Kruppstahl

I would agree that Housley's player usage has been consistently bad. I think it exceeds simple subjective bias at this point. Like an overwhelming majority of informed fans would agree that Housley's decisions have mostly been bad or wrong, as measured against some objective criteria. The thing is there is no way Pegula sees that or understands that. So you have no idea to know what he is thinking, and whatever he is thinking is limited to whatever his most trusted advisor is telling him. That most trusted advisor might well be one of his daughters for all I know.

I can totally relate to what you are writing here. At some point in my early childhood development, also in the 1970s, my brain was programmed to equate watching a Sabres hockey game with happiness, excitement, and a great use of my time. All these years later, my brain is still programmed in that manner, even though I generally do not enjoy NHL hockey anywhere close to the level I used to enjoy it at. I've changed, and the game has changed dramatically. Both diminish my enjoyment of watching hockey. But if I wasn't going to abandon the team over the last 8 years (has to be the ugliest era in the team's history) I will never abandon the team!

I predict this team will quit at some point and it could get ugly enough that we don't win another game as of some point in time, well before our last game. We will probably do a disproportionate amount of losing (more than normal) for the last month of the season. Will be interesting to see just how low we fall when the season is over.

You can make an argument that we might only have 2 or 3 bones. Imagine 2 universes. In the first, Botterill and Housley remain at least for another year, and they retain the basic player makeup of the team, while adding new prospects in the draft and maybe even getting a FA or two. They then continue to try and build the team as they have been doing with the "slow and steady" plan. In the second universe, Botterill and Housley are fired immediately, and a dynamic competent GM is brought in. He names his own HC with experience and known for being a tough discipline guy but with really solid credentials. The only 2 pieces that are retained going forward are Eichel and Dahlin. Everyone else is moved as individual pieces or parts of blockbuster trades. The rebuild is started for a THIRD time. Which team (Universe 1 or Universe 2) gets good first? Which team wins a playoff series first? Which team can genuinely be said to be a "contender" first? I would argue Universe 2 has a better shot than Universe 1. Unfortunately, Universe 1 is the real one we have to deal with.

Check out that Ottawa nosedive trajectory! And also have a look at Tampa Bay; looks like a space shuttle launch right off the chart.

You are probably undervaluing the talent they have. The Sabres have no one close to what Patrice Bergeron is, for example. They also play hard for the entire game and are used to staying within a system with some discipline.

First, you have no idea what was offered for ROR, so I'm not sure why you pretend that you do. Second, let's assume you are totally correct, and there was nothing better on offer. Then it was ridiculous to trade him. No matter how you slice and dice it, the ROR trade was a colossal failure of management and will likely set this franchise back 2 or 3 years. You just can't give away a player of ROR's pedigree and get nothing in return and not expect to be crippled.

Goaltending is very average; 1 forward line worth mentioning and 1/3 of that may be gone after this season, and 1 D man worth mentioning who is currently 18. Mittelstadt may develop into something worth mentioning and he may not. Risto is terrible and I think his trade value is suspect. That's not a skeletal structure. That's a dearth of talent. I've been saying this for several years now; there are not enough pieces here, not close to it, for this to become the team we all hoped and wanted it to be. We are a long way away from "challenging for Cups". We need 4 or 5 major pieces IMO to be a truly deep, talented team, like we had in 2006 for example.

Agree with all of this, except I hope we do quit. Might expedite Housley's departure. The sooner he's gone, the sooner we can try to improve. This team is not going to get "there" with him as the coach, so the sooner he is gone the better.

I assume you're joking but I think about this all the time. The team has been hot garbage with very questionable competitive fire ever since Pegula came along and built them a luxury lounge for a locker room. Does anyone here remember the locker room in the Aud? The little room with the spiral staircase leading up to the little "film room" ??? That thing was about as nice as what I'm used to dressing in for youth hockey at Lincoln Park! There might be something to this. Make these guys feel like fat cats and then be surprised when the behave like fat cats? Seems stupid.

It looked serious as he had a very heavy collision and then seemingly was in tremendous pain on the bench. Almost seemed like a broken arm bone or something. This won't help our struggling defense.

Looking forward to this game as the Oilers are my "second team" and easily my favorite team in the NHL not named the Buffalo Sabres. Hoping Center Ice gives us the option of the Edmonton broadcast tonight. We're to the point where more good can come from losing than winning, so what the hell... I just want it to be an entertaining game basically.

