Idk. Most teams run with 7 d-men. They had 8 but your forgetting that 2 were injured to start the season. And, they were playing a very condensed schedule post-Global series. And Pilut was injured to start the season and even if he was ready, he needed at least some time to get up to speed or even better, based on 18-19, he needed more seasoning in Rochester.
- Michael Pachla

They went into the year with 4 healthy RD who should all be playing regularly, and playing the right side. Having nothing to do with injuries, that situation was already goofed up.

Edit: I did indeed forget Montour was hurt

It's worth noting that Miller's numbers were good during that time - when he was actually playing regularly

I know it wasn't you


worrying about our kicker yesterday was the dumbest post of the day

Hasek sucking his first year here was probably the dumbest post in 2020
- homiedclown

if you look at his numbers in a vacuum his first season was not good.. problem is that wasn't the case. It was more he just got ridiculously good his second season and stayed that way for many years. Hell didn't he win the vezina his second season with buffalo?

They went into the year with 4 healthy RD who should all be playing regularly, and playing the right side. Having nothing to do with injuries, that situation was already goofed up.

Edit: I did indeed forget Montour was hurt

It's worth noting that Miller's numbers were good during that time - when he was actually playing regularly
- jcragcrumple

I think rhd/lhd is over-emphasized here. Yes I get it it's ideal to have 3 and 3 but plenty of NHL teams go unbalanced.

Miller was not very good early in the year. Anyone who disagrees can go watch replays from early in the season.

For context:

The Trade
To Buffalo: Mike Reilly, Filip Chlapik
To Ottawa: Colin Miller
- kingcong39

I would actually do this deal. Reilly for Miller is probably a wash, but Reilly is a true LD and is a year younger. On a bad Sens team this season he had positive Corsi and Fenwick numbers. Not to mention he's $2.375m cheaper and has 1 less year left.
Chlapik could be nothing more than a 4th line center, and I can't say I've ever seen him play, but he is still pretty young and was a relatively high pick (2nd rnd 48 oa.)
Larsson is the only Sabres forward that has more hits and that's only 15 more hits playing 30 more games. If Chlapik could fill that grinder role, it could be a relatively cheap replacement option if the whole LOG line doesn't return.

I think rhd/lhd is over-emphasized here. Yes I get it it's ideal to have 3 and 3 but plenty of NHL teams go unbalanced.

Miller was not very good early in the year. Anyone who disagrees can go watch replays from early in the season.
- Michael Pachla

When you pay RHD prices, you need to play them in their natural position to make that investment pay off. I dont think it's a coincidence that Montour had a bad year when he was bouncing all around the lineup. It's the same with Vesey/Sheary/Mojo/Olofsson. The entire year was taking a bunch of square pegs and shoving them in round holes

"Hes a LD now"

"He's a RW now"

"He's a center now"

There's more to building a roster than liking the players. You dont just go out and buy a bunch of pieces that dont make sense in a larger picture - that's why they're still the island of misfit toys.

The moves get increasingly unstable because you're adding misfit pieces onto misfit pieces

When you trade a 2nd and a 5th for a guy to sit in the press box most of the year, you deserve to have the Sens blogger call you a moron
- jcragcrumple

Botterill didn’t sit him in the press box though.

The coach actually played Bogosian over him multiple times.

I think Botterill thought the offers for Risto/Montour whoever would be better.

I also think he was under the assumption Bogosian could possibly be moved for an asset. He was wrong

I fail to believe his “plan” was to acquire all the RD and then do nothing.

When you pay RHD prices, you need to play them in their natural position to make that investment pay off. I dont think it's a coincidence that Montour had a bad year when he was bouncing all around the lineup. It's the same with Vesey/Sheary/Mojo/Olofsson. The entire year was taking a bunch of square pegs and shoving them in round holes

"Hes a LD now"

"He's a RW now"

"He's a center now"

There's more to building a roster than liking the players. You dont just go out and buy a bunch of pieces that dont make sense in a larger picture - that's why they're still the island of misfit toys
- jcragcrumple

The Coach chooses where he plays his personal not the GM. You can blame Botts all you want, he has definitely made some mistakes. But this goes back before him too, from bad drafting to trading away 3/4 of your prospects. Some of those trades he made wouldn't even have been made if there was anything in the system to have filled those spots. And the Pegula's should take some of the blame for the ROR and Kane trades.

