Robviously

Pretty sure he was talking about Laaksonen, our 3rd round pick that came completely out of nowhere. (We had a 1st and two 2nds last year before that.) Laaksonen was the guy that wasn't supposed to go anywhere near that early and there was a ton of confusion about his size since it was initially reported he was 5'9" and 130 pounds. Supposedly he's 6'1" now but still pretty light at 165-ish pounds. Maybe a reach but the Sabres supposedly were watching him for 2 years and weren't the only team so maybe they just wanted to be sure they got him. Total swing for the fences pick but it's the 3rd round so....eh. I like the Sabres going after a mystery guy. And, FWIW, he made it to the top league in Finland this month so at least one good sign for his development. Now we just need him to add like 35 pounds....

We agree that Lehner can't steal games, but his problem isn't perception or intangibles. He's a big, athletic goalie with lousy fundamentals. He gives up big rebounds, overplays the puck, and loses track of the puck when it goes behind the net. He's also way too emotional and plays a position where that really doesn't help you (or the team). His size and athleticism can make up for that and he can put up great numbers but ultimately he's not a guy that can turn a team around or hide its flaws. He'd thrive on a good team. As for Ullmark, maybe he'll turn cynical once he's a full-time NHL goalie next season but the story of the last couple seasons is gained some maturity as a goalie stuck in the AHL and hopefully some as a person getting married. He was always a goofy guy (if you can find the YouTube footage of him dancing in the SHL) so hopefully cheerful, mature Linus Ullmark is the one we finally have to move forward with.

This post goes to 11.

That's the list if nothing changes. The Sabres are going to trade Kane. And Lehner. And Poulliot. Maybe Reinhart. Probably some other players. The team will look a lot different and hopefully we get some prospects to build around and not just picks. I think they'll add some college free agents too, and those guys could arrive sooner since they'll be older when we get them. And if we end up with a top-5 pick in June, that could be a player that arrives pretty quickly. The Sabres are less than the sum of their parts right now. I think a few key moves could really change how the team plays. They looked a lot different for a game last week just from having Guhle and Ullmark in the line-up. Things change fast in sports.

Well, that or the fact that our best prospects are all in college (Mittelstadt, Borgen, Fitzgerald), Europe (Asplund, Olofsson, Davidsson, UPL), or the OHL (Pu, Budik). If we had more 2015 draft picks, I'd expect those guys to be in Rochester right now, but we only had 6 picks that year (4 were 4th round or later). And the 2014 draft was weak (both what we did and in general). The Amerks are winning now on the strength of veterans, but that's definitely helping Ullmark, Guhle, and Smith develop and contribute. And should help when some of the guys above (hopefully) play in Rochester next season. I don't understand this rationale at all. Yes, the same teams generally suck year after year but you also see teams turn around really quickly when they do a couple things right and maybe get lucky. In the next 12 months, I'm expecting Botterill to make some bigger moves that completely remake what our franchise looks like. And then we'll see.

Agree completely but I'm not sure what we're supposed to say about Regier there. I'm sure he knew that was a bad idea (just like fans would intuitively know it's a bad idea) but was he supposed to quit? Threaten to quit? Change their minds? I don't think we know what he realistically could have done in that situation. One of the things I've learned working in the corporate world is that big companies, or really anywhere with an intractable hierarchy (and sports teams count), sometimes have bad ideas championed by leaders and the middle managers are tasked with trying to find a way to make it work. You can push back if you think your job is safe, but that still won't mean a change in direction. Either something like that happened or he read the writing on the wall and just tried to make it work. I can't imagine an NHL GM giving the thumbs up to that idea.