I prefer "The Song Remains the Same."

It is ridiculous to suggest Botterill had no choice but to trade ROR. Of course ROR was doing everything he could to get traded off the team, but that doesn't mean you have to do it. A more experienced GM probably would have handled the situation differently and wouldn't have settled for less than maximum value in a trade if it did happen. One of the main reasons we are as bad as we are this year is because we have no 2C despite having a great 2C last year. The 2C was sacrificed but not replaced with anything close to replacement value coming in other forms. In fact, adjusting for age, ROR was probably the best player on the damned team, and he was given away, mostly, for nothing. That is not just a bad move. That is the type of move that sets a franchise back 3 years.

Craig Simpson was great about 5 minutes into the 3rd period tonight. He was like "The Leafs will take this all night long...just back and forth in the neutral zone, nothing really going on, no sustained offensive pressure at all from Buffalo." We got our first truly strong scoring chance with about 3 minutes left in the game. The bunch of guys we have on this team go 110% balls to the wall very irregularly and for short periods of time. And when they do it, they think that's good enough for a while. That has to be on coaching, doesn't it? I said it about a week ago and I'll say it again: if Phil can't show us by the end of the year that he can get this group to play at 100% in every period of every game, he should be gone. Inconsistent play well below 100% full effort is a major problem with this team.

It's been interesting to watch the fire and passion be slowly sucked out of Zemgus. He's just another passenger most nights these days. A far cry from when he first joined the team. This organization does that to players. I just hope they don't do it to Eichel, and I'm scared to death that we might do it to Dahlin. I have zero faith in this organization's ability to develop his immense talent properly.

Math, drath. Phil likes to go with whoever "has the hot hand" and other hockey-oriented wives tales that he has heard for his entire life around the game. The thing is, Phil is new to the HC ranks of the NHL, but he is not really young. He is from the old school and in that sense does not represent where this sport is going in the future. The dichotomy between organizations following the data and those doing it the old way is really interesting to me, b/c a genuine competitive advantage is there to be had right now by the organizations that get it. Eventually, everyone will catch up, everyone will follow the numbers, and that competitive advantage will disappear forever. Unfortunately, we are on the wrong side of the equation at the moment.

The Carolina and Nashville broadcasters are saying those things about the Sabres b/c they don't really know what's going on here, or anywhere outside their own markets, and are going off of a fact sheet prepared for them and general conventional wisdom that floats around the league. What neutral observer of a Sabres game wouldn't discuss the general plot line currently in play? I.e., young team, bunch of very high recent draft picks, young stars in the making... That's the script on Buffalo and everyone around the league is going to repeat that until it is not the script. The one exception I can think of is Jack Edwards and Andy Brickley on NESN; those guys are brutal homers, but actually know what's going on around the league and aren't afraid to attack whoever is playing Boston on a given night.

Dare to dream Sabres fans! We can win 2 in a row!

Botterill lost the ROR deal badly. End of story.

Botterill is giving old Darcy Regier a run for his money in terms of slow, patient development, with supreme belief in "his guys" to get the job done. His slow and steady approach is going to be a failure. If we are ever good, guys like Eichel will have survived through so many lean years at this pace, they will be turned off of this organization. I'm not advocating jeopardizing the long term future of the team for a really short term gain; I'm advocating moving a little quicker than J Bots feels comfortable doing. He has to speed it up.

Fighting is as much a part of hockey as a goalie's face mask or a slap shot, and in fact, predates both. Why is it that like ALL of the .00000001% of hockey fans who dislike tough, physical play, post at message forums like this? Definitely a connection there.

I wish we were still trying to build the Kings. That team kicked ass and had the makeup to win in a very reliable, predictable way. They took 2 Cups during the Chicago Dynasty Run, which says a lot.

At times, Tage shows almost what appears to be "elite" levels of puck/stick control. There is a lot of talent buried in there somewhere, but it just doesn't come out very often. Reminds me of Max Afinogenov in that sense. Another guy with a lot of talent, but it never translated to squat on an ice rink. I can only assume Tage is dumb as dirt as he appears to have no hockey IQ of any kind.

This is fantastic. There should be another banner saying something like "Only 5 more years to go until this plan really comes together" Too wordy?