Kruppstahl

You got that right! You got that right! You got that right! You got that wrong! They are not only going to waste next season with this, but another year at the helm will arguably set the franchise back further than it would have if Botterill had been fired now. I've been there for quite some time now. We are at dead rock bottom of this franchise's 50 year history, and we have been there for some time now. He's atrocious at pretty much everything, and I agree with you, another year of his decision making is going to set the franchise back further. I genuinely believe this decision is setting the stage for Eichel to demand a trade at some point in the near future. If he never goes that route, God bless him. I think the odds favor that he will, though.

His offensive stats mostly show regression under Ralph; many of his defensive stats improved. That probably reflects sheltered usage more than improvement of the player, though he was not sheltered nearly as much as he should have been. His hockey IQ remains low. I do love how he enjoys hitting and actually looks to lay people out. That is increasingly rare in the league and almost non-existence on the current Sabres lineup. He is also a big, physical force that doesn't get moved off the puck very often.

It's tough suffering through Pegula's learning curve, isn't it? Add to the fact that PSE operations seem to be operating under budgeting pressure just like in the good old days, and who knows...Botterill may be here for a while yet. He works cheap.

It's tough to beat the famous photo (and film) of Number Four Bobby Orr flying through the air.

Saw this post and then realized the thread was 5 years old! LOL. Hmmm. That 5 year plan didn't play out as hoped for.

No Vlad Tretiak on your list? ? ?

The one thing we can count on Pegula to do is fire ANYONE once he loses faith in that person. He's proved it too many times before in both organizations, and anything he says or does prior to the firing doesn't matter. Once Pegula decides "that's it" Botterill will be gone. The question is how close to the line is he, and what does he need to see to pull the trigger? Can't imagine Botterill having a job in Buffalo beyond 1 more year, assuming he keeps it that long.

I guess this means I have heard the Cellino and Barnes jingle for the last time, as well as any form of advertising for that firm. I don't live in WNY and didn't realize they were splitting up. Thank God.

Yes.

I am new to this story and can only read what others post in this thread and the one over at TBD. I have been saying for a LONG time that when an organization is as bad as the Sabres, for this long, the ONLY place to look is at the top. And this emerging story proves that. I love how Kim Pegula is running the ship, with basically no expertise or education to support that....online.....from her 10,000 sq.ft. house in Boca. Yeah, that's going to work out really well. I come away thinking that, as a Sabres fan, the best we can hope for is the Pegulas to realize they much consolidation in order to survive and operate on a higher level, and that means selling the Sabres. Yes, sell the Sabres. No way will a guy like Pegula sell the Bills instead; it's a much better money maker and owning an NFL team is the feather in his cap that he is looking for, not the Sabres. Even if he is probably a bigger hockey fan than a football fan. When the Pegula ownership started, we had the famous "I'll drill a well if I want money" quote and the "sole purpose for our existence is to win the Stanley Cup." Yeah, well that franchise doesn't exist currently. It's poorly run by amateurs making amateurish mistakes, and they are penny pinching just as past ownership has always done. It's really quite bad and I don't see it improving any time soon. I'm really curious to see how this plays out over, say, a 3 to 5 year period. I can see them selling the team. I really can.

Playoff games with no crowds would be borderline not worth watching for me. It would be interesting to watch a few games, though, to see the level of aggressiveness in the players. I'm not sure it would be where it normally is with no crowd. Maybe I'm wrong on that. I don't see the point of the NHL staging games without a crowd; they actually need the ticket revenue unlike other sports in N. America. July is too early to re-start, unless the crowds aren't involved. I guess that could happen. I think it's time to shut things down until next season.

The fact remains that NHL hockey is very much a regional, niche sport, with very little national following in the USA. Gary Bettman has tried to pretend otherwise for half my life, to no avail. Buffalo still tops TV rating figures for NBC sports network games, which tells you all you need to know. No way a tiny little community like Buffalo should be anywhere close to a big TV market for anything. The math just doesn't support it.

