GDT - January 28th, 2020 - Senators @ Sabres, 7 PM ET (WGR/MSG/NHL Network)

[CallawaySabres]

I just want the season to be over already so I don't have to keep wasting my time listing tickets on Stubhub for 25% of the face value I paid

[SwampD]

With no Olofson, these are the lines I want to see next game.

Vesey-Eichel-Skinner
Johansson-Reinhart-Frolik
Sheary-Lazar-Rodrigues
Girgensons-Larsson-Okposo

 

[Thorner]

51 minutes ago, SwampD said:

With no Olofson, these are the lines I want to see next game.

Vesey-Eichel-Skinner
Johansson-Reinhart-Frolik
Sheary-Lazar-Rodrigues
Girgensons-Larsson-Okposo

Vesey is brutal on Jack's wing but other than that, ok. Switch him with Johansson or Sheary. 

Edited January 29, 2020 by Thorny

[Wyldnwoody44]

This game was 100% pitiful from start to finish, these guys should be ashamed 

[Randall Flagg]

1 hour ago, SwampD said:

With no Olofson, these are the lines I want to see next game.

Vesey-Eichel-Skinner
Johansson-Reinhart-Frolik
Sheary-Lazar-Rodrigues
Girgensons-Larsson-Okposo

 

Count me in on reuniting GLO. Those guys are so good together, and none are as good when separated. 
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Just got home from the game (stopped at the gym after). The most obvious thing that stuck out to me was that, for the second Ottawa-Sabres game in a row, the Sabres had no ability to peel themselves off of the perimeter with the puck. Ottawa, of all teams, has their slot on lockdown - against us and only us. This continues for the second coach in a row (really, about the 5th coach in a row) and is evidently because we only have about 2 forwards that can hang onto a puck in any area where the possession might be contested, much less do anything with it. Everyone else NEEDS the shield of the boards to have a prayer at keeping it. It is our biggest long term offensive issue. We need to acquire players that can do things with the puck in traffic, in dangerous areas, and who are mentally inclined to drive or get the puck to those areas at every opportunity.

Man, Frolik is awful with the puck on his stick. Good PKer from what I can see. 

This is the team we built, and so it's no surprise that they struggle the way they do. The most alarming thing is that Ottawa seemed just as skilled as we are, and we're supposed to be years apart in a rebuild cycle. Hell, their transitions seemed miles smoother than anything I've seen from our Sabres in a decade. The most depressing thing is watching teams like Vancouver, who made the playoffs in the McEichel year and started a real slide after that, sitting in first place in their division despite their management being the butt of NHL management jokes the entire time, zooming past us in a purported rebuild. We haven't, and still aren't, getting this right. 

They played Botterill's interview on the way home, and there was so much in there about developing skill, seeing our team get better and develop and learn how to win, but these are the same guys doing the same thing they were doing last October. Every single word he spoke rang hollow and wasn't really supported by anything tangible. My anger at the current state of things peaked in August, so I'm not even mad. Just bummed. 

Frolik, Vesey, Sheary, Vlad, Pouliot. I understand Botterill's depth forward type preference at this point. It does nothing for me. He very clearly looks for straight line skating speed (and yet we still feel so slow, even/especially when these guys have the puck) and a nice number in the even strength goal column. A good thing in a vacuum, but I don't think the film on any of these guys would have suggested that they could come play together in a depth role and contribute regular offense. I don't think Botterill is very good at watching players on other teams and projecting them into their roles he has planned for them on our team, accurately. It's absolutely killing us, and as a result, we are left with praying that having to fill like 6 forward slots in one offseason will go well enough that we can compete for a wild card spot in Jason's fourth season as GM. 

The building was emptier than it was for the Predators game I saw during the long winter stretch in 2013-14. 

