jame

Botts said he wasn’t moving ROR, Murray said he wasn’t moving Myers.. you know those kind of comments mean nothing. Risto and Bogo bring plenty of physicality to the top 4

That’s a pretty detailed excuse for Botts... the part where Botts takes a “horrible team” and makes them middle of the pack... is certainly an interesting take since he has yet to get the team back to where they were when he took over. but the overall premise is means that Botts should be fired for making the job about his career and not the sabres.

With the playoff race effectively over... its time to think about trades for beyond this year. And I do NOT mean trading for picks/prospects. McCabe is our best trade asset at the moment.... reason: Dahlin and Pilut are locked in as our long term 1-2 punch on the left side. Scandella has 1 year left and Guhle will be pushing for that 3rd spot. We should be looking for similar age/term forwards, preferably a center. instead of pipe dreams like Couturier... here’s 3 forwards that I think would help move us in the right direction, while also being in the ball park of “McCabe trade value give or take a pick” the Isles 4th line center Casey Czikas has 2 more years at 3.35 per at 27 yrs old and will then be UFA... while not the 2nd line center we need, he could play some leveraged 3C and get us out of the business of playing Sobotka at center. Andreas Athanasiou is playing on the 4th line again, even though he’s got 17 goals this year, he has 1 year left at 3.0, but will also be RFA. He’s not a true center but could slide there if needed... it his more natural fit might be on a gonzo Skinner-Eichel-Athanasiou line allowing Reinhart to slide down and lift Mittelstadt’s offense off the floor on a 2nd line. Center Chris Tierney with 1 more year at 2.9 per at 24 years old and RFA is an ideal target. One of our best options... a true center who can go the heavy lifting defensively but also drive offense. He would form solid 1-2 punch in the middle of the lineup

JQ only comes in if Botts is fired...

Hard to imagine Botts has done anything to build a positive reputation...

I wonder if Q wants to return behind the bench, or if he wants a GM/Team president type of job. He hated not having roster control... I would t be surprised if his next job was a 1-3 year coaching stint, before moving upstairs with the same organization while one of his long time assistants finally got a head coaching job (Mike Kitchen)

Sticking with the guy who hired Housley... bold. Quenneville is not going to a team run by a Jason Botterill

Ill keep posting the stats, you keep talking in bushels

maybe an simpler synopsis is a list of players who played more than 10 games last year... and are not in the NHL today: Pouliot, Nolan, Wilson, Antipin, Falk, Josefson, Johnson, Gorges, Baptiste, Griffith, Guhle, Tennyson, Moulson and Bailey. 14 of 30 players Botts did a terrible job last year and we were besieged with injuries... this years roster is significantly better. But Botss cratered it’s effectiveness with the ROR.

Nope. No one is taking Okposo. our best bet, is paying Seattle to take the last 2 years in 2021 expansion draft... and yes, that means we have 2 MORE seasons after this one... hope he likes Rochester.

Dahlin has a rough game... I can count how many times I’ve said that this year on one hand Reinhart had a god awful turnover, and a very up/down game for sure Yikes, you thought that Reinhart wasn’t legit before? Doesnt matter what we think, the C is etched in 8 years/80 million...

Eh... Kane is gonna Kane the short side snipe, Caggiula all alone in front, Saad with a bar down beauty... yea, I want the goalie to make big saves, but none of those were softies. im missing one... but yea... Hutton’s has a two handfuls of stinkers worse than tonight edit: oh the 3rd, ***** rebound, definitely a sofie. But even worse on Risto not finishing the play

He was...2nd unit

and the only goal Pilut was on the ice for tonight was when we scored to make is 4-3 Risto and Bogo are the alphas... hows that working out for us?

Dallas scored once when Ullmark played brilliantly. ignore the underlying metrics if you want... Pilut is going is going to be a long term top 4 defensemen for us, ideally locked in on a 2nd pair with Risto for the next few years.

Tonight Hutton was hung out to dry... hard to compete when your home ice matchup allow you the choice of putting Eichel-Skinner out vs Toews-Kane, or you avoid that matchup and go with what... a replacement level Sobotka line?

I don’t think this years team is much better than last years... but the issues are different last year the issue was beyond Eichel-ROR-Reinhart we lacked Core pieces, competent goaltending, an NHL caliber top 4, AND depth. this year we added 2 core pieces, upgraded D and Goal, AND depth and speed...but subtracted the 2nd best player/core piece and lineup anchor. and of course, Housley is an issue in both cases

I’m not sure my opinion needed to be clarified as an opinion.... well, Pommer and Nelson were hear last year and the upgrades we made this year pushed them down the roster. last year Kane, Poms, Pouliot, and Okposo were top 6 wingers to start the year. This year we upgraded Kane to Skinner, Okposo to Reinhart, Pouliot to Sheary, Okposo to Erod.... but of course we downgraded ROR to ***** Sobotka... last year we suffered Seth Griffith as 3rd center behind Eichel and ROR, this year we could’ve had Mittelstadt as the 3rd center behind them. last year our top 4 was Risto, Scandella, Beaulieu, Falk/Tennyson... this year it’s Dahlin, Bogo, Risto, Pilut (with actual NHL depth of McCabe, Scandella, Beaulieu, Nelson) the weakness of this roster is the absence of ROR and horrible coaching...if we had done this right: Skinner-Eichel-Xxxxx Xxxx-ROR-Reinhart xxxx-Mittelstadt-Xxxxx xxxx-Larsson-Girgs xxxx = Sheary, Erod, Okposo, Poms with Olofsson, Nylander, Smith, Wilson, pushing Dahlin-Bogo Pilut-Risto Scandella/Mccabe/Beaulieu/Nelson/Hunwick

You should look at last years D compared to this years... and say what you want about Hutton and Ullmark, but I raise you one Chad Johnson. and even at forward... we added numerous speed skill players (Skinner, Sheary, Mitts, Erod) when the only subtraction SHOULD have been kane... this years roster is significantly better than the disaster Botts put together last year... and people say ROR wanted out. I don’t doubt that... that’s on Botts too.

Your ignoring how awful the roster was that year... it had Moulson, Seth’s Griffith, Matt Tennyson.... Chad ***** Johnson, Jordan Nolan... and the list goes on... literally 1/3 of the roster was non-NHLers... Yes... we didn’t win with EIchel/ROR core... when the core was surrounded by garbage and injuries exasperated the problems...

Time machine. Plug ROR back in and hire a competent head coach... and we’d be in a very solid place

Yes, I think a 60+ center who can match up with the leagues best lines would’ve made a significnat difference. I think ROR hated losing, and the lockerroom was a tough place... the solutions were: 1. fixing the D (Dahlin, Pilut + healthy Bogo + Mccabe) 2. Increasing skill, speed and scoring (Skinner, Mitts, Erod, Sheary 3. Fixing goaltending (Ullmark/Hutton) but that doesn’t work when you rip an irreplaceable anchor out of the center of the roster. A matchup/selke caliber center is practically a pre-requisite for winning in this league. We got rid of one, and it’s more likely than not that Eichel will play this entire contract without one.

He should’ve just been allowed to be the Pat Kane, and put the weight on ROR to be Toews... and you don’t fix a lockerroom by trading away talent, you fix it by adding talent (Dahlin, Skinner)and winning... not by subtracting talent (ROR). boken record... I know.... Botts ***** this thing up so bad.

They chose the guy who said they needed to “learn to hate to lose” for captain... and traded away the guy who hated losing...

“3 weeks in November”