The Reckoning: Botterill's Off-Season

[Eleven]

^ Interesting indeed, Brawndo; thanks for posting that.

[Randall Flagg]

"18. Buffalo likes what it has at centre with Eichel, Mittelstadt and Ryan O’Reilly. The Sabres believe a healthy Zach Bogosian and Jake McCabe will help Brendan Guhle and Casey Nelson, because they’ll be properly slotted."

 

Sweet Jesus. 

I guess I won't be buying center ice next season. 

 

We're banking on McCabe - Bogo to be our 3-4. 

[Sabres Fan in NS]

News flash JBOT ...

 

Bogo is never healthy for more than a third, if you are lucky, of a season.

[Brawndo]

Yeah that one kind of sucks.

[darksabre]

Good stuff from Botterill there. 

[nfreeman]

17. The Sabres will finish 31st and have the best lottery odds for the No. 1 draft pick. It’s been a tough year for Botterill and head coach Phil Housley. They came from organizations with demanding coaches, but there’s no doubt a lot of the tone in Nashville and Pittsburgh is set by the players. In talking to some of the Sabres, they see the “cycle of losing” affecting the younger guys.

 

“Look at Rasmus Ristolainen,” one said. “He’s a really good player. But he’s been here the longest. [Losing is] all he knows.”

 

Opponents say they’ve taken advantage of Jack Eichel’s obvious on-ice frustration. I mentioned these comments to Botterill and we had a really good conversation about it.

 

“[Eichel’s] last injury came at such a bad time. We went to Western Canada, beat Calgary, Edmonton and Vancouver. Our power play was on a 30-per cent stretch, and he hurt his ankle.”

 

The GM shrugged his shoulders in frustration at the memory.

 

“You just want see him have some success. We need to win games. It’s not just Jack’s team. We need to help him. Teammates need to help him. When he is challenged, he responds in a good way. You talk about changing culture. How do you do that? You can’t always just trade for it. That’s why it’s so important that Rochester made the playoffs. Those young players are going to understand what it is like to play meaningful games, what it takes to win them.”

 

He told a story about Linus Ullmark, who will get every chance to be Buffalo’s No. 1 goaltender next season. In a December game against Belleville, Ullmark lost a shutout with one minute left.

 

“Some goalies would be upset, but Ullmark was celebrating in the room with everyone else. All he cared about was the win. That’s what we need.”

 

 

Why, it's almost like professional hockey people think losing begets...more losing!

 

Separately:  it does sound like it's Ullmark's job to lose.  That makes me kinda nervous.

 

 

"18. Buffalo likes what it has at centre with Eichel, Mittelstadt and Ryan O’Reilly. The Sabres believe a healthy Zach Bogosian and Jake McCabe will help Brendan Guhle and Casey Nelson, because they’ll be properly slotted."

 

Sweet Jesus. 

 

I guess I won't be buying center ice next season. 

 

We're banking on McCabe - Bogo to be our 3-4. 

 

Give them a chance.  At least McCabe, who was a rising star until this year.

[Sabel79]

Plus which, maybe JBOTS feels Nelson is properly slotted at 7.

[WildCard]

I have no idea how to fix this culture other than simply building a winner in Rochester, and bringing up Casey, Ullmark, Nylander, etc. next season isn't going to help that at all. We have to have another season of them all growing and winning together down there, no matter how much it will suck for us up here

Why, it's almost like professional hockey people think losing begets...more losing!

 

Separately:  it does sound like it's Ullmark's job to lose.  That makes me kinda nervous.

 

It does, but you can get out of it. I just don't know how. The Oilers all the sudden did it, and so did the Avs, Pens, and Hawks. 

[SwampD]

We regularly ran out Weber on the top pairing with Strachan, Meszaros, Benoit, rookie Zadorov and Rookie Ristolainen behind him, just three years ago...

And somehow even those guys knew to not leave a man open 6 feet from the goalie. :D

[Thorner]

Our forwards would have looked so much more competent with a better D corps.

 

Definitely, but far too often our forwards had open looks and failed to convert. Larsson and Nolan aren’t going to finish their breakaways any better just cause the pass is coming from Dahlin.

 

Don't we get cap relief when Bogo is on ltir?

To my knowledge Bogosian has ever only been on IR, not LTIR.

 

"18. Buffalo likes what it has at centre with Eichel, Mittelstadt and Ryan O’Reilly. The Sabres believe a healthy Zach Bogosian and Jake McCabe will help Brendan Guhle and Casey Nelson, because they’ll be properly slotted."

 

Sweet Jesus.

I guess I won't be buying center ice next season.

 

We're banking on McCabe - Bogo to be our 3-4.

 

Ya, that killed it for me. Relying on Bogosian to be our third best D man practically sinks the season before it starts. That was pretty disheartening to read.

 

Edit: But as Taro smartly pointed out in another thread, that may have just been GM speak. I guess we’ll see.

Edited April 6, 2018 by Thorny

[LGR4GM]

I think trades are coming. That locker room is split and even if you get table scraps I say move out some of the lesser players adding to the problem. 

[darksabre]

I think trades are coming. That locker room is split and even if you get table scraps I say move out some of the lesser players adding to the problem.

