BillsFan4

I would be surprised if the Jets aren’t one of the bidders for Paradis. Whether he picks NY or not, I do not know. But I fully expect them to make an offer (and probably a pretty big one). Same with Antonio Brown. I think the Jets will be one of the teams that try to trade for him. At least that’s my guess. I just get the impression that Maccagnan kind of likes to big game hunt.

I don’t think the Long signing precludes them from going after Paradis. Long plays guard and center (and IMO is probably better as a guard). They could easily slide him over to G. For all we know, that’s what they signed him to play... (and/or to compete with Bodine in case they strike out on a clear C upgrade). Plus, Groy, Mills and Miller are all free agents. The Bills still need to sign at least a couple starting linemen.

I hope the Bills at least try to bring him in for a visit. There’s no guarantee he will be interested, but I feel like you have to at least kick tires on him. He could be a big help to Allen identifying coverages and setting protections. I think Allen needs that. You could see how it helped Allen when Bodine took over for Groy. Bodine was better at identifying coverages than Groy, and as Patriot Killa said, Paradis is one of the better C’s in the NFL in that regard.

I know the NFL is very much a “what have you done for me lately” league, and the fans are similar. But I don’t think it’s unfair to look at Long’s entire body of work, vs only looking at a single season of a 5 year career. The Jets were a mess last year and Long was hurt for most of the year. The NY Jets had a head coach that half the team looked like they quit on, a new OC (who didn’t end up doing all that well) and had Rick Dennison as their run game coordinator. They fully implemented his run scheme. How many Bills linemen did well running Dennison’s zone blocking run scheme? (and that was when we had Wood, Incognito and Glenn (when he wasn’t injured)). Notmto mention they had a rookie QB who wasn’t always very decisive with his throws. Rookies tend to hold the ball longer a small put more pressure on their o line. I have no idea if Long will work out, but it’s not like he’s been garbage his entire career. He was actually a pretty solid G/C before his 1 year in NY. There’s a reason he got that big free agent contract from NY... So I’m hopeful that he will look more like he did in Washington than NY. Only time will tell. Im anxious to see the guaranteed money because that will be more telling as to how they view him. But even with decent guarantees, his cap hit still falls in the range of a low end start or high end backup. It doesn’t preclude the Bills from signing a better/higher paid guaranteed starter. Long’s contract doesn’t guarantee him a starting role. Plus, The Bills still have boatloads of cap space (still top 3 I believe) and many holes to fill on the o line. Long can play guard and center, which is another bonus (and played better at guard for NY last year, after he came back from the injury). He’s immediately the best guard on the Bills IMO. For a Bills team with huge needs on the o line, I don’t see this signing as a bad thing. I cant think of many better lineman that were available to sign right now.

Not the first team that came to mind when I thought about trade destinations for Flacco. Wonder what happens with Keenum? Does he have any trade value, or will he just be cut?

Great team win by buffalo tonight. I thought they all did a good job simplifying their games and eliminating some of the plays that often lead to those big mistakes. Fhere were some some nervous moments in the 3rd, but overall it was a pretty strong game by Buffalo. Ullmark was fantastic. Buffalo jit’s canf catch a break right now... Carolina is up 3-1 with 5 minutes left in the 3rd. They were down 1-0 almost the entire game, too. Damn it.

