Kruppstahl

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.

That's exactly right. If you have blown 5 tires in 8 years and you blow another one, you still put a new tire on the car. But then, if you're intelligent, you re-visit your tire purchasing behavior--you think about why you are blowing so many tires--you think about what makes a good tire and that maybe it's time to buy better ones. Will Pegula magically turn into a guy who puts the right people in power within his organizations? I have no idea.

It's a combination of factors. Our talent level is horribly low. Sabres fans are the last people in the world to realize this, but that doesn't mean it isn't true. The team has been horribly built; it's more a collection of parts, most of which aren't any good, and then 4 or 5 really solid players and/or prospects. The coaching staff seems inept; player usage has been terrible, we don't see in-game or even in-period adjustments to the opposition, and Phil starts players based on crazy things like if we won or lost the last game. Then you have ownership, which is the most naive/inept in North American major league sports. I'm sure the actual location of Buffalo, NY plays a factor in there too, to an extent, with some of the players. It's a good old fashioned ***** show.

We care about them b/c they are 100 miles away from Buffalo, and their fanbase invades our building and takes over every time they play in Buffalo. The fanbases make the rivalry, but only in recent years. Historically, the Leafs are a Norris Division team playing in the other conference that almost never crossed paths with the Sabres. When I think of classic Sabres rivals, I think Adams Division and Boston and Montreal more than anyone, and to a lesser extent, Quebec and even Philly, but not Toronto.

Well if that's the case, I'd like to blame Derek Roy.

Paul Hamilton reporting that tons of tickets were sold by Sabres fans for this game and that it will be a 2/3 Toronto crowd. That sucks.

The Blues are light years ahead of where the Sabres are right now, even if they probably won't win the Cup this year.

Funny....now cutting live to Phil Housley PC, asked about tonight's lineup. He just said Hutton gets the start and the lineup is unchanged from the St. Louis game. Why? "We got a result". This guy makes personnel decisions, consistently, on the result of the preceding game, which is pretty f-ing damning in my opinion.

Botterill is on live with Schopp and Bulldog right now. "Part of the beauty of our game is that our fans are passionate and they have different ideas on how things should be done".... I've heard this quite a lot before! LOL That was his response to Schopp asking if he can defend Housley's decision making process, where he will sit a goalie base on a loss in a shootout, for example. He said nightly lineup formation is ultimately Housley's call, though there is always chat between Botterill and Housley.

This is part of why I find regular season NHL hockey so boring now. It's a totally different game to what it was in the '70s, '80s, and even '90s. Hitting feeds off of hitting. Once people start it, it continues. When no hits anyone ever, the game tends to take on a boring flavor with little hitting. There was a shift last night where a St. Louis player (can't remember now) really smacked Zemgus good. Girgs quickly got up, was very obviously pissed, and chased after said player and tried to throw not one but TWO gigantic hits on the same shift. Hitting is contagious. When no one does it on either side, you end up with the game of "Hot potato" that the modern NHL has become. Sure, the play is very, very fast, but it is often too fast for its own good. Players make bad plays with the puck consistently b/c that clock is running in their head the moment the puck hits their stick and they think "I have to move the puck immediately" even if often, they do not. The best players do not play like that and take their time. I'm getting off topic here so I'll stop rambling. LOL

Rodriguez is one of the few players on the team who seems to give everything he has on every shift of every game. He stands out in this regard.

Housley has been terrible by most objective standards. This team has played their best hockey against the best teams, probably b/c the players actually have some amount of pride buried deep in there somewhere. Our problems greatly transcend Housley; it's not all on him, but he is certainly a big part of it. It's why I have been saying all season that firing Housley--in isolation--will not make us a better team, yet he still needs to be fired.

