K-9 Posted February 27, 2019 Posted February 27, 2019 (edited) One mediocre month. One amazing month. Three suck ass months. That is the synopsis of this season of watching the same mistakes over and over and over and over again. This suggests no answers can be found by everyone involved; management, coaches, or players. We are not close, no matter how much one wants to throw the “but we compete and play hard and are in games” crap. That’s the bare minimum of expectation. And I don’t accept it as some symbol of great progress being made when, for the last three months, I see the same mistakes night after night over and over and over and over again. Edited February 27, 2019 by K-9
zevo Posted February 27, 2019 Posted February 27, 2019 1 minute ago, K-9 said: One mediocre month. One amazing month. Three suck ass months. That is the synopsis of this season of watching the same mistakes over and over and over and over again. This suggests no answers can be found by everyone involved; management, coaches, or players. We are not close, no matter how much one wants to throw the “but we compete and play hard and are in games” crap. That’s the bare minimum of expectation. And I don’t accept it as some symbol of great progress being made. They are a train wreck
Pine Barrens Mafia Posted February 27, 2019 Posted February 27, 2019 How'd our generational center and defenseman look tonight?
BillsFan4 Posted February 27, 2019 Author Posted February 27, 2019 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.
Nextmanup Posted February 27, 2019 Posted February 27, 2019 (edited) 1 hour ago, BillsFan4 said: 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. Listen to Jack Eichel's post game interview. He straight up called out the team as coming out not prepared to play and lacking intensity. He minced no words. It sort of hit me while listening: "Oh Gosh, he's trying to get Housely fired." I think Botterill likes Phil and Phil will be the coach of this team to start next season, however. I hope I'm wrong. Edited February 27, 2019 by Nextmanup
Boca BIlls Posted February 27, 2019 Posted February 27, 2019 Someone needs to be fired, plain and simple.
suorangefan4 Posted February 27, 2019 Posted February 27, 2019 (edited) Playoffs hopes are pretty much all but gone. I hope we lose a lot the rest of the season and draft high enough to get a center like Turcotte or Dach. Zegras, Krebs and Newhook would be nice too. If the rumors are true that Ristolainen could be moved then hopefully a team like Edmonton would be interested in moving their pick for him and we could get two of those players. We need to work on having three lines who can score. Strong center play is needed. Edited February 27, 2019 by suorangefan4
GG Posted February 27, 2019 Posted February 27, 2019 18 hours ago, suorangefan4 said: I still can't believe how bad we messed up the 3rd round in 2014. We had the first pick in that round #61 and pick #74 and passed on Brayden Point (#79 overall) for Jonas Johansson and Brycen Martin. Point was at one time projected to be a first rounder if I'm not mistaken. You could do that with a lot of players who should've been picked but weren't but that seemed like an easy choice to me. The old Tom Brady fallacy. Always unfair to single out one player who defied the odds of his draft selection. Having said that, the root of Sabres' ills go no further than their ineptness on draft day over three ownership groups. Outside of the obvious Eichel & Dahlin picks, Sabres have only hit on a few good players. The big holes in Sabres lineup are the misses in the 2012 draft, which should be forming a good core of this team right now. 1
suorangefan4 Posted February 27, 2019 Posted February 27, 2019 (edited) 14 minutes ago, GG said: The old Tom Brady fallacy. Always unfair to single out one player who defied the odds of his draft selection. Having said that, the root of Sabres' ills go no further than their ineptness on draft day over three ownership groups. Outside of the obvious Eichel & Dahlin picks, Sabres have only hit on a few good players. The big holes in Sabres lineup are the misses in the 2012 draft, which should be forming a good core of this team right now. Tom Brady wasn't projected to go high though. Scouts just missed on him. Point was actually rated as a 1st round pick by so many scouts. We had so many picks in the 2nd and 3rd rounds that we should've used one on the highest rated player. Edited February 27, 2019 by suorangefan4
GG Posted February 27, 2019 Posted February 27, 2019 5 minutes ago, suorangefan4 said: Tom Brady wasn't projected to go high though. Scouts just missed on him. We had so many picks in the 2nd and 3rd rounds that we should've used one on the highest rated player. All other teams passed on him too until then but we had way more picks so we should've went with the player that had a first round grade by many scouts. Again, using an outlier to prove your point or theory is never a winning argument. EVERY NHL team passed on Point twice, so whatever pre-draft rankings that had him going high were off the mark. Good for him that he is placed in the best possible situation to score, but he's certainly not the missed opportunity at the next Ovechkin. He's more of a better Butch Rolle.