To some of your points K9: - I think it makes it somewhat relevant to the discussion to look at Sobotka’s NHL career and usage by other coaches to see if there’s a big difference in the way he’s used now. Sobotka is being relied upon in a similar, but lesser, defensive role as he has his entire career, and in fact was relied on more heavily just last year (and every other year he was a Blue) on a St. Louis team much deeper than this current Sabres team. - I wasn’t just talking about his ice time earlier in his career. In fact, his first few years in Boston he saw a similar amount of ice time to what he’s seeing this year (10-12 mins). His ice time skyrocketed when he was moved to St. Louis in year 4, and that continued up until last season. He actually saw the most ice time of his career last year (average of 17 mins. a night). - my point on yost’s list being populated by better players receiving much more ice time was that Buffalo doesn’t have that 4th, 5th and even 6th best player to give more ice time to like other teams do. After their top 3 forwards, Buffalo has a cluster of about 6 players that get pretty similar ice time. It doesn’t seem fair to compare true 2nd line players on other teams to Sobotka, whomis not getting the same ice time a 2nd line player gets. Other teams have more clearly defined 2nd lines that get a lot more ice time. Buffalo doesn’t even really have a 2nd line. Their 2nd and 3rd lines are pretty much interchangeable. I personally think it would would be a more fair comparison to look at players who recieve the same amount of ice time Sobotka does, as opposed to the 4th most used forward. In general though, I guess the way I look at it is, who else do they really have to rely on in that role? Who else would you put in that heavy defensive role? Larsson already shares the role with Sobotka, and has similar ice time (he plays about 15 seconds less per game iirc). Who else is there? Girgensons maybe? I don’t think Asplund (down in Rochester) is ready to fill that role yet. Not sure about Malone either. And I don’t know that i’d want to see him force someone like ERod or Smith into a heavy defensive role. I’d rather see them allowed to focus more on developing their offensive game and let them try to provide some secondary scoring. The guy that played that role last year was traded, and now it’s replacement by committee. Just to be clear, I’m not saying I fully agree with Sobotka’s usage. I Totally agree with you about Sobotka in 3v3 and agree on some of thr other things you said, too. And generally, I will be glad once there is no need to play him at all.... lol

I was saying out off all skaters (including defenseman) he’s 13th. I’m not saying I think Sobotka is good or that I dismiss his bad underlying statistics. Not at all. Just saying that everything has to be looked at in perspective. The difference between the 4th most used forward and the 7th most used forward is all of 15 seconds a game. There is about a 30 second different between the 4th most used forward and the 9th most used forward. And there is only a 1:14 difference between Sobotka’s use and the 24th most used player on the team. After our top 3 forwards, there is a jumble of players with very similar 5v5 ice time statistics. He is being used in a similar defensive role as he’s always been used, except he’s averaging about 2 less minutes per game under Housley than he did in all his years in St. Louis (under multiple different veteran head coaches). Also, I think it’s worth mentioning that in Yost’s analysis, the 4th most used forwards he’s comparing Sobotka to are all much better players, and most are on teams with more depth. Most of those 4th most used forwards (like Bergeron for ex.) get way more minutes than Sobotka does, too. Really, more than anything else, I think this report shows just how shallow the depth is on this current Sabres team, and how heavily our top guys are relied on.

Ullmark starting in net tonight and Mittelstadt will be a game time decision. He left the morning skate with some type of lower body injury.

I just hit chapter 4 and have a bit over $10,000. I found the first treasure in chapter 2 and I ended up googling the other treasures and finishing them all. It was well worth the time because I haven’t had to worry about money for anything since about mid chapter 2.

It would not surprise me at all to see the NY Jets go hard after him. They love making splashy moves. Seems like they go after every big name that becomes available.... and I doubt Maccagnan will have any issue with AB’s character. He doesn’t seem to be one that’s overly concerned with “character”. Gase may have concerns, but I’m not sure if he would feel comfortable making a strong stand against a player like AB yet. I will be surprised if the Jets are not at least in the mix.

He was also pretty good in 2016. He was ranked #9 in pass protection by PFF, and finished with an overall rank of 29 out of 72 ranked centers. The main thing that worries me about long are his run blocking grades. It looks like he’s been pretty good in pass protection for most of his career.

Can’t help you teddy... The only part of the Grammy’s I caught was the “best song of the year”, as it just so happened to be on when I walked in the room. I did not know a single song or artist up for best song of the year....

