Hey Homie,
Any fights in the Conference Rooms?
Any reports of Deep Dish Pizza stains all over a certain box suite in Chicago?
?
- IonSabres

it's a hot mess

Michael Pachla: Krueger Crisis? A 2-6-2 slide makes you wonder what's next for the Sabres
- Michael Pachla

This team has been in crisis since 2011. No one has found a way out of this freefall.

New ownership, new GM's new coaching new players.

I still can't figure this out.

JFC it's happening all over again this year. Start out of the blocks like gang busters then tank. Good Thing for Hallmark Christmas movies..

Gawd I hate being a Sabres Fan...

Worse part of all of this is Botts will do nothing. I don't expect any trades by Botts until the Deadline and then it will be our RFA's for low round picks and B/C prospects.

Exciting stuff.

This team has been in crisis since 2011. No one has found a way out of this freefall.

New ownership, new GM's new coaching new players.

I still can't figure this out.
- mattsox

The decision to tank was unequivocally a bad one. People that were new to sports ownership, instead of learning how to try and be successful first, decided to be as bad as possible first. And they’ve never been to undo the damage.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=r7aDhhamxm0

This is where I’m at....

Summary:

We're soft.

Pach says "we look for the pretty goals." That's pretty much correct. We need grinders who can put biscuits in baskets. Our grinders are dull, and we still don't have secondary scoring.

IMO, so far, Botterill is showing that he's good with the cap, but maybe not so good at finding the effective talent.
- Der Kaiser

Teamlilfe - Über Niederlagen zum Erfolg.

We would love an English translation, figure you can bang out a chapter a day.

what is your basis for long term success


this is year 5 of eichel

and right now we are not going to sniff the playoffs in any of these 5 seasons



pretty sure that's a first for a team having drafted a young all star center in the top 2 in the draft
- homiedclown

Our under 25 talent group has been universally ranked in the top 5 by any reputable expert in this field.

The decision to tank was unequivocally a bad one. People that were new to sports ownership, instead of learning how to try and be successful first, decided to be as bad as possible first. And they’ve never been to undo the damage.
- Buffalo--Sabres

This horse has been beaten more than Rodney King.

Waitresses take longer to adjust, more creatures of habit than anything else.

I suggest the entire Sabres organization front office take LSD

Our under 25 talent group has been universally ranked in the top 5 by any reputable expert in this field.
- Pegullaville

Individually

This team has been in crisis since 2011. No one has found a way out of this freefall.

New ownership, new GM's new coaching new players.

I still can't figure this out.
- mattsox

The owner, GM, and coach do not play the games. he consistent theme since 2011 is the team is lacking in talent.

Simply put, they chose to convert all their assets into draft picks and prospects, and they came out of it with two good forwards in Eichel and Reinhart. That was massive asset mismanagement. Mostly thats on GMTM, but Botts has been here for three years now and only managed to add one forward to that group in Skinner, and him on a contract that is controversial to say the least.

Look how bad Detroit is, and yet they have already 4 young talented forwards to build around in Larkin, Athanasiou, Bertuzzi, and Mantha. Three of them are PPG players this year, and Athanasiou scored 30 last year despite an awful start to this season. The thing is, Detroit doesn't even seem close to being good.

I only see one way out at this point, and that's a bunch of trades to flip 3 names like Jokiharju and Risto and McCabe and Miller and Pilut for top end young forwards. We need to put Skinner back with Eichel and Reinhart, and get an entire second line essentially.

Sabres might actually have to call up cozens based on injuries. Yikes.

The owner, GM, and coach do not play the games. he consistent theme since 2011 is the team is lacking in talent.

Simply put, they chose to convert all their assets into draft picks and prospects, and they came out of it with two good forwards in Eichel and Reinhart. That was massive asset mismanagement. Mostly thats on GMTM, but Botts has been here for three years now and only managed to add one forward to that group in Skinner, and him on a contract that is controversial to say the least.

Look how bad Detroit is, and yet they have already 4 young talented forwards to build around in Larkin, Athanasiou, Bertuzzi, and Mantha. Three of them are PPG players this year, and Athanasiou scored 30 last year despite an awful start to this season. The thing is, Detroit doesn't even seem close to being good.

I only see one way out at this point, and that's a bunch of trades to flip 3 names like Jokiharju and Risto and McCabe and Miller and Pilut for top end young forwards. We need to put Skinner back with Eichel and Reinhart, and get an entire second line essentially.
- matty12345

Which Botterill has known for at least 2 years. So is he incompetent or oblivious?

