Kruppstahl

Mittelstadt is a healthy scratch tonight.

Is there a way this Team Canada position can be made permanent? I'd love for us to have to replace him this off-season!

Your thoughts and mine seem closely aligned on this. We have a good thing going here--an epic, historic collapse--and the team seemingly quitting on its inept coach. Why in the world would we want to F that up with wins NOW? Every slot we move up in the draft is a little better (on paper) and it also slightly improves our chances of moving up to 1, 2, or 3, which is a big difference to picking 6th or 9th. I continue to think we will need a compelling case if we are going to see Housley dismissed post-season! Losing out here (or close to it with maybe 1 or 2 more wins) SHOULD build a strong enough case to force action. 8 out of 10 Sabres games have almost no entertainment value in them anyway...so let's just keep losing, OK?

It's one of the biggest shitholes in the country. I have many friends who used to work at TSA (attorneys) sorting out what basically amounts to employee-related disputes within the organization. They always joked how almost all of their work came from Newark, specifically.

That's ridiculous. I hated both hires the day they were made and also hated Bylsma the day he was hired, and said as much continually. Pegula has a long history (already) of making terrible decisions with both franchises and needs to be removed from substantive decision making as much as possible with both teams. When you change everything about an organization and it just keeps sucking, there is only one place to look for answers: ownership. The Bills were stuck in that situation for decades. Eventually it got to the point that until Ralph Wilson died, the team would be horrible, and that's how it worked out. We are slipping into a similar problem with Pegula already.

If that's true, we're screwed. EDIT: What I'm lobbying for is the czar to oversee hockey operations and do the hiring of the GM and/or HC as well. If we hire the right GM I don't have a problem with him selecting his own HC with the blessing of others in the organization. And that's the role I see for Pegula. He should be the guy who gets the hell out of the way and lets the czar find the right candidate to hire...then bring him in for a meeting with Pegula simply to receive Pegula's blessing, while Pegula retains a veto power. That should keep Pegula's ego in check while still keeping him away from things he knows nothing about.

Just went and watched again from various angles; I can't really tell what happened, but I can't see a deflection either. It either hit a stick paddle right in front of Price or it didn't. It was going on a pretty high trajectory on its own, so I'm back to agreeing it was a wicked shot! LOL

I have a suspicion that Terry Pegula hired Phil Housley simply because Phil is Phil. I.E., a big name from the Sabres past, a previous Wunderkind, and a Sabre who is in the HOF. That all appealed greatly to the side of Terry Pegula that cried (FFS) when he looked at #11 in the crowd at his team purchase PC and said "You're my hero." It's also the part of Terry that bumped into Patty La La at some fundraiser dinner and said "Oh my God, it's Patty LaLa! Come save my franchise! If you can't do it, no one can!" Pegula has demonstrated that he is naive, gullible, and sentimental when it comes to running this team. He should be kept far away from the hiring process. Which of course begs the question: "Then who is going to do the hiring?" And the answer is a czar type person who should be added to the organization but is not here yet. Yeah, yeah, that went up in flames with #16 and his decision to hire GMTM. So what. Doesn't mean the concept isn't sound. You gotta hire the right people. That's the entire point.

It looked deflected to me, which is why it was a goal. It was going on a lower trajectory and then suddenly roofed itself for the crossbar. So it wasn't as wicked a shot as I initially thought. Not saying he doesn't have talent though, he clearly does. He also has a decent body for a kid. Wish Dahlin was built like him!

IMO, yes. They remind me very much of the core we broke up when we started this whole thing, back when Lindy Ruff was still the coach. But these factors you cite need not be mutually exclusive. Not sure why Phil can't be a terrible coach, why the big line can't underachieve, why the goaltending can't be terrible, why the D core can't be horrible, and why the middle 6 forwards can't be f-ing atrocious. This is a 50-something point scoring team over the course of an 82 game season. Or at least it has been since the end of November. That's pretty bad! Lots wrong here.

About f-ing time. His usage has been criminal this year and a big part of why I think Phil is totally in over his head.