Let’s not blow this Sobotka thing out of proportion guys. Sobotka gets 2 seconds more per game than the next closest forward (Sheary), about 15 seconds more than the next 2 closest forwards (ERod and Larsson) and about 30 seconds more than the next cluster of players. There is only 1:10 ice time per game that separate Sobotka from the guy who gets the least amount of regular ice time on the team. He is 13th in total 5v5 ice time on the team. And it'd worth mentuoning that Sobotka is under his career average ice time by quite a bit. He averaged 16-17mins almost every year in St. Louis. Even under Hitchcock (a very well respected veteran coach). I mean, what do you expect housley to do? ROR was the guy housley relied on to eat all those defensive minutes and he was traded away and replaced with Sobotka and Thompson. Do you consider that an adequate job by Botterill (for this season) to fill that massive hole ROR left? How many head cosches rely on young and/or rookie players to play heavy defensive roles? It’s really not unusual to see a coach rely on a veteran player in a defensive role. And especially in this case, where housley really doesn’t have another veteran defensive forward to rely on. I can almost guarantee that if housley had someone better to fill that role, he’d use them.

about time! Can’t believe it took this long... Somewhat Surprising that the GM is naming himself interim coach though. He must want and up close look at what the problems are. Obviously they have more issues than just coaching...

Here - https://www.usgamer.net/articles/01-02-2019-red-dead-redemption-2-hunting-animals-list-selling-pelts-tracking/legendary-buck-pelt Go there and hunt/kill the legendary buck if you haven’t already. Tip - keep turning your deadeye on and then watch the mini map, when looking for the animal clues question mark to start the hunt. You will see that question mark (to start the hunt) you are looking for pop up on the mini map. Then go to the fence and have the Buck antler trinket made. It makes it way easier to get a perfect pelt when hunting animals. As long as you use the right weapon, you usually always get a perfect pelt (even from the 2 star animals sometimes). Here are some badger locations and tips (it says hunt at night) - https://www.polygon.com/red-dead-redemption-2-guide/2018/11/6/18069228/badger-perfect-pelt-map-location heres another couple locations if that one doesn’t work - https://rankedboost.com/red-dead-redemption-2/badger/ https://www.ign.com/wikis/red-dead-redemption-2/Badger_Location_and_Perfect_Pelt_Hunting_Guide

Subban was obviously well established by the time he was traded to Nashville (yet still credits housley for helping him with his game). But as I mentioned before, Josi had only played two 1/2 seasons before housley got there (50 games in 2011/12 and 48 games in 2012/13) and had yet to establish himself as an elite talent. Housley then spent the next 4 years (over 300 games) with Josi, where in that time he got better every single year, and in every single statistical category (fancy stats included), and developed into a Norris level defender. He spent more time with Josi than any other coach. If Housley doesn’t get credit, who does? Same with Ellis and Ekholm - 3/4ths of Nashville’s top 4. And Seth Jones was coming along very nicely under Housley, too. I’ve also heard Peter Laviolette, David Poile and Roman Josi himself (among others) credit Housley with his (Josi’s) development. And the praise he got for his work in Nashville came from a lot more than just the players themselves. Poile, Laviolette, every beat reporter that covered the team, hockey people from around the NHL, national media, analysts etc etc. I mean, Basically everyone credits him for the development of Nashville’s defense corps. His time in Nashville as an assistant coach is completely separate from his time here in Buffalo as a head coach. You can judge the two separately. He could have done (and in reality, Did do) an excellent job there and still do a bad job here. We see it all the time, where a guy is among the best assistant coaches yet fails as a head coach. That doesn’t mean that they were suddenly no longer a good assistant coach before becoming a head coach..... You can’t go back and erase his time and work in Nashville because of his time in Buffalo. Anyway, I realize that you are not going to change your mind on anything related to housley so I will just let this conversation end here.

