BillsFan4

I hear you. That’s usually where I’m at most years. I always say “what’s the point of a win streak? It never seems to carry over into next season anyway”. But I just can’t bring myself to root for draft position this year. Im just so worn out on the losing. I don’t want to see this new batch of young players (Dahlin, Mitts, Thompson etc) have their souls crushed too. So im rooting for wins, draft position be damned (not that it makes any difference what I root for...lol).

Hmmm.... I wonder what teams Rob Blake was referring to. https://theathletic.com/855696/2019/03/07/gms-offseason-priorities-blackhawks-looking-to-spend-sabres-looking-to-deal-rangers-a-wild-card-and-more/ (subscription required) GMs’ offseason priorities: Blackhawks looking to spend, Sabres looking to deal, Rangers a wild card and more lol There was a few paragraphs about Botterill -

Cant say that I’m too optimistic about tonight. Especially since they already lost 7-3 to Chicago last month.

Happy to read the Bills have interest in Paradis. I just wish it was someone more reliable than Benjamin Albright who was reporting it.

“Sabres GM shares vision for future, success” ‘Botterill discusses Dahlin's development, Skinner's status, coach's performance in talk with NHL.com’ https://www.nhl.com/news/sabres-general-manager-jason-botterill-shares-vision/c-305495260 Speaking of Skinner... just came across this interview with botterill on NHL.com posted today.

I don’t think anything has changed on the Skinner front. At least not if you go by what’s being reported. Skinner just said himself the other day that this losing streak has no effect on him still wanting to be here. He said it doesn’t even factor into his decision. That he still wants to be here long term and he thinks he’s a piece of the puzzle here. Botterill also just addressed the Skinner situation in that interview on WGR550 the other day. He said they are still working towards a deal but that both sides really want to get it done. I think Botterill could have him signed right now if he were willing to give him something similar to the Stone deal ($9.5M per year). I think he is doing his best to get the Sabres a better deal than that. I heard a rumor (not sure how true it is) that Botterill is around $8M per year (or slightly less) and Skinner is around $9M per year (and likely wants a full no movement clause). Honestly, I am reluctant to sign Skinner for $9+M per year, so I’d that rumor is true I’m ok with Botts slow playing it if it gets buffalo a better deal. And there’s no way I give him a full no move without a discount on his AAV. If Skinner playing close to home is (reportedly) a big factor to him, then it seems like a fair trade to me. He gets his full no move clause and Buffalo gets a slight discount on AAV. No chance I do $9+M and a full NMC. But that’s just me. I still think a deal gets done though. I think it’s likely just a matter of the price and who caves more.

I sure hope for a better showing tonight than that 7-2 disaster the last time they played the Oilers. Adding insult to injury, Lucic even scored 2 goals in that game. He only had 2 goals the entire 2018 calendar year. That 2 goal night against Buffalo accounts for something like 40% of his goals in the last 70+ games. Kassian scored 2 as well. At the time he had gone 40+ games without a goal. Longest drought of his career. I cant take another brutal loss to Edmonton. lol

McCabe done for the year, it looks like.

Buffalo mentioned twice in Friedman’s latest 31 thoughts: https://www.sportsnet.ca/hockey/nhl/31-thoughts-golden-knights-won-mark-stone-sweepstakes/

http://www.nfl.com/news/story/0ap3000001020572/article/antonio-brown-i-dont-even-have-to-play-football

I think buffalo will be the 3rd NHL team to miss the playoffs after a 10 game win streak. I know Philly did it in recent years (one of their annual win streaks...) and I can’t remember who the other team was (it may have been Philly too (lol, kidding)). But yeah, pretty rare.

Not a warm reception, to say the least. Edit - Isles win 6 - 1 love it for islander fans. They are every bit as die hard as Sabres fans are.

Sounds about right... ?

My guess would be yes. Especially with how bad the Sabres have been the last 5 years. I don’t think buffalo, the city, will ever be a destination among players. It’s a definite disadvantage in free agency. But it seems like a lot of players end up liking it once they spend some time here. It’s by far his worst trade. But it’s still salvageable. It’s looking like we could give Anaheim the St. Louis pick if everything holds the way it is now. So, essentially it’ll then be ROR and Guhle for Montour, Thompson and whatever that 2nd turns into. (Plus Sobotka if you want to count him...lol). If Montour turns into a good, long term top 4 RHD for Buffalo and Thompson develops into a top 6 F, the trade could look ok. At least we got more of a sure thing with Montour though. The rest of Botterill’s trades have been better though. It makes me hopeful that the ROR trade was just an aberration. There were some extenuating circumstances there. But still, it sucks to give away our biggest trade chip for what buffalo did. Too bas they weren’t willing to eat that $7.5M bonus... (easy for me to say, right? lol). I think that would have changed things and even opened up more teams to trade him to (Carolina, NYI etc).