Edited January 29, 2020 by Randall Flagg

[Randall Flagg]

What happened with Ullmark? No replays and I didn't catch the initial issue. If he's out for a long time, and Hutton is leading the ship, that adds more fuel to the "nice roster, Jason" fire 

[Thorner]

9 minutes ago, Randall Flagg said:

Count me in on reuniting GLO. Those guys are so good together, and none are as good when separated. 
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Just got home from the game (stopped at the gym after). The most obvious thing that stuck out to me was that, for the second Ottawa-Sabres game in a row, the Sabres had no ability to peel themselves off of the perimeter with the puck. Ottawa, of all teams, has their slot on lockdown - against us and only us. This continues for the second coach in a row (really, about the 5th coach in a row) and is evidently because we only have about 2 forwards that can hang onto a puck in any area where the possession might be contested, much less do anything with it. Everyone else NEEDS the shield of the boards to have a prayer at keeping it. It is our biggest long term offensive issue. We need to acquire players that can do things with the puck in traffic, in dangerous areas, and who are mentally inclined to drive or get the puck to those areas at every opportunity.

Man, Frolik is awful with the puck on his stick. Good PKer from what I can see. 

This is the team we built, and so it's no surprise that they struggle the way they do. The most alarming thing is that Ottawa seemed just as skilled as we are, and we're supposed to be years apart in a rebuild cycle. Hell, their transitions seemed miles smoother than anything I've seen from our Sabres in a decade. The most depressing thing is watching teams like Vancouver, who made the playoffs in the McEichel year and started a real slide after that, sitting in first place in their division despite their management being the butt of NHL management jokes the entire time, zooming past us in a purported rebuild. We haven't, and still aren't, getting this right. 

They played Botterill's interview on the way home, and there was so much in there about developing skill, seeing our team get better and develop and learn how to win, but these are the same guys doing the same thing they were doing last October. Every single word he spoke rang hollow and wasn't really supported by anything tangible. My anger at the current state of things peaked in August, so I'm not even mad. Just bummed. 

Frolik, Vesey, Sheary, Vlad, Pouliot. I understand Botterill's depth forward type preference at this point. It does nothing for me. He very clearly looks for straight line skating speed (and yet we still feel so slow, even/especially when these guys have the puck) and a nice number in the even strength goal column. A good thing in a vacuum, but I don't think the film on any of these guys would have suggested that they could come play together in a depth role and contribute regular offense. I don't think Botterill is very good at watching players and projecting them into their roles he has planned for them accurately. It's absolutely killing us, and as a result, we are left with praying that having to fill like 6 forward slots in one offseason will go well enough that we can compete for a wild card spot in Jason's fourth season as GM. 

The building was emptier than it was for the Predators game I saw during the long winter stretch in 2013-14. 

Bolded is spot on and it was nice seeing it laid out like that. 

[Randall Flagg]

The Johansson on the power play thing, they just really need Olofsson back. They NEED one timers from that spot, it's a fundamental part of the way they play, and why TBL's PP is so deadly (Hedman-Stamkos-Kuch do the same stuff as Dahlin-Eichel-Olofsson). 

I know people want Skinner there, but Skinner literally has zero one timer goals as a Sabre. He can't shoot them. Johansson has a couple. He can get those shots off even though he was bad at them tonight. 

Skinner on the first power play unit drives me bonkers, he rarely makes the right choice and has suspect passing when he does. It's a different story in OT or with a goalie pulled

[sabremike]

9 minutes ago, Randall Flagg said:

What happened with Ullmark? No replays and I didn't catch the initial issue. If he's out for a long time, and Hutton is leading the ship, that adds more fuel to the "nice roster, Jason" fire 

Given that he had to be helped off the ice by two guys I don't think it looks good at all. 

[Randall Flagg]

3 hours ago, PASabreFan said:

Terry's dumb enough to believe if Skinner and Ullmark hadn't gotten hurt, they'd be a playoff team.

Hopefully he's watching his the Penguins competing for the 1 seed in the entire eastern conference despite missing Crosby AND Malkin for over a dozen games, and Crosby himself for 28 games.

