BillsFan4

I just heard that Jason Botterill will be team Canada’s GM for the upcoming World Hockey Championships. I guess Elliotte Friedman said it last night on Hockey Night in Canada. Its a nice honor for Botterill. And maybe he can help butter skinner up a bit up more (in contract negotiations) with an invite... lol. For all those dying to have Housley gone, it could also potentially be a good opportunity for him to take a few week test drive with another head coach...

I don’t know, I guess I just look at it differently than you and k9. Eichel was suspended and buffalo needed a forward. Nylander was currently the best performing Amerk, so he got the call up. That doesn’t automatically entitle him to top line minutes. Then after he got here and played a few games, he did/showed enough to earn a tryout on the top line with Eichel. I am fine with that. I know how I used to feel about stuff like that when I played hockey (handing guys opportunity vs making them earn it). We all had a lot more respect for the coaches that made guys earn it and didn’t give preferential treatment. We would bust our asses every day in practice all season long. When someone would come in and be immediately given opportunities we had been busting our ass to earn, it didn’t go over too well in the room. I think Housley understands that, being a player himself. Anyway, I’ll let this topic die now... lol.

Glad to see they are working out/meeting with RBs. This seems like the absolutely perfect year to select a RB in the draft. The Bills have 2 future Hall-of-fame RBs under contract for this season and then both are free agents. Might as well take advantage of the situation and draft a young RB who can learn from these guys while they are still here.

I would too, but not if it meant losing out on signing Mitch Morse.

Sure he is handing him something. He would be handing Nylander a spot on the top line. Again, I have no problem with Housley making Nylander earn it first. That is how it should be IMO. How well has it worked out so far, with Tim Murray and Darcy Regier handing these young kids spots they didn’t earn? We now have a bunch of entitled kids who won’t listen to their coaches. I think it’s even more important (to make him earn it) with a kid like Nylander, who is known as a bit of a floater on the ice and not the hardest working guy. He’s a guy who’s had some issues staying fully engaged. I think it’s important for him to see that he won’t just be handed a spot because of his draft position. And again, we are talking about a whole 3 games, and really 1 game with Eichel on the ice.

Why would they put him on a line with Eichel in practice while Eichel is suspended? They want guys practicing with their linemates for the next game. That is standard practice across the entire NHL. Guys practice with their linemates. eichel was used as an extra because he wasn’t playing in the next 2 games. We are talking about 1 game that Eichel’s been on the ice since Nylander was called up. So It took 1 game with Eichel on the ice for Nylander to end up on his line. As far as the callup, I have no idea if a trade factors into it. It very well could, but it’s just 100% speculation at this point. Like I said, I honestly think the biggest factor was his play before the callup. I don’t think Nylander would have been called up if he wasn’t the best forward on the ice those last 5 games in Rochester. Botterill has been very consistent about calling up the best performing Amerk at the time of the callup. Yes, guys like Smith may have had better overall seasons, but Nylander was playing better at the time of this most recent callup. That is how botterill and Sexton have said they will operate and IMO they have lived up to that word. Anyway, like you said, we will have to agree to disagree here.

I don’t know man, I disagree. If you’re trying to build a culture where young guys have to earn their opportunities instead of just having it handed to them, you can’t really say “oh, well, we are taking a break from that whole ‘earn it’ thing because there’s only 10 games left this year”. If you’re going to make young guys earn their opportunities then I think you need to be consistent with it, and I think housley has for the most part (you can’t blame him for someone like Thompson being in buffalo vs Rochester. That’s on botterill). I also don’t think Nylander was called up just to see if he has top 6 potential. I think he was called up because he (finally) earned it. I think Botterill probably wanted to call him up all season long but Nylander never really gave him a reason to. Even when he was playing well, there was always someone in Rochester playing better. The last 5+ games before Nylander’s callup, he was legitimately the best forward on the Amerks. He had 5 goals and 8-10 points in 4 games. I am not sure if he’d be in buffalo right now if he hadn’t stepped his play up in Rochester. Obviously, now that he’s here it makes sense to see what he looks like in the top 6 and I’m excited to see how he does. But I guess I just don’t see it as an issue that it took a whole 3 games... (and Eichel was suspended for 2 of those games) Theres plenty to complain about with the Sabres/housley/botterill. This isn’t one of those things, in my opinion.

Eh, I have no issue with a head coach not handing a young prospect a top line spot and making him earn it with his play. ? Ullmark seems like quite a character

Interesting interview with Mike Gillis (subscription required) https://theathletic.com/881310/2019/03/22/lebrun-qa-with-mike-gillis-who-travelled-the-world-to-find-out-what-sets-elite-organizations-apart/ He was the Vancouver Canucks GM and built the team that made it to the Cup finals (and lost. Then Vancouver fans set the town on fire. Literally...). He has spent the time since he was fired “traveling the world to find out what sets elite organizations apart” from the rest. This answer made made me think of McDermott/Beane and what they’re trying to do in Buffalo -

https://wgr550.radio.com/articles/news/sabres-nylander-getting-chance-eichel Nylander getting a shot on the top line with eichel. Hope he makes the most of it!

So sad. I can’t imagine what her parents are going through right now.

I think that is a different restaurant/dinner. This looks like one with the wives/girlfriends and the other looked like a guys night out or something. Pretty cool that it seems like these dinners might be a common occurrence. I love the term camaraderie McDermott is building. I don’t follow other teams as closely, but it doesn’t feel like it’s all that common to see groups of teammates from both sides of the ball hanging out in the offseason (and with their wives, too).

https://www.buffalobills.com/video/behind-the-scenes-of-bills-free-agency sorry if this was already posted. I tried searching and didn’t see it.