This is where things are going to get interesting. Botterill may end up making trades we don't like on the face because he knows things we don't.

[WildCard]

I think trades are coming. That locker room is split and even if you get table scraps I say move out some of the lesser players adding to the problem. 

This is where things are going to get interesting. Botterill may end up making trades we don't like on the face because he knows things we don't.

I'm excited about it

[dudacek]

It’s hard to see a trade coming that people around here will be down on.

 

I’d say some still believe in Reino and Risto and won’t like either being dumped for a handful of “lesser” pieces.

And We’ve will be pissed at a ROR for futures deal.

 

But hockey trades? Sure, fill your boots.

 

By and large we’re willing to accept trading anyone short of Jack, at this point.

And some would even accept that.

[WildCard]

It’s hard to see a trade coming that people around here will be down on.

 

I’d say some still believe in Reino and Risto and won’t like either being dumped for a handful of “lesser” pieces.

And We’ve will be pissed at a ROR for futures deal.

 

But hockey trades? Sure, fill your boots.

 

By and large we’re willing to accept trading anyone short of Jack, at this point.

And some would even accept that.

Anyone back Jack and Risto for me

[LGR4GM]

Anyone back Jack and Risto for me

I'm willing to trade Risto at this point. 

[Randall Flagg]

I think we'd have a decent chance at trading Risto for a defenseman that we all think appears to be worse than Risto but is actually better at defense and hockey in general.

[Tondas]

I'm willing to trade Risto at this point. 

 Only way I'd trade Risto at this point is if some team takes Okposo with him.

[Radar]

I'm open for trading Risto before ROR. Of course that's always open depending on the return. For me I think ROR and Jack are the two best all around players we have. If we win the lottery I'm inclined to keep ROR,Risto both and move ROR to wing and see what our young forwards can do. Then look at trying to find a goalie if your not sold on Ulmark being ready to be #1.

[nucci]

Totally agreed. I am still excited about Dahlin as I would really love to see how good this kid is and maybe he rejuvenates Risto who I certainly don't want to give up on yet (although his regression this season really worries me). Other than that, from November on I felt very little regarding this team as I knew it was more of the same by then. Tough past 7 years to be sure.

you're confident he'll be a Sabre?

[Drunkard]

I'm open for trading Risto before ROR. Of course that's always open depending on the return. For me I think ROR and Jack are the two best all around players we have. If we win the lottery I'm inclined to keep ROR,Risto both and move ROR to wing and see what our young forwards can do. Then look at trying to find a goalie if your not sold on Ulmark being ready to be #1.

O'Reilly is far and away our best defensive center. He should not be moved to wing. I'd put Eichel on O'Reilly's wing before I'd put O'Reilly on Eichel's wing.

[Brawndo]

From The Bobcast today, as typed by Chris Nichols

 

Congratulations to the Buffalo Sabres: Last place overall, baby. Well done,” said Bob McKenzie. “The best odds – 18.5 percent – in the draft lottery.

 

“Now I’m sure that Jason Botterill – the new general manager of the Sabres – and head coach Phil Housley – the new head coach this season – I’m sure they didn’t expect this. I’m sure they didn’t want it. They did not try to tank. They earned it. They were that bad this year. And I think that caught a lot of people, including myself to some degree, by surprise.

 

“I think it’s going to be a real interesting offseason in Buffalo. There’s not going to be any management or coaching changes that I’m aware of, but I’ve got to think that there’ll be some player changes, that they’re going to shake things up a little bit.

 

“I won’t get too specific on that because I think it’s too early for that, but what I would say is this: I think there’s going to be some players traded out of there, and I suspect there’s probably going to be some players that ask to be traded out of there after the year that they had.

 

“So anyways, for Buffalo right now the only thing that matters is trying to win the draft lottery.”

[WildCard]

From The Bobcast today, as typed by Chris Nichols

 

Congratulations to the Buffalo Sabres: Last place overall, baby. Well done,” said Bob McKenzie. “The best odds – 18.5 percent – in the draft lottery.

 

“Now I’m sure that Jason Botterill – the new general manager of the Sabres – and head coach Phil Housley – the new head coach this season – I’m sure they didn’t expect this. I’m sure they didn’t want it. They did not try to tank. They earned it. They were that bad this year. And I think that caught a lot of people, including myself to some degree, by surprise.

 

“I think it’s going to be a real interesting offseason in Buffalo. There’s not going to be any management or coaching changes that I’m aware of, but I’ve got to think that there’ll be some player changes, that they’re going to shake things up a little bit.

 

“I won’t get too specific on that because I think it’s too early for that, but what I would say is this: I think there’s going to be some players traded out of there, and I suspect there’s probably going to be some players that ask to be traded out of there after the year that they had.

 

“So anyways, for Buffalo right now the only thing that matters is trying to win the draft lottery.”

Not sure who this could possibly be other than RoR and Lehner

[nfreeman]

 Only way I'd trade Risto at this point is if some team takes Okposo with him.

 

What if the Sabres drop to #4 in the draft -- would you trade Risto plus that pick for Karlsson?

[darksabre]

What if the Sabres drop to #4 in the draft -- would you trade Risto plus that pick for Karlsson?

Yes, but he has to agree to an extension.