nfreeman

Shaky start but an excellent recovery by what looks like a mentally tough Bills team (with a crappy kicker though).

Believe it or not, it was on Delta’s on-demand video. Separately, one of the parts to the story that I had forgotten was the circumstances of Konstantinov’s car accident after the 1997 cup win. This was a very sad story: 5 days after Detroit’s 1st cup win in 41 years (which came after a couple of great regular seasons with the Russians that ended in playoff heartbreaks), the team got together for their last hangout before the summer, a golf tournament. They had booked a bunch of limos so they didn’t need to worry about drinking and driving. But the driver of the limo used by Konstantinov, Fetisov and one of the trainers fell asleep behind the wheel (it turns out his license was suspended for DWI at the time) and the car crashed pretty violently in a 1-car accident. Fetisov wasn’t badly hurt but Konstantinov and the trainer were nearly killed. Konstantinov was in a coma and on life support for an extended period and was given less than a 10% chance of survival. He lost quite a bit of physical and brain function and although he has recovered beyond expectations, he is in a wheelchair and I think cannot speak. The Red Wings (coached by Scotty, by the way) dedicated the following season to Konstantinov, who had defected, in 1993, from Russia at age 26 and was the best defenseman (Norris runner-up the year the Wings won the cup) on a team that included Nik Lidstrom. Konstantinov made his first public appearance since the accident at game 4 of the finals, at which Detroit completed their sweep of the capitals (this was the year the caps beat Dominik and the Sabres in the ECF). Anyway, I think most hockey fans would enjoy the documentary.

I just watched “Russian 5” on a plane. It’s a documentary about Federov, Konstantinov, Larionov, Kozlov, Fetisov and the ‘90s red wings. It was really good. Great footage of the Colorado-Detroit wars of that era and a lot of interesting parts to the story that I hadn’t known or had forgotten.

I agree. The Bills certainly have capitalized on a soft schedule, and they've beaten either zero or 1 good team this year, but they are miles ahead of where the Sabres are. Even if they lose to Dallas, they'll have won 2/3 of their games at the 3/4 point of the season. They will also, as you point out, probably make the playoffs for the 2nd time in the last 3 years. They've become, if not a top-echelon organization, certainly an upper-echelon and respected one. The Sabres, on the other hand, are looking at yet another lost season, with a quiet arena, thousands of empty seats, terrible rankings in player surveys and periodic statements from former players about how gruesome it was to play here. The good news is that consistent winning would solve these problems, and they have strong ownership and a decent amount of talent. I think the right senior management group, in combination with the right coach and goalie, could right the ship pretty quickly. I'm just becoming increasingly skeptical that JB is the man for the job.

I'm not ready to just dump him, because he's still a very young player, but if it's necessary to include Mitts in a package to bring in a legit top-6 forward, I'm ready and willing to do so.

While I agree that they wouldn't get much for him, I don't agree with the bolded. He looks terrible to me. He has zero points in his last 14 games, he creates no chances, he turns potential chances into turnovers and missed shots, his line doesn't create any sustained O-zone time, and he's maybe the weakest Sabre on the puck that I can remember since Derek Roy's early years. I think there is a high risk that he never scores 40 pts in a season and a non-negligible risk that he washes out entirely. JB's infatuation with Mitts and failure to send him to Rochester is a major black mark on his record IMHO.

Dude. Take it down a notch please.

OK, we can continue to wallow in misery and snipe at each other, or we can become part of the solution. TP clearly needs our advice. What do you want to tell him? I voted: - Do not fire JB now, but immediately find and bring in a czar (I nominate Sabrespace alumnus X. Benedict). - Most of the factors listed as between the Bills and Sabres. - Do not sell. We need him, it will get better if he follows our advice, and when it does it will be awesome.

http://thumbs.gfycat.com/BetterWhichAlligatorsnappingturtle-mobile.mp4

Winning streak commences. Sabres are coming in hot. Zemgus with the hattie.

Good. We need another defenseman. I just hope he can play winger too though.

Good win against an EC playoff bubble/DeLuca .500 team. The Sabres got outworked but mostly kept their composure defensively I thought. Ullmark was very good. Bogo led the team in ice time with 22 min. Where did that ice time come from? Risto had 19 min -- his 1st game below 21 min all season. I thought Dahlin looked a bit better paired with Bogo, although they both had a few shaky moments. Olofsson made 2 very nice plays on his goal, the first being the early pass to Eichel to clear the zone and then the decision to head quickly up ice, and Reino's pass to spring VO was sweet. I'd sure like to see more possession time and O-zone time tomorrow vs TB.

Edmonton and Arizona are heading to OT -- that should be entertaining.

Cribbs was really good, both running it and catching it. Letting him go to the USFL over $$ was another Ralph Wilson cheapness-driven blunder in a late 1970s - early 80s string of them.

Good win. That was JA's best deep throw of the season -- and another very nice play from Brown on the catch. Singletary reminds me of Joe Cribbs. Good for Shaq in his contract year. It's hard to really believe in this team until they beat a good team, but 8-3 is still enjoyable.

So my wife and I finished binging “Succession.” I think season 2 was a bit better than season 1, although still not quite as good as the hype. Still pretty good though and very funny. Solid B-plus. We also saw “Ford vs Ferrari” last night. A bit corny but pretty enjoyable. Matt Damon was very good. My wife thought Christian Bale was really good. I think he’s a good actor but find him kinda annoying. In any case I give it a B-plus. BTW, we saw it in a theater with reserved seats — it’s pretty nice to go to a sold-out movie on a Saturday night and not have to worry about getting there early to not get stuck in the first row.

Well, aren’t you a ray of sunshine.

This is a great post. I had not heard the bolded previously. Was that published somewhere reputable? If so that was a huge blunder.

This sentiment is more than fair. If we haven't arrived there yet, we're very close to the place where JB does not get the benefit of the doubt. But it's still based on the assumption, which can't be known and is quite possibly false, that there was at least one trade available for one of the Sabres' defensemen that would've improved the team. You're far from the only one making this assumption, and it might very well be true, but I think we need to remember that this entire line of thinking is entirely based on a huge unknown element.

No. When I look at Mitts, I think "bust" and "a nail in JB's coffin." It's too soon for those to be fair evaluations on my part, but I think a bad outcome at this point is more likely than Mitts developing into a top-6 player.

I'm hoping you can arrest this temper tantrum before you fly entirely off the rails. I have posted about a hundred times that Reino is a good player. I have no interest in dumping him as part of a housecleaning, and in fact I said I would probably re-sign him, despite my opinion that they'll have to pay him more than he's worth. That doesn't mean he's a great player, or that he's as good as Draisaitl, or that he's a good skater, or that he doesn't make critical mistakes -- because none of those things is true.

I've been wondering about this myself. I think TP really, really wants not to have to fire JB, and will not do so if the team gets to, say, 85 points this year. That would make it 62 pts in JB's 1st year, then 76, then 85 -- which I think TP would view as a respectable enough progression to justify bringing JB back. But if the Sabres can't find their way out of this death spiral, and they continue to lose 80% of their games, and are DFL or bottom 3 at the all-star break, and the arena is half-empty in February, with no noise other than booing at the end of each period -- I think it's quite possible that JB doesn't make it to the end of the year. And that fate will be deserved. Behaving in a professional manner isn't enough. The results matter.

I will also note for the record that Boston's 1st goal last night was a direct result of Reino losing a puck battle on the wall in the D-zone.

Well, wife-beating is unacceptable, and Brown is a bad guy, but double homicide is still an entirely different kettle of fish IMHO.

Help us Obi-wan -- you're our only hope!