Conversation among two Sabres fans, February 2042... NAO: "My God! This team is going to be the death of me! We get that incredible start to the season back in October and win 14 straight. Now we can't get out of our own way and are headed straight for a f-ing double double!" Kruppstahl: "Really? You think these guys are going to pull a Housley on us?! That would suck!" NAO: "Absolutely! They've lost 8 in a row and the team has quit on the coach. They can easily lose 2 or even 6 more in a row!" Kruppstahl: "My God, you're right. This team is totally pulling a Housley, isn't it!?" NAO: "Some day we're going to be good. Some day!" Kruppstahl: "Seems like we've been hearing that for a long, long time." [Fade to black]

For the last 50 or so games this team has shown that it is about a 58 point per 82 game season sort of team. As you point out, there is no improvement to be found here. Of course Housley needs to go, but so does Botterill! He has not advanced this team beyond total dog doo status in 2 years. Sayonara!

Same for me; haven't lived in WNY in over 20 years now....couldn't imagine rooting for a NHL team not named Buffalo Sabres...as much as they suck!

Did you guys hear Housley after tonight's Habs game? "We should have won" blah blah blah. Moral victories, huh Phil? Dude is a loser and needs to be history, just as soon as the season is over. I'm in favor of keeping him here until then as he's doing a good job of losing out for us and improving our draft position.

Only one team in the history of the NHL has been No. 1 overall at the end of November and then missed the playoffs. That team is the 2018-2019 Buffalo Sabres.

How in the world you separate Montour out from the rest of that pile of garbage I'll never know.

This game has all the makings of a Habs blowout. Very important game for Montreal on home ice on a Saturday night... I don't think we have any chance to win. The drop to 5th overall continues! Perfect!

LOL. The defining characteristic of Bobby's career was that it was cut tragically short by debilitating injury. It was his knees. His legacy and legendary status was created in only 7 or 8 phenomenal seasons. In one season he had 37 goals, 139 points, and was a + 124. Ridiculous!

The only team that straight up can't catch us is Ottawa, sitting dead last at the moment on 74 games played and 56 points. I expect Anaheim and the Rangers to overtake us easily. Then you get to NJ (63 pts), Detroit (62 pts), and LA (60 PTS). Any of those teams could also overtake us in theory, if they got on some stupid win streak and we continue to suck for the remainder of the season. I don't expect us to win more than 2 or 3 more games this season. Overall, I anticipate us finishing out with the 5th worst record in the league. That's pretty astonishing.

As a long time Red Sox fan, I totally disagree with this. I and a lot of other Red Sox fans went in completely the other direction after they finally won in 2004. It was like now that they had done it, even just that one time (since WWI), it didn't matter what ever happened again. They did it. The monkey was off their back. The curse was over. It really changed the nature of my fandom for the team, and not necessarily in a good way. I became much more casual and "who care's....we won and no one can ever take that away." Red Sox have won 3 more times since 2004, but my level of excitement for each win has been a tiny, tiny fraction of what was going on in 2004. When the Red Sox finally did it in 2004, it was like a certain sense of closure was achieved, and anything and everything that followed is "all good". At least that is how I and a lot of other Sox fans have taken it with them... I assume it would largely be the same with Bills and/or Sabres fans too.

My complaint: ever since the last Schopp & Bulldog producer left WGR-550 (can't remember his name), the new guy has been inept in terms of updating the website with recorded content each day. Sometimes things simply never get posted at all. The last guy was outstanding at that. He usually had a new hour of content up on the website about 10 minutes after the hour ended, and he was incredibly reliable at doing his job. Right now it's 6:00pm eastern, and nothing from today's Schopp and Bulldog is available for listening. This is the norm nowadays!

Another top pick adds another top pick. This team needs 4 to 6 impact players; we are nowhere close to where we need to be.

Risto is terrible. Montour isn't much better and comes from the same sort of mold. If indeed there is solid trade value for Risto, I'd like to see him moved this off-season as well. However, that move, in isolation, will do very little to improve things. But it it could be part of a number of moves that start to move the needle around here. Firing Housley would be another; firing Botterill would be another. Turning over half the lineup would be another.

What I love about him is that even with him doing what he's doing now, it is really obvious that he is nowhere close to his ceiling. Which is obvious and understandable as he's still a baby. He makes tons of mistakes and has had many rough nights this year. His play within games can be very up and down...and yet his baseline level of performance is through the roof, especially for his age, and you can see, really clearly, how freaking good he is going to be. Hell, his body hasn't even filled out yet and he looks like a timid boy on the ice, despite his talent. When he blossoms into a man and is much stronger, he's going to be lights out, and stay that way for a very long time.