PerreaultForever

I'm with ya, but we don't know about that part yet. Good end of season does not necessarily equate to good in playoffs.

Part of his success has to also be attributed to O'Reilly's solid play lately as well as the D getting more shots on goal. Reinhart's finding a role as a guy who goes to the net but is not the guy the starts the play or controls it. A complementary player with the right linemates.

I'm sorry, but if Antipin-Beaulieu is a pair for us next year we are toast. Neither of them is a top 6 D man on any decent team. Antipin MIGHT develop into a 3rd pairing guy but Beaulieu is absolutely useless imo. I think for this D to be averagely decent we absolutely need to add another new body similar to Scandella so Risto's minutes can be cut and he isn't forced to be this big #1 guy that he really isn't. If we do that and McCabe is bumped into the 3rd pairing my hope and optimism will rise. Adding Dahlin, would of course be the ultimate.

The thing with star players is the inherent passion like pi2000 said but it's also the inability to sort of dumb it down for everyone else. The non stars. Star players are like those university professors or math teachers that you run into in school that are really brilliant and they can write massive equations on the board but they can't explain to you what they did in any terms you might understand. A great mathematician is rarely a great teacher, and a star player is rarely a great teacher as a coach. There might be one, but I cannot think of a single example of a successful coach who was a star player. The Babcocks, the Quennevilles, etc. they were all average players at best.

I'm still undecided on Housley. There's no question that he knows what it takes to win in this league now. When Housley played he was considered a little small for D and a little soft, but his game would have been a perfect fit for this league now. The question remains however, can he translate that idea to his players and get them to do it. History shows that it is pretty rare for star players to become star coaches. They just never get how to bring that stuff down to joe average. The best coaches are usually the journeymen. I give him another year but I just don't see Housley as a good teacher.

Ullmark isn't a proven nhl goaltender yet so I doubt he simply gets handed the #1 spot and all the pressure that will go with it. I think that rumor that Lehner wanted to be traded was likely true and I think they tried but they weren't willing to simply give him away so he is here for now. I think they'll try to trade him again but likely won't get anything much so they won't. It'll be Ullmark and Lehner to start the year and they will let the best man win and play the most - likely Ullmark is defined as the new #1 by the deadline and they'll try to move Lehner yet again and maybe for real then if that scenario happens. All depends on how good Ullmark plays though. Only way I see that different is IF Lehner is viewed as some sort of bad influence. Then they'll want him as far away from Ullmark as possible and they'll dump him for whatever they can get. Very much doubt Chad is here next year. That would scream desperation and failure to me.

All of this. I wouldn't pay him anything big until I see a full season of sustained effort from him. We don't want long term deals given to players who sulk or turn it on and off when they feel like it or whatever the reason was for his lack of.... earlier in the year. I can't help thinking maybe he wanted to play his way off the team hoping for a trade to a better team and now that he sees he is stuck here he has turned it back on for a while to negotiate a better contract. He makes me think of Loui Eriksson. Big numbers/effort in a contract year but floats through most of his career. Give me consistency and a full season first.

With all due respect to what Pominville once was, I think he is clearly past it now. In order for this team to be good next year, it has to be good enough that Pominville won't crack the lineup.

I used to love this show but it is just taking a nosedive now. I have no idea who is writing this show now but it can't be the same people that wrote season 3, 4. Too much like a comic now with really bad dialogue. Lots of visceral special effects, but so thin on an actual interesting storyline. They should end it.

Leafs were schooled by Washington on the weekend too. Their Nylander looked absolutely lost in that one too, maybe neither Nylander will amount to much in the long run. Leafs seem to miss Matthews more than our guys miss Jack.

That was a sloppy and bad game BUT MAN I LOVE BEATING THE LEAFS. I don't care how we do it, just as long as we beat them. Very satisfying game to watch.

I'm not going to argue it, but I don't think the speed thing is wrong. The top teams in the league are also the fastest teams in the league. Just about all of them have mobile D's that transition quickly and generate scoring. This is the league now. Try something different at your own peril. I think they are looking better lately, simple as that. Lots of positive signs. Won't be convinced this is real though until they START A SEASON beating good teams. None of this, really means anything right now.