Botterill didn’t sit him in the press box though.

The coach actually played Bogosian over him multiple times.

I think Botterill thought the offers for Risto/Montour whoever would be better.

I also think he was under the assumption Bogosian could possibly be moved for an asset. He was wrong

I fail to believe his “plan” was to acquire all the RD and then do nothing.
- sbroads24

The explanation I heard him say was that they didnt expect Jokiharju to push players out.

He may have thought the offers for Risto would be better. I highly doubt he was even listening on Montour and Miller

The Coach chooses where he plays his personal not the GM. You can blame Botts all you want, he has definitely made some mistakes. But this goes back before him too, from bad drafting to trading away 3/4 of your prospects. Some of those trades he made wouldn't even have been made if there was anything in the system to have filled those spots. And the Pegula's should take some of the blame for the ROR and Kane trades.
- Buff36

When you give the coach 8 defensemen and 2 centers, poop is going to get weird

When you give the coach 8 defensemen and 2 centers, poop is going to get weird
- jcragcrumple

Yes it is, and that was one of his mistakes, but it also goes to not having players in the system to step up and take that spot.

When you pay RHD prices, you need to play them in their natural position to make that investment pay off. I dont think it's a coincidence that Montour had a bad year when he was bouncing all around the lineup. It's the same with Vesey/Sheary/Mojo/Olofsson. The entire year was taking a bunch of square pegs and shoving them in round holes

"Hes a LD now"

"He's a RW now"

"He's a center now"

There's more to building a roster than liking the players. You dont just go out and buy a bunch of pieces that dont make sense in a larger picture - that's why they're still the island of misfit toys.

The moves get increasingly unstable because you're adding misfit pieces onto misfit pieces
- jcragcrumple

you're trying to fuse two different anger issues you have with Botterill...

montour and miller combine for about $7m aav and were balanced out by joker dahlin and McCabe who are less than $5m...add in risto we're talking about $17M or about 20% of the Sabres cap-hit...

bogo really threw things out of whack...am of the firm belief that botts did his best to move bogo but obviously there were no takers...did botts wait too long to waive him?...sure, and before this covid-19 went down, dj-man was one of two reasons on defense this team would be facing a cap penalty next season...

the other reason was Scandella making $4m to play a bottom-pairing role...

the opening top-six on d were:

miller (lhd) - Dahlin (rhd)
McCabe - Risto
Scandella - joker

because of injuries, john Gilmour was the seventh d-man

When you pay RHD prices, you need to play them in their natural position to make that investment pay off. I dont think it's a coincidence that Montour had a bad year when he was bouncing all around the lineup. It's the same with Vesey/Sheary/Mojo/Olofsson. The entire year was taking a bunch of square pegs and shoving them in round holes

"Hes a LD now"

"He's a RW now"

"He's a center now"

There's more to building a roster than liking the players. You dont just go out and buy a bunch of pieces that dont make sense in a larger picture - that's why they're still the island of misfit toys.

The moves get increasingly unstable because you're adding misfit pieces onto misfit pieces
- jcragcrumple

Roster construction piss poor as a direct result of holding out on over-valued assets.
When he does make a hockey trade, not under duress from ownership (ROR and Kane) he does ok, sometimes very well.

The explanation I heard him say was that they didnt expect Jokiharju to push players out.

He may have thought the offers for Risto would be better. I highly doubt he was even listening on Montour and Miller
- jcragcrumple

I don’t really buy anything he says in public.

It was 100% looking like another move was coming after Montour, Jokiharju, and Miller were all acquired with either term or team control.

He needed to trade 55 for a forward. He failed to do so

I don’t think he’s been a good GM but that one move + better goaltending makes this a 95-100 point team.