ROR hit the crossbar with a wicked backhand that just missed on his penalty shot. Had Hutton well beaten. This game actually had entertainment value throughout, and the final 3 or 4 minutes in regulation, plus OT, plus the shootout, was pretty fun stuff. I thought Sheary had a great game, but it begs the question, where the hell has he been? Does he only bust out his "A" game for St. Patty's? Mittelstadt was equally horrible; he had a really rough night. Not happy with Eichel's game, but overall, we played pretty well by our standards and hung on to beat a darned good team. I love watching ST. Louis executing in their D zone when the Sabres applied pressure; their positioning, discipline, and execution is all top notch. That's a team that has a playing style that can go very deep in the playoffs, if they can get enough goal scoring. They are very fundamentally sound. The losing streak ends at 7! Next up, the Leafs on Wednesday at home. The Leafs games in Buffalo are by far the best games of the season, so I'm looking forward to it.

I like him b/c he is happy to blast the Bills, the NFL, and the Sabres, with both barrels, all day long. He is the only thing approaching a big city media voice in WNY that I know of. Jerry Sullivan was the same, but he's gone from the News now and I don't really read local WNY stuff anymore. I agree he gets very defensive when he runs into someone who challenges him on a phone call. He also tends to go over the top in attacking what are clearly very unintelligent callers.

Well I'm liberal too so that doesn't bother me, but I think you are greatly overplaying that aspect of it. He does not always bring race into things where it doesn't belong, though I have heard him do that at least once, I agree.

http://tshirtgun.com/bleacherreacherpro.html

It's not just the loss of velocity! He's always got that friendly, #*&% eating grin on his puss too! And he's way overweight; he might want to hit the gym now and again.

I love them, particularly Schopp. He is the only consistently objective, critical voice of both the Bills and Sabres you will find in the local media. He's great.

We actually out Corsied Carolina last night! That happens very, very rarely with this team. Really solid goaltending and maybe we win that one. Our goaltending has been terrible and it's a big part of our troubles, but by no means the sole factor. There is no piece of this organization immune from criticism or guilt! Hell, I blame Sabretooth for some of our woes!

For what it's worth, Chris "Bulldog" Parker on WGR-550 has slowly moved to this position as well in recent days. He and Schopp both have been thinking Housley will be spared for a long time now...but in the last few days, Bulldog has moved to the position that he can't see how Housley can survive this mess. I think he said something pretty close to: "I think it's inevitable now that Botterill has to fire Housley when the season ends."

Our goaltending has been atrocious since the win streak ended, and it's a huge part of our lack of success. Not the sole reason, mind you! But a big part. There is no rule that I know of that says we can't address multiple problems at the same time. Just because our goaltending is horrible doesn't mean the HC doesn't need to go, and in fact, can't be terminated. Get rid of Botterill, get rid of Housley, find better goaltending, find something that passes for an acceptable 2C, remove BOGO form this team immediately! Trade RISTO if you can get some decent value in return, and try to add 1 or 2 more d-men who can skate and take care of play in their own ends. There's lot of work that needs to be done, but there is no reason why it can't all be done in 1 offseason. Botterill would have you believe this all takes years; which makes sense from his perspective! Years of 7 figure paychecks are better than a few!

Will a coaching change quickly change the landscape with the present group of players? No, but that is not an argument for retaining Housley. He is a huge part of the problem and needs to go. I would argue Botterill is an equally large part of the problem, and he needs to go too, but it may take a while longer to move him out the door. The team's woes will continue longer than necessary as a result. You can give Housley until December of next season, but that just delays the inevitable. It's pretty obvious this team is not going to get to where it needs to go with Housley as the HC. That has been apparent for some time. So the longer the delay in moving forward is just that---a delay in moving forward. Dismissing Housley in December of next year likely costs us next season too! Do you want that? How about demanding something better for a change? Pegula has shown many times that he is prepared to fire people and move on once he becomes convinced its not working. I think his double firing of GMTM and Bylsma took most Sabres fans by surprise. I am praying he has another double firing in him, and he's just waiting for the end of this embarrassing season to pull the trigger, which I am fine with.