“The 2019 NHL Poll: Best player? Most overrated? Players weigh in on the best (and worst) in the game” (subscription required) https://theathletic.com/840226/2019/02/28/the-2019-nhl-poll-best-player-most-overrated-players-weigh-in-on-the-best-and-worst-in-the-game/?source=dailyemail Sucks to see buffalo as #2 least desirable city to visit, but it’s not at all surprising. Hey, on a positive note, Mike Babcock was voted the #3 coach that players least like playing for. Tortorella was #1 and Hitchcock was #2. Interestingly, Tortorella was also tied for 4th with Paul Maurice for coach that players most wanted to play for (with 6% of the vote). Gerard Gallant and Jon Cooper ran away with that one, both receiving roughly 1/4 of the votes each.

I’ve heard that his first choice is to stay with Denver.

He was banned by the CFL from signing a contract with any CFL team. https://www.tsn.ca/cfl-directs-alouettes-to-release-qb-manziel-1.1264993 Wonder what he did? And its interesting that Mansfield was the one unwilling to proceed with whatever alternatives were offered.

https://wgr550.radio.com/articles/opinion/sabres-still-paying-sins-tim-murray ”Sabres still playing for the sins of Tim Murray”: He goes into all the details in the article (players traded away and how they are doing elsewhere, players available at the draft picks that were traded away, etc). It’s worth a read. But it’s not just on Murray by any means. This team has been mismanaged for years. I would also say that we are still paying for the sins of Darcy Regier. His drafting was hit and miss, he overvalued his own guys, and after his failed big free agent spending spree he sold Pegula on the full on (embarrassing) tank job, the “suffering” and “5 year rebuild” in an attempt to prolong his own years on the job. Not that I disagree with the plan of drafting high for a couple/few years, I just disagree with the way it was executed. And the Pegulas deserve their share of the blame in all of this as well. Hopefully Botterill gets it right because we can’t afford too many more setbacks...

I think we can officially say the Sabres playoff chances are dead (not that we didn’t know that already...). Tonight was absolutely brutal for their playoff chances. Every team in front of them won and Philly jumped us with a win. Only chance now is another 10 game win streak but that ain’t happening. Blue Jackets got knocked out of a playoff spot with their loss tonight, too. Can you imagine if they don’t make the playoffs? Oh man.

Once again though, mistakes killed the Sabres. That 3 minutes stretch where they just totally collapsed and Toronto scored 3, and then Dahlin diving at the blue line on the leafs last goal were the difference tonight. Buffalo just isn’t able to overcome their mistakes on many nights. Overall though, I actually thought buffalo played a pretty good game tonight. They controlled the play for a good part of the game. And I have to say, I like their no quit attitude. It’s nice seeing a team with some fight after years of watching buffalo teams hang their heads and pack it in after getting down by a goal or two. Anxious to see Montour in the lineup tomorrow. anyone else see this? I feel for Hank. Zuccarello was his good buddy. Reminds me a bit of Ryan Miller when he left buffalo. He was very emotional too. Good reminder of the human aspect involved in all these trade deadline deals. Lots of lives shaken up in the process.

I don’t use Sabrespace but was thinking of creating an account. I only post here, but the only other places I know of are - - reddit Sabres. https://www.reddit.com/r/sabres/ - HF boards Sabres - https://hfboards.mandatory.com/forums/buffalo-sabres.18/ - and the comment section over on hockeybuzz. Go to the one Sabres writer, Michael Pachla’s columns and click on the comment section. There is always a lively discussion going on there and they even claim to have a couple Sabres insiders (though I’m not as sure about it as others are). https://www.hockeybuzz.com/

If true, I am glad botterill held firm. I don’t think Tampa was probably willing to give up any good roster players during the season. The offseason would be a much better time to trade Risto if Tampa is still interested.

Agree. Not the best asset management. I’d have probably preferred to just keep him, but he requested a trade (and/or more playing time but once you have your agent go to the media with a request like that, this is usually the end result). But I don’t really fault botterill for the trade. I was ok with it at the time. I thought it was a low risk type of move, and it took advantage of the expansion draft roster squeeze which I liked.

looks like this was the news...