nfreeman

I understand the pessimism but do not agree. The Sabres are currently 6 games under DeLuca .500. They have 15 games between now and Feb. 11 (by which point presumably both Skinner and VO will be back), with 25 games left in the season after that. They probably need to get to no worse than 4 games under DeLuca .500 while Skinner and VO are out -- so they need to go, say, 9-6 in the next 15 games, and then 15-10 in the last 25. Certainly their season to date shouldn't make anyone confident that this will happen, but it's not impossible. The next 15 games include the following 9 very winnable games: Florida Vancouver 2 vs Detroit Nashville Ottawa Montreal Rangers Anaheim Will the Sabres win all 9? Probably not, but they might beat some of the better teams too. RK will get them to buy in and they won't quit.

That stinks. At least it's not a torn ligament or something similar, which looked possible last night.

Yes indeedly. Regarding goaltending, I think Ullmark has had a pretty decent year, although certainly not top 25% in the NHL, which is what they really need.

It looks like he scores most of his goals from in close, which is what RK has been preaching. He's a vet with a cup ring and a good productive track record who's in a contract year and who waived a NTC to come here. I'm IN on this move.

Not exactly. He was a 40-pt player last year (34 pts in 65 games), below that 2 years ago (25 pts in 70 games), and a 40-pt player 3 years ago (44 pts in 82 games). He's had an unproductive 1st half this year, and as I noted above is likely in decline, but again was a 40-pt guy last year.

You are right -- I was more pointing it out as a nuance in the play that I found interesting. Perhaps the Oiler who got screened should've crashed into Reino to force the ref to make a call?

Holy mackerel I hope he's OK.

I think there is a very good chance that Frolik will be an upgrade over the non-Reino RWs, who have all been pretty bad.

^^^^That view of the Eichel rush confirms that one of the Sabres set a pick for him at the Sabres' blue line. I think it was Reino, but not sure. Speaking of Reino, he had another one of those games where he does zero for 2 periods and then makes a bunch of good plays thereafter.

I think the PK problems primarily stem from goaltending and coaching, not the play of the 2 forwards on the PK. So I'm skeptical that Frolik will make much of a difference there.

Good to see ya sir! Don’t be a stranger.

Some data on Frolik: - 6’1”, 190 - he turns 32 next month. - he’s from the same town in the Czech Republic as Jagr is. - hockeydb and nhl.com list him as a RW; hockey reference lists him as a LW. - 3 years in Florida, then 2 in Chicago, then 2 in Winnipeg, then 4 in Calgary before this season. - in his 2 Winnipeg seasons and his 1st 2 years in Calgary, he was a pretty steady 40-point guy. He dropped off in his 3rd season to 25 points in 70 games, bounced back last year to a 40-point pace again, but had a poor start to this year with 10 points in 38 games. So he is likely in decline. - as others have noted, he’s a UFA after this season, so this isn’t a long-term move. It’s certainly reasonable to think though that they’ll get more out of Frolik for the remainder of this year than they would’ve gotten from Scandy.

Did RK or anyone else give an update on Victor?

This is a perfectly fine move. Scandy had negative trade value at the end of last season. RK was able to rehabilitate his value and the Sabres were able to get a pick for him, clearing some cap space and easing the logjam at D so Miller doesn’t need to be healthy-scratched. It’s not the good forward we need but that wasn’t going to happen in a Scandy trade.

Plan the parade. D'oh! @apuszczalowski beat me to it.

What is the bolded based on?

Dude.

True. I should've said "no one real wanted to buy the team and keep it in Buffalo." Kind of a distinction w/o a difference though.

I agree with the others who have stated upthread that it won't happen as long as TP owns the team, and that it is unlikely that he ever sells. BUT if TP were to sell unexpectedly, or get hit by a bus, or other unforeseen event that results in the team being sold, I think it's close to 50/50 that the new owner would move the team. The NHL would try to find a new owner that would keep the team in Buffalo, but there is no guarantee that they would succeed. The NHL tried this when the Rigases had to sell, and no one wanted to buy the team and keep it in Buffalo until OSP was offered a hugely discounted sweetheart deal. If there is an ownership group that is ready to pay top dollar to buy the team and move it to a bigger US market with a new arena that throws off $$, many of the other owners will vote in favor of allowing it to happen.

Well, that tempest in a teapot didn't last long. Best of luck to him, presumably in Rochester.

You're referring to this one, yes? https://theathletic.com/1497801/2020/01/01/why-the-sabres-and-jason-botterill-want-to-end-their-reliance-on-long-term-injured-reserve/ I'm not all the way to "terminate JB immediately and with extreme prejudice" yet. But if this season ends up as bad as it looks it might, AND if JB's "cap management" ends up hamstringing the team the way Vogl describes, I could see myself getting there.

JFC. The 2 of you polluted about 4 pages of a GDT with this BS. Both of you have been here long enough to know better. Don't do it again. Actually, it is.

This is an outstanding post. Separately: RK sounded more discouraged in his postgame presser than I've heard him sound all year. Even after that debacle, I still really like RK and think he's doing a good job with a poorly constructed roster. They haven't been far off in most of their recent losses. And they haven't shown up dead on their feet out of the gate at all, which happened frequently under Howie, other than the game a couple of weeksw ago in which Eichel was a late scratch.

Unbelievable.

JB has also traded ROR! And Kane, and Foligno, and high draft picks.