PerreaultForever

Yes, he was bleeding too. I figured maybe a broken jaw, but I guess with his history best to be careful.

If you're not willing to give up draft picks (which he isn't so far) I'm not sure what you think we'd have to offer? The prices at that time of the year are indeed high and not many teams are looking to make moves.

Well the simple answer is a lack of talent. A lack of goal scorers. Here's what I think contributes to it though. I think we'd all agree this team plays much faster this year than we thought they could. A big knock on us before was we were a slow team in a league trending towards speed. Housley has the tempo going. Hence the zone time , possession, shots. But I think a lot of these guys struggle to play at that pace and they have no time to think and just fire it in the general direction. So really, most of them are simply not good enough to play this style effectively. Meanwhile on the PP they slow it right down to their comfort level to make the perfect play and thus are easy to defend at that slower tempo.

When he got him I'm sure JBot thought he had his second line guy until Mittlestadt was ready but it is what it is. The concept made sense. Split ROR's massive ice time between two guys, one for the offensive side, the other for face-offs and defensive work. Both players fresher and able to keep the pace Housley wants in rolling lines. On paper it was a good plan. On paper.

Might have a little something to do with Philly finally getting a goalie phenom. Don't see that savior waiting in our wings. Philly has a much better shot at making it than we do at this point.

You're right, he's not McDavid, he's not Crosby, he's definitely not Gretzky or Lemieux. heck he's not even Lindros (before the concussions). He's not "generational." But he is good. I thought last year he might develop into a Getzlaf but he doesn't seem to want to beef up his physicality and he does not seem to have a competitive mean streak so now I'm hoping he becomes Giroux. I see some similarities there and as I said before, Giroux took a lot of these same criticisms when he was first made captain.

Bieulieu is finally moved?

I would not disagree with that. We are also not tough enough in front of the net. Reinhart gets in there but really good power plays force the box in tighter with net presence allowing the guys on the outside more freedom of movement and time. Most everything we do PP and even full strength comes from outside or from a distance and the goalies can easily see the shots and make the saves. I mean a guy like Tage is a big guy with a long reach and yet most all he does is snap a long wrist shot from outside or the top of the circle. A guy with that frame needs to be right in front causing havoc Dave Andreychuk style.

I know. That's my point. It's a thing Buffalo fans grumble about but always accept. You never see a "soft" team in Boston. Fans won't accept that. It won't change here either. Pitt was soft too. They won some cups despite that (with a good power play) but the years they got beat out it was to tougher teams (Giroux slaughtering Crosby the one year, Boston shutting them down totally another as two examples). We're building a soft team but it's a softer league so it MIGHT work this time, but not unless we develop a killer power play.

If Skinner wants to play for a contender (no move clause) I'd move him and then try to sign him in the off season if he's interested. No idea what he wants but JBot and he should sit down face to face. Otherwise I would not trade Dahlin. I would trade anyone, even jack, if the offer was good enough (that would have to be huge obviously) but in all likelihood I would also not trade Risto, Eichel, Bogo, Mittlestadt, Pilut, Ullmark. Bogo because of his leadership and toughness, and the last 3 because they may still have upside. Anyone else can go for the right deal and some of them just take them, please, anyone, just get some of them gone.

Is it really Housley's fault that these guys do not have the talent to put the puck in the net? Not sure how the coach can do that. With this system they move the puck up the ice well, they attack, they outshoot most teams most nights, they have possession and zone time, they simply do not finish the play. Outside of the top 5 players on this team (Eichel, Skinner, Dahlin, Risto, Reinhart - in that order) the rest are ALL useless. (maybe add Bogo for 6, but that's really it. Mittlestadt is not ready, Pilut may never be).the rest are rubbish, including the goalies.

Switch answer to a firm no.

Meh. It's over.

You know, they said this about Perreault. They said this about Turgeon. They said this about Mogilny. It's a Buffalo thing.

What was it they said? new Jersey had given up 17 goals in the last three games I think - and we managed 1. kind of sums up the season. Been our problem from day 1 and the team has not improved from day 1 this year. We have improved zone time and possession this year. We are faster this year. We get lots of shots, but we have absolutely no finish (outside of Skinner) and simply cannot score goals. That and an abysmal powerplay all year means it's over. Mathematically alive, but it's time for JBot to sell sell sell (if anybody wants any of it). It's been a more entertaining year than last year, but it's over.

