Post-Game Talk (GBU): f*** off refs

[aceface33]

Unpopular opinion: The elbowing call on Eichel was legit. You could see the Lightning player's head snap down and up as Jack skated by. It was so fast it's not something you can fake/sell and it's also a shot to the head which is never good. I'm fine with that call. Also, as the captain Jack needs to be way more mature and not throw a temper tantrum at that moment. The team needs to be focused on killing the penalty, not focused on how they are getting jobbed by the refs.

 

[Cirris]

I’ll take his non-aggressiveness over what TM did. The team had a lot of luck to have that 10 game streak. I kind of wish it didn’t happen in the sense that it set fan expectations way too high. They were the worst team in the league last year. You can’t just flip a switch and be good.

It takes a lot of work to undo the damage TM did. Okposo, I don't even hate the guy, was just a terrible signing. His albatross contract is going to kill the Sabres cap for 4-6 more years.

At least with Botteril, you see a specific plan of the type of player he wants. TM just seemed to acquire any talent, and then hope they can adapt to the system the coach he hires wants.

And to be honest. The trades just aren't there. just look at the transaction sheets. I haven't seen any serious trade other than a fer low round picks for disposable players, or just minor league shuffling moves for AHL depth. Also the type of player Botteril wants, fast skating/high press wingers, and mobile puck moving Dmen, come at a huge premium.

 

[tsujimoto74]

To fill roles needed filling on the team....say what you want about who he targeted, but using assets for what he used them for was smart team building management.

Hard to call it "smart" management considering how well his teams performed.

 

[Sabresfansince1980]

You don't get to totally whiff on multiple trades that sent high picks away and still call it "smart" just because he thought he had the right idea, or meant well.

 

[Buff15Sabres]

It takes a lot of work to undo the damage TM did. Okposo, I don't even hate the guy, was just a terrible signing. His albatross contract is going to kill the Sabres cap for 4-6 more years.

At least with Botteril, you see a specific plan of the type of player he wants. TM just seemed to acquire any talent, and then hope they can adapt to the system the coach he hires wants.

And to be honest. The trades just aren't there. just look at the transaction sheets. I haven't seen any serious trade other than a fer low round picks for disposable players, or just minor league shuffling moves for AHL depth. Also the type of player Botteril wants, fast skating/high press wingers, and mobile puck moving Dmen, come at a huge premium.

This summer I thought Botterill was doing a great job filling out some depth on this team by acquiring Sheary, Berglund, and Sobotka. Halfway through the season and we're left with 2 cap dumps and Sheary...who is fast approaching cap dump status. We even took on a cap dump (Hunwick) to acquire Sheary.

The Skinner trade was great, and I'll give Botts a lot of credit for that. On the other hand, he blew a giant hole in our center depth with the RoR trade, and his veteran pickups have been underwhelming at best. I'm not thrilled with his team building at this point in time. He still has a lot of draft capital and time to fix it and I really hope he does.

 

[Sabresfansince1980]

This summer I thought Botterill was doing a great job filling out some depth on this team by acquiring Sheary, Berglund, and Sobotka. Halfway through the season and we're left with 2 cap dumps and Sheary...who is fast approaching cap dump status. We even took on a cap dump (Hunwick) to acquire Sheary.

The Skinner trade was great, and I'll give Botts a lot of credit for that. On the other hand, he blew a giant hole in our center depth with the RoR trade, and his veteran pickups have been underwhelming at best. I'm not thrilled with his team building at this point in time. He still has a lot of draft capital and time to fix it and I really hope he does.

But aside from the multi-faceted ROR trade, Botts hasn't given up anything nearly as valuable as all the picks TM gave away, for players that WERE NOT just depth but attempts at acquiring impact players. Failed attempts at acquiring impact players.

 

[GellMann]

To fill roles needed filling on the team....say what you want about who he targeted, but using assets for what he used them for was smart team building management.

Nah, we should have made 15 second round draft selections in 4 years, that's realistic /s

We still took 6 more picks in the first 3 rounds than an average team would from 2013-16. The issue is our organizational depth was blown to a billion pieces so that we could tank for the guy who's like 4th in scoring this year from that draft class, and we have never really been able to rebuild it even though every offseason people claim we finally have.