Oh, and taking the fall-off of their twice cup winning goalie Murray in stride, with Jarry.

Edited January 29, 2020 by Randall Flagg

[PerreaultForever]

2 hours ago, Kruppstahl said:

I noted several times tonight just how freaking slow Johansson's hands are.  He and Skinner are polar opposite types of players and I agree Skinner should be on Eichel's wing.

 

If you are referring to that penalty he took, I agree, that was really bad.  

Yes, Johanson is a bad sniper. Good skater, good passer, but has a nothing shot. Having him on the PP as a playmaker is ok, but that means Jack, Sam, whoever is out there has to be taking the shots. Some of that failure goes to the coaching, but some of it is because other teams have seen the video and know our glaring weaknesses and over reliance on Jack.

As for calling Skinner a dumbass on the penalty yes, but I want to add he was doing this before the injury too. He has done this several times already this year. He has a temper and takes lazy and selfish penalties. If he's scoring 30-40 goals maybe you forgive it, but if you are not producing you need to stop behaving like a diva and get back to hard work and disciplined play. If Skinner was on a top team or a Tortorella type coached team he'd be benched..........but then again so would have the rest of this sad sack of losers. 

One thing I found hilarious tonight though, was there were 25 NHL scouts in the building according to TSN, and they don't dress the 2 guys who demanded trades - too funny. Guessing nobody upped their trade value on our side, that's for sure. 

[Taro T]

15 minutes ago, PerreaultForever said:

Yes, Johanson is a bad sniper. Good skater, good passer, but has a nothing shot. Having him on the PP as a playmaker is ok, but that means Jack, Sam, whoever is out there has to be taking the shots. Some of that failure goes to the coaching, but some of it is because other teams have seen the video and know our glaring weaknesses and over reliance on Jack.

As for calling Skinner a dumbass on the penalty yes, but I want to add he was doing this before the injury too. He has done this several times already this year. He has a temper and takes lazy and selfish penalties. If he's scoring 30-40 goals maybe you forgive it, but if you are not producing you need to stop behaving like a diva and get back to hard work and disciplined play. If Skinner was on a top team or a Tortorella type coached team he'd be benched..........but then again so would have the rest of this sad sack of losers.

One thing I found hilarious tonight though, was there were 25 NHL scouts in the building according to TSN, and they don't dress the 2 guys who demanded trades - too funny. Guessing nobody upped their trade value on our side, that's for sure.

Flip side of that, the 2 guys that want to be traded and the team wants to trade did nothing at all tonight to lower their trade value.  Can only think of 1 player (or 2 tops) that dressed tonight that we can say that about.  From that perspective,  keeping those 2 away from the scouts was ####ing brilliant. ?

[PerreaultForever]

3 minutes ago, Taro T said:

Flip side of that, the 2 guys that want to be traded and the team wants to trade did nothing at all tonight to lower their trade value.  Can only think of 1 player (or 2 tops) that dressed tonight that we can say that about.  From that perspective,  keeping those 2 away from the scouts was ####ing brilliant. ?

LOL. Good point. 

[bunomatic]

Team stunk like a shithouse door on a tuna boat. Not sure what to think about Ralphs comment “ we like our team.” What is he seeing that everyone else is missing ? And is he really that much more intelligent than us ? And whats with pulling the damn goalie with 3 or 4 minutes to go with a man advantage so the other team can run up the score ? Face it Ralph. That doesn’t seem to work with this group of guys. Its obvious to everyone but you. I could understand your love affair with this strategy if it worked. It doesn’t. It is fun seeing the joy on the faces of our opponents as they pad their stats though. This bloody team.

[nucci]

6 hours ago, pi2000 said:

I know it sounds like an excuse, because it is, but it's really really really tough to jump right back in after 10 days off and be able to play at top speed.  

I don't know what the guys did over the break, saw some went to tropical areas to spend time golfing, hanging out at the beach, etc... it takes a while to get your legs, hands, eyes, mind moving at elite NHL speed after taking that much time off.   

