Kruppstahl

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.

Someone correct me if I'm wrong, but ROR seems to have re-found his love of the game in St. Louis! It must be a miracle.

I always put the Blues in a special category along with the Canucks--I see them both as sibling franchises to the Sabres. We all came into the league around the same time and none of us have won a Cup. Further, Vancouver and St. Louis have never really done anything bad against the Sabres, so I like them more than most franchises. So we will get a repeat of the 1970 Stanley Cup finals. I hope it goes the other way around this time.

You can't change history.

You're very generous. Pegula will not be so generous with Botterill. He is not going to get another kick at the coaching can. If things don't improve quite a bit this year, Krueger and Botterill will both be gone.

What jumps out at me as I watch pretty much every game of this playoff season is just how freaking deep these teams are. They have good, contributing players on pretty much all four lines. Johan was dead space on a dead roster and ideally, there would not be a roster spot on the 20 man team for a player of his relatively low ability. We need to improve the quality and depth of this team throughout the roster.

It's been sad to watch his game deteriorate down to nothing. IMO he is a genuine example of a player being ruined by an organization. I used to think that was a myth, but with Zemgus it happened. His trade value is close to nothing so it really doesn't matter. He probably has more value in Buffalo, if the new coach can revitalize him somehow.

The bison looks naked without the pair of sabres underneath him. Not a fan of the choice of font for the "50". Don't like the choice to extend the Sabre tips beyond the outer perimeter of the shield, it's too disruptive. It seems to be a deliberate nod to the horns of the buffalo, but reminds me too much of the goat logo. Fairly mediocre graphic design, but it could have been a lot worse.

Boston played its type of game to perfection last night and my man Patrice Bergeron put on a freaking master class. We can only hope Eichel some day gets to his level; he's nowhere near it now on the defensive side of things. This has been a quirky playoffs with some unusual results that I wouldn't read too much into. Carolina finally reached a level where they were exposed; not sure how they got as far as they did. Now back to SJ and St. Louis. May the best team win; I just want the series to stay even and go to 7.

Krueger is a big 1-3-1 forecheck kind of guy and that system puts huge pressure on the centerman to get back and help out with the defense. I personally don't think that suits Eichel's game and in no way would Mittelstadt have been up to that challenge last year. How much he can grow into the spot in 2019/2020 remains to be seen. I do think the idea is for Mittelstadt to be the 2C eventually. Not sure he can get there, but I am still optimistic and don't see anything to say he definitely can't get there. Not yet at least.

With all the D injuries this off-season it seems like Risto may not be able to be moved! Bad timing. We'll see.

This is an interesting, risky hire which is likely to end Botterill's reign as GM sooner than later. It could work fabulously, but I would say the odds are it will not. Time will tell. One thing keeps coming up: the notion that we are only now going to try the "softer, kinder, gentler" type of head coach because disciplinarians of the old school were not getting through to this new breed of player. What about Housley? He seemed very soft and totally a player's coach. It seems like we have already tried the Krueger method and it didn't work. Why is Housley getting lumped into the category of Old School guys like Ruff or Jacques Martin? This will be Botterill's last kick at the coaching can; if/when this blows up, he and Krueger will go away at the same time. Not to mention he was a large part of the problems of this franchise which gave rise to the sell off and rebuild we are still trying to move beyond. Guys like Vanek are a part of the team's past, definitely not its future.

Either that or Botterill figured it was a great opportunity to pick the brain of a very experienced coach with massive ties/connection to the Sabres organization. Bounce ideas off him and what not...with or without the intention of ever really considering Ruff a legitimate candidate. These coaching hire searches are a great way to get multiple takes on the Sabres situation and I'm sure Botterill is using that to his advantage, even if I don't really like the guy.

2007 was when that psycho went nuts killing people at Va. Tech. Gold was $630 an ounce. "The Departed" won best picture at the Oscars. Nancy Pelosi was elected first female Speaker of US Congress. Indianapolis beat Chicago in the Superbowl.

I liked Pilut a lot more than Phil Housley did. I hope he recovers well and maybe even faster than anticipated.

No way would he leave the Toronto system to come to Buffalo. He's the heir apparent in TO for when Babcock doesn't get it done and gets canned, which could be coming as soon as next year.

That's SO WEIRD! I was just thinking the other day: "I may need to get a tattoo of a dolphin sitting in a barcalounger smoking a water bong." There's just something so classic about it. It says "timeless elegance" to me.

If the Sabres don't make big improvements this upcoming year, Botterill will be gone. It will probably mean making the playoffs, but more than that, a lot of the player decisions he will be making this off-season are going to have to pan out with a competitive team in the playoff picture for most of the season. That's a tall order. This team is a long way away from being a solid playoff team and it routinely takes periods, games, and stretches of schedule off. I think we'll be discussing what GM X needs to do to fix this mess, not Botterill, b/c Botterill will be gone before it does get fixed.

I voted Other. I hate them because they perfectly represent the sort of modern NHL franchise that is ruining hockey for me. Carolina has absolutely no business with a hockey team and the sport does not benefit from being in places where people don't give a ***** about it, despite this being the league's #1 goal for several decades now. The league is filled with these "blah" franchises now and it just sucks mojo out of the sport for me.

Remember back when Brad Richards was a big free agent? 2011 I think. He was perceived, at the time, as a pretty big star player and there were a number of teams in the running to get him. One of those was the Sabres. He ended up signing with the Rangers. Now and again a player like that comes along--big name--big dollars--lots of interest and competition for him. That guy is not coming to Buffalo, probably 9 out of 10 times.

For quite a long time now, I haven't been able to understand why anyone would go to Sabres games at all, let alone pay for 41 of them. They are, for the most part, an extremely boring team that plays losing hockey in a very boring manner. The stuff actually qualifies as "entertainment" maybe 10 times out of 82 games per season, and that's being generous. And some of those games are on the road. However, this is Buffalo we are talking about and the folks who pay for their Sabres season tickets are going nowhere.