Robviously

He IS a young kid playing against those young kids. Can everyone maybe not be in a rush to crap on him? He's a great skater and has an NHL shot. He needs to add strength to play at the pro level in North America but that's something fixable. I honestly wished we'd have just left him in the OHL for a year or two to work on his game. Another brilliant move by Murray last year to rush him to the AHL.

Save us, Marcus!!!!!!!!! (I'm joking but I'm also seriously hoping the Sabres prospects in the WJC this year can miraculously save this franchise so that's a thing.)

Can we give them Girgensons?

They probably were, but what else would you expect from two awful GMs? There's almost something satisfying about imagining those two idiots getting together and thinking "Whatever happened, that definitely wasn't OUR fault. Somebody must have cursed that city or something!" Don't like Lehner's quote. I like passion and quotes that aren't cookie cutter, but he's veering into loser mentality with stuff like that. The puck also looked like it was in.

Rasmus Andersson would be a great addition for us and should be able to play in the NHL very soon. They have other guys I'm interested in too, and Valimaki is at the top of that list.

I'm all-in on trading up for Jackson or Darnold if we get that chance.

If we're trading Kane, it has to be an intertemporal move to get better later. (Sorry, everyone.) We're definitely not going to get good value for guys that are currently in the league. Calgary and Anaheim are still my favorite destinations for him.

Housley just found out he's allowed to play Rodrigues with good players?

Save us, Casey!!!!!!!

The more I read about Vojtech Budik, the more interested I am. He's a big defensive defenseman but apparently he's a great skater. Might be a nice find from the 5th round last year. Hopefully he shows us something in the tournament.

Trading Bogosian would free up money to pay Kane the next couple years too. And if we still need to love Okposo, it'll be a lot easiet two summers from now when he just has 2 years left. Unloading one bad contract makes keeping Kane so much more palatable. It might be the only way to make it possible.

Merry Christmas!

I'm hoping Guhle, Smith, and Ullmark are all part of the roster next year. Nylander too but I'd be OK if he needs one more year in Rochester. Next year I'm hoping they add Asplund, Olofsson, Pu, Borgen, maybe Davidson, and hopefully 1-2 college free agents (more CJ Smith types).

Just saw on Twitter that ROR was out for the birth of his first child.

No it isn't. His job is to lead the team but if we're expecting him to carry it, we'd better get used to last place. You can't win with one guy.

Note to the other 30 NHL teams: Seriously, that's the *real* Girgensons. You should totally trade for him.

Damn, that was a gorgeous goal.

Can we get an early Christmas present in the form of just one shift of ERod with Jack or are we really committed to trying to showcase Girgensons on that line?

Definitely. If we could get a key prospect or two for him, we could change the team's trajectory. If we think he's a guy we can build around, we re-sign. But I appreciated Flagg's point last night that no team has ever been able to build around him to date. I'm skeptical, even with the season he's having.

His flaws are all still there, even last night. His rebound control is average at best, he loses the puck when it goes behind the net, and he struggles to hug the post. Then there's his record in OT and shootouts. He's the Tyrod Taylor of starting goalies. He can be dazzling at times but he's flawed and doesn't really belong in the top tier.

He's having the best season but he's not our best player. I'm open to both re-signing and trading him. This is Botterill's first test and could determine the future of the organization.

The Sabres didn't "live with it." They fired him. And, yes, I'd really love to know what the benefit is of having a really emotional person determining the future of the organization. I can't think of any important job where I'd want an emotional person at the helm, honestly. And to answer both you and Mattipaj, there's a major difference between asking for professionalism from a Sabres employee in charge of the team and asking for it from *fans*, people that watch these games for entertainment and for a chance to spend time with friends and family away from work. Fans are supposed to get emotional. It's part of the fun (although people often go way too far). Team management isn't, especially not at a media event tied to which players you're going to draft. You're supposed to be professional at work and this applies to pretty much every job. There's also the difference between getting emotional watching a sporting event (with ups and downs, incredible athleticism, surprises, emotional attachment to players, etc.) and waiting for guys to open an envelope to show if you're drafting first or second in a month. Good grief.

1. Well, yeah. I mean, I prefaced that with "I've never felt like..." so it's pretty clearly just my opinion. But while we're on it, what is the benefit to having a really emotional GM? I actually think TM was probably way too emotional and willing to overpay for players he had some attachment to. And here we are. 2. It's not? I think the Bills have probably spent a lot of their drought years with the mindset of "Let's see if [insert QB here] can take a step forward for us." It'd be nice to strike gold like that but I'd rather they just kept drafting until they know for sure they have a guy. Don't plan around a low-probability best case scenario. 3. If he knew the odds, why was he so visibly upset? It doesn't make any sense at all (unless we go back to point #1 and we're talking about having a guy so emotional he can't handle it when a 20% shot doesn't go his way). He knew the odds, which means either (1) he only had a plan for the 20% good outcome or (2) was so emotional that he couldn't handle the 20% shot going his way even if he did think he had a plan for the 80% probability. The whole thing was bizarre.

First of all, congrats on all the punctuation. Second, I do want Eichel passing to Kane. I think Eichel will create a lot of opportunities for anyone we put him with. I also want him playing with guys that will create opportunities for him. Basically the only guy we have with a good track record of that is Reinhart. We're 30+ games into the season and it's tough to remember too many times anyone set up Jack to finish a play. Third, Kane isn't a playmaker. He's a finisher. There's a reason his career stats are pretty low in terms of assists. In most years he has more goals than assists. His passing isn't great if you actually watch the games. He has a lot this year compared to the rest of the team since he plays with Eichel and is a key part of an awful power play, but he's not a set-up guy at all.

If it was ERod-Eichel-Reinhart, these lines would be pretty interesting (assuming the Larsson one plays 10 minutes or less). I really don't feel like ever watching Girgensons or Larsson play another game for us, honestly. Is anyone excited by that idea? Like if I heard "Sabres just traded Girgensons and Larsson for...", I don't even have to hear the rest of the sentence to be pretty happy. Just make room for literally anyone new since both of these guys are the hockey equivalent of a flat tire. Reinhart is maybe the only player I can think of on the team that has made good passes to Eichel in the past. I want Jack playing with a guy that can get him the puck so that he doesn't have to just be "guy that creates chances for Evander Kane to finish."