in the near future. Housley was a part of the problem, sure. But far from an isolated source of the problem.

Yeah but a lot of Buffalo sports fans don't want to hear that, so they create villains and then beat them to death over and over and over. Jerry Sullivan is one of them.

I'll say Boston in 6. I think they are the better team and that will be demonstrated after a few more games.

Bylsma was and remains a f-ing clown. I still can't believe Botterill hired Ralph Krueger as HC though! It's starting to sink in now! Kind of reminds me of Darcy's cynical decision to make Ron Rolston the HC of this team, a move which led directly to his own dismissal before too long.

The term "BEST" is incredibly vague and in this context needs to be defined, or else the analysis has no meaning. The article only mentions that the analysis is based on "21 key indicators that include team performance, ticket prices, fan engagement and more." So that little blurb in the link never really explains what the hell is being rated. If "team performance" is part of the analysis, I can see why Buffalo was as low as 8th. We've been solidly one of the worst franchises in the league for nearly a decade now and haven't won a Cup in 50 years of trying. I think some people commenting here are bent out of shape because they are reading into the term "BEST" and ascribing a meaning to it that is inconsistent with the intentions of the people doing the study.

That wave of offensive pressure in OT was incredible! St. Louis was just 110% on the throttle the entire time. Boston actually had great positioning and discipline the entire time, but it was just too much and absolutely overwhelming. With the extra skater during the delayed penalty, it was more than they could handle. Great primary assist from our boy ROR as well on the game winner!

I used to have that sort of hate for them, but it has been so long since we have been engaged in a meaningful rivalry with them, I just see them as another team now. Same for Montreal, who I used to despise even worse than the Bruins. In fact, we have been so bad for so long now I am not sure I really hate anyone in the league. That stuff all fades with the passage of time. I think the only team left is TO, and that's only because of their many classless fans that invade our building and behave like animals. I never really had anything against the Leafs themselves, as in my mind they are a Norris division team in the other conference and our paths just don't cross that much. Well, that's how it always used to be anyway!

Montour isn't much better than Risto defensively speaking. The buzz surrounding him, among those who think he's something special, is totally focused on his skating and the offensive side of his game. Dahlin will be "The Man" on the blue line eventually. The question is how long will it take for him to get there. Some have suggested he'll be ready in 2019/2020. I think that's way early and look for him to "arrive" in full force in his 4th NHL season. Risto is a 3rd pairing guy, at best. He's one of the few moveable assets on the team, however, and I would like to see him moved--even if he is practically the only guy on the team with a little snarl to his game. I would go so far as to suggest I'll be surprised if he is not moved this off-season.

Now that San Jose is out of it, and having watched every minute of every playoff game they played this year, I have to say... Evander Kane is just as bad as I remember him as a Sabre. He was a total passenger on that team and most definitely not a part of the core group of guys that made it happen for the Sharks. That became more and more obvious as the playoffs went along. I don't change my opinion on getting rid of him--it was a good idea to do so. By the same token, ROR has shown his value to St. Louis time and time again this playoff season and his loss still stings like a mo-fo.