jame

Housley sitting Poms gives me hope...

Darius Kasparaitis

I would call going from the Stanley Cup finals to "making the playoffs 4 of the next 7 years" a disaster.... You think the Sabres are "a million" times better? I think Botts did a great job fixing his mistakes from year one in terms of Goaltending and Defensive Depth... to go along with adding speed/skill to the wings. But at the same time, he cratered the effectiveness of the lineup by subtracting ROR. So while the 10 game winning streak masks a lot... he certainly didn't massively improve the team. He took two very important steps forward, and one massive step backwards. I do not think the Sabres underachieved last year... I think Botts put a terrible team around young core. Going in to a season with Tennyson, Griffith, Moulson, Nolan, Josefson, Pouliot, Chad Johnson on the 23 man roster.... is embarrassing. There's a reason none of them are in the NHL today (Did Chad Johnson get picked up somewhere?

I'm sorry, but you simply don't know what you're talking about. There were 3 primary reasons that led to the Richards/Carter trade. It was about drinking/partying and it's impact on their relationship with Pronger, the rest of the lockerroom, and ultimately Laviolette. First, they openly rebuffed Laviolette's "dry island" policy, which led to the lockerroom turning to Pronger for leadership, which led Pronger and Laviolette to go to management/ownership and insist they had to be traded. This is all well documented, reported on, and you can dig in to the details yourself. Philly didn't trade their captain and two star players because of Ilya Bryzgalov's contract... holy moly where'd you get that idea. They dumped the money on Bryzgalov right AFTER they trade Richards/Carter.... Yes, Murray failed. The only caveat I'll stick with in the Murray/Botts discussion is that Murray had the significantly more difficult job.

Maybe luck is the wrong word.... how's "fortunate" work for you? Toronto is very fortunate that a superstar became an UFA and wanted to come home... Tampa was very fortunate that they have no state income tax and thus were able to keep Stamkos at significantly below market value (cap)... Buffalo was very fortunate that an elite player with full control of his trade destination, actually wanted to come to Buffalo because it was close to his family in toronto Botts doesn't deserve a pat on the back for a scenario unfolding that literally anyone with a brain could've gotten right Botts has done other good things that he deserves recognition for... not every GM would've found Pilut and got him signed, not every GM would've taken Mittelstadt over Vilardi... he got it right.

I still don't understand why Heiskanen didn't go #1 in that draft... he's a stud. But he's not in Dahlin's class (generational)

Philly traded Carter and Richards to improve culture... the outcome was Carter and Richards went on to lead LA to cups, and Philly has been a disaster ever since.... Kane wasn't one of the two best players on Winnipeg... he played a 3rd line winger role when he was there... subtracting him didn't crater their lineup.

1000% agree... the team below is playing Toronto in the 1st round of the playoffs this year, and continues towards contender in the years to follow.... Skinner-Eichel-XXXX XXXX-ROR-Reinhart Erod-Mittelstadt-XXX XXXX-Larsson-Girgs Dahlin-Bogo Pilut-Risto YYYY-YYYY Hutton/Ullmark XXXX = short term, Okposo, Poms, Wilson, Smith, Elie.... Long term: Olofsson, Nylander, etc YYYY = short term, McCabe, Beaulieu, Scandella, etc.... long term: Guhle, Borgen, etc

Bought himself additional years of job security... it was a smart move, and the long re-rebuild certainly could work, and that would make him a good GM (if you can't build a winner with Eichel and Dahlin, you're an all time awful GM). But I'll never be convinced we had to go down a longer, more painful path... especially when the driving justification for that path is some intangible narrative built to explain why Botts first year was an massive step backwards....

Botts has done well in selling the fan base on a vision... that's for sure.

Agreed re: Mitts. Elias Peterssen is what a steal looks like.

Acquiring Skinner was lucky because Skinner had a full NTC and would only waive it to go home (Toronto) or close to home (Buffalo). I did provide context.... that being minutes played equating to roughly all top 4 defensemen in the NHL. I am glad you recognize that Botts turned Buffalo in to the worst team in the NHL in his first year on the job. The team he inherited was not "hopelessly flawed"... the team had huge issues in goal and on the blueline. Two simple offseason moves solved the goaltending issue, winning the lottery for Dahlin and getting Bogo, McCabe back healthy, while adding Pilut solved the problems. The thing that makes Botts terrible is his inability to react to what's happening around him. He didn't react to the colossal blunder of a roster he built last year, and this offseason he didn't react to the impact of winning Dahlin... even if they were dead set on trading ROR, they should've pivoted when they won the lottery. You see if talent solves the problem before making the moronic decision to trade talent to fix culture (a decision that other struggling franchises have also made - Edm/Hall) Botts could've not tanked all over the roster in 2017-18. He added numerous non-NHLers to the active roster (Griffith, Tennyson, Pouliot, Josefson, ... and proceeded to do absolutely nothing as the season went down the toilet. Then blamed ROR for it. Again... thank god he got lucky and landed Dahlin. Gorges - Could've been waived Kulikov - Wasn't on the roster when Botts arrived. Lehner - Could've done far far better than Chad Johnson as a backup Moulson - Took too long to do the obvious Gionta - wasn't in Buffalo when Botts arrived You complain about the wasted cap space of the murray era.... but here we are 2 years in to the Botts era and we've got Scandella, Pominville, Hunwick, Beaulieu, Sobotka chewing up over 18 million in cap space... and that's after he lucked in to getting Berglund's horrifying contract off the books.... the fact is, he took an 80 point team and made it worse, with the only actual benefit being the luck of winning Dahlin. And then went and traded an all star for nothing...

I think it's an important and worthy debate point...

Nope. No mission.

The one we were going back n forth on... it’s at the 6 minute mark of the 3rd. while I would rather have the mitts line on in that scenario, you proposed a valid hypothetical... what if Housley was choosing in that situation to keep Mitts line away. So I checked... turned our Mitts line was coming off, and Housley made the tactical decision to put the Sobotka line out over the well rested Larsson line. that’s likely because the Panarin line had only sat for 1 shift. Torts did the obvious and put Panarin line out on 1 shifts rest because duh... it promptly led to 2 high quality scoring chances.... if Housley had put out the Larsson line torts would’ve been forced to choose between the defensive matchup and the top line/top line matchup on 1 of the next 2 shifts The small things matter and Housley will get eaten alive if we are lucky enough to make the playoffs

What? i took the time and put in the effort to break down Housley’s deployment... and got called insufferable for it.

It is what happened. http://www.shiftchart.com/

He’s perfect. Fact. ?

Yea, the details and minutia of the game isn’t for everyone...

Scandella played tonight.

I think not doing dumb things... is a pretty low bar.

I’m not talking about the end of the game... I’m taking about the 6 minute mark when Phil sent the Sobotka line out for a face off allowing Torts to get his top line on the ice against our worst line.

Too bad the Mittelstadt line was the line coming off before Phil sent the Sobotka line out and gave Tortd the matchup... the Larsson line was rested... Phil gambled that Torts wouldn’t send the Panarin line back out after 1 shift of rest and tried to save the Larson line for the matchup... summary: Phil ***** up. had Phil sent the Larsson line out, he would’ve forced torts to choose between his top line facing our best checking line, or waiting a shift and having to face the eichel line again. phils choice was stupid

I’ll take their speed over Sobotka/Poms plodding in any matchup. But you’re right, maybe Housley surmised that the line playing the best game tonight was a worse option that the non-nhl line

That’s how you effectively get the Sobotka line a shift