erickompositör72

Behind Beaulieu, Antipin, and Georges. Falk better not be playing unless 2 of those 3 are not healthy tonight.

Falk will always find the wrong thing to do with the puck when he has possession of it in our zone. I mean, clear-cut possession. Just watch. If it's on his stick in our zone, count on it not leaving our zone and the other team regaining possession. Without fail. Edit: if we're lucky, the other team will only regain possession in the neutral zone.

The day can't come soon enough that I never see Falk play again

I strongly believe he will become a reliable top 6 forward who plays through his prime on lines 1 & 2. I don't know on what team that will be, though. Either we're patient with him, or GMBot finds a trade partner who sees this in him and is willing to pay.

In a video game, Eichel can check Tarasenko and take him out of the play. In real-life NHL, that's Kane's job to use his angle to force him outside, and let the other players cover the middle of the ice Honestly, I worry Housely isn't focusing enough on these fundamentals. Maybe the anti-McDermott?

This actually outlines the best way to defend Tarasenko going through the neutral zone, because... ...Jack didn't have the best angle. Kane did. It was like an "all-in" call. He made a desperation play, rather than staying calm and collected. If he wants to poke check a guy cutting across the crease, he should watch videos of how Dom did it

I was initially of that mind, and then I realized- they're paying him more than 2x what any NHL team thinks he's worth. He's not earning his money as a hockey player, so they shouldn't feel bad about shipping him anywhere for the money they're paying him. You only control your own destiny when you produce what's expected of you, and I'm sure Matt gets that and accepts that.

I'm now convinced this won't happen, mostly to inflate trade value as much as possible

If he takes the signing bonus, then retires, he'll have made roughly 37mil in his NHL career. Unless he's blown through everything and has a complete moron handling his money, I say relocating to another continent is not something a person in his situation considers.

why not

clairvoyant musings- In an upcoming year, the Sabres will give us something new: royal blue goathead. And it will mark the first run we make in the playoffs.

I was at the game when Derek Plante scored the OT goal off Tugnutt's glove. I can't find any replay showing Nolan after the goal. It's forever ingrained in my head- he was doing the windmill, Townsend style almost, running out onto the ice I was also at the playoff game when Drury scored to tie it up with only a couple seconds left. Man, hard to believe that was Buffalo.

come on, leave Matt alone

Some posters here say the darndest things... "he's rich; $3 million isn't that much to him, right?" Other favorite: "what if he moves to the KHL?" Yes, he's going to uproot his family, after he just bought a house and settled in an area not to far from where he grew up, to move to the other side of the world where he doesn't know anyone and doesn't speak the language, to play hockey for a couple of years. Why wouldn't he?

Any game I turned on during the playoffs last year, I thought "wow, these guys are fast." Seemed like every playoff team- but obviously, my comparison was to the Sabres. It's also about making fast decisions. Slower players who can process the game quickly don't let their lack of speed become a liability. When the Sabres seem to try to make quick decisions and play at a fast pace, they give the puck away and allow odd-man rushes. The other part of that- there needs to be a mix of a "system," where players know automatically where to expect one another to be, and instinct. When players I see who have displayed good instincts in the past suddenly seem to make dumb decisions, I tend to look more critically at the system.

yes? (didn't look it up)

...was the most upsetting trade Murray made, to me. As a goalie myself, I thought he had Miller-like lateral movement and control

If Matty Mo retires, I was thinking more along the lines of: TP finds him a way to launder the last 4mil of his contract; not something through management. I'm sure there's a way to do it that the NHLPA can't trace. They can't audit TP's personal books, can they? Or just put a wad of cash in Moulson's safe deposit box?

Eichel had some good plays this game. I've never attended a practice, but if I didn't know any better, I'd assume Housley is not drilling certain fundamentals and is not preparing them for how to successfully cycle the puck against an NHL defensive zone "scheme," if you'd call it that. Seems every team can successfully shut the Sabres down in the O-zone. And then there's Housley's talk of playing "aggressive," which seems like it just encouraged our boys to make stupid plays trying to pinch, etc., allowing an inordinate about of odd-man rushes against us. Then there's my Lehner theory. He's Swiss cheese. Which is why we can't score on NHL goaltenders- our guys are used to scoring in practice when most NHL goalies would make the save.

maybe Risto needs a change of scenery. Package him w/ Kane

No respectable GM will tank. A GM who tanks is a GM who wants to take shortcuts. Why would anyone be surprised when GMTM tried other, non-tank related shortcuts, as well? Anyone who would think of tanking would, IMO, by definition, not be fit to manage a team. To the Buffalo fans- there seems to be a complex about just winning a cup, to say we won it. Like, to the extent that enjoying watching a season of hockey isn't really the goal; the goal is just to say we won. I'd rather watch 2-3 seasons per decade of a Drury/Briere caliber team not win a cup, than this disaster we have now. If we see a build up in 2-3 years, then a cup... no, it wasn't really worth it.

If you're counting Reinhart as one of those we need to sign, think twice... he's as good as gone... ...which is too bad, I think he will be really good one day.

Here's some thoughts: If they trade Kane for other players who have top-end speed, Botterill likes Housley's philosophy If they trade for players who lack top-end speed but possess other qualities, maybe Botterill and Housley are already not on the same page (?) If they trade Kane for a nice haul and then re-sign him July 1, Botterill is a genius and I buy a Kane jersey

It's funny- everybody thought the team was going to be so improved that moving on from Gionta would be natural. Looks like we all called that one wrong, including GMBot. Early results notwithstanding- no matter what GMBot does with Kane, I trust he'll make the best decision. I want him to stay, but if he's traded, I'll assume a contract was untenable, and give Botterill the benefit of the doubt.

Sure. I was just being an ass because I was annoyed I had to go look up their stats and calculate their goals-per-game. And the only argument I was making is that he plays well in non-contract years. I agree with others that "contract year" is a weak, lazy argument. He just likes to be good at hockey, regardless what year it is.