Marvin

Intellectually, I can see your points. However: 1. The Blues also changed goaltenders as well as coaches. 2. I said last year that Botterill would get a 2C if that turned out to be an issue. 3. I believed Botterill last year when he said the line-up would be a meritocracy. 4. Botterill's press conferences where he tried to justify his inertia showed an inflexibility to changing circumstances, a lack of imagination, and an ignorance of facts in the players' current mental and physical dispositions. 5. I believe that had Botterill done a minimally competent job last season, then the Sabres would have made the playoffs. Period. This is an exceptionally low standard. Hence, my standard for this year is that the expectations for the Sabres should match any of the playoff locks AND that the quality of the roster post 7/1 should be comparable if slightly behind those who should be their peers, whence the following justify skepticism, distrust, and impatience: A. The lack of a clear #2C from the standard of a playoff team. B. The lack of a #3C who is capable of filling the #2C role for a team that wins a playoff series. C. No proof that Tage Thompson will be in Rochester ALL season. D. No proof that Vladimir Sobotka will not be in the organisation before training camp. These are the absolute bare minimum I expect from the roster NOW. I expect him to improve the roster from THAT level. Anything less means the off-season has been a failure. As of now, it is an abject failure.

The NHL and NFL should be looking at each other's legal Trials and Tribble-ations on the concussion issue and respond proactively whenever the next concussion issue turns up. The NHL has a contractual agreement with the CHL that directly affects who may get an opportunity to play in the NHL. As such, NHL precedents in how, say, Chris Pronger's and Claude Lemieux's antics are dealt with set an example for the entire Canadian Junior System and therefore all of junior hockey in North America. IMHO, the NHL has a clear if indirect responsibility because it had treated Scott Stevens's "kill shots" to be as innocuous as James T. Kirk opening the overhead grain bin. They should accept it and work with it. They need to go MUCH farther than the NFL has done with Pop Warner.

I know why I am impatient. Simply, I don't trust JBot's abilities to objectively evaluate the roster, identify NHL quality talent, or jettison the worst deadweight. JBot has now had one calendar year to find a #2C. Last season, he preferred squandering a 10 game winning streak over a draft pick. He has not demonstrated the foresight to account for the possibility that Casey Mittlestadt is not ready to shoulder heavy line-up responsibilities. During last year's training camp, people here reported that John Vogl said that he knew that Tage Thompson would be in the line-up opening night in spite of all evidence that he needed to be in Rochester. He has never found a reason let alone a method to get Vladimir Sobotka off the Sabres. Until I have evidence that he will ice a roster with 4 complete forward lines of NHL-level players, even by accident (...and Skinner-Eichel-Reinhart followed three lines with the talent levels of Mair-Gaustad-Kaleta, Peters-Novotny-Ryan, and Bartovic-Taylor-Botterill would be minimally passable...), I will assume that he is fine with next season's roster looking a lot like last season's roster.

After turning off the radio, I am feeling nostalgic. If JBot doesn't get a #2C before the season starts, it will be time to break out that old school chant, "OOH! AHH! Sabres on the golf course!"

The Buffalo Sabres have improved the defence and depth. Aside: I had to stop listening to WGR -- its net quality of hockey discussion by its afternoon hosts has been inferior to the aggregate quality of hockey discussion by GM Daniel King on his PowerplayChess YouTube channel - none.

It could be worse. If the hosts and many of the guests today on WGR had their way, the line-up could just be adding depth wingers to: Vesey - Eichel - Nylander Skinner - Mittlestadt - Reinhart Olofsson - Rodrigues - Sheary Thompson - Sobotka - Okposo Elie - Asplund - Smith Many of the guests today thought that Eichel could elevate Nylander and Vesey to 25G players, whence Skinner and Reinhart could make an effective second line with Mittlestadt. PHam thinks that Sobotka is better than Girgensons and Larsson. Schopp thinks that last year's 4th liners were the problem and not 2C. Others on WGR think that Thompson on Eichel's wing would score over 20 next year. Several people working with the station today seemed to imply that the above forward lines should make the playoffs. Their love of Sobotka and Thompson that makes me wonder how many of these guys has more access than the let on. No one with any objectivity who believes in Multivariate Statistics, RDBMS querying, and NoSQL databases should believe those 2 should be anywhere near the Sabres. On the other hand, JBot clearly thinks they belong in the Opening Night line-up.

Funny coincidence: a guest on The Instigators mooted the possibility that none of the players will get offer sheets and that multiple players would be at an impasse well into September with Aho as the expected poster boy for this. Oops.

I think Vesey is the winger for Jack. Assuming that the Sabres get a true stop-gap #2 Centre: Skinner - Eichel - Vesey Rodrigues - 2C - Reinhart Sheary - Mittlestadt - Olofsson Girgensons - Larsson - Okposo Ruotsalainen - Asplund - Smith I have a fear that he thinks that Sobotka and Thompson belong in the top 9...

You are welcome. I am very disappointed that the Sabres were not the team to do this with Aho; Carolina is an easier read than Tampa Bay for Point. I would bet a huge amount of money that the battle will be escrow versus signing bonus and will wipe out 1/2 the season.

They can not trade the player for 1 calendar year.