Responding to the last part first: He was getting lambasted last year too -- while his team was deteriorating and he wasn't doing anything to change that. People were finally catching on that the emperor had no clothes. We broke the bank for Moulson and Okposo and the big trades for Kane/Bogo and Lehner were duds. As for everyone being on board at the time, you can find the thread from when the Kane/Bogo trade was on board and no one was really all the pumped. The board hated the Lehner trade. There wasn't much love for the Kulikov trade. People didn't hate the Fasching/Deslauriers trade but that was based on "let's wait and see" and it really hasn't panned out. The board never celebrated everything he did, but I don't think people started evaluating his entire body of work until the last 12 months. He hit a home run early on with ROR/McGinn but the totality of his moves was a slow, overpaid team that isn't built for the modern NHL. And now it's up to Botterill to fix that.

The bottom half. I'm not sure Foligno and Ennis for Scandella and Pominville was supposed to be a franchise-altering move. And every other move was way smaller in scale than that. Considering how terrible Tim Murray was, I'm willing to give Botterill more than half a season to turn things around. And it's very noticeable that seemingly no one here has the same level of enthusiasm for Botterill that we did for Murray when he first showed up. Everyone is cautiously optimistic, but no one is buying into the ZFG t-shirt bullcrap that was "Concept of GMTM." Let's see what he can do. There's some reason for hope given his philosophy, initial moves, and the fact that he immediately got Rochester to a good place (something Murray talked about but failed completely with).

Regardless of if the Jets "won", the Sabres definitely didn't win. Factor in the opportunity cost for the Sabres in this trade - we could've held onto the 1st round pick for 2015 and used it for a different trade or just used it at the draft. We needed to move Stafford and Myers to complete the tank but we could've just moved them for 2015 picks as well. And we'd be in better shape now. The Sabres moved five assets and they'd have been better off keeping three of them and could have been smarter about moving Stafford and Myers. And three seasons later the Sabres are nowhere as a franchise. Bogosian has been a net negative since we acquired him and he's still under contract for two more seasons. And Kane is in his last weeks as a Sabre. Tim Murray really should have been thrown into a volcano at the end of his time in Buffalo.

:D

Fingers crossed.

Well, that's what I was getting at in terms of stronger draft years but, like I said, I don't think teams actually think that way. It also speaks to how random the draft can be and it's probably another reason teams don't try to get picks for specific years since neither guy was taken in a year that was supposed to be special.

Pretty much. I mean, fans are impatient too but we aren't really going anywhere. You could try to stockpile picks for a draft the next year out if you think it's going to be significantly stronger than the upcoming one, but I don't think teams really do that. (I *thought* the Sabres were doing that for 2015 somewhat but then they moved most of the picks they'd stockpiled by draft day -- and for basically the same selfish reason the GM wants fast results.)

One can help you sooner than the other. And if you're the GM making those decisions, the clock is always ticking. You have a finite amount of time to get your team winning.

The only way to do a Reinhart trade that makes sense to me is if we trade him to a contender for a really strong prospect that was drafted in 2016 or 2017. That way they get something to help them in their run this year and in the future, and we get something to build around starting next season that could potentially make us better in the long run. Like Reinhart to the Kings for Kale Clague and a pick. Something like that.

Done. I want them gone. Time for something new.

I think Sabres fans are really overestimating how much Nylander's value is "plummeting." He's 19 and in the AHL. Most CHL prospects don't even play an AHL game until they're 20. He could still get going there and be back on track. I think getting to play with Asplund again (and maybe Olofsson too) could help. I don't discount that he was a teenager on a dysfunctional team last year and still trying to find his way now.

He actually skates?

The Sabres are the hockey equivalent of the Monkey's Paw short story. Yes. And basically in our free time after work.

Which is so stupid. Why not do it now and unveil a gold alternate (a good one this time!) to celebrate the golden anniversary? We'd have something to feel good about now and something to celebrate the anniversary later. These are the types of horrible decisions that get made when your organization is incompetent from top to bottom. How is this hard?

This last part is so dumb.

Get ready for dump passes to Tolbert then.

Slow to snap the ball and it's gonna cost us. Bills making dumb mistakes in the 2nd half.

Bills get the ball back at the 26. Time for lots of Tolldozer probably. :(

Nick O'Leary is awesome at dropping the ball. And if I never see another handoff to Tolbert on 2nd and long, that'd be great.