Post-Game Talk (GBU): The night no one cared

[Goathead]

Good: I switched to the Canada game after the first goal.

 

[joshjull]

Bracket out the 10 game win streak, the Sabres are a sub .500 hockey team. I'm pleased with our success, but the complacency displayed by players, coach, and GM is irritating giving that when you look under the hood, the engine isn't firing on all cylinders. Everyone can and should be doing more. More effort, more adjustments, more call ups. Get to work.

I’d say at this point its on the GM to make adjustments via call ups or trades. Not sure how the coach is the issue. He’s certainly tried every combo you can think of with the middle 6. The results have been the same. Now new blood is probably needed.

 

[Fezzy126]

Every player on the Sabres was a minus tonight except Tage & Sobotka.

Just sayin...

 

[Panthaz89]

Why don’t you go root for the team Tim Murray works for? O wait he’s still unemployed years later and the Sabres are significantly better in every category since Botterill took over.

I don't give Botterill much outside of Pilut and Skinner and we just finished last last season without intentionally being bad. Trading away ROR is almost cancels out the Skinner trade but we actually got what looks to be a good 1st from that trade.

 

[ValJames]

G: 3...2...1... Callups

B: Center is organizationally weak.

 

[joshjull]

Every player on the Sabres was a minus tonight except Tage & Sobotka.

Just sayin...

That is hard to believe and funny at the same time.

 

[GellMann]

I don't give Botterill much outside of Pilut and Skinner and we just finished last last season without intentionally being bad. Trading away ROR is almost cancels out the Skinner trade but we actually got what looks to be a good 1st from that trade.

The first isn't clean, if it's good it's not ours.

This game doesn't matter if we win the next two.

 

[SnuggaRUDE]

They're bad in the 2nd period because they have shifts which are too long. And the long change exacerbates that. This is where analytics can help coaching.

 

[Yatzhee]

Watched the game very closely, took notes for only the 3rd time in my older adult life.

1. Outside of the pass on the 2 on 1 to Dahlin (unfinished but we'll get to that), Mitts needs to be a 3rd scoring line center until he fully develops.
2. Scandella needs to be traded asap, no joke. Package, find a sucker.
3. Girgs, another conversation on him......ugh......we can do better for a 4th liner. Jettison him.
4. Sheary and Okposo, I am speechless. Nearly 10 million a season.....there is no wait, they'll figure it out. They have to go.
5. Tage, yea, yea, I've heard it before, but for the love of all that is good and pure in hockey......SEND HIM DOWN!

So, we sign Skinner, ride out the season and let the chips fall where they may.....meh, that doesn't seat well in my stomach this year.
Do something Bots!

 

[joshjull]

I’d say at this point its on the GM to make adjustments via call ups or trades. Not sure how the coach is the issue. He’s certainly tried every combo you can think of with the middle 6. The results have been the same. Now new blood is probably needed.

I like to amend this actually. The coach can use Sam differently to try to get something from the middle 6. Its kind of crazy he didn’t do it as an in game adjustment tonight.

 

[SnuggaRUDE]

I don't give Botterill much outside of Pilut and Skinner and we just finished last last season without intentionally being bad. Trading away ROR is almost cancels out the Skinner trade but we actually got what looks to be a good 1st from that trade.

This is an insane example of burying the lead. Pilut and Skinner ARE the much.

 

[joshjull]

Do something Darcy!

 

[Panthaz89]

The first isn't clean, if it's good it's not ours.

This game doesn't matter if we win the next two.

Yeah but the first moves to 2020 and that's a lot more than what we gave for Skinner.

 

[nickdawg95]

just call up Vic and smith please

 

[SnuggaRUDE]

You know who'd be useful in the bottom 9 right about now? Colin White. (and J.T. Compher).

 

[SabresFan26]

Call up CJ Smith
Send down Tage Thompson

Skinner-Eichel-Reinhart
Sheary-Mittelstadt-Pominville
Smith-Rodrigues-Okposo
Girgensons-Larsson-Sobotka

I’d consider calling up Olofsson but he needs total game development. Botterill is being patient and is looking at the next 3-4 years. We need to make a trade to fix some of these issues. We need to acquire a nick bonino type.

 

[Montag DP]

We were just doing our part to get STL to pick #11.

 

[Genny Screamer]

Good: Blues are only 2pts from 10th place. I can see them making a run, but fall short of a playoff spot.

Bad: Sabres' 1st might be higher than the Blues' 1st.

 

[GellMann]

Yeah but the first moves to 2020 and that's a lot more than what we gave for Skinner.

That would be shades of the Isles keeping 5OA and then sending us something in the 20s, the following season IMO. Tough to imagine a team with that core staying bad if they can fix their goaltending and stop playing Bouwmeester. But that's something to worry about later.

Not every team we play is going to be that good below the faceoff dots in our zone, which was too much for our boys tonight. That's where the playoffs happen too, so it's important that we hang on and get our experience getting blasted out of the first round like every team starts out with. Don't push that off another season.

Tampa did it (getting swept by MTL IIRC), Toronto did it (the games against Wash were close on the scoreboard but not on the ice), Pittsburgh did it in 06-07, etc. This needs to be our year to get torched in round 1, and if the scoring woes continue behind Jack, we need to actively do something to make sure it happens.

 

[slip]

I like to amend this actually. The coach can use Sam differently to try to get something from the middle 6. Its kind of crazy he didn’t do it as an in game adjustment tonight.

Housely sucks at intragame adjustments. I didn't think I was pushing a controversial thesis.

 

[SnuggaRUDE]

Observation: The Sabres get blasted in 2nd periods
Observation: The Sabres players have longer than league average shift times

Thesis: Housely needs to reign that shit in, especially during the second period.

Discuss

 

[Ness]

Has Remy Elie done a decent thing since he’s been in the NHL? Why the hell is he on the 2nd line?

 

[jBuds]

Barf

 

[toomuchsauce]

That would be shades of the Isles keeping 5OA and then sending us something in the 20s, the following season IMO. Tough to imagine a team with that core staying bad if they can fix their goaltending and stop playing Bouwmeester. But that's something to worry about later.

Not every team we play is going to be that good below the faceoff dots in our zone, which was too much for our boys tonight. That's where the playoffs happen too, so it's important that we hang on and get our experience getting blasted out of the first round like every team starts out with. Don't push that off another season.

Tampa did it (getting swept by MTL IIRC), Toronto did it (the games against Wash were close on the scoreboard but not on the ice), Pittsburgh did it in 06-07, etc. This needs to be our year to get torched in round 1, and if the scoring woes continue behind Jack, we need to actively do something to make sure it happens.

I completely agree with this, conceptually, but...they also need to get to the playoffs first, and that is not a foregone conclusion right now.

 

[GellMann]

I completely agree with this, conceptually, but...they also need to get to the playoffs first, and that is not a foregone conclusion right now.

Yeah that's what I'm saying. It's almost universal that a young team finding its way gets clowned in round 1 the first time their core makes the playoffs. In an MVP caliber season from our 1C that contains solid goaltending and a 10 game win streak, we simply cannot let this NOT be that season.

Because then you're looking at HOPING that season can be the fifth of Jack's career, which is far from a guarantee just like any other year.