We did all of that for centers, and organizationally, we are running
Eichel
Mittelstadt (22 pt pace)
Sobotka (~12 pt pace)
Larsson
Criscuolo
Asplund
?
?

 

[Dubi Doo]

Didn't we have like a 90% chance of making the playoffs about a month and a half ago?

That's quite a turnaround

It's been an epic free fall. There hasn't been a team in the history of the sport to be leading the league in November and not make the playoffs. We've fallen out of a playoff spot in two months. That's incredible (lack of Better word).

I get that the team isnt as good as that 10 game win streak advertised, but they've been pitifully bad the last two months. There's no excuse for it.

 

[joshjull]

Unpopular opinion: The elbowing call on Eichel was legit. You could see the Lightning player's head snap down and up as Jack skated by. It was so fast it's not something you can fake/sell and it's also a shot to the head which is never good. I'm fine with that call. Also, as the captain Jack needs to be way more mature and not throw a temper tantrum at that moment. The team needs to be focused on killing the penalty, not focused on how they are getting jobbed by the refs.

Unpopular because its inaccurate. McD turning his back to Jack to protect the puck and being hunched over a bit led to Jack colliding with him from behind and clearly hit McD in the upperback/shoulder area. That's what led to McD's head whiplashing as it did. I agree wasn't an embellishment. Jack kept his elbow down and tight to his body. There really wasn't anything else he could have done.

Its also understandable if the ref in the neutral zone misinterpreted what took place as an elbow to the head. from where he was. But that doesn't make it a good call or the right one. It was still a mistake. One that compounded the f*** up with in the Larsson/Sergachev mess that preceded it.

 

[joshjull]

Dave is a fool if he saw this replay angle and then said this. Jack clearly hit the back of McD’s shoulder with his elbow tucked against his body.

 

[joshjull]

It's been an epic free fall. There hasn't been a team in the history of the sport to be leading the league in November and not make the playoffs. We've fallen out of a playoff spot in two months. That's incredible (lack of Better word).

I get that the team isnt as good as that 10 game win streak advertised, but they've been pitifully bad the last two months. There's no excuse for it.

We haven't missed them yet.

 

[OkimLom]

Hard to call it "smart" management considering how well his teams performed.

Again, outside who his targets, it was smart management to use assets to acquire a starting goaltender that was young and cost controlled, it was smart management to acquire a 2C or a top 6 center to insulate your brand new franchise player, and to improve the talent level (wonder how people would feel about Murray getting Stamkos instead at the time, which most likely would’ve cost more than ROR), it was smart management to acquire top 6 goal scoring talent that had term left.

We had nothing even close to what those players provided, and we would’ve been sitting here, if we used these 1st round picks in the draft, waiting for them to develop.

I’m not even going to get into the fact all 3 of these players that Murray went to get are having better years after leaving here.

 

[cramdizzl]

 

[joshjull]

What a vicious elbow. Goon!

 

[Mattilaus]

The most frustrating thing here is that even if it was a shot to the head. What exactly is Jack supposed to do here? He is right against the wall and his arm is as tight against his body as it could be. I guess he is supposed to dive through the air over McDufus. This contact was 100% McD's fault and there was no way for Jack to reasonably avoid it.

 

[cramdizzl]

What a vicious elbow. Goon!

Horrible. Should they strip the C?

 

[Washed Up 29YearOld]

I learned something from that game. If you want to draw a penalty, just skate head first into someone's elbow by the boards and fall down. This knowledge will prove invaluable in the playoffs.

 

[aceface33]

Dave is a fool if he saw this replay angle and then said this. Jack clearly hit the back of McD’s shoulder with his elbow tucked against his body.

Ok, it's easier to see on that angle. I was just going by the head whiplash I saw on the replay last night, which is what I'm sure the ref saw as well....as paranoid as everyone is about head injuries I can see why the ref would make that call. That's why I would hesitate to call it a bad call. I can see why he called it- it's not egregious. I would even hesitate to call the Larson penalty before that horrible either. Larsson gave him a mini-shove but it was in a dangerous position in terms of Sergachev's proximity to the boards. That's why Sergachev was so pissed when he came back up.