That's because bottom 6 guys are easier to get. Kind of hard to just get a top 6 guy without selling off your future, and we simply are not close enough to sell off the future. What do you want, to trade the next 3 years away for one series where we lose to Tampa? If we end up with too many bottom six guys maybe we can package a bunch of them off to some team looking to rebuild or unload a high paid guy but that won't work for rentals. Just about everybody unloading FA's wants draft picks and prospects because they are building for the future, and it also muddies the trade so it's harder to evaluate and doesn't look to their fanbase like you just gave the guy away. That's a GM survival rule these days.

You know I looked up the dates and I had totally forgotten Danny Gare was captain for a while. Schoeny I remembered, but forgot the C was with Gare for a while. That's a funny thing though, and it tells you a little on how much things have changed over the years. Can you imagine the scandal of a player like Gare today? I mean the guy had a van parked at the Aud he called the "shaggin' wagon" for him and his post game puck bunnies and in those days it was just the way it was. Captain material :) Schoney was a good captain, and maybe one day it'll be Dahlin, but for now it's Jack. making me think about old time hockey now. Time for youtube. This never gets tiring even after all these years:

lol - this is a damn fine idea. I dunno, maybe they can throw in a Tim Horton's franchise to seal the deal or something. I mean ROR isn't around to drive into it so it might work. I just hope he wants to be here and signs. If he doesn't, I have no idea what will happen to us, but it probably won't be good.

true but Windsor's a s***hole and it's a tougher drive to T-dot in the winter. If he signs in Buffalo my guess is he buys a big house in St. Catherines (if he wants the family to be over the border)

This is the same thing they've said about Giroux for years in Philly, and yet he's quietly still their best player and an oft over looked star in the league. It's always a fan debate on whether your C should go to your best player or some other vocal veteran "leader" but the teams themselves rarely have a problem with this supposed issue. It's just optics. I like Bogo, and he deserves the A (something criticized and questioned on this board when it happened if you remember - and not to mention most of you wanted him bought out and run out of town last year too!) but Jack is the star of this team and he will be the C as long as he is here. Skinner is having a great year, but it has a lot to do with playing with Jack. Jack is and should be captain. Lol, I guess back in the old days you haters would have stripped the C from #11 and given it to Dudley cause of the cool headband or maybe even Spinner after he had 2 fights in a game and yelled at somebody. :)

That's my view as well. Teams that keep switching coaches rarely do well. Last year they were a mess. This year they seem to have developed a system and some nights it works really well but they finally seem to have understood it - most nights. It's a fragile system though and can break down easily if all the parts aren't in sync. Next year they have to learn how to adapt/adjust it on off nights and learn to win the close ones. Switching the entire system now would be a huge step backwards. Next year, the expectation is playoffs and if we are no better next year he's toast.

I actually don't see a lot of lack of effort this year. A lack of skill, sure, but the effort is there and they don't quit most nights. It's actually a big change from recent years where the third periods (when we were behind) were often sleep affairs where we would generate absolutely nothing.

I don't think that's true. One, we're not a ***** show. We have ups and downs and there is still much work to be done, but this is a much better team than last year and it's only JBot's second year. You add couple good FA's this off season and we are a contender. Nobody, and I mean NOBODY will offer Skinner more money than we will. Most teams will see him as a 30 goal scorer who benefited from playing with Eichel in a primary role. We will overpay him to stay cause JBot can't afford to have us leap backwards. he won't worry about the overpaid number in his 6th-8th years that is inevitable. Skinner will sign a big 8 year deal UNLESS he was never going to sign here anyway, but I can't imagine he has a dream destination like Tavares had. Toronto can't afford him with the guys they already have to pay so this is as close to "home" as he can get.

Agree. It's old school vs. new school and Phil is in step with the new and where things are going. Critics should look closer at the newer coaches and realize the old gruff types are a dying breed.

I said it would come down to goaltending. Didn't realize ours was going to be on xanax tonight. Yikes, that was bad.