Just bad at his job?

The owner, GM, and coach do not play the games. he consistent theme since 2011 is the team is lacking in talent.

Simply put, they chose to convert all their assets into draft picks and prospects, and they came out of it with two good forwards in Eichel and Reinhart. That was massive asset mismanagement. Mostly thats on GMTM, but Botts has been here for three years now and only managed to add one forward to that group in Skinner, and him on a contract that is controversial to say the least.

Look how bad Detroit is, and yet they have already 4 young talented forwards to build around in Larkin, Athanasiou, Bertuzzi, and Mantha. Three of them are PPG players this year, and Athanasiou scored 30 last year despite an awful start to this season. The thing is, Detroit doesn't even seem close to being good.

I only see one way out at this point, and that's a bunch of trades to flip 3 names like Jokiharju and Risto and McCabe and Miller and Pilut for top end young forwards. We need to put Skinner back with Eichel and Reinhart, and get an entire second line essentially.
- matty12345

On the bright side we do have Cozens coming and at this rate Byfield/Lafreniere isn’t a pipe dream.

Our under 25 talent group has been universally ranked in the top 5 by any reputable expert in this field.
- Pegullaville

I've heard about this since the Ted Black days.

Still waiting for the talent group to take over a game. Let alone a franchise.

Which Botterill has known for at least 2 years. So is he incompetent or oblivious?

Just bad at his job?
- jcragcrumple

Johansson is a good second line wing. Mitts could be a good second line wing. Need a second line center. Which we’ve known since last year.

- adambuffalo

For his own good, and I mean this sincerely, someone needs to tell Okposo it's over

For his own good, and I mean this sincerely, someone needs to tell Okposo it's over
- jcragcrumple

Now can we talk long term ir and a nice cushy job at the hockey academy with Matty Ellis.

For his own good, and I mean this sincerely, someone needs to tell Okposo it's over
- jcragcrumple

Yeah, I was at the game and didn't see it happen, but watching it today it didn't seem like very much contact was made. If he gets concussed that easily he should seriously consider retiring or going on LTIR for the rest of his contract.

Johansson is a good second line wing. Mitts could be a good second line wing. Need a second line center. Which we’ve known since last year.
- Gr8daygo

That’s where Cozens comes in, however we don’t have a stop gap for him which is the main reason we’re all in a state of gloom today.

I've heard about this since the Ted Black days.

Still waiting for the talent group to take over a game. Let alone a franchise.
- mattsox

Welcome to Buffalo where dreams go to die.

We had the best odds at McDavid and lost

We had Leon sitting right there and selected Sam

And now on top of that our generational can’t miss #1 defenceman is getting worse by the minute while Svechnikov is going to score 30+ consistently.

Pach. That last line in your column. Ouch!

That’s where Cozens comes in, however we don’t have a stop gap for him which is the main reason we’re all in a state of gloom today.
- Pegullaville

Even at that. Cozens shouldn’t be a 2c coming out. We have seen that movie twice, it sucks. 3c or wing...

That’s where Cozens comes in, however we don’t have a stop gap for him which is the main reason we’re all in a state of gloom today.
- Pegullaville

We are getting pretty desperate when we are considering dropping an 18-year old WHL player with 0 games professional experience into our line-up as our 2C. Can anyone say "Grigorenko"?

If for no other reason than a massive cultural change on the team, he needs to do the following and get rid of these losers:

Trade/Waive - McCabe,Risto,Scandella, Larsson, Sobotka, Girgs, Okposo, Vesey, Bogo, Sheary,

Am I missing any?

Look how bad Detroit is, and yet they have already 4 young talented forwards to build around in Larkin, Athanasiou, Bertuzzi, and Mantha. Three of them are PPG players this year, and Athanasiou scored 30 last year despite an awful start to this season. The thing is, Detroit doesn't even seem close to being good.


- matty12345

They are by no means old, but are 23, 25, 24 and 25 respectively. Jack, Mitts, Asplund and Cozens are younger than all of them. Sam and Olofsson are younger than all but Larkin. The average age of their forwards is 26.4 where the Sabres is 24.6. And with 3 of them being PPG players this year, they still have scored less 8 goals and played 2 more games. The forwards really aren't the problem in Detroit though. Their defense and goaltending is not good. They have given up more goals than any other team (23 more than Buffalo).