That's one of the problems they've had with being so bad and so lacking in depth. Hard to bench or sit slackers when you have nobody eager to take their place. If Botterill can improve things from the base up, this should hopefully change and some of those off and on guys might start to feel the pressure to play hard every night.

I wouldn't read too much into any of this. Of course teams asked about ROR, he's a good solid second line center. Makes sense. And of course Botterill has no allegiance to him. So like any corporate executive he looks at how much he costs and assesses whether or not that price tag is warranted. If he decides no, maybe he shops him around and if he gets the return he wants he trades him. No biggie. If he doesn't get the return he lives with him on the roster. UNLESS he is some sort of locker room problem there is no reason to move him or not move him. If you compete every night you should play, and if you don't you get removed one way or another. That should be the only ethos he works with in slowly building this team back to respectability. ROR can determine his own future in that regard.

I don't disagree, but that Murray critique (which might be true) is the thing to say to make sure the bar is set low for yourself. It's just smart politics.

I wouldn't call either the ROR or KO signings mistakes, but I do think both were overpaid and the KO contract will hurt more in terms of return after year 3. KO isn't a terrible player (like Moulson) but I'm not sure his style fits well with what they want to do here. If they could get a decent return I would trade him for more speed. ROR I trade IF there is a leadership locker room problem, otherwise no.

Size don't matter any more in this league. What we need is guys who can put the puck in the net. Can he? We shall see. Can he bring college chemistry with Jack to the nhl level? Unlikely, but he's certainly no worse than most of our current prospects of the same approx. age. O'Regan, Rodrigues, Girgensens could be a fairly fast and interesting 3rd line.

No, but I do think this team has in the past floated around and kind of waited for one of the big guns to do something first. This was fun to watch. Speed, passing, effort. Whatever the cause, it was a good good thing.

When Housley was hired what did he say? He said it "was going to be fast." Remember that? Well it hasn't been. We play a slow plodding style with very poor passing. If you have a version of center ice watch the Sabres for 5-10 minutes and then flick over to the Leafs or Flyers or pretty much any playoff team and note how much faster that game looks to ours. Almost every time. Bylsma used his experience from when he had the Pens without Crosby and he got them to check, slow things down and clog things up. That system either fit these guys better or they can't unlearn it. Either way, most of the time this team does not give us even a bad attempt at what Housley promised. Speed does win in this league, it is the right idea, but this team seems incapable of playing that way.

I agree it has to be better next season but the upper end of the team isn't his. Most of his changes (except for Scandella) are 3rd and 4th liners. It's only now that we realize fully how bad Murray's drafting was. We will have to wait a few years to really know on Botterill. If he moves some so called core guys like O'Reilly maybe we can then judge him on what he gets back for that along with the results. Until then, too soon to say.

or he is just smart enough to know that he was not wanted by most and if he wants a payday he has to give it maximum effort the rest of this year while he is under the spotlight. Judge him on how he plays NEXT season for whoever signs him, especially if it's long term.

Do you think Botterill actually thinks they can reunite the O'Regan-Eichel-Rodrigues line and it'll work in the nhl? I mean if he's Briere why not, but is he? I doubt it based on his SJ numbers.

I'm thinking I wouldn't want to be Botterill. I mean what can he do? Who else on this team is going to get good value in return so how does he ditch them and still put a team on the ice? Lehner was shopped around it seems and nobody wanted him. Give him away? Ok, we go with Ullmark. But for the rest of the team what? You ditch Scandella the first decent piece we've added to the D in years? Is he supposed to just bring all of Rochester up and somehow that'll make us better? Bailey? Baptiste? Fasching? etc? 3rd liners at best. If that. FAs? Who is going to come to Buffalo with this boat sinking unless you overpay them like Murray did Okposo and then your cap is shot for mediocrity at best. In order to do this right, this seems like it has to be more of a 5 year plan than anything less. The draft is the only answer, and that is going to take time.

Did you not hear me? I'm old. I can't be expected to read all the way to the bottom. Actually saw that after but hey, it's no big.

Still going to watch the Sabres. Won't care as much and will probably pay less attention but most teams are in the couldn't care less department for me. Teams that hate each other are fun to watch sometimes but there's less and less of that in today's nhl. Most other games all seem kind of the same.