Yeah it definitely hurt Mittelstadt for sure. Even Botterill said that Berglund was acquired to help ease Mitts into the 2C role eventually. But if it is true that Berglund is dealing with some serious mental health issues (and I am pretty sure that is the case. IIRc beeglund gave an interview to a Swedish paper alluding to that fact), I have a hard time holding a grudge against the guy. He has a wife and kids. His health and well being comes before hockey, without a doubt. Honestly, I blame St. Louis more than anyone else. The way they went about trading him was shady and not the way you treat a classy, well respected veteran who’s spent his entire career in your organization. As I’m sure you already know, Berglund was late turning in his no-trade list and Doug Armstrong quickly pounced on it to include him in the buffalo deal without Berglund’s approval. It sounds like Berglund has struggled with mental health issues for quite a while and had a strong support system in place in St. Louis (which makes me believe team management knew of his issues/struggles), and when he was screwed over by the Blues and then shipped to a place where he had no family, no friends, no support system at all, he wasn’t able to cope with it all very well. Edit - here is the article I was talking about - https://www.diebytheblade.com/2019/1/18/18188513/buffalo-sabres-patrik-berglund-tells-his-side-in-exclusive-interview-in-sweden Die by the blade translates some of it. the link to the full article from Sweden is at the bottom. But it’s a PITA cause you have to google translate it paragraph by paragraph. Basically it says what I wrote above about the St. Louis stuff.

Sabres are playing 2 games (against Tampa Bay...) in Sweden next year on Nov. 8-9th. I bet Dahlin has to be excited!

Guessing team doctors must be worried about his injury. Shoulder must not be checking out.

Makes perfect sense. Paul Guenther (raiders DC) was the DC in Cincinnati for 3 years. apparently the raiders tried to trade for Burfict last season and were turned down by Cincy.

Looks like Richie hasn’t garnered much interest on the free agent market.... I don’t think his comeback is going to happen, though I’ll root for him if it does.

Seeing as he wasn’t healthy last year, I kind of figured that he would get another shot this year. Plus, the Bills didn’t land a pass rusher in free agency (yet, anyway).

Called this yesterday. Paul Guenther is their DC and the raiders tried to trade for Burfict last year. Its the place that made the most sense. I’ll be surprised if they don’t work out a deal.

We were never ahead of the Jets in the draft order. They originally sat at #6. The Bills traded up to #12, and then the Jets traded up to #3 roughly 6+ weeks before the draft (which is extremely unusual). The Jets didn’t guarantee that they would get mayfield or Darnold. All they did was guarantee that they get their #3 QB, as at thr time many assumed that Darnold would go #1, and if he didn’t there was a report that the only QB the Giants were interested in was Darnold so it was a popular opinion that he would go #2 to the NYG if he didn’t go #1. It was a reckless movd by the Jets GM, in my opinion. He knew his job depended on getting one of the top 3 QBs in that draft. He sold the owner on that plan back at the 2017 draft when they decided to pass on Mahomes+Watson. So he was willing to be more reckless. I think that the Bills trading to #3 is all a moot point anyway. I don’t think it was possible. It was reported after the Jets trade (by Indy’s GM) that the colts weren’t willing to drop out of the top 10 in the draft. Many assumed it was so they could trade down again on draft day. But that didn’t happen... The Bills tried to trade up to #6 on draft day after the deal with the Broncos fell apart. Indy wasn’t willing to move back to #12 so they moved on to the Bucs at pick #7. Indy clearly targeted Quenton Nelson. So there’s really no reason to believe that the Bills could make the trade to #3, in my opinion. I think Beane did an excellent job playing the hand he was dealt. He ended up getting from pick #21 all the way up to pick #7 without giving up a 1st round pick, and he landed the Bills one of the top 3 available QBs in the coveted 2018 QB draft class.

Nice. Yeah I sold mine too. I still have a sport cruiser that I ride occasionally, but I got rid of the super sport bike(s). What model did you own? I’ve owned and/or ridden all 4 models. 600, 750, 1000 and the Hayabusa (when they first came out in ‘99, before it had the speed governor/restrictor and it could do 200+mph). If youre from the Buffalo area, I used to work at a place called Imperial Cycle Sales, If you remember it. I was lucky enough to get to ride a lot of bikes. We’d have to test ride them after pulling them out of the crates and finishing assembly. I remember when the GSX-r 1000 first came out. Man, that thing was such a beast of a bike at the time. I used to actually try and talk some people out of buying it. Too much bike for beginners. I hunk I saw at least 3 customers crash their brand new gsx-r 1000 leaving the shop after purchasing it. One guy wiped out right in the parking lot, another guy laid it down pulling out of thr parking lot and the 3rd guy made it about 100ft down the road.... I actually preferred the 600 or 750. IMO the GSX-r 750 was the perfect sport bike. It handled like a 600 and had the power of a 1000 (well, not quite, but close). One of my favorite bikes I ever rode/owned.

The chiefs have a lot of money already invested into their o-line. Fisher is making $12M per year, Tardif is making $8.5M, Schwartz makes $6.6M and Erving makes just over $4M. That’s roughly $31 million between those 4. I don’t think that they felt they could have another $9-10M+ player on the o-line, ans felt that they had a strong enough line that they could make due with Austin Reiter at C.

Wow, the Marvin Lewis era truly is over in Cincinnati... lol. I wonder if any other coach/NFL team will put up with all Burfict’s on field crap? Especially with his play slipping. Im sure he will at least get a shot somewhere else. Raiders, maybe? Paul Guenther is their DC. Poor Vontaze. Couldn’t have happened to a nicer guy, ami right? ? lol

Just out of curiosity, your screen name - do you own/ride a Suzuki GSX-r? Agree about Shady, btw. I think he’s still got plenty left in the tank.