Cascade Youth

If Eichel was the kind of leader this team needs, he'd be organizing a players-only meeting today to discuss what has been going on out there. He'd call out Hutton in that meeting, along with others (and himself). If he does that, I'll consider changing my mind about him. But I doubt he does.

Then the fans should stop paying for the product.

I’m starting to hold all of this against the entire NHL. Should I not?

Not a huge surprise. Team was constructed by a middle management loser with no track record. He has failed at hiring coaches. He has failed at building a roster. He made the worst trade in NHL history and suffered no consequences. Otherwise he has sat on his hands. He hasn’t drafted any real difference-makers except the consensus number one pick who he sucked into selecting and who now has regressed and lost all confidence. Not a single player has improved or developed under his watch. He has accomplished absolutely nothing. The ONLY thing he does is repeat over and over again, “We’re gonna build this thing the right way.” Does anyone, anywhere think they’re at all on a track toward building things the right way? Screw Botterill and screw Terry for being addicted to rookie GMs. Also screw Mittlestadt for not being able to land a shot on net from 10 feet out. He sucks at hockey.

This would never have happened if Terry Pegula were still alive.

I’m done with the Botterill era. He’s a middle management loser.

The one guy who openly worried about getting used to losing was shipped out for a bag of magic beans.

13 seconds into the game the Lightening scored and the announcers said, “This Buffalo team is fragile.” Pretty much the size of things.

He absolutely is an elite talent and in many, if not most games, he's the most talented player on the ice. I question his mental toughness, not his abilities. Does he make his teammates better (besides feeding them sick passes)? Does he refuse to lose? Does he always turn up the level of compete? I don't think so.

I want the last 10 minutes of my life back.

He is basically a shootout specialist masquerading as a 2/3C. He doesn't drive his line. He doesn't generate offense for others. He doesn't cause havoc in front of the net and he's not a two-way player except one time in one overtime that was significantly over-hyped by the media. He isn't hard to play against. He still seems to have the body of a teenage pizza deliverer. He has not come anywhere close to living up to the hype and, even though he's very young, one would think by now we'd have seen *SOME* glimpse of some future, latent talent yet to come out. But we haven't. He is Mythlestadt.

And owners who not only are willing to spend $$ but also give a TON of runway...

Sorry but I’m not buying the “it’s Buffalo, no one wants to come here” take. There is no reason why an experienced front office exec wouldn’t come here.

He’s just out of his depth.

Good stuff here. The Pegulas have an addiction to rookie GMs. And they’re rookie owners, ones who had no background in professional sports - they weren’t professional athletes and their parents weren’t team owners. As a result they have no time-tested standards to which they hold and evaluate their rookie GMs. The results (both franchises) have therefore been entirely predictable. Sabres fans are paying the price for Botts learning on the job. He is failing at his job and, barring an unforeseen turn in his approach and the on-ice results, I expect him to lose his job between now and July. Within the next five years, I further expect we’ll have to suffer through Tim Graham depth pieces in The Athletic about how Botts is at peace and thriving in his new role as GM or Asst. GM in some other city, sorry that it didn’t work out in Buffalo but oh isn’t it great that he has learned his lessons the hard way about sitting on his hands for too long and over-focusing on culture instead of talent and has now gotten over his fear of trying to win. Etc. As long as the Pegulas continue to allow their sports teams to act as developmental organizations for sports executives, I fear that those organizations will continue to act as developmental environments for players as well. Players will continue to leave Buffalo half-broken and go on to thrive elsewhere and give intimate interviews reflecting on how fighting through the dysfunction in Buffalo allowed them to grow mentally and made them better people and players, etc. Regier wasn’t kidding about the suffering that was coming.

Couple of quick thoughts: Am I the only one who really liked Vesey’s game last night? Dahlin is exhausted - now I think I understand why he’s struggling so much the past month, for whatever reason he seems to be worn out already. Not sure if it’s his offseason conditioning or he’s hurt or something else, but his skating legs finally died on him mid-game last night and I assume that’s why he was pulled. I’m actually encouraged by that turn of events because it’s a better explanation than other, more concerning factors... but it’s also odd. Finally: Asplund sure looked like he belongs. Liked his two-way game a LOT.

I suspect the backup plan for 2020-21 is to move Krueger up to GM and let him hire a coach. Botts is a goner if they skid yet again.

How do you take that penalty at that time

Maybe the worst power play of the worst period I’ve ever seen and that’s really saying something with this franchise. Sell the team Terry.

This team is unwatchable. All of the Pegulas’ teams. Buffalo sports is just the worst.

I said “materially” and I mean within the last five years. Doesn’t have to be players who have been here five full years. Who has this organization improved?

Dahlin clearly is thinking too much out there - he is questioning his instincts and playing tentatively as a result. I put that largely on the coaches. They’ve stripped him of his uptempo instinctual play.

Here’s a question: how many Sabres players, over the past five years, have materially improved their games? McCabe, maybe Reino (maybe). Any others? Organizational development under JBotts and the coaches he’s hired has been a real weak spot.

He’s just not a mentally tough person. That’s a hard thing to learn to be, especially when life doesn’t incentivize or challenge you to be a tougher person. I’m starting to wonder whether they need to think about moving on from him - if you can get 3-4 first round picks or a couple of lesser (but grittier, mentally tougher) stars, it might be time to at least begin having that conversation. Jack wants to win badly but he doesn’t seem to have the internal fortitude to lead himself or others through tough times or situations. I guess he’s been spoiled for too long, or something. Mental toughness comes from suffering humility and adversity and resolving to push through it. Has Jack ever had to do that? He moped through the post-tank era... And then there’s Dahlin, who is playing with zero confidence. Night after night he makes terrible plays that would get any other young player exiled to the press box or the AHL. At some point something is going to have to break with him because he’s spiraling. Can he just play his way out of it on a declining team under pressure to win? I’m not so sure. And finally there’s Mitts. I keep hearing “Mitts will be fine.” Ok... at what point in his career does it become fair to question whether the player will ever put it together? Now he’s a winger on a line which barely plays - so he’s been demoted. He makes one great defensive hustle play in an overtime and the media hypes it up - but that’s basically the only memorable play he’s made since he got here, aside from a few nifty shootout goals. I’m not the expert some of you are, but I watch the guy and I don’t see an NHL-caliber player. Vesey is the only guy willing to get his nose dirty on the boards. That’s what I see at least. He’s not the issue. In fact I might try him on Jack’s line instead of VO, since Jack doesn’t feel like competing defensively anymore and VO is strictly a sniper.