pi2000

I blame Bogo for 3 of those goals... but Hutton needs to be better.

Makar is much faster than Dahlin and most players in the NHL. Dahlin's game isn't about speed. Two different types of player. Bogo *****.

Passenger Goal Dew batter.

I watch the Ducks. Kase would be a nice add, he has some Briere in him. Very clever with the puck, superb offensive skill set. I don't believe he's in the right system here with the Ducks, he could thrive if put in the right situation.

I watch a lot of NHL hockey, many teams out West here. I can say with extreme confidence, Sam Reinhart is NOT one of the best RW in the league. However, Jack Eichel IS one of the best centers in the league and he does have some chemistry with Sam, but watching other top lines around the league, Sam just leaves me wanting more. The number of times he turns the puck over, loses battles, falls down... you just don't see that from other top RWs. I'd love him as a second line RW, he'd be near the top of that list across the league. Does a top second line RW deserve $7-8m/yr? I think that's a bit steep.

The instigator rule, and to a lesser degree the half-shield requirement (and subsequent penalty for voluntarily taking your helmet off pre-fight), and penalty for not using your fight strap... is why there is very little fighting these days. I get it. They're trying to make the game more marketable and get more kids playing and so forth, because after all, it's a business, they're trying to increase revenue. However, that doesn't mean we all have to like it. When I was in my teens, coaches spent entire practices teaching the art of throwing a body-check, how to line a guy up, take the correct angle to give him nowhere to escape... etc... We would hit hard in practice. Today, very very very little time is spent teaching kids how to body check. My boys are 14 and 16, they both play at a high level, I've also coached and went through all the USA hockey coaching levels over the years. USA hockey very clearly states they don't want players to finish their checks (if the puck is gone). When I played you would get benched if you peeled away from a guy instead of trying to put him through the boards. Yeah it was to intimidate and that was part of the game, because the next time that guy got the puck he wouldn't be looking for an open teammate, he'd be more concerned about taking a hit and he'd cough up the puck or make an errant pass. That simply doesn't happen these days. Players are more skilled sure, but they simply don't know how to throw a clean hit. Gone are the Mike Peca's, he'd never sniff the NHL if he played today... and I"m not OK with that, because those guys brought energy and emotion to the game. They stirred it up and got everyone going, now we see teams sleepwalk through several games at a time or entire seasons,, like robots programmed to stickhandle and skate and pass. An absolute bore to watch IMO. Shame. It just really bothers me the direction the game is going... It's catering to the wealthy well-off families who can afford to pay $500/wk for private skill lessons, while the under privileged hard nosed, blue-collar types who love hockey to death are passed over just because some silverspoon kid can stickhandle and shoot more accurately. I probably wouldn't have gotten as far as I did in the sport if it was like that back then, my father could barely afford to put me in house league when I started out, never even took a private lesson, ever. Gone are the days where you could "outwork" another kid to make a team. Doesn't matter how many battles you win or checks you throw, the coach will ALWAYS take the kid who can skate, shoot and pass better. They ripped the heart out of the game. /rant

Putting her on the rope line should've been the punishment for losing.

Reinhart is bezerko ROR. ROR did everything very well, defense, battles, 50/50's, face-offs, PK, PP, pass, score, etc.... a true jack-of-all-trades. Reinhart does maybe 3 things well, he can score from in tight, has good vision and anticipation in the offensive zone when given time and space, and I can't really think of a third thing but maybe somebody else can. Plays well with Eichel, putting up middling 1st line RW stats? Is that good enough? Or would the team be better off with a more well-rounded player who maybe doesn't have the same point production with Eichel? Tough call.

Really? Rip Simonick? Are you sure? He's been around forever, how could he screw that up? He's personally stitched on those names for years.

Exactly this. They shoulda picked a player who could name only 1 or 2. I get the sense the Sabres organization is wrought with cronyism. I'll bet dollars to donuts the vast majority of folks running marketing, public relations, etc are family friends of Terry and Kim, friends of their daughters, etc... The standard needs to be higher, DO BETTER

I wasn't telling you to do better, I was talking about Dahlin. While his current point production is nice, by saying "do better" I fully expect his point totals to continue to increase based on his play. I'm not content with where he's at, the standard, for him, and the organization as whole, should be higher.

This team needs depth scoring. You can't have that with a guy like Okposo getting $6m. He's eating up 2 middle six contracts and contributing only $1-2m in value filling a 4th line role. Ok so now we're keeping guys around because the core players are so mentally weak they'll need therapay if a teammate is traded? That's a huge problem with this team. The priority should be to win, not to make the players happy.

do better

You don't know that. $6m + Sam's $3m = $9m in cap space vs $6m + $7m = $13m against the cap to keep the status quo. That's a net gain of of $22m/yr to use on filling out your middle 6, re-signing Dahlin down the road, shoring up the goaltender position. That's significant. But no. Things are going so well with Sam and Kyle on the roster, why try something different?

Do. Better.

, I want to spend the $6m/yr Okposo is getting for the next 3 years on somebody who deserves it.

Dahlin has looked really good the last few weeks, you can tell the game is slowing down for him. We're seeing more and more "wow" plays with the puck on his stick. The points will come.

I'd trade Reinhart and Okposo for a pick, a prospect, and a middle 6 winger.

I, for one, would rather watch an emotionally charged physical game instead of a skills contest. And those two types of hockey are not mutually exclusive... unless you're the Sabres where both are prohibited.

an acute case of antigamelovitis

I like Montour's game, but he needs to be paired with the right guy.

The way hockey was meant to be played.

They can't afford to upgrade the forwards because they have no cap room... Okposo, Bogosian, Ristolainen are making a combined $16.5m/yr. Find a way to get them off the books, and with Frolik and Sheary expiring contracts, you have +23m to help rebuild the middle 6 forwards. Problem is nobody wants to come to Buffalo so they'll need to overpay. The only reasonable way out of this mess is to draft well and find creative ways to shed bad contracts without sacrificing picks or prospects.

I blame lack of boobs in the GDT. We really were on quite a roll there until the cops showed up.