This jibes with the notion, being presented here and there, that the Sabres have been operating under a self-imposed limit on spending for quite some time now. Will they go out of business? Seems unlikely. We are headed into the worst depression--not recession--this county has seen since the crash in 1929. It has hardly even begun. How that is going to impact things like Sabres attendance figures remains to be seen.

Ted Darling is Roger Moore to RJ's Sean Connery.

Oh joy.

This was mentioned in the "Around the NHL" thread. Still sad news, no doubt. Really sad.

Or at least send him back to the "box" at ice level as the 3rd man in a 3 man team. He was actually good in that role. RJ should have retired several years ago. He's nothing close to what he was. I'm not looking forward to the Dan Dunleavy era, which might very well last a long time. I can see RJ trying to get it to 50 years and then saying "that's enough."

Gary Thorne was a GREAT hockey play by play guy. When ESPN gave up on the NHL we really lost something there. In addition to the names already mentioned, and keeping the discussion to hockey... No one has mentioned Mike Lange (Penguins) or Pat Foley (Blackhawks) yet?!?!??! I think Pat is just about the best TV play by play guy in the business now that RJ is well past his prime and Lange has been relegated to radio broadcast work only. Ex-CBC man Ken Daniels is in Detroit these days and one of the better voices of the league. I really enjoy the team of Daniels and Mickey Redmond, who always sounds like he is nursing a steady line of Martinis in the broadcast booth. Jim Hughson, #1 announcer for HNIC is absolutely fantastic as well, as is Chris Cuthbert. I would also give honorable mention to the Caps' team of Joe Beninati and Craig Laughlin, who are excellent. There are a lot of good announcers around the league these days. Unfortunately, I genuinely believe we have one of the worst pairs in the league right now in Buffalo. That mostly falls on Rayzor, but RJ should have retired several years ago and it shows every night.

Sad story! RIP.

That team had the combo of "Elvis" Presley and Dave Hannan on the PK. They were as a good a penalty killing pair of forwards as I think we've never had. We could use them now.

Went with Eichel because he, just last season, finally realized his full potential IMO. I'm not convinced Dahlin ever will, particularly as a Buffalo Sabre. But whatever. We can keep them both.... Though as mentioned in another thread, I'd be totally on board with moving one or the other if the right mega haul was coming back the other way. I don't think that's going to happen, certainly not with our current GM, so that's also just talk.

Here's a good one, and the commentary afterward from RJ and Lorenzo is priceless. Peca puts Mattias Ohlund to sleep:

This has to remain in the Top 5 ALL TIME Sabres moments. I noticed in the film that a guy in the crowd right next to the fight was taking some flash photography! I don't think I've ever seen those images. I wonder if they came out OK and if there was ever an attempt at making them public. Those pictures would now make for a heck of a nice piece of Sabres history.

Hitting? What's that?! That Rasmussen hit at #7 in the original video was as devastating a hit as I've ever seen in a Sabres game. The video doesn't reveal the full extent as it's not in real time. The Soupy Campbell hit at #1 remains one of the most exciting live moments in a Sabres hockey game I ever recall seeing. I'm still waiting for something to equal it; haven't seen it yet. RJ: "And NOW THEY'RE ALL CHASING AFTER CAMPBELL!" ? EDIT: Here's a real time video of the Rasmussen hit mentioned above:

Yep. This whole corona virus mess is starting to reveal just how dysfunctional American society is in the year 2020. Anyway, there's no way there's going to be a 2019/2020 regular season. That's done. I'm pretty sure the playoffs are done too; the league just doesn't want to admit it. The Canadian GP, scheduled for mid June got axed, making the 9th race of the season to be "postponed". Folks in F1 circles are now suggesting there won't be any races this entire summer, and the season itself may not happen. It's just not going to be feasible to have a hockey game with a crowd this year. Maybe late in the calendar year, but now you are already into the new season. 2019/2020 is going to go down as the NHL season that was cut short by a pandemic, and the year in which there was no Stanley Cup champion.