Buffalo Sabres and NHL: 2019/20: Sabres season officially over. Draft lottery June 26th

[4merper4mer]

Ouch:

 

 

 

[K-9]

3 hours ago, GG said:

BTW, I need to air a grievance since we're playing Detroit again.  I caught a portion of "Russian Five" a documentary they did about Red Wings cup run with the addition of the 5 Russians.  Their depiction of Fedorov's defection got me riled up, because they characterized it as a stunning move to get him from behind the Iron Curtain.   They also spent a lot of time talking about the "risk" Detroit took in selecting him in the mid-rounds in the '89 draft.   But nowhere in the doc did they acknowledge what happened leading up to the '90 draft, and the fact that Mogilny had already defected.   

 

The Red Wings made it sound like they were executing a major heist by being the first to take a risk on a Russian player in the draft, and then setting up his escape from the dangerous confines of PORTLAND, ORGEGON, well after Perestroika was under way!!!  

 

There wasn't a peep in the doc that maybe they were bold enough to make the move is because the path was already set.

 

The time for the airing of grievances has passed. You will have to wait until next Festivus on 12/23/20. 
 

[bbb]

Since that was the time of the Wall coming down, they probably both could have waited a year or so and not have had to take the risk. 

[GG]

13 minutes ago, bbb said:

Since that was the time of the Wall coming down, they probably both could have waited a year or so and not have had to take the risk. 

The wall came down in Fall of '89,six months after Mogilny defected.   He and Sabres took a much higher risk than Wings and Fedorov.  

[4merper4mer]

Sabrestat:. Since he and his 4.2M salary were acquired, the Sabres are 1-0-0 when Michael Frolik scores an empty net goal and 0--0-0 in all other games in which he scores a goal.

[Nextmanup]

4 hours ago, 4merper4mer said:

Sabrestat:. Since he and his 4.2M salary were acquired, the Sabres are 1-0-0 when Michael Frolik scores an empty net goal and 0--0-0 in all other games in which he scores a goal.

Frolik is a classic Botterill acquisition.

 

A total nothing player.

 

I mean nothing.

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Spun]

7 hours ago, GG said:

BTW, I need to air a grievance since we're playing Detroit again.  I caught a portion of "Russian Five" a documentary they did about Red Wings cup run with the addition of the 5 Russians.  Their depiction of Fedorov's defection got me riled up, because they characterized it as a stunning move to get him from behind the Iron Curtain.   They also spent a lot of time talking about the "risk" Detroit took in selecting him in the mid-rounds in the '89 draft.   But nowhere in the doc did they acknowledge what happened leading up to the '90 draft, and the fact that Mogilny had already defected.   

 

The Red Wings made it sound like they were executing a major heist by being the first to take a risk on a Russian player in the draft, and then setting up his escape from the dangerous confines of PORTLAND, ORGEGON, well after Perestroika was under way!!!  

 

There wasn't a peep in the doc that maybe they were bold enough to make the move is because the path was already set.

 

   I saw the Russian Five doc and read the book.  I liked both.  Read the book.  It typically has so much more information.  I read the book first so I had a better background with the stories before the doc. For those who have done neither do both!  Incredible highs and tragic lows in the Russian Five story.  I was able to get the book from a local San Diego library and watched the doc on the plane.  The Red Wings went off by drafting numerous Russians and Swedes.  Back in the day, taking such chances with the Russians was rare.  The Mogilny story was gutsy.  Some of those guys had military obligations which made defection even more dangerous.  The thought of Bure, Mogilny and Fedorov on one line is amazing!  What was Mogilny’s comment to Gerry Meehan during the whole defection process?  Something like “Am I free now?”...

 

   As for the current Sabres, each new coach deserves some reset time with the drafts, trades and on ice production.  Botterill has made some ”duncey” moves.  Commit to the scouting and whittle down the salaries going to former Sabres.  Moves like pushing Mittelstadt too fast must be avoided.  There are numerous examples of former Sabres who did their AHL time before helping the Sabres (Thomas Vanek and Ryan Miller).  
 

