BillsFan4

Nice to hear numerous prospected are playing well. Cozens is currently sitting atop the entire WHL, tied for the scoring lead with 1 less game played than the kid he’s tied with. https://www.quanthockey.com/whl/en/seasons/2019-20-whl-players-stats.html It would be so huge for the Sabres if they really hit on that Cozens pick.

Both the Bills and Sabres looked good for an entire game and won. On the same day. I think I may play the lottery tomorrow... lol.

Impressive.

Sunday November 24th. ?

11 games at or above 50% expected goals. 11 games under 50% They appear to be trending up again. Hopefully it sticks longer this time... https://thehockeywriters.com/sabres-process-not-results-2019-20/ Sabres article on hockey news. I know you’ll like this one, John! ?

https://www.nhl.com/sabres/news/sabres-john-gilmour-rochester-americans/c-311679120 Gilmour cleared waivers (no surprise) and was assigned to Rochester.

https://wgr550.radio.com/articles/news/chris-taylor-is-going-back-to-being-the-head-coach-in-roch Chris Taylor is headed back to Rochester to take over head coaching duties again. Hopefully it was a good learning experience for him. I was actually pretty impressed with the job Gord Dineen has done in Taylor’s place. The Amerks are tied for 1st. They are tied with the Marlies at 25pts. The very best team in the AHL so far this season has 29pts, but with 2 more games played. So Dineen has the Amerks right there with the best AHL teams, even with all the call-ups and injuries (rochester’s had quite a few).

Yolo, iirc you have an athletic subscription. Michael Lombardi addressed the decline of Brady, Brees and Rivers this season. https://theathletic.com/1401898/2019/11/22/from-the-gms-eye-is-father-time-finally-winning-its-battle-against-tom-brady-drew-brees-and-philip-rivers/ He’s is a bit of a Patriots homer (having worked for them). He has tons of respect for NE. So take it with a grain of salt. Anyway... he claims the blame is more on Brady’s o line and wide receivers. He says when he had his starting left tackle + center + AB he was putting up his usual numbers.

https://wgr550.radio.com/articles/news/sabres-place-gilmour-on-waivers John Gilmour waived. Bogosian looks ready to return. Interesting to hear that Botterill hopes to make a couple trades (for forwards) within the next couple weeks. Dreger says he’s very active on the trade market.

Yes, agreed. I’ve been impressed by the bruins consistent style of play for years now. They know how to win games. Even when the Sabres prospects play the (usually much less talented) Bruins prospects in those tournaments here every summer, I am always struck by how well coached the bruins prospects are. Their prospects always seem to play that same consistent, “bruins” style of hockey. I am really hoping that Krueger can implement something similar here in Buffalo. I know he’s trying to... He wants the Sabres playing with that same unrelenting pressure on the puck/puck carrier that the Bruins play with, and he’s trying to establish it from Cincinnati (our ECHL team) to Buffalo. I am hoping with some more time that it starts to stick. It was definitely nice to see them get back to that style of play last night. And yep, Sabres margin for error is razor thin. To even have a chance at winning, they need everyone engaged in every puck battle and giving 100% every shift like last night.

Makes sense. I am sure that’s why Botterill was talking up how important his defensive depth is in that interview before Thursday’s game. I am actually ok with him waiting for a better offer. I don’t like making trades just for the sake of making a trade. Only make a trade if it improves the team, and I don’t see how dumping Scandella for crap makes the Sabres better. I’d rather Botterill make no trade than make a bad trade that doesn’t really help the Sabres. Plus, IMO, I think once you start completely caving in on your trade demands, it makes it that much harder to get proper value in future trades. GMs are like sharks and can smell blood in the water. You can’t let them take advantage of you unless you want to keep getting taken advantage of. Eventually a team in need of a defenseman will offer up something of value. Maybe after thanksgiving, when GMs have a better idea of what their team is this season and where they are in relation to making the playoffs. Plus, the Sabres schedule gets back closer to normal after November. Right now they’re making up games from the time off they got for the Sweden trip.

