Kruppstahl

Here is a little piece of advice I will pass onto Jason Botterill. "It is even better to act quickly and err than to hesitate until the time for action has passed." -Carl von Clausewitz It was actually a good, entertaining game IMO but of course you made the right choice and really didn't miss a thing. Have fun at the football game!

WGR-550 is going to shortly play the full interview with Botterill from earlier today, if anyone wants to listen. You can also listen to it recorded at WGR-550's website.

It's passing all of us by. The reality is that we played a pretty decent game tonight and generated tons of good scoring chances. Couldn't finish, no secondary scoring, and Rittich played a hell of a good game. Skinner could have had a hat trick tonight. I don't think we'll win either of the games against TO.

Which one is you? On the right I assume?

Pretty good game for a change. I'm enjoying it. Lots of good scoring chances. Not so many goals though! Though Skinner had one for sure when he was in tight all alone. And Jack needs to move the puck quickly on that 3 on 1.

The poll doesn't hit on the single most important factor between the Bills and Sabres IMO. Namely, for the most part, the NFL does not have guaranteed contracts whereas the NHL does. It was very easy for McBeane to quickly evaluate the dead wood and simply cut them from the team. You can't operate that way, unfortunately, in the NHL. Half the Sabres roster (at least) shouldn't be here but are here because of CBA related complications. The single greatest thing the league could do to improve regular season hockey would be to lock out the players (yet again!) and not budge until guaranteed contracts are eliminated from the game. The league is now filled with underachieving millionaires who have become entitled and realize they do not need to work too hard for their pay checks. We have a boat load of them on the Sabres.

Regarding the selling of the team question, the right answer is "YES" assuming it is not difficult to find someone committed to keeping the team in Buffalo. The greatest impact any single decision or event could have on this franchise would be a change of ownership. It is no different than when the Bills were stuck in aging Ralph Wilson Limbo for a couple decades. Until ownership changed, NOTHING was going to change with the Bills. I preached that for years and years and it was correct. Pegula doesn't have a clue, and when an organization goes through this many changes while remaining crap, the only answer is ownership.

Please. Pugilists have been gone from the game for quite some time now. What we need are "tough" players. That doesn't have to mean they are throwing punches all the time, but that they will when they have to. Watch the Stanley Cup playoffs in any year and you will see who the tough players/teams are. For the most part, they are the ones that go deep in the playoffs. The playoffs are a completely different sport to NHL regular season hockey and if you aren't tough, you go nowhere in the playoffs. Unfortunately, Pittsburgh exists to throw a bit of a wrinkle into this, but they have been a weird outlier with 2 of the best 5 players in the world. Or at least they used to be that way. I think they are done winning Cups in the Crosby era anyway. The perfectly conceived modern NHL playoff team, in my view, was the recent LA teams that won 2 Cups in the middle of a Chicago dynasty-dominated era. The current Sabres team looks absolutely nothing like those LA teams. Nothing.

The new WGR "listen live" app with rewinding feature is garbage. It's filled with glitches and doesn't really work. My advice is to google search other online radio streaming apps that will stream WGR-550, and use those. That will defeat online ads, and the common problems with the new radio player at the WGR website. I use this one: https://mytuner-radio.com/radio/wgr-550-sports-radio-404063/

I am thinking of the Ottawa/Drury incident and ensuing coach fight with Rayzor covering his mic between the benches. "Don't go after our Captain!" shouted Lindy. Remember when hockey teams used to have tough guys on their rosters and how hockey used to be physical, intimidating, and exciting to watch? What happened to that sport? This crap they play now sucks.

Actually, in Buffalo, NY, folks tend not to respond. At least for the last decade or so. That's a big part of the problem. I would say in Boston, Massachusetts, folks respond. Full stop.

This assumes that Terry Pegula is smart enough to realize the gravity of the moment. Wonder if he even watched the game!

I've been saying as much for like the last year around here. Can't we just FF the process and fire BOtterill like tomorrow? I know it is becoming popular to mention Ralph as some future GM candidate, but I'm not sure why that would be a good idea. I see Ralph and Botterill getting shipped out on the same day. Question is how long we have to wait to find out what day that is. My God I hate Pegula! He's f-ing horrible!

It was pretty obvious from the beginning Botterill didn't value toughness. Look who he shipped out and who he shipped in.

This game was so f-ing boring, as they almost all are. Watching heartless, gutless hockey with almost no emotional or physical component is simply not something I find entertaining. How many PPs can you watch? It's just terrible hockey.

Whenever any PP becomes stale, it seems like the players on the PP always end up standing around at their stations but with no real movement. Or if there is movement it's just swapping players from one station to another, which is effectively like not moving at all from the PK perspective. PPs are at their best when there is a ton of creative movement and not just from station to station. Also no need to try to set up the perfect shot into an empty net. That's nice if you can do it, but I would be a fan of shooting like crazy, getting traffic around the net, and waiting for rebounds. B/C of the man advantage, over time and with repeated chances, a Sabre, somewhere, should be uncovered and be able to get a great scoring chance. But those situations aren't created without first shooting the puck! And crashing the net. If they are going to keep standing around and passing from station to station, the PP will not get back on song.