zow2 Posted February 27, 2019 Posted February 27, 2019 9 hours ago, Nextmanup said: Listen to Jack Eichel's post game interview. He straight up called out the team as coming out not prepared to play and lacking intensity. He minced no words. It sort of hit me while listening: "Oh Gosh, he's trying to get Housely fired." I think Botterill likes Phil and Phil will be the coach of this team to start next season, however. I hope I'm wrong. I like Botts,, but if he sticks with Housley after this season I will begin to question him. It's not working. Phil coached the team to dead last place last season and they weren't supposed to be that awful. This year's club has a nice core of players and he's coaching them into the toilet...again. Whatever his tactics are,,scheme, strategy, etc.. is not working. He doesn't have the ability to push the right buttons. Geez, even Lehner and O'Reilly leave this staff and suddenly they get mentally "right" again. After the season, find a new coach..and get a better goaltender too. Our goalies get outplayed by the opponents goalie way too often. I have some hope for Linus that he will improve in the future. Yes, defense too...but they will have to get a new coach to get the D corrected I think.
shrader Posted February 27, 2019 Posted February 27, 2019 51 minutes ago, zow2 said: I like Botts,, but if he sticks with Housley after this season I will begin to question him. It's not working. Phil coached the team to dead last place last season and they weren't supposed to be that awful. This year's club has a nice core of players and he's coaching them into the toilet...again. Whatever his tactics are,,scheme, strategy, etc.. is not working. He doesn't have the ability to push the right buttons. Geez, even Lehner and O'Reilly leave this staff and suddenly they get mentally "right" again. After the season, find a new coach..and get a better goaltender too. Our goalies get outplayed by the opponents goalie way too often. I have some hope for Linus that he will improve in the future. Yes, defense too...but they will have to get a new coach to get the D corrected I think. It's definitely troubling. The talking heads lately seem to be mentioning growth, but I don't think that's what I've seen. There was a slight surge followed up by complete and utter collapse. Sure some are young, but there are others who can't use that excuse anymore and those are the guys where you start to wonder if they're able to carry the weight of all of this. 1
JohnC Posted February 27, 2019 Posted February 27, 2019 4 hours ago, shrader said: It's definitely troubling. The talking heads lately seem to be mentioning growth, but I don't think that's what I've seen. There was a slight surge followed up by complete and utter collapse. Sure some are young, but there are others who can't use that excuse anymore and those are the guys where you start to wonder if they're able to carry the weight of all of this. Craig Rivet spoke in the first hour of the WGR Instigator Show and hit it on the head with his analysis why the Sabres were faltering: The issue is the talent level. As it stands we don't have a credible second line. I'm a Mittelstadt fan and believe in time he can be a genuine second line center. The playing time he is getting this year will in the future serve him well. But the reality is that our second line he currently centers wouldn't even be considered a credible third line on most hockey teams. And the same low assessment would apply to our third line. It is fair to say that our checking line in Larsson-Gergs and whoever do a solid job in playing hard and usually neutralizing the line they are working against. But from an offensive standpoint they offer zilch. You can't have such impotency from the second, third and checking line and be able to reasonably compete. In my estimation that is the biggest weakness on this team. That is not to say that collectively our defensemen have issues. But Dahlin is go to be better next year and Pilut should be a better player next year. What I believe is going to happen is that Risto will be traded in the offseason for one or two second-line players. A first round pick from us could be included in such a deal. There was talk that Tampa was exploring a trade for him but decided to stand pat. As it stands their roster is loaded with high end talent in the minors ready to make the jump. To state the obvious we need more talent. We have some trade chips and they need to be used.
Ridgewaycynic2013 Posted February 27, 2019 Posted February 27, 2019 13 hours ago, Boca BIlls said: Someone needs to be fired, plain and simple. PSE keeps trying that. They’re consulting the front office directory again now, to see what Assistant VP in charge of craft beers gets the heave ho.
