pi2000

Yes, Golisano was only holding onto the team as a tax write-off, he had no interest whatsoever in fielding a competitive team and no interest in being a long term owner. He sold the team to Pegula in 2011 for $189mil..... but there was also an unnamed bidder who submitted a much higher bid which was contingent on moving the team. Golisano decided to sell to Pegula to keep the team in Buffalo. Without Pegula, the Buffalo Sabres are no more.

He won't be fired on Monday.

"Routine" as in two first round exits in 6 playoff appearances? in order: Cup win Conf Semi's 1st rnd (7 games vs 103 pt TBL team) 1st rnd (6 games vs 103 pt PHI team) Conf Finals 2nd round That's a 67% chance getting past the first round.... but his system sucks and he's lost the room, right?

Well, yeah. Why is it unreasonable to say that? If he didn't save them, who did?

noooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo!!!!!!!!!!

Why do you say this? If they make the playoffs next season, do you expect them to make it to the conf finals otherwise Bylsma should be fired? bookmarked yep. It will be annoying to hear about this all summer. We'll sign player X or trade for player Y to improve the D and everybody will just be like "Woont madder cuz ya kno... BYlsma!" sure

the blind leading the blind

Why hasn't anybody brought up the possibility that with a revamped defense and improved bottom 6, this team takes a big step forward next season with Bylsma behind the bench. If that happens, which IMO is likely, what will all the Bylsma haters have to say?

To me it sounds like CJ Smith and his mid-western accent. Or McCabe tussling with Lehner... Lehner: "How many assists you have tonight Caber?" Caber: " off, shut your mouth and stop the damn puck once in awhile." fisticuffs.

They do, they're our leading scorers... after that, there's a huge drop off in talent/ability.

consider there are infinite parallel universes, in at least one of those universes BUF wins the lottery... unfortunately we don't live in that universe.

This thread is so far off-base. Pegula rescued both franchises, put a lot of money into them, look at Harbor Center, etc... did so much for the community, and people here lambaste him because the teams haven't won a Championship in the couple of years he's been owner. Gimme a break. It takes time, both franchises are moving in the right direction IMO, and they're still in Buffalo, you have nothing to complain about. Not even remotely true.

Could be, but I doubt it.... for a few reasons. 1) Much better goalies out there to choose from. Bishop, Bernier, Smith, Subban, Johnson, Darling, Varlamov, Howard, Reimer, Halak, Raanta, Mason, Fleury.... 2) Ullmark makes only $775k. Vegas needs to draft a minimum of $43.8mil worth of players in the expansion draft. That's an average of $1.5m per player. 3) They need to take a minimum of 3 goalies in the draft. I'll bet they take 3 exactly... 3 from the list I provided above. Ullmark is a B prospect, they won't be interested.

PG lost 4-2, Guhle's junior season is over in a first round upset. Too bad, woulda been a good experience for the kid.

What if the Bills had fired Levy after the bickering Bills debacle? You think Colorado regrets firing Quenneville? Seriously, less than two seasons removed from fielding the worst team in NHL history and it's the coaches fault they're not in the playoffs? Nothing's wrong, they are who we thought they were. A team with some young guns figuring out how to play consistent hockey, and some aging slow vets on the tail end of horrendous contracts who will be gone soon. This team isn't as far away as most think.

With 4 games left (TOR, MTL, @FLA, @TBL), I'm gonna say they collect 3 more points finishing with 79.... two less than last season. This puts them most likely in 25th place. If they go 0-4-0 they finish 26th. yay tank.

No. This is how hockey players clown around.

I mostly agree, but 50% is a bit aggressive. The bottom six are leftovers from the tank years and need to be expunged from the roster for this team to take the next step, but that won't happen in one offseason. I see maybe 3 new regulars in the bottom six including Fasching, Bailey, and Baptiste... maybe Smith, however, long term I don't see a future for him in the NHL. I believe Nylander starts the season in Rochester, and finds his way up at least a few times during the season. Rodriques belongs in Rochester. Larsson was acquired in the Pominville trade orchestrated by Darcy Reiger... that said I think Murray leaves him unprotected in the expansion draft, or tries to deal him, he's not a Murray type of player. 3 new d-men would be nice, but realisitcally 2 is most likely... Guhle, a UFA, and if Murray can somehow swing a deal for a top 4 guy, that would be a ideal, but I don't see it happening unless he's willing to part some of his prized prospects/picks. The challenge for Murray is how to shed the awful contracts of Moulson, Bogosian, and Ennis. I'm OK with Gorges as a 3rd pairing guy for another season.

Lalalalalala...

So if this team is playing well and in a playoff spot for the first half of the season we can put this thread to bed.

It will, it's part of the maturation process. Wasn't Bylsma's rule.

fixed :P

That would be fun. Currently, in the East, out of the 8 teams in playoff spots you would have the #2 and #3 teams by points (PIT/CBJ) playing eachother in the first round. That's idiotic. That means 1 of the top 4 teams in the entire NHL will be out in the first round. Just dumb.

So any time a player on this plays well and produces it's all because of his own doing, but when a player/line plays poorly it's the head coaches fault? That's a double standard. You have to give some credit for Eichel's success to Dan, in the same way you can't blame him entirely for lack of production from the 3rd/4th lines. My point is that he's coaching to the strength of the core, and forcing everyone to get onboard. Guys like Bailey, Carrier, Rodrigues, Fasching, all look very good in this system because they can get up and down the ice and have a nose for the puck and dirty areas. Guys like Girgensons, Larsson, Foligno, Gionta, Moulson, D-Lo, can't get up and down the ice fast enough, but instead of setting everybody back to accommodate them, he's stick with the long term plan. Bylsma is not the same coach he was in PIT. 3rd/4th line players are typically your best defensive forwards so they play the PK. In BUF you have top 6 guys like ROR and Kane on the PK (and now Eichel), that's obviously taken a toll on ROR, he leads the league in min/game because he's asked to do so much. If there were better defensive players in the bottom 6, ROR wouldn't be completely spent by game 60. Get 1 or 2 d-men, but more importantly IMO, fix the bottom six, get some guys who know how to defend and can skate and this will be a top team in the Conference... with Bylsma!