nfreeman

I thought Eichel was not in the same half-wall spot -- I thought he spent the bulk of his PP time at the right point. I also thought Reino was set up in front of the net, not behind it to the goalie's right.

Just playing devil's advocate: it's quite possible that Benson (and the other Sabres brass who voiced similar sentiments) were affecting an aggrieved air to deflect possible accountability for not getting Babcock to sign on the dotted line.

I think they pretty much overhauled the PP (and about GD time!). Eichel wasn't in his usual spot either. It looked greatly improved IMHO.

Best Will Ferrell movie ever IMHO.

Overall it was another pretty leaky D-zone performance. Bogo’s play has definitely fallen off lately. I thought Reino and Jack both started slow and then really started to impose themselves on the game. I think Howie re-mixed the lines a bit in the 3rd and got Jack some shifts with Skinner and Reino. Not sure who gets scratched when Larsson is healthy, but it shouldn’t be ERod or CJ.

On the Fast & Furious — I have found 4 through 8 to all be pretty enjoyable action movies with some amazing scenes (albeit plenty of dumb dialogue). Separately: my wife and I saw “the favorite” last weekend. Pretty good — if you want to make your wife/gf happy by going with her to a British period piece, this is one of the most entertaining I’ve seen. Solid B-plus.

tankfruit.

Desperate times call for desperate measures. Let's see how it goes.

Cease and desist with these, please.

I've been enjoying season 3 of "True Detective" so far. Solid B-plus.

But didn't you also say that last year's team did not underachieve? Hmmmmmm? Having said that -- I agree that last year was not a tank. (Further evidence for which is that the DFL team had an 18% at #1, not 20%.) I don't agree. I think JB decided (and TP agreed) that (i) last year's debacle was a roster issue, not a coaching issue and (ii) making a big-name coaching hire and then firing that coach every year or 2 is a bush-league move. I agree and would just add that it's not realistic to expect a new GM to blow into town and immediately waive a highly-paid veteran without giving him some games to prove/disprove himself. While as I mentioned I agree that last year was not a tank, bringing in Pommer was not an indication of anything. Everyone knew Pommer was out of gas -- JB had to take the extra year of Pommer's contract (relative to Ennis' contract) as part of the price to get Scandy.

You also need to take it down a notch, please. I think Draisaitl is better. And the bolded is obnoxious and an example of why a bunch of people are taking shots at you. Make your points without these little digs, please.

I thought Scandy was fine last night. His minus-1 was attributable to Bogo, who committed an awful turnover that ended up in the Sabres' net. Also, Scandy was the Sabre who came closest to scoring a goal last night! I think swapping Pilut in for Scandy last night would've had zero impact.

I thought Dallas pretty soundly outplayed the Sabres last night. The Sabres generated very little offense, while Dallas had about 8-10 excellent scoring chances. Ullmark kept them in it. I wasn't so much hung up on the physical play, as I thought the Sabres did OK in that department, although I would've liked to have seen someone make Dallas pay for the Benn hit on Eichel. Speaking of Eichel, I really don't think he's been close to his pre-injury peak since he returned.

OK. Time to take it down a notch. FWIW, my recollection on this jibes with jame's -- but neither of you have bothered to post any links in support of your factual assertions here.

Philly hasn't been a disaster. They made the playoffs and advanced the season after the trade, and have made the playoffs 4 times in the 7 seasons since the trade. And the Kings terminated Richards' contract the first chance they got (and ended up having to settle with Richards for doing so) -- were they stupid for dumping talent to improve culture? As for Kane -- the Jets missed the playoffs for 3 seasons in a row before trading him, then made the playoffs immediately after trading him (then missed for 2 more seasons, then made the conf. finals). So maybe dumping him did improve their culture. And if your reference to "cratering their lineup" is meant to imply that trading ROR has cratered the Sabres' lineup -- I don't see how you can assert this when the Sabres are about a million times better than they were last year. Do you or do you not agree that the Sabres underachieved last year?

Regarding Skinner -- while Skinner waiving his NTC was certainly fortunate, JB still gets credit IMHO for making the deal happen and not giving up too much. Regarding ROR and trading talent to improve culture -- other teams have made the same decision (like Winnipeg with Kane and Philly with Carter and Richards). Sometimes it's necessary. Again, there is no way for us to know whether this was one of those cases. Clearly there were real issues -- I assume you agree that the team grievously underachieved last year? Regarding the cap space -- - Scandella's contract ($4MM) is reasonable. - Pommer's deal expires after this year and was part of the price to get Scandella and to get rid of Ennis' contract (which was more or less as bad as Pommer's). - Hunwick's contract expires after next year, is not a huge number at $2.25MM and was part of the price to acquire Sheary. - Sobotka is overpaid at $3MM but his deal expires after next year and he adds some value. - Beaulieu's deal expires after this year, isn't too big at $2.4MM and was a reasonable gamble to take on a guy with some upside, for a team that was desperate for upgrades at D.

IMHO, the question of whether JB has done a good job vs a poor job is entirely legit, as are the related questions of whether Mitts and/or TT should be in Rochester, whether Howie was a good hire, whether the ROR trade was a good trade, and others that have been raised in this discussion. After a thrilling but statistically unsustainable winning streak, the Sabres have more or less crash-landed and are reasonably likely to miss the playoffs. If they continue on the pace of the past 22 games or so, they'll miss the playoffs by a pretty good margin, and the questions above will be further legitimated. Now, that doesn't mean the conversation shouldn't be conducted in a friendly manner, or that dead horses should be excessively beaten -- but it's a conversation worth having.

Well, Bogo did kinda get caught watching on Foligno’s PPG tonight, but I agree that he’s had a great bounceback season.

I'm glad they won, but I feel like 2/3 and maybe 3/4 of the teams in the NHL would've beaten the Sabres tonight.

OK. It’s time to knock off the “you’re not as smart as I am” posts.

Also: TT doesn’t get many opportunities to just cruise into the slot unmolested and fire the weapon. When he does — look out.

Best game from Sheary and Mitts in a while. Getting that line to produce consistently would be a great development.

Now its' Zemgus-Eichel-Sobotka. Interesting.

Skinner-Larsson-Reino out for the close-out?