My fear is a new GM blows this thing up

you're trying to fuse two different anger issues you have with Botterill...

montour and miller combine for about $7m aav and were balanced out by joker dahlin and McCabe who are less than $5m...add in risto we're talking about $17M or about 20% of the Sabres cap-hit...

bogo really threw things out of whack...am of the firm belief that botts did his best to move bogo but obviously there were no takers...did botts wait too long to waive him?...sure, and before this covid-19 went down, dj-man was one of two reasons on defense this team would be facing a cap penalty next season...

the other reason was Scandella making $4m to play a bottom-pairing role...

the opening top-six on d were:

miller (lhd) - Dahlin (rhd)
McCabe - Risto
Scandella - joker

because of injuries, john Gilmour was the seventh d-man
- Michael Pachla

I also think the fact that he’s Eichel’s best friend has something to do with him hanging on here as long as he did

I’ve been sick for more than three weeks. It started as just a minor cough and a reoccurring sore throat that would go away and come back a few days later. Developed extreme muscle soreness, extreme, as if I had injured hamstrings. Part of my job involves walking more than ten miles a day.

So I was worried, I have never really had muscle soreness that lasted more than a few days with any sickness in my life. Today will be three weeks and a day of severe muscle soreness in my legs, much less severe in my upper body but still there too. I tried eating better and eating protein bars thinking I wasn’t getting enough protein, but it made no difference.

This last Saturday morning my symptoms became much worse. My cough became horrible. Coughing and sneezing non stop. Sneezing two and three times in a row and sneezing in the middle of coughing, all new to me, while I was at work nonetheless. I developed chills and fever, a bad headache but my muscle soreness has bothered me less, probably because I have been in bed for the past three and a half days.

I don’t have shortness of breathe any worse than any other time I have been sick.

I haven’t been so sick I don’t think ever. Maybe when I was a kid, but not in the last twenty years. I have tried to get tested and been told to stay home unless I have difficulty breathing.

Today I feel like I am finally starting to improve. The chills and fever are gone. The cough is less severe. Full disclosure I am a smoker and a homeless guy stabbed me with a syringe last Friday. But I still think I have the covid19.

Tomorrow I am faced with returning to work. A job that has done nothing to offer it’s employees protection until late last week when we finally got gloves and sanitizer and face masks. I work an essential service job where I interact with a lot of people every day. I don’t think I am technically allowed legally to say for whom because this is considered media, but I think you will have all the necessary clues to figure it out by the end of this rant.

So I can continue to call in sick and get punished by my employer, or I can return to work and worry about exposing literally a thousand people a day, the same thousand people each day, many of whom are elderly, to whatever I have. I would say that I am also worried about exposing my coworkers, but many of them are already sick and I probably got it from them.

The fact that sick people can not get tested is straight up evil. I don’t care what your politics are, you must admit this is evil. The lack of available testing is so that the numbers don’t look worse and the president can argue that he is doing a good job containing the pandemic. Every god damned employee that is working with public interaction during this should be tested. And people shouldn’t be put in a position where they have to worry about exposing people to a virus when they know they are sick because our government cares more about optics than people.

It’s funny how every NBA player and employee has been tested when they can stay home and don’t have to work, but government employees whose jobs involve interacting with and exposure to the public can not. Not only can they not get tested, but they couldn’t even get hand sanitizer, gloves or face masks until late last week when this has been here already for more than a month.

For those of you world wise enough to figure out what I am saying and for whom I work, please take caution when dealing with what I am talking about. I am not kidding when I say a lot of my fellow employees are sick and pressured into working while we’re sick. We don’t have places to wash our hands while we’re working. With restaurants closed the few options we had to use a public bathroom are now gone. And no matter who you are, homeless bums excluded, you’ll have someone like me coming to your house almost every day. Besides those poor people working at grocery stores, I can not think of any job that has more exposure than mine.

