Cascade Youth

I don’t think “fire all the scouts” fits the internally-sourced, communicator, cost-efficient approach this hire indicates.

That got me thinking - perhaps Botterill never stopped working for Pittsburgh ?.... would explain a LOT.

Love how the official Sabres release looks like a Weight Watchers “before and after” video - not so much the difference in pounds but how they chose a photo of Adams smiling against a bright background, contrasted with the dark, brooding photo of Jason. Good stuff.

That they've been grooming him for this for a decade, he's a tireless worker, he worked his way up from nothing, he's a "people person" who brings people together, he understands all aspects of running the team because he's worked in all corners of it, he's a Local Boy, etc...

Here comes the Russ Brandon Origin Narrative.

Except one.

Who is the "they"? The Pegulas are ADDICTED to rookie GMs. They've only ever hired/retained rookie GMs. Beane worked out; the rest have been disasters.

This is good but it won't mean very much unless they seriously rebuild their talent scouting operation. They literally cannot evaluate players right now - Botterill never set up an effective pro personnel/amateur scouting operation. Not sure if that's all on him - the owners have to be willing to invest in the right resources AND move on from legacy hires who don't add value. They've done so with the Bills but that was during a more cash-rich environment (especially for the energy sector). If RaKru and Adams are relying on the same shaky information to make personnel decisions, the product may not improve very much. Still, Botts was classic "middle management" and I'm glad he's gone.

The constant attacking of the media in this country may be a sign of the looming apocalypse. It’s beyond cynical - it’s some kind of Mad Luddite Disease that is overtaking society.

Bestie Boys

MOVE THE FRANCHISE.

Folks need to vote with their pocketbooks. I feel like there are fans who come to this board to vent but then don’t think twice about shelling out money for season tickets and merch and whatnot. If you don’t like the product (or worse: don’t even care enough anymore to like or dislike it, which is where I’m at), stop flippin’ paying for it!

This franchise. THIS FRANCHISE. Is Botts gonna get to hire another head coach? Nope. Is TP gonna get to hire another GM? Yup.

The “new religion” thread is a disappointment. Turns out they’re just discussing the same old religions.

Huh.

“We”........?

Whatever. In these monotonous days, maybe we’re fortunate to have one guy (bot?) telling us all to “shut up and like it,” so that we as a community can beat the stuffing out of his message. Keeps things interesting and reaffirms the shared sense of disgust. Consensus is boring.

Makes you think they might be a Pegula, fits the type!

One thing this pandemic has done is highlight the flaws of nearly every institution. Reactionary, defensive communist regime full of fearful bureaucrats? Not a surprise they sat on the problem and tried to cover up the true extent of the outbreak: it was predictable. Science-skeptical President who carried out his mandate of gutting established bureaucracies and prefers his own instincts to actual data? Can’t be surprised that his “nothing to see here” first reaction made him look like the mayor from Jaws. Regardless of your politics, you could have gone from institution to institution around the world and predicted exactly what ended up happening based on the type of people in charge and their professed world outlooks. From the standpoint of American society writ large, I hope this is an apolitical statement: we generally prefer a “buy now, pay later” approach. We finance things on credit, it’s part of the American DNA. This is what we’ve chosen, always. Americans don’t want to spend now to deal with a problem in the future: we don’t want to pay now for a medical infrastructure that would maybe help some future generation deal with a pandemic. This is the result; it was entirely predictable. Some might say the next big debt coming due is climate change, but even suggesting that has become “political” so I won’t go there. Personally I would hope society learns some lessons from all of this and realizes that being guided by anything other than science and data is a dangerous recipe for catastrophe - but some things are so deeply embedded in American culture that I’m skeptical anything will really change.

Yes, thank you for being “fair.”

Must be nice to just believe whatever you want.

I’d be concerned about any haul which Botts & Co. evaluated.

So weird that a crazy thing like that would happen in Florida...

Same, started it up tonight. What a bunch of lunatics. Humanity, I mean.

You can now order cocktails for delivery in New York State. The wife and I ordered mason jars full of Negronis the other day. What a world, hope that sticks.