BillsFan4 Posted February 27, 2019 Author Posted February 27, 2019 https://wgr550.radio.com/articles/opinion/sabres-still-paying-sins-tim-murray ”Sabres still playing for the sins of Tim Murray”: Quote Before I worked at WGR, I was a frequent listener. I remember Bulldog talking about the waves of prospects that were going to someday soon hit our shores. They were going to make the Sabres a great team for years and years....... ...... Despite the fact he was tanking for half of his tenure, Tim Murray traded away two 1sts, four 2nds, four 3rds, and a 5th round pick in three years. Not to mention five young players who were 1st round picks, and three who were 2nds. It's cruel sometimes to play the what if game and you'll often hear coaches/executives say that you can't do it. Actually you can, and it's one of the only ways to judge how a general manager is doing in his job. What if Tim Murray didn't try to rush his team to contention? Where did those waves of prospects go? The Sabres are still searching to replace the roster depth that Murray sent away. 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...
K-9 Posted February 27, 2019 Posted February 27, 2019 8 minutes ago, JohnC said: Craig Rivet spoke in the first hour of the WGR Instigator Show and hit it on the head with his analysis why the Sabres were faltering: The issue is the talent level. As it stands we don't have a credible second line. I'm a Mittelstadt fan and believe in time he can be a genuine second line center. The playing time he is getting this year will in the future serve him well. But the reality is that our second line he currently centers wouldn't even be considered a credible third line on most hockey teams. And the same low assessment would apply to our third line. It is fair to say that our checking line in Larsson-Gergs and whoever do a solid job in playing hard and usually neutralizing the line they are working against. But from an offensive standpoint they offer zilch. You can't have such impotency from the second, third and checking line and be able to reasonably compete. In my estimation that is the biggest weakness on this team. That is not to say that collectively our defensemen have issues. But Dahlin is go to be better next year and Pilut should be a better player next year. What I believe is going to happen is that Risto will be traded in the offseason for one or two second-line players. A first round pick from us could be included in such a deal. There was talk that Tampa was exploring a trade for him but decided to stand pat. As it stands their roster is loaded with high end talent in the minors ready to make the jump. To state the obvious we need more talent. We have some trade chips and they need to be used. Rivet must not be paying attention to the mind numbing defensive mistakes this team commits on a nightly basis.
JohnC Posted February 27, 2019 Posted February 27, 2019 3 minutes ago, K-9 said: Rivet must not be paying attention to the mind numbing defensive mistakes this team commits on a nightly basis. He mentions it plenty of times. And the name he mentions the most with respect to defensive lapses is Risto.
K-9 Posted February 27, 2019 Posted February 27, 2019 Just now, JohnC said: He mentions it plenty of times. And the name he mentions the most with respect to defensive lapses is Risto. I didn’t listen to the show and perhaps I misread your first couple sentences regarding talent level and the problem being no decent second scoring line. That’s a problem, but it ain’t the main issue. Regarldess, this team makes the same mistakes repeatedly. The. SAME. Mistakes. Night after night. Over and over again. So, the players are either too stupid to learn what the coaches are trying to teach them, the coaches are too stupid to teach them something effective, or both. Doesn’t bode well for the future. Rivet is right about Risto, but Scandella is still our worst Dman on a nightly basis.
JohnC Posted February 27, 2019 Posted February 27, 2019 6 minutes ago, K-9 said: I didn’t listen to the show and perhaps I misread your first couple sentences regarding talent level and the problem being no decent second scoring line. That’s a problem, but it ain’t the main issue. Regarldess, this team makes the same mistakes repeatedly. The. SAME. Mistakes. Night after night. Over and over again. So, the players are either too stupid to learn what the coaches are trying to teach them, the coaches are too stupid to teach them something effective, or both. Doesn’t bode well for the future. Rivet is right about Risto, but Scandella is still our worst Dman on a nightly basis. There are numerous issues that collectively add up and factor in why this team has struggled. Not being attentive to one's defensive responsibility all the way through the lines and defenders certainly is a persistent problem. If a player is deficient from a mental standpoint, regardless of the physical talent, then that player is simply deficient. There is just too much of that clueless losing sight of the player you should be responsible for. Risto is in a different category than Scandella. Risto is the first defender on a top pairing that includes the most ice time. Scandella is a third pairing backer who can easily be rotated out or given very limited minutes. You shouldn't have to do that with your first pairing defender who repeatedly has lapses. I don't want to get fixated on one player because there are so many players and issues that need to be addressed. Okposo is a high character player whose salary is dramatically higher than his contribution. We can go on and on. This season still has some time on it but it is not a major leap to believe that this roster is going to be significantly altered next year.
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