I have followed the Sabres since 1970.  My family couldn’t afford to go to many Sabres games.  I used to listen to the Sabres, Bills and Braves games on the radio.  We didn’t have cable TV.  Some nights it was the Sabres on one radio and the Braves via the transistor radio tucked under the pillow. It makes me sick to hear of what happens when Toronto comes to town.  Sabres fans selling their tickets to Leaf and other games is sad.  Very sad.  We have been waiting for a very long time.  I won’t give up.  I also want 

much better from our hockey team.  Things eventually improved with the Bills with the Pegula’s.  They do care.  We must learn from the mistakes and keep fighting.  Keep demanding better.

 

 

[ALF]

In other words it's hard to find a good GM.  I would hire the best scouts money could buy to supply the GM with talent, I do like Ralph. 

[apuszczalowski]

13 hours ago, 4merper4mer said:

Sabrestat:. Since he and his 4.2M salary were acquired, the Sabres are 1-0-0 when Michael Frolik scores an empty net goal and 0--0-0 in all other games in which he scores a goal.

I forgot they had made a deal to acquire him. That's a good thing if he was an offensive linemen in the NFL........

[apuszczalowski]

4 hours ago, ALF said:

In other words it's hard to find a good GM.  I would hire the best scouts money could buy to supply the GM with talent, I do like Ralph. 

I think that a Good GM has to be able to use understand and use the info provided to them from Scouts, be a real good negotiator, and have the balls to make decisions quickly. Botterill seems like he isn't a great negotiator, and he can't make decisions quickly, he always needs to assess everything thoroughly before he does anything. TMs problem was that he was a poor negotiator who fell in love with certain players and would do anything to get them which led to him giving up way too much to make a deal. Darcy just couldn't/wouldn't make the deal, possibly because of financial restraints.

[BillsFan4]

17 hours ago, 4merper4mer said:

Ouch:

 

 

 

That was hard to listen to. They’re trying to sound all informed about the Sabres, then say things like “Mittelstadt should have went back to college for a year” (he did) and “Buffalo has no cap space this offseason” (they have the 3rd most cap space in the entire NHL).

 

They did make a few good points though.

Edited February 12, 2020 by BillsFan4

[shrader]

2 minutes ago, BillsFan4 said:

That was hard to listen to. They’re trying to sound all informed about the Sabres, then say things like “Mittelstadt should have went back to college for a year” (he did) and “Buffalo has no cap space this offseason” (they have the 3rd most cap space in the entire NHL).

 

I'm just shocked that I was actually able to play a TSN video in this country.  They're always "blocked in this region" for me.

[BillsFan4]

1 minute ago, shrader said:

 

I'm just shocked that I was actually able to play a TSN video in this country.  They're always "blocked in this region" for me.

Yeah I hate that. What really pisses me off is when you get to watch those 2 ads they always play before their videos (on the TSN site), but then you can’t watch the actual video itself. 

 

Usually I can watch their YouTube stuff, though. 

[apuszczalowski]

On 2/11/2020 at 2:29 AM, plenzmd1 said:

No, the Bills went 17 years without the playoffs cause they consistently made bad hires. You think the Bills would be better off right now with Rex or Marrone /Whaley combos ? Gailey/Nix? Jairo/Levy/Brandon? 
 

all Those combos sucked, the fans knew it way before something was done to address it. 
 

Name me two coaches in the last ten years of any sport who got hired to win( non tank teams) sucked for two years, and then went in to have a winning program? 
 

winning breeds continuity, not the other way around. 

Yeah, the issue wasn't that they kept changing (although that doesn't help), they just made bad hires. A few of those combos may have lead to a shorter playoff drought if given an extra year or 2, but i think we would be talking 'one and done' situations and they would be looking at someone new soon after.

 

For the Sabres, they have tried the continuity thing and they could never get over the hump. They still held on to some coaches too long and made some questionable hires. But is it really better to waste 5 years to give them ample time to turn things around and have to start over, then cutting bait and starting over sooner because it doesn't appear they are going to get things done? It's not like this team is showing steady improvement and looking better. They are still near the bottom and if they have improved in areas, they have gotten worse in others that they used to be good in. It's similar with Players, Buffalo fans always want to hold onto prospects until they are sure they aren't going to amount to much, then wonder why they don't have Nothing worth trading away. 

6 minutes ago, BillsFan4 said:

Yeah I hate that. What really pisses me off is when you get to watch those 2 ads they always play before their videos (on the TSN site), but then you can’t watch the actual video itself. 

