BillsFan4

Nice throw Josh! 2 in a row, actually...

2 in a row Ray Ray dropped.

If Beane acquired about Mack, I’m guessing he will acquire about Cooper too. At leas5 I sure hope he does. I know he had a down year last season, and has been kind of up and down this season. But he’s got a ton of talent and is young enough that he could continue to grow with Josh Allen. If the price is right, get it done!

It honestly amazes me that there are actually Bills fans who seem mad that the Bills don’t want to trade Shady for a 4th or 5th round pick.

Nice night for the Sabres. Dahlin gets his first goal Ullmark gets his first NHL shutout and Jeff Skinner gets his first goal as a Sabre.

You can tell he’s getting more and more comfortable every game he plays. We are starting to see more frequent flashes of his offensive talent. It’s actually really impressive how quickly he’s adapting to the NHL. Especially as an 18yr old defenseman playing top 4 minutes.

Dahlin with his first goal!!

It’s scary, to be perfectly honest. I’m trying hard to keep the faith.... It'll sure help if I see some improvements in this area as the season goes on. I really want to believe that he can improve at reading defenses and finding open receivers, but it’s hard to when he just hasn’t shown much of any ability to do it so far in his college and NFL career. Dont get me wrong, I haven’t given up on him by any means. But he has yet to ease any of the fears I had when we drafted him.

good analysis of this play (and Allen’s struggle reading a defense) by Erik Turner (Cover 1).

That’s exactly why they pulled the goalie. It’s a pretty common thing in hockey. It all depends on the coach and the score of the game. If a team is down by 2+, they usually pull the goalie earlier than if they are only down by 1. Some coaches are more daring about it. Like Housley, for example, during the Sabres 1st game of the year pulled the goalie with 5 minutes left in the game. They were down 3-0 though. That used to be somewhat unusual (and it still is to some degree) to pull a goalie with that much time left. But Patrick Roy kind of started that trend his first season coaching the Avalanche, and it worked for Colorado. Then you started to see other coaches pulling their goalie earlier than normal. Roy actually pulled his goalie a few different times with 10+ minutes remaining in the game (once with 13mins left)! I don’t know of any other coaches who have repeated that off hand. Here’s a good article on it from a few years ago, if you are interested - https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/nhl-coaches-are-pulling-goalies-earlier-than-ever/

I’m sure Housley will go with the hot hand tonight. Hutton has been too good to put Ullmark in. If it were a back to back it’d be different. Im guessing Ullmark might get a game some time during that western road trip.

Starting to think this trade could actually happen...

Oh for sure they were better. Those Hasek years were mostly on Hasek being the best goalie on the planet (kind of like the Canadiens a few years ago when Price played out of his mind good). He was ridiculous. It’s a crime Hasek didn’t win a Cup here.

I was going to say the same thing. The ‘05-‘06 and ‘06-‘07 seasons were sooo much fun. Even when they were down by a couple/few goals in the 3rd you just knew they would still win. I remember all the crazy huge crowds for the viewing parties in the plaza. I still get pissed off thinking about both Drury and Briere leaving... that team was so damn close to winning a Cup. I still imagine what could have been if they had kept drury+briere, then let Vanek go on that Oilers offer sheet and took those FOUR 1st round picks (2 of which ended up being 1st overall, and no I don’t think Vanek would have changed that. They offer-sheeted Penner and while he wasn’t as good as Vanek, he was still a good player and it didn’t matter).

Search google for “Reddit NHL streams”.

Yeah, he was still officially an eagles employee, but he wasn’t involved in running the team. There’s actually an I testing story about how the owner told him to take that time to improve his managerial skills, so Roseman traveled around the country visiting with successful managers in all different sports. Edit -here’s the link - https://theeagleswire.usatoday.com/2018/05/09/eagles-gm-howie-roseman-learned-about-striking-deals-in-his-gap-year/ (the link to the full sports illustrated story is in the article) heres another on his “exile” - https://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/nfl/eagles/2018/01/30/out-exile-howie-roseman-builds-eagles-into-super-bowl-contender/1080851001/

I would be beyond pissed off if the Bills accepted a 4th for Shady. But I cant imagine them doing that. Honestly, as far as I’m concerned, anything less than a 2nd and they can take a hike, and really, I’d want the rumored 2nd + 3rd. Or a 2nd + decent player. A 3rd is probably fair value, but IMO it’s just not worth it to trade McCoy for a (most likely late) 3rd round pick.

