it was


if the faschings, nylander, baptiste, bailey, cornells showed promise of being nhl prospects in rochester, he might have saved his job but rochester sucking as well was the final straw, and refusing to change his head coach
- navinrjohnson

But then u rip Botts for having to bring in Vesey, Johansson, etc etc bc GMTM left him with guys that weren’t worth bringing up
That’s how we ended up with even worse scrubs like Griffith & Nolan (among others) in the lineup

Botts HAD to AT LEAST get decent guys in there
Could he have done better?
Idk
Some of those moves ppl liked, some didn’t

Individually, few were head scratchers
Collectively, it didn’t work well enough

But i guarantee that “Botts plan” was never for Hutton, Vesey & Sobatka to take us to where he wanted to get
They’re just placeholders for UPL, Mitts, Cozens,
and so on

If the thinking was that we need to shift guys around to develop some salty scoring,
that makes sense
The execution of that idea is what failed


- jdfitz77

It was working out well until Sobotka got hurt. They were 9-5-2 with him and the 2nd line was our top scoring line even strength. Skinner had 7 EV goals in 16 games with Sobotka and he had 7 EV goals in 43 games without him.
Perhaps Tage could have filled that role, but unfortunately he was injured after playing 7 minutes.

Can we all stop defending him he has rushed prospects shoved tage down our throats lied about Casey being 7% body fat and continued to not fix the 2nd line center for 2 years

And the cherry on top didn't take any CHL players in 2 straight drafts which is unheard of ..

And his best prospect is a CHL one smh

And the only trade he has made that I love is skinner and Kahun 
- gerbe75pts

What about Joker, not trying to defend him, but not gonna throw it all on him either, there's a lot of blame to go around.

don't include me on that list

1. they talk every day
2. they are on the same page



ralph does a tinker here and there and justifies skinner off the top pp


playing olofsson with eichel is/was 100% both ralph and botts
- navinrjohnson

Playing Olofsson with Jack worked GREAT...
didn’t it???

Olofsson has a rookie year we all liked
And Jack had his best season ever

GOOD DECISION by Botts & Ralph... WASN’T IT?!

It was working out well until Sobotka got hurt. They were 9-5-2 with him and the 2nd line was our top scoring line even strength. Skinner had 7 EV goals in 16 games with Sobotka and he had 7 EV goals in 43 games without him.
Perhaps Tage could have filled that role, but unfortunately he was injured after playing 7 minutes.
- adambuffalo

I think it’s reasonable to say that wouldn’t have lasted
Maybe it would have?
But tough to project that over a full season with Sobotka playing such a pivotal role

I’m not trying to excuse ALL of what Botts has/hasn’t done
But A LOT of it was reasonable for the circumstances

And while it hasn’t all come together yet,
I still like the direction we are headed

That could work

But there’s been MANY lineups suggested on here without that good 2way line
And some of them were by you as well sir
- jdfitz77

I am bored


we all are bored


I am not going to be working until august, aside from putzing around in the fish room


I think there is 3 ways to build the 2020-21 sabres


one is with larsson, girgens and maybe okposo as a bottom 6 line

one is leaning on a few players that should be top 6 players, in the lineup


and one is purging some players that have seen nothing but losing as a sabre


hell I would trade reinhart in a package if it got us a special player


I can't find 8 guys we need to have in our lineup this fall and that's sad



eichel, reinhart, skinner, olofsson up front

dahlin and joker on the back end


I can't think of anyone else we need who skated 32 games or more for us last year that we need



the next skater I would put on the list is kahun and his 6 games




we dont need
johansson, vesey, girgens, larsson, okposo, risto, montour, mccabe, miller etc

Playing Olofsson with Jack worked GREAT...
didn’t it???

Olofsson has a rookie year we all liked
And Jack had his best season ever

GOOD DECISION by Botts & Ralph... WASN’T IT?!
- jdfitz77

olofsson was brutal 5 on 5 the first half of his season

I mean he got 9 even strength goals with jack, how many would skinner have had


you really get the same production IMO from olofsson if he was playing second line wing with time on first team pp

but you get a lot more production from skinner if on the top line

I am bored


we all are bored


I am not going to be working until august, aside from putzing around in the fish room


I think there is 3 ways to build the 2020-21 sabres


one is with larsson, girgens and maybe okposo as a bottom 6 line

one is leaning on a few players that should be top 6 players, in the lineup


and one is purging some players that have seen nothing but losing as a sabre


hell I would trade reinhart in a package if it got us a special player


I can't find 8 guys we need to have in our lineup this fall and that's sad



eichel, reinhart, skinner, olofsson up front

dahlin and joker on the back end


I can't think of anyone else we need who skated 32 games or more for us last year that we need



the next skater I would put on the list is kahun and his 6 games




we dont need
johansson, vesey, girgens, larsson, okposo, risto, montour, mccabe, miller etc
- navinrjohnson

Ok...
but while we don’t “need” those guys,
they aren’t useless either
Every good team has players on their roster worse than those guys, or at least on the same level

Do we need to upgrade some of them?
OF COURSE
I don’t think ANYONE here has said otherwise

We also don’t NEED to swap out 10 guys to put a good product on the ice either
Let’s not lose our minds about it

olofsson was brutal 5 on 5 the first half of his season

I mean he got 9 even strength goals with jack, how many would skinner have had


you really get the same production IMO from olofsson if he was playing second line wing with time on first team pp

but you get a lot more production from skinner if on the top line
- navinrjohnson

olofsson is a rookie, took him some time, and at that time the 2nd line was working.

https://mobile.twitter.co.../1258468178709053447?s=19

Pretty good here. Peyton Manning was always a favorite of mine.

But then u rip Botts for having to bring in Vesey, Johansson, etc etc bc GMTM left him with guys that weren’t worth bringing up
That’s how we ended up with even worse scrubs like Griffith & Nolan (among others) in the lineup

Botts HAD to AT LEAST get decent guys in there

- jdfitz77

I think if you play casey as the second line center with skinner and johansson with his wingers

and played e-rod with