 

Usually I can watch their YouTube stuff, though. 

We get the same around here from the US sites where videos won't play in our area. We also don't get all the same content on streaming services like you do.......

[shrader]

4 minutes ago, apuszczalowski said:

We get the same around here from the US sites where videos won't play in our area. We also don't get all the same content on streaming services like you do.......

 

And sometimes you get more.  As a DC fan, I'm jealous each time you mention watching Titans on netflix.

 

I'm sure there's crazy legal issues involved, but I really wish stuff from media sources wouldn't have these region restrictions.

[BillsFan4]

8 minutes ago, apuszczalowski said:

We get the same around here from the US sites where videos won't play in our area. We also don't get all the same content on streaming services like you do.......

 

2 minutes ago, shrader said:

 

And sometimes you get more.  As a DC fan, I'm jealous each time you mention watching Titans on netflix.

 

I'm sure there's crazy legal issues involved, but I really wish stuff from media sources wouldn't have these region restrictions.

 

There are ways around it (and they’re legal).

 

- VPN (virtual private network). Lots of options for VPN’s. Some are free, some are a 1 time fee, some are monthly. but even the best VPN’s are only a few $ a month (like NordVPN, the one i’d recommend - $3.49/mo). Well worth it for the security (especially if you shop + pay bills online, or watch pirated streams/movies, etc). 

With a VPN you can set your IP address to be in any country you’d like (so you can access any gel-restricted content. You can also use it to unlock to use it to see geo-restricted content on Netflix, Hulu etc), and it totally encrypts everything so any online banking/shopping you do is always secure. It hides your identity and online activity. Your internet provider can’t even track you. You won’t get ad trackers and pop-up ads. Many benefits.

Make sure you get a no-log VPN. And I’d recommend one that you pay monthly for vs using the VPN’s that only charge a 1 time fee (they are not maintained as well, but im sure would be more than good enough to watch geo-restricted content).

 

- Smart DNS proxy. It identifies what country the geo-content is from and gives you an IP address to access it. Faster internet speeds than a VPN but it doesn’t protect/encrypt your info like a VPN, and they seem to cost about the same as a VPN ($2-3/mo).

 

- you can simply use the free proxy server lists available with a google search. Just enter in the proxy server #. But I wouldn’t recommend this unless you know how to check the proxy server to make sure it’s legit.

 

- you can also use a free tor browser, but I definitely would not recommend using any type of tor browser without first turning on a VPN. 

[BillsFan4]

Scary situation during the 1st period of the Blues vs Ducks game last night -

 

 

They called it a “cardiac episode’. I guess they had to use the defibrillator on him.

 

https://www.stltoday.com/sports/hockey/professional/bouwmeester-alert-and-undergoing-tests-after-suffering-cardiac-episode-and/article_e121798d-f74e-57dc-8180-477dd4518e43.html

 

https://wgr550.radio.com/articles/radiocom/blues-game-postponed-after-jay-bouwmeester-collapses

 

It happened on the team’s dad trip too, so Bouwmeester’s father was in the crowd. 

They ended up postponing the game until a later date. 

[apuszczalowski]

2 hours ago, shrader said:

 

And sometimes you get more.  As a DC fan, I'm jealous each time you mention watching Titans on netflix.

 

I'm sure there's crazy legal issues involved, but I really wish stuff from media sources wouldn't have these region restrictions.

You don't get Titans on Netflix?

[shrader]

8 minutes ago, apuszczalowski said:

You don't get Titans on Netflix?

 

DC has their own streaming service in the US.

 

To the rest of you, sorry for the tangent and brief escape from complaining about the Sabres.

[JohnC]

12 hours ago, Nextmanup said:

Frolik is a classic Botterill acquisition.

 

A total nothing player.

 

I mean nothing.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Frolick is a fourth line player who can be useful as a penalty killer. He was traded for Scandella who was one of our excess defenders and was also on the last year of his contract. We got a bottom line forward for a bottom line defender who wasn't going to be on the team next year. What did you expect to get in the exchange: Austin Mathews? Frolick at best is a useful player whose addition in a limited way better balances the this year's roster. There is a good chance that Frolick like Scandella wasn't going to be if he wasn't dealt.  

 

If you are going to freak out I recommend that you do it on a transaction that is more worthy of be stressed for. This deal doesn't fall in that category.