Yeah, It’s always a smart idea to insult the other team’s QB in the week leading up to a game.... lol. Thanks for the bulletin board material Chris!

https://theathletic.com/1398426/2019/11/21/sabres-assistant-don-granato-on-near-death-experience-youve-got-about-5-minutes-and-you-will-not-be-here/?source=shared-article Sabres assistant Don Granato on near-death experience: ‘You’ve got about 5 minutes and you will not be here Wow! I figured it had to be pretty bad for him to be out this long, but I didn’t know the extent. Sounds like he came very close to dying. Glad he’s back and feeling better!

I’m actually enjoying the Boston game so far. Everyone actually looks like they give a crap tonight. Everyone giving an effort again, trying to win their puck battles and they’re back to Playing the style Ralph wants them to play. I cant take the losses where 2/3rds of the team looks like they don’t care. But if I see an honest effort and they lose because the other team’s more skilled, then fine. I an live with that and continue to root these guys on. But if/when they don’t care, why should I?

That sounds like what happened from what I’ve read. I can’t find the article right now (I’ll post it if I do), but I read somewhere that Dubas wanted to fire Babcock last season and Shanahan stepped in to protect him. It makes sense that Dubas would want a different coach. He’s what, 33 years old? And he’s as new-school as it gets. Where as Babcock is as old school as it gets, and he’s not exactly known for being super positive (like Dubas). He’s more of a hard ass, grind the players down type of coach. Lou Lamoriello and Babcock were a perfect match. Dubas and Babcock, not so much. Brenden Shanahan is now all-in with a Dubas. It’ll be interesting to see how it works out. Like him or not, Babcock is known as one of the best coaches in the NHL. I have a lot of respect for how well prepared he (usually) has his teams, and there’s no denying that he came in and changed that culture in Toronto, pretty much day 1. Babcock also took most of the heat from the media. He said he viewed it as part of his job, and wanted that heat in order to take it off the players. And he Was taking a Lot of heat. Now, that will all fall on the players and a rookie 30-something year old coach and his 30-something year old GM in the biggest, most rabid hockey market in the world. Theres a lot of hype around Keefe. So maybe be he ends up better than Babcock? But I'm not sold yet.

Wow! Lets see if all the hype hype around Keefe was real. I hope this won’t give them a spark, since the Sabres play them in a back to back coming up pretty soon (in 4 games iirc).

I really thought they might be able to get back in the win column tonight against Minnesota. It won’t get any easier on Thursday when they play Boston. I’m about at the end of my rope with all the losing.

We do, mainly because it was actually cheaper to get the bundle package w/cable and internet. Weve talked about bout getting rid of it because it’s all robo-calls and scams. But it’s nice to have that home number to give out on forms and anything else online that requires a phone #. I fear that if I only have my cell # to give out, I will eventually get just all those robo calls on my cell instead.

https://wgr550.radio.com/articles/news/sabres-okposo-has-suffered-another-concussion Okposo has another concussion. Really hope he is ok. It has to be pretty scary for him. I’m sure there’s some PTSD from what happened last time. I didn’t think it was even that bad of a collision. Either it was worse than I realize or he is just more easily concussed now from past injuries. The article also also mentions Tage Thompson is out 3-5 weeks with an upper body injury. Mojo and Larsson are still day to day. and just like that, any shred of forward depth the Sabres has is gone... who do they even call up? Yikes!

I Finally shut off a Sabres game and walked away tonight. I always say I’m going to do it but never actually do. I just have no patience left when they play the way they are tonight.

Good job defense, standing strong!

I’d love to see Allen hit 300yds today (though I doubt it happens since they’ll probably run the ball mostly). edit - or maybe not...

Come on offense. I want one more Bills touchdown. (made sure I specifically said “Bills touchdown”... lol)

Phew