Marvin

You are being overly generous. That was the first time I actually laughed out loud at the team during a game (The Conga Line).

FTFY, based on available evidence. ?

NHL - Buffalo (Aud, KBC), Boston (Garden), NYR (MSG), NYI (Uniondale), NJD (Meadowlands), Washington (Cap Center), Detroit (JLA), Pittsburgh (Civic Center), Philadelphia (Spectrum), Chicago (Stadium), Minnesota (Met Center), San Jose (SAP), Los Angeles (Forum), Anaheim (Anaheim Arena), Columbus (NWA) NBA - Buffalo (Aud), Toronto (MLG), Cleveland (Richfield), Milwaukee (Milwaukee Arena), Baltimore (Baltimore Arena), Detroit (Palace) NFL - Buffalo (Rockpile, Rich), Cleveland (Cleveland Stadium), Pittsburgh (3 Rivers), Cincinnati (Riverfront), Chicago (Soldier Field), Minnesota (Metrodome), Detroit (Silverdome), Indianapolis (RCA Dome) MLB - Toronto (Exhibition Stadium, Skydome), Montreal (Olympic park) I've seen numerous other sporting events and sports in general (Soccer, NCAA games at UMd and MSU), but I figure that gives you an idea of how I avoided depression when I was an undergrad and grad student.

If I were a free agent who feels undervalued, I might prefer Buffalo. What you would want is the Mike Peca model: someone in an organization that is trying to win now and who is buried behind established players for even 4th line minutes. He comes to Buffalo, gets to play a bit more, and POOF - he's one of the best 2-way players in the NHL.

Now if all the other completely unappealing candidates got hired as assistants, I could sleep much more easily...

One way for JBot to play defence is to do something tactical that could buy him an extra year of leeway - that would be to screw the Leafs and hire Keefe.

One point that is this survey does not account for is Buffalo expats boost the ratings of nationally televised games with the Sabres, even though they have been horrible for years. The Buffalo market is not that large, but the influence of the Buffalo Sabres is very large.

This is what I was wondering. His contract is up this year. He could expect a decent payday for a very good term. If he has a solid year for a defenceman with only the typical bumps and bruises (say, 70 games), how good would you feel about a 6x6 contract? That makes me wince because of his history.

I don't think so. Boston and Chicago were similar; they often had teams misjudging distances, times, angles, etc. If a team clutched and grabbed back in the day (you know who they were), they could make it almost impossible for a team to get any speed through the neutral zone. Similarly, the Sabres of the time would take a neutral zone turn-over, blow right by the vistors' defence, and be on top of the goaltender before anyone on the opposition could get their bearings straight. I always figured that this advantage is what made the Sabres almost impossible to beat at home, but did not translate well on the road in the playoffs.

Yes. Even better was when Sabres fans started chanting, "Let's Go, Buffalo!" and Mike Emrick tried to hide it by yelling over the fans into the microphone that it was, "Let's Go, Hurricanes."

Point of fact: from the time that Botterill said that and the last two games of the season (games 62-80), the Sabres went 2-15-2. Maybe the club quit on the GM because the GM had already quit on them.

I can buy that.

I was a grad student in Applied Math at Moo U. There was a bar in Lansing, Michigan where the bouncer was from South Buffalo. The only 4 people left in the bar were Sabres fans.

Thank you, PA. I understand why people think that there only being 31 jobs makes any head coaching position attractive. It certainly does. But if someone has options or doubts, I should think that your thought process is part of his thought process. And I will add on the following: In all our griping about Housley's lousy line combinations and defence pairings, let us recall that our opening night roster included at least as many guys who had no business being in the NHL (Sobotka, Elie, Thompson) as there were clear top-6 players. Just adding a full line of clearly NHL-level fourth-line possession players, even if they would have a hard time finishing a bag of popcorn let alone a scoring chance, would have been a significant improvement. Even if it is not a major factor, I can't believe that this wouldn't give anyone pause about taking the Sabres' job. Surely if you have options, you have to at least think, "is this really the best I can do?"

In some respects, no one can be a hire we can be satisfied with. Someone who has won a Cup as a head coach gets the brand that "aside from Scotty Bowman, no one has won a Cup with more than one team." Someone who has not won a Cup as an NHL coach is a retread and is unimaginative. Someone who does not have experience as an NHL head coach doesn't have experience. So what do we want? I can always give objections to anyone. On the other hand, I can live with Martin, Ruff, Keefe, Gronberg, etc. I can't think of anyone obvious who is available who would flat out excite me.

Just curious: if he does not get injured after returning, does he lose the "oft-injured" label?

For 2018-9, my wish list was: Item 1: Vladimir Sobotka does not play. Item 2: Better goalie coach to improve the goaltending Item 3: Improve the hockey IQ of at least one of the top 3 defence pairings Item 4: 4 competent NHL lines on the big club Item 5: at least 1 line in the minors and 1 defence pairing capable of playing in the NHL Sadly, that looks like my wish-list to start this season as well...

Also Roger Nielson, Jim Schoenfeld, and Craig Ramsay in Buffalo.

I figured it was appropriate because that's where I think the minds of Sabres' Management have been since Lucic ran Miller. I was just surprised that when I came here, unregistered, that I had this big red button telling me that I could start a thread! In any event, thank you all very much for your friendly welcome.

I am a frequent lurker here and have tried to register before, but I am not registered. Please feel free to delete this thread when you have fixed the issue.