jad1

Except both Kane and O'Reilly contributed to deep playoff pushes by their new teams. So it seems weird to justify their exit by saying they're not leaders or set a poor example for the rest of the team. If a guy you claim is a locker room cancer turns out to be the Conn Smythe winner, maybe he's not the cancer you claim he was. The problem with this franchise under Pegula is that they don't value a player's on-ice contribution highly enough. They accept excuses to run good players out of town (Kane, O'Reilly, even Lehner). They don't hire GMs who know how to build an NHL roster (good drafting AND good trades). They hire coaches who are weak on fundamentals (physical and mental -- Remember Ruff getting his players to play 'out of character'). As for needing to trade talent for talent, take a look at the best trades in the team's recent history. Briere, Drury, Dumont, Hasek, and even Skinner were all acquired without breaking the bank. You can make good trades that ADD to the core, instead of replacing the core.

It's probably the best this roster can hope for against the better teams.

Reinhart has talent. He's a 60-65 point player with consistency issues. Put him on a team with three NHL quality lines, where players could be better mixed and matched during slumps, and he could be an 80 point player. Dumping Reinhart won't help the culture, just like dumping Kane and O'Reilly didn't improve the culture. It just led to less-talented players losing more hockey games. Losing more hockey games is a good way to kill culture.

That's basically the narrative that led to Kane's and O'Reilly's exit from the team, and getting rid of them helped nothing. How about giving the players with some actual talent a break while the idiot GM continues to load up the roster with trash. Dump the GM before dumping anymore talent, and try to find an actual GM who can build around guys who have actually showed the ability to score.

Team is hopeless. Fundamentally flawed.

Nice clear Vesey.

Meh, the penalty kill is terrible. Another goal allowed in the last minute of the period.

My eyes tell me that Sobotka shouldn't be on the 2nd line, much less an NHL roster, regardless of his 3 points in 16 games and whatever magic dust his coach believes that he sprinkled on his linemates to make them "effective." And the same goes for ERod. Maybe the GM should take a break from stuffing the press box with high price defensemen and bring in some actual 2nd line talent so we can prevent a fan debate about who's better, ERod or Sobotka, which is an abyss of idiocy deeper than the Flutie/Johnson debate.

Maybe because the coach is a used-car salesman and we all have eyes?

I don't know, I get that the trade market is always tough, but then I think if how an average GM like Darcy Regier manufactured trades for Briere, Drury, Dumont, and Barnes, giving away little to build some the the franchises greatest successes. The Skinner deal was one of those types of deals, and there have been deals to make during Botterill's tenure. J. T. Miller, Duclair, and Namestnikov have all been on the market during the last year, and could have been had with money or lower-rated prospects going the other way. Heck, even a guy like Patrick Marleau could have added experience and short-term help to the roster. The preferred way to build is always from within the system, and Botterill has definitely embraced that. However, in the NHL it is also the riskiest way to build. Botterill's over-reliance for his rebuild on guys like Mittelstadt and Thompson is evidence of that. Waiting around for Cozens to hit the roster, despite how good he projects, would be another catastrophic blunder. This franchise, with an aging core of talented players, cannot afford to waste more seasons. Botterill to save this (and next) season will have to play against his nature and do what every averagly-skilled GM does, and make some trades to add some skill and experience to the lineup. He also has to balance the cap spend between offense and defense, a problem he created.

So far the Sabres are offering nothing, barely going through the motions.

Hey, give Botterill a break, players like O'Regan, Sobotka, and Berglund aren't available every day! And besides, do you know how hard it is to figure out what 30 goal scorer is destroying your locker room?

Who knows. Terry does have an itchy trigger finger though....

No problem. It's a gordian knot of suckitude. ?

So, Eichel for the Hart and Botterill for the unemployment line?

Sorry, I don't agree. More than half this team is on scoring slumps and that's mostly due to an overall lack of effort. Ralph isn't a guy the team rallies around, he's the guy who covers for them by claiming 'moral' victories.

Two games in a row where the team comes out listless. Both games against supposed rivals. You have to question whether this team plays hard for Krueger.

So this is what the team Botterill built looks like without Eichel in the lineup. The dude should be arrested for stealing money the last 3 years.

Hutton looks like he's seeing ghosts.

Eichel has 31 points the last 17 games. That's the only reason the team is hanging in. When he cools off, this team will sink to the bottom of the standings.

This team is going nowhere without a functional 2nd line. Botterill is burning a stellar year by Eichel.

Johansson has completely fallen off the table.

They're probably paying Vesey at the same rate.

BAG OF PUCKS!!!!!!!

Nice back check by 'Bag of Pucks' Okposo