They'll be better on Thursday.

So now that's 2 major injuries where guys injured themselves, unprovoked by a teammate or opponent.     LIke Olofsson screwing his leg into the ground.    I have an issue with that.  It's freak injuries, but if you're locked in playing on your toes, 100% focused, those things aren't going to happen to you.   It's when you get lackadaisical, careless, lose focus, that you end up hurting yourself in those ways.    These are young inexperienced players... tough lessons to learn, but they'll learn from it.   

it does sound like an excuse...a very poor one

[Huckleberry]

I'm in tank mode

and some of botts trades.

[steveoath]

Hutton in goal for the rest of the season.

 

Lose for Lafreniere!!

[jad1]

7 hours ago, SwampD said:

With no Olofson, these are the lines I want to see next game.

Vesey-Eichel-Skinner
Johansson-Reinhart-Frolik
Sheary-Lazar-Rodrigues
Girgensons-Larsson-Okposo

 

I get the concept of trying to build two scoring lines, and it's a good one if you can pull it off.  But the reality is that  this roster, with or without Olofsson, cannot pull it off.

This roster has one scoring line and three grind lines.  Trying to build two scoring lines with this roster is futile.  Ralph needs to lean into this fact and put Skinner on the first line.

The Sabres should try to have its top line score 2 or 3 goals a game, while the other three lines grind the opposition down.  They can hope for a lucky goal then from the grinders, the defense, or the power play.

Until Botterill can figure out how to acquire better forward talent, this is the reality for the current Sabres roster.

 Ralph can give the fans one legit, exciting line to watch every game, or we can watch a $9 million player be mismanaged every game (along with all the other frustrating things about this team).  At this point, I know what I want to watch.

 

[Tondas]

28 minutes ago, steveoath said:

Hutton in goal for the rest of the season.

 

Lose for Lafreniere!!

Next year for  Lafrenière.

[Doohicksie]

7 hours ago, Randall Flagg said:

Good PKer from what I can see. 

I was going to question that considering the Sens scored 3 PP goals, but he was not on the ice for any of them.  Turns out Larsson and Girgs were the forwards out for all three goals.

[Doohicksie]

6 hours ago, bunomatic said:

“we like our team.”

Translation:  "Well we suck, but I'm stuck with what JBot gave me to work with."

[Doohicksie]

7 hours ago, Randall Flagg said:

What happened with Ullmark? No replays and I didn't catch the initial issue. If he's out for a long time, and Hutton is leading the ship, that adds more fuel to the "nice roster, Jason" fire 

He went to push off and ended up falling with is right knee awkwardly bent.  The shot they showed from above was very painful just to look at.  He immediately rolled over onto his hands and knees (while play continued) and couldn't get up.  After a Sen fanned on what would have been an easy goal, the officials blew the play dead.  He was writhing in pain.

Edited January 29, 2020 by Doohickie

[Cityo'Rasmii]

Poor Linus.  Get better soon.  Poor team.  Poor franchise.  The pain & suffering continues and it's a shame. . .

go Sabres no matter what

[Zamboni]

3 hours ago, Huckleberry said:

I'm in tank mode

and some of botts trades.

So you want to get rid of Eichel and Dahlin too? That’s bold.

[MakeSabresGrr8Again]

7 hours ago, bunomatic said:

Team stunk like a shithouse door on a tuna boat. Not sure what to think about Ralphs comment “ we like our team.” What is he seeing that everyone else is missing ? And is he really that much more intelligent than us ? And whats with pulling the damn goalie with 3 or 4 minutes to go with a man advantage so the other team can run up the score ? Face it Ralph. That doesn’t seem to work with this group of guys. Its obvious to everyone but you. I could understand your love affair with this strategy if it worked. It doesn’t. It is fun seeing the joy on the faces of our opponents as they pad their stats though. This bloody team.

This....