I think a part of the frustration we all feel is that we rely on these labels that I highlighted in your post to justify heightened expectations of success. The reality is that Dahlin is still a child growing into his body, and he has a LOT of rough nights. Does he have a gigantic ceiling in front of him? Some said he can be another Lidstrom. He may well be, some day, but he ain't no Lidstrom NOW. Eichel is not a semi-generational talent. He's a super good hockey player. Every team in the league has an Eichel, for the most part. Some have 2 of 3 of him. Yes, Reinhart was the first forward taken overall in his draft class and yes that should make him one hell of an amazing talent, but he isn't. He's a very good hockey player and a nice supporting piece, but he is absolutely NOT a franchise builder. I think of Ryan Nugent Hopkins when I think of Reinhart. RNH was a #1 overall pick! But he ain't no superstar. Hockey can be weird like that. Not everyone taken at the top of the draft is an automatic franchise defining impact player. So don't get caught up in labels. Having said all of this, we have much bigger problems than the 3 names I just mentioned, who are not problems at all. We have absolutely NO 2nd and 3rd scoring line talent. We have zero physicality or toughness. Our D has improved but is generally just OK. Several key up and comers are showing they probably aren't going to be as great as hoped for. I think there's still hope for Mittelstadt, but it diminishes all the time. We seem to have one of the worst atmospheres in the league. We go through head coaches like Eddie Van Halen goes through cigarettes. Our owner is clueless. I personally think Botterill is a terrible GM and not the answer. But, if we are going to over-simplify things to help explain our lack of success despite the big draft picks, it would be GMTM's and Botterill's failure to build a strong supporting cast for the big names. Oh, our goaltending is very average, too. Almost forgot about that. As I wrote last year, neither Hutton or Ullmark are long term solutions at the position. Maybe UPL can develop into something special. Not sure.

Ralph simply WILL NOT put Skinner on Eichel's line, will he?

You hit on an interesting point. Is Botterill so paralyzed with fear and indecision resulting from the ROR roster ruination that he is literally now incapable of pulling the trade trigger? At the same time, it is highly likely that opposing GMs are going to now negotiate with him with intensified toughness, demanding unrealistically favorable terms in the belief that Botterill has no clue what he is doing, and that a good deal is to be had when dealing with Buffalo. Combine these two factors and perhaps we should not be surprised that Botterill has sat on his hands for so long. I wonder if the guy is damaged goods at this point from this perspective. I.E., the ROR incident broke Botterill. If so, Pegula might want to think about acquiring a new GM, assuming he wasn't thinking about that anyway.

This is always the correct response to anything Sabres related. At least while Botterill remains in their employ.

That's obviously not true. Botterill has no idea who is good or bad. Look at the players he has retained, while trading away a Conn Smythe winner. The fact that Sobotka is still on the team defies belief. The fact that guys like Sheary or Vesey were brought in, in hopes of actually improving the team defies belief. The fact that RISTO and McCabe continue get the playing time they do suggests they don't know what a good defenseman looks like. Before this team is going to get good, it's going to have to get ripped down. We are on our second major attempt at building it after GMTM's mess, and we are no closer than before to being good. They can keep changing coaches but at some point, they will have to look at the players, including the big names. Babcock would come in here and clear out the dead wood in a single busy afternoon. I realize right now folks are down on him, but that works to our advantage. Buy low, sell high! This is a great time to hire him. He is obviously a gigantic ego and that brings with it other concerns, but I have faith in his hockey IQ to right the ship. My fear is that Pegula has cursed Babcock and his family for a thousand generations because he feels Babcock played him to up his offer in Toronto. If that is true, Babcock can never come here as long as Pegula is the owner. From that perspective, this might be a non-starter. In any event, any Sabres fan who is waiting for Botterill to fix this mess is going to be disappointed and grow impatient. I am just trying to find the end game here. How much more time will be lost? How many seasons do we need to wash down the drain waiting for good times to arrive?

Darren Dreger was on with Andrew Peters and Craig Rivet today. Most conversation was about Botterill trying to make some trades to acquire forward help on the team. Here's the write-up with relevant quotes if you don't want to listen: https://wgr550.radio.com/articles/news/dreger-botterill-is-open-to-just-about-anything Here's the link to the radio show segment itself: https://wgr550.radio.com/media/audio-channel/11-22-tsns-darren-dreger-with-the-instigators

The Sabres have gone twelve years without winning a playoff series. Can you please tell us when these efforts to build on something will pay off? None of us are getting any younger.

That's life (that's life) that's what people say You're riding high in April Shot down in May But I know I'm gonna change that tune When I'm back on top, back on top in 2029

That's the thing. There is no way in the world this team will string together efforts of this caliber on a consistent basis. None.