I disagree. Almost every one of their defenseman had better seasons under Housley than any other coach. A few (Ellis, Josi, Ekholm) had career years under Housley after Trotz left. Shea Weber, a well established 8 year vet, had his highest scoring season in Housley’s 1st year. Ekholm and Ellis were both struggling in their development before Housley came on board. Neither were considered top defenseman before housley’s time there. He has been pretty widely credited with their development - https://sports.yahoo.com/news/phil-housley-coaches-offense-predators-defense-152520840.html 2 of those defenseman were not 1st round picks. One was a 2nd rounder. The other was a 4th rounder. They were by no means sure things when drafted, and Housley worked with them longer than any other coach has. Trotz wasn’t with some of those defenseman for more than 1 full season. Ekholm played 3 games for Trotz before Housley got there. Ellis played about 60 games. Even Josi had only played 2 50 game seasons before Housley got there. Housley was with them for 4 full seasons and was there in the early stages of some of their development. Plus, Every Nashville defenseman raves about housley and many credited him for their development as players. Even Shea Weber and PK Subban, both experienced vets when housley worked with them, raved about Housley and called him one of the best and/or most knowledgeable coaches they had. Heres a quote from PK Subban - https://www.nhl.com/news/coach-phil-housley-shaped-nashville-predators-defense/c-289275342 and Ellis - And this - There are plenty more articles out there with high praise for the job Housley did in Nashville, and plenty more player quotes raving about him. His development of the nashville blue line was a huge reason he became such a hot coaching candidate, and why he was considered the hottest coaching candidate on the market the year buffalo hired him.

Big win. Buffalo desperately needed those 2 points. I didnt see the 1st, but I thought buffalo played a heck of a 2nd and (most of the) 3rd. That was a good team win.

I’ll definitely be interested to see how this all turns out. Between Gase and Williams, and now Vitt and Williams a-hole son Blake. Then add in a guy like Jamal Adams playing for Greggo... it could get interesting.

They play a completely different system than what Trotz ran. Housley was actually hired by Trotz in Nashville (and then kept on by Laviolette, where he was given free reign to run the defense while Lavy focused on the offense). He was there for Trotz’s last year (2013/14) and then worked 3 years with Laviolette. Trotz ran a much different, defense first system where the defenseman hardly ever joined the rush. He was actually considered too safe and too defensive in Nashville, which is part of the reason he brought housley in. He let housley start to implement parts of his system in 2013, and the change was noticeable on a Nashville team that had always played conservatively. Housley was then allowed to fully implement his 5 man attack when Lavy took over, where the defenseman began to consistently join the rush. Even the Nashville players talked about how different the new system housley put in place was, and how it was such a big change from a system that was very much the opposite of Laviolette and housley’s. And Nashville’s defense took a huge step forward under Housley. Ryan Ellis didn’t start to come into his own until that first season under Housley (and only played 1 full season under Trotz). Mattias Ekholm (a 4th round pick) only played 1 season under Trotz and didn’t blossom into the defenseman he is now until after Trotz left. Roman Josi (2nd round pick) made a huge leap in Housley’s first season. Went from 18pts to 40pts. All 3 really didn’t blossom into the defenseman they are today until after Trotz left. Ellis, Josi, even Subban have all had their best years, points wise, under Housley (and after Trotz left) Peter Laviolette and pretty much every Nashville defenseman all raved about the job housley did. He may be in over his head as a head coach, but you can’t knock what he did in Nashville. You’re missing a pretty good game so far! I didn’t see the 1st period (for some reason I thought the game wasn’t on tonight, even though I updated the thread title yesterday to show the game time....lol). But the 2nd has been pretty exciting, and mostly all buffalo. Lets hope it continues...

The Amerks game was broadcast for free on Facebook tonight. I don’t know how to embed the video, but here’s a link - https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=370653276820317&id=54162273113&refsrc=https%3A%2F%2Fm.facebook.com%2Ftheahl%2Fvideos%2F370653276820317%2F&_rdr You don’t need a Facebook account or anything. Just click on the link. They have the entire game posted if anyone wants to watch/re-watch. I havent watched it yet and dont know the outcome so please don’t spoil it for me! I’ll be watching it tomorrow morning. Thanks.

I wonder if this is true.