Try this on for size: a non-offer sheet version of an offer-sheet compensation. Let us suppose the Sabres will offer Aho 7 yrs @ 10M AAV, which comes at 7 x 10 / 5 = 14M AAV for compensator purposes. Dundon is on record saying that he is willing to take the picks if he doesn't like the value of an Aho contract. Do you offer "immediate" help with Nylander, Mittlestadt, Cozens, and 2020 1st instead of the 4 x 1st round draft choices?

OK. I am calling you and Tondas out. Sarcasm or not, you two are being deliberately, maliciously obtuse. You both know full well that Pegula tried to win with the Rochester core. You both know that he is referring to the slow recovery from The ****ing Tank. For whatever reason, you seem to think that impugning his integrity or intelligence will assuage your feelings. Blame him all you like. But if I had heard this from my niece, I would have told my brother that I expect better from her before she enters kindergarten in the fall.

I assume @Randall Flagg has the trademark for LargeRant, or do you share them both?

Only if the Captain is signed by the trade deadline.

If last year's problems had been 100% on the roster, then neither would Vladimir Sobotka have been 4th in TOI for the forwards nor would Marco Scandella and Rasmus Ristolainen have got so much ice time. If last year's problems had been 100% on the coach, we all would have Matt Hunwick, Tage Thompson, and Vladimir Sobotka in our desired opening night line-ups for this year. I like the nuance in Flagg's posts. Yes, the roster had glaring flaws. Yes, they were often mishandled dreadfully. And both reinforced the other's problems. <joke> @Randall Flagg -- I hope the referees of the journals that you are submitting your paper to give its abstract the notices it deserves. Do you think it is good enough to get you tenure? </joke>

Dr. Who? The universe shall not, as you so crudely put it, be mine, Doctor; the Universe shall be me!

I think you are on to something. I and several of my former co-workers have met members of the family downtown every now and then when I went to get lunch. (They have the top floor of a tower near where I used to work. [The building is the one in "Bruce Almighty" where fans were throwing things off the roof after the Sabres win the Stanley Cup.]) In many ways, they are very ordinary fans who, honestly, understand hockey strategy and tactics less than everyone on this board. As such, they are probably as upset as we are at how the season transpired. As successful business people, he must know that there was no excuse for not adjusting the long-term plans to capitalise on the early season success. Because they are in a position to act on it, I imagine they expressed their displeasure to Botterill. Hell, I wonder if players, media, and maybe even Housley mentioned it to him. If so, JBot probably feels some heat from above. Let us hope, among other things, that means Tage Thompson goes to Rochester and Vladimir Sobotka goes anywhere else.

FGMTM put him in a situation where he needed to make Dominik Hasek look like Rocky Farr for most fans not to treat him like an abject failure. Although everyone's reactions were understandable, most fans were not fair to him; similarly, he's not putting the blame where it belongs.

Is Aho enough? Let's see. Forwards Skinner - Eichel - Olofsson Rodrigues - Aho - Reinhart Sheary - Mittlestadt - Nylander Girgensons - Larsson - Okposo Asplund, Smith, Criscuolo, Wilson, O'Regan, Thompson Defence Dahlin - Montour McCabe - Miller Pilut - Ristolainen Scandella - Bogosian Goaltender Hutton Ullmark Granted, someone like Donskoi will help. (Omitting Sobotka and demoting Thompson helped a lot.) But that looks like a playoff team.

For reference, that defence was very good, even if it was hardly the best in the league: Schoenfeld -- Korab Hajt -- Guevremont Carriere -- Fogolin / McIntosh That top 4 was very good and very well-rounded. Carriere never impressed me while Fogolin and McIntosh were rookies and often showed it. Did you know: When Bill Hajt retired in 1987, the list of retired players with better team-adjusted +/- ratings was Bobby Orr and Bobby Clarke. That's it. (Source: The Klein and Reif Hockey Compendium, 1987)

I think there should be a better way to graduate draftees into stronger competition that will help their development and allow the team control to slide more in the interim. Moreover, there needs to be more of a push for kids to go to college and/or learn a trade so that they can have a non-NHL future.

Rats.

I think this is perfectly obvious: 1. For whatever reason, JBot was intent on trading ROR. 2. JBot told Terry and Kim that he is trading ROR no matter what. 3. Terry and Kim said, "because the bonus is so large, try not to waste our money; please trade him before we have to pay the bonus. If we pay the bonus, we should try to keep him and work things out." 4. JBot sets his price. For some reason, "mostly futures" is not in the cards (i.e., don't take Tage Thompson; take another draft pick). He rather stupidly thinks that Berglund and Sobotka can return to form. 5. JBot makes the trade and immediately has cartons of eggs on his face. Aside: IMHO, as the owner, Terry SHOULD have final say over how his money is spent. Based on my experience with small companies (less than 100 people), owners tend to get touchy with money when they aren't making money in the business hand-over-fist and look over everybody's shoulders.

The second underline explains my answer to the first underline. My impression of PHam is that his gaslighting seems to have the tacit blessing of management because they never contradict him and tend to eventually do what the gaslighting would lead you to believe that management to do. I feel like he sets us up to be amenable to what management wants to do. JMO.