I was never really worried about the defense. In McDermott’s first year in Carolina, the defense wasn’t all that good. Then they started out slow the following season. Then about half way through the season things started to click and they finished on a tear. That 3rd season they were the #2 ranked defense in the NFL, and were top 10 in each of the following 3 years (iirc). Sometimes it just takes time for things to come together, especially when you have younger players getting experience as starters.

No offense taken. I admit that I am too sentimental at times. I get attached to Bills and Sabres players, and am always sad to see a guy go. I would never make it as a GM, that’s for sure! lol i can see both sides of this argument, probably because I have one foot on each side of the line... My brain says that this might be the best opportunity that the Bills will ever have to cash in on an aging Shady. And my heart says that I want to see McCoy retire as a Buffalo Bill. I will understand if they decide to trade Shady for a nice haul (less so if they only got a late 3rd or something like that). But I would be perfectly happy to just keep him, and even re-sign him after next year. As far as the locker room - I definitely worry how it would go over. I think a trade would have to be done “the right way”. That is one of the reasons why I said that I think you have to ask Shady what he wants. If he wants to stay and the Bills trade him anyway, I don’t see it going over well in the locker room, especially with him being a captain and leader. But if McCoy truly does want to go back to Philly, I think guys will be more understanding of a trade. I also worry about Josh Allen. He already has next to nothing on offense. McCoy is pretty much the only weapon that an opposing coordinator has to actually worry about. Does trading him hurt Allen’s development? He’s already in a less than ideal situation, to put it nicely... I’m glad I am not the one making these decisions... lol.

I know Shady is getting up there in age, and the Bills are nowhere near contending. It would still be heart-breaking to trade him, though. He still basically looks like the same old Shady to me. He still has his burst, can still cut on a dime. It doesn’t appear that he’s slowing down yet, to me. He is probably still our best player on offense. But I know that the Bills will probably never have a better opportunity to trade him than right now. And the price will likely be higher to the eagles than any other team just due to sentimentality and “righting a wrong “ by Chip Kelly. IMO, I think that if the Eagles are willing to meet the Bills ask, the right thing to do would be to go to Shady and say “hey, do you want to go back to the Eagles?”. If he says yes, then you make the trade. I’d prefer to just keep him, though.

3rd period could have been better but overall great game. Ill give them the benefit of the doubt in the 3rd. They are still learning to play with the lead, and they looked gassed from battling their ass off the first 2 periods. Their battle/compete level was VERY impressive those first 2 periods. I think that might be the most determined to win puck battles that I have ever seen this Sabres team. I feel like Housley might be getting through to these guys because tonight you finally saw them play the way Housley wanted them to. All his post game criticisms from the past were all areas of improvement tonight. That is great to see. The willingness to be coached has been a HUGE issue for this Sabres team in the past.

The Sabres are fun to watch?! What the heck is happening.... lol. Seriously, They look great so far today. They have to finish it, though. Don’t sit back on your heels in the 3rd. I feel like this team is actually making some real progress. They look like they are learning how to play like a real NHL team in all 3 zones. They are closing their gaps quickly in the d zone, doing a good job clogging the shooting lanes and taking away LV’s time and space. They are learning how to attack with speed and not constantly hesitating at the blue line. They are cycling the puck in the o zone and creating scoring chances. Guys are actually going to the areas of the ice where you score goals. Passing looks better. They are playing a north/south game. Overall, they just look like a good, competent NHL team. I love it! Please keep it up...

Was he listed on the injury report? If he wasn’t and is injured, the Bills could be fined and/or even lose draft picks... https://operations.nfl.com/media/2683/2017-nfl-injury-report-policy.pdf McDermott and Beane seem pretty good about not violating the NFL rules, so I can’t imagine they are hiding an injury.

Good call! lol Im sure it had nothing to do with him only getting 21 total touches in the first 4 games... Surprisingly, when he gets the ball he is still very good.

An ugly win is still a win. I’ll take it!