jad1

This team has been chasing the puck in the defensive zone for the last 7 or 8 years. They need a coach who can teach defensive positional responsibility. The Islanders found a coach who is able to do that, the Sabres need an old-school guy, for at least a couple of season to drill fundamentals into the young guys.

It's part of the narrative. It's context for whatever happens next.

Seattle is lobbying to have their franchise-first home game against the Sabres.

If the Sabres were a college football team, the other teams would be lining up to schedule them for their homecoming week.

This isn't the NFL. NHL teams are lucky when their 1st rounders hit, much less their 2nd and 3rd rounders. You can plan your rebuild based upon projecting the growth of undeveloped 17 and 18 year olds. Nailing the 1st round picks and trading assets for more developed players is the way most teams build. Peca, Hasek, LaFontaine, Drury, Briere, Dumont were all acquired by trade. Skinner was a good move. O'Reilly and Kane were good moves. Botterill is not going to draft himself out of this mess. How long does he have left if the team continues to play this way? One year? Rochester currently has no Botterill-drafted players on its roster. If Botterill wants to keep his job, he's going to have to acquire players outside the organization this off season.

Yeah, he's a poor GM that way.

He could have kept O'Reilly around another season and kept Mitts in Rochester.

He's not a Selke candidate, but he's not a terrible back checker, either. The defense has way more problems than their top scorer not playing like a defensive foward in their own zone. Can't make a case for Housley, or for Botterill. I'm a fan of the revolving door when it comes to coaches and GMs. You can kick them to the curb as often as needed, as long as you don't shred the roster.

It's not Eichel's fault that the Sabres defense continually gets caved in it's own zone. It's not Eichel's fault that the Sabres goaltenders have been prone to giving up soft goals. It's not Eichels fault that the bottom nine fowards can't hit the broad side of a barn. It's not Eichel's fault that the Sabres top defensemen in terms of ice time is a -46. It's not Eichel's fault that the system the coach has installed doesn't match the skill set of the roster. It's not Eichel's fault that players who need more development time in Rochester spent the season in the NHL. A captain of a hockey team can motivate good players to play great. What he can't do is make fundamentally bad players good Hockey teams need more than 4 or 5 great players on the roster to be a good team. Eichel hasn't made a single trade, drafted a single player, or signed a free agent since he's been here. Want to be a perpetual bad team, keep trading your top players. Eichel is not the problem with this team, just as O'Reilly and Kane weren't the problem least season. The problem is with the 15 other players on the roster who are stealing money every game.

The answer is to NOT hire a GM who is stupid enough to trade top 6 forwards for nothing,

Maybe one of these games Kyle himself will be ready to play and actually score a goal. Like a freakin' broken record with this team.

I'm not ready to blame Jack for guys like Sobotka, Thompson, Mittelstadt, Ristolainen, Girgensons, and the rest being bad hockey players. There's a lot of pressure on him right now. Taking over the reigns for a terrible coach shouldn't be part of that.

"I have no ability to build a winning team in the NHL." (My guess.)

We're still playing his defensive system, so might as well.

Something, something, continuity.

Goals against in the last minute of a period are also a trend with this team.

He would have been a good fit on the Sabres.

Sure, and when you're poor on the man advantage, the other team will score on the EN at higher rate than the league average.

But you admit there is a trend of the Sabres giving up EN goals? Right?

Because EN goals against happen so frequently to the Sabres. Most likely due to their problems with the man advantage pointed out in this thread: over-handling the puck, lack of offensive possession, inability to hit the net, moving the puck slowly, etc.

Housley has now coached 157 games. 147 of those games have been mostly terrible.

They should fire Housley right before the fan appreciation game, and then have a STH lottery and let the winner coach the team for the game. Can't be worse than this nonsense.

There's time for another EN.

It's been happening the whole season. This team has no idea how to play positional defense.

Throw Risto into that equation. He just stood there in front of the net l.