Good penalty or bad, what the Sabres can control is how they react and I hated the temper tantrum Eichel threw after that penalty.

 

[Taro Tsujimoto]

Yeah, a glorified slap on the wrist will totally teach him.

 

[Sabre the Win]

Botteril has stocked the farm after it was depleted by Murray. His lack of moves now compares nothing to the void of a strong coach that has elevated the Blue Jackets, Canadiens, and Islanders, teams with lesser roster talent, to vault ahead of us.

Housley is not a good coach.

 

[joshjull]

Ok, it's easier to see on that angle. I was just going by the head whiplash I saw on the replay last night, which is what I'm sure the ref saw as well....as paranoid as everyone is about head injuries I can see why the ref would make that call. That's why I would hesitate to call it a bad call. I can see why he called it- it's not egregious. I would even hesitate to call the Larson penalty before that horrible either. Larsson gave him a mini-shove but it was in a dangerous position in terms of Sergachev's proximity to the boards. That's why Sergachev was so pissed when he came back up. Good penalty or bad, what the Sabres can control is how they react and I hated the temper tantrum Eichel threw after that penalty.

I don't want to hear the "paranoid about head injuries" excuse. In this same game Mitts was punched in the face by Callahan. It was after a whistle and 10ft from a ref looking right at it. No call. Larsson gets intentionally crosschecked in the face by Sergachev and its 4mins for highsticking. A call that generally applies to accidental contact to the face which draws blood. Sergachev should have gotten 5 and game because it was certainly no accident and 100% intentional. He was fined today by player safety for it. But the refs did what the always do.... "manage the game" by giving him 4mins for highsticking and Larsson 2mins for crosschecking. Now the impact of what Sergachev did is just a 2min PP. The old "we don't want to impact the game" nonsense. Yet they don't seem to realize by not properly calling what they should on Sergachev they are also impacting the game.

Btw the ref never had his arm up to penalize Larsson for his shove. It wasn't until Sergachev was getting called that the ref decided to manage the game by giving a penalty to Larsson. Making one up really since shoving someone with one hand is not a crosscheck. The refs were looking to ensure we only had a 2min PP. I say that as someone who has watched this league for years let things go, balance things out, randomly calling things they were letting them go previously in the same game, etc. All done in the name of "managing a game".

 

[Chainshot]

Ok, it's easier to see on that angle. I was just going by the head whiplash I saw on the replay last night, which is what I'm sure the ref saw as well....as paranoid as everyone is about head injuries I can see why the ref would make that call. That's why I would hesitate to call it a bad call. I can see why he called it- it's not egregious. I would even hesitate to call the Larson penalty before that horrible either. Larsson gave him a mini-shove but it was in a dangerous position in terms of Sergachev's proximity to the boards. That's why Sergachev was so pissed when he came back up.

Good penalty or bad, what the Sabres can control is how they react and I hated the temper tantrum Eichel threw after that penalty.

The trailing ref made the call, not the guy 10' away. It's stupid.

 

[debaser66]

.

 

[sabremike]

Housley is not a good coach.

Housley is very close to Doug Weight level of total embarrassing suck behind the bench, and Weight revolutionized the idea of just how a horrible coach can completely send a team down the toilet so far they go through the Earth and end up somewhere in China on the opposite end.

 

[debaser66]

Dahlin was very good tonight
Others in good:
Pilut
Thompson
Reinhart
Larsson
Girgs

Normally I dont complain about refs
But the Larsson/Eichel calls were horrible.

Still dont like the PP execution.
They left a bit on the table until
The ref blackout at the end.
4on4 play was questionable.

I thought they hung in there quite well until the minutes ref disaster.
Nevertheless disappointing to fall out of a spot.
Will be interesting to see if they continue to fall and how many teams are hungrier and better coached.

CJ had a hattrick last nite!
You need to start benching vets to light some fire.
Rotate Smith/olofsson/Nylander in