I also think the fact that he’s Eichel’s best friend has something to do with him hanging on here as long as he did
- sbroads24

that's possible as well

you're trying to fuse two different anger issues you have with Botterill...

montour and miller combine for about $7m aav and were balanced out by joker dahlin and McCabe who are less than $5m...add in risto we're talking about $17M or about 20% of the Sabres cap-hit...

bogo really threw things out of whack...am of the firm belief that botts did his best to move bogo but obviously there were no takers...did botts wait too long to waive him?...sure, and before this covid-19 went down, dj-man was one of two reasons on defense this team would be facing a cap penalty next season...

the other reason was Scandella making $4m to play a bottom-pairing role...

the opening top-six on d were:

miller (lhd) - Dahlin (rhd)
McCabe - Risto
Scandella - joker

because of injuries, john Gilmour was the seventh d-man
- Michael Pachla

I'm not talking about money - I'm talking about having 4 NHL caliber RD. That's not how you build a roster. It's a flawed design.

Every team has injuries - that doesn't excuse the way it was built.

They knew they would have Dahlin, Scandella and McCabe on the left, with Montour, Joker, Risto and Miller on the right within a month of the opener - with DJ Bogo on the horizon.

We all saw the log jam coming from a mile away. It's like nothing gets done with this organization until there's a genuine crisis in terms of a trade request or something similar. 8d, 2 centers and a bunch of wingers playing their off side or at center.

The construction was an absolute mess

The Coach chooses where he plays his personal not the GM. You can blame Botts all you want, he has definitely made some mistakes. But this goes back before him too, from bad drafting to trading away 3/4 of your prospects. Some of those trades he made wouldn't even have been made if there was anything in the system to have filled those spots. And the Pegula's should take some of the blame for the ROR and Kane trades.
- Buff36

Botts hired the coach. Why he pick him if he’s not doing what Botts wants

I don’t really buy anything he says in public.

It was 100% looking like another move was coming after Montour, Jokiharju, and Miller were all acquired with either term or team control.

He needed to trade 55 for a forward. He failed to do so

I don’t think he’s been a good GM but that one move + better goaltending makes this a 95-100 point team.

My fear is a new GM blows this thing up
- sbroads24

If what some say is correct, and he doesn't want to move Ristolainen, that is a BIG problem. It is entirely on him for not making a deal to ship a defenseman out the door, then again, he did trade Scandella for Frolik, so, get somebody else in here that knows what they are doing.

If what some say is correct, and he doesn't want to move Ristolainen, that is a BIG problem. It is entirely on him for not making a deal to ship a defenseman out the door, then again, he did trade Scandella for Frolik, so, get somebody else in here that knows what they are doing.
- kingcong39

Who has reported that?

The rumors are Pegula likes him.

I’ve been sick for more than three weeks. It started as just a minor cough and a reoccurring sore throat that would go away and come back a few days later. Developed extreme muscle soreness, extreme, as if I had injured hamstrings. Part of my job involves walking more than ten miles a day.

So I was worried, I have never really had muscle soreness that lasted more than a few days with any sickness in my life. Today will be three weeks and a day of severe muscle soreness in my legs, much less severe in my upper body but still there too. I tried eating better and eating protein bars thinking I wasn’t getting enough protein, but it made no difference.

This last Saturday morning my symptoms got much worse. My cough became horrible. Coughing and sneezing non stop. Sneezing two and three times in a row and sneezing in the middle of coughing, all new to me, while I was at work nonetheless. I developed chills and fever, a bad headache but my muscle soreness has bothered me less, probably because I have been in bed for the past three and a half days.

I don’t have shortness of breathe any worse than any other time I have been sick.

I haven’t been so sick I don’t think ever. Maybe when I was a kid, but not in the last twenty years. I have tried to get tested and been told to stay home unless I have difficulty breathing.

Today I feel like I am finally starting to improve. The chills and fever are gone. The cough is less severe. Full disclosure I am a smoker and a homeless guy stabbed me with a syringe last Friday. But I still think I have the covid19.

Tomorrow I am faced with returning to work. A job that has done nothing to offer it’s employees protection until late last week when we finally got gloves and sanitizer and face masks. I work an essential service job where I interact with a lot of people every day. I don’t think I am technically allowed legally to say for whom because this is considered media, but I think you will have all the necessary clues to figure it out by the end of this rant.

So I can continue to call in sick and get punished by my employer, or I can return to work and worry about exposing literally a thousand people a day, the same thousand people each day, many of whom are elderly, to whatever I have. I would say that I am also worried about exposing my coworkers, but many of them are already sick and I probably got it from them.

The fact that sick people can not be tested is straight up evil. I don’t care what your politics are, you must admit this is evil. The lack of available testing is so that the numbers don’t look worse and the president can argue that he is doing a good job containing the pandemic. Every god damned employee that is working with public interaction during this should be tested. And people shouldn’t be put in a position where they have to worry about exposing people to a virus when they know they are sick because our government cares more about optics than people.

It’s funny how every NBA player and employee has been tested when they can stay home and don’t have to work, but government employees whose jobs involve interacting with and exposure to the public can not. Not only can they not get tested, but they couldn’t even get hand sanitizer, gloves or face masks until late last week when this has been here already for more than a month.

For those of you world wise enough to figure out what I am saying and for whom I work, please take caution when dealing with what I am talking about. I am not kidding when I say a lot of my fellow employees are sick and pressured into working while we’re sick. We don’t have places to wash our hands while we’re working. With restaurants closed the few options we had to use a public bathroom are now gone. And no matter who you are, homeless bums excluded, you’ll have someone like me coming to your house almost every day. Besides those poor people working at grocery stores, I can not think of any job that has more exposure than mine.
- Beethoven

Big part of lack of testing is no way there will ever be enough until you quarantine everyone. You can’t test every person (325 million) all at the same time. If you don’t it doesn’t matter if you test today. You can get infected tomorrow. Most people don’t even know they carry. You would have to test every person every day. It’s impossible

We are franked. We all die when economy goes under or we go back to work and masses get sick. Either way we are screwed

I'm not talking about money - I'm talking about having 4 NHL caliber RD. That's not how you build a roster. It's a flawed design.

Every team has injuries - that doesn't excuse the way it was built.

They knew they would have Dahlin, Scandella and McCabe on the left, with Montour, Joker, Risto and Miller on the right within a month of the opener - with DJ Bogo on the horizon.

We all saw the log jam coming from a mile away. It's like nothing gets done with this organization until there's a genuine crisis in terms of a trade request or something similar. 8d, 2 centers and a bunch of wingers playing their off side or at center.

The construction was an absolute mess
- jcragcrumple

When you pay RHD prices, you need to play them in their natural position to make that investment pay off.

this was your opening line

I don’t really buy anything he says in public.

It was 100% looking like another move was coming after Montour, Jokiharju, and Miller were all acquired with either term or team control.

He needed to trade 55 for a forward. He failed to do so

I don’t think he’s been a good GM but that one move + better goaltending makes this a 95-100 point team.

My fear is a new GM blows this thing up
- sbroads24

Interesting.

My take is the opposite...
I'm hoping there is a new GM and he takes the opportunity to overhaul the roster rather significantly. This core has proven time and time again that they are mentally weak that may require an entire psychological organization to keep their fragile minds on a positive, can do path. They are soft and easy to play against, with low hockey IQ players.
The roster needs an overhaul, not merely 2 tweaks.

With the recent signings of Biro and Dipietro, both LW, does that indicate that they are not thrilled with the LW depth we have? To me it seemed like that was one of the deeper positions we have in terms of prospects.

When you pay RHD prices, you need to play them in their natural position to make that investment pay off.

this was your opening line
- Michael Pachla

Im talking acquisition prices -

1st and Guhle

2nd and 5th

If you're going to do that, you slot those players in reasonably by weeding the roster. You dont throw the coach a bunch of redundant players and say "here you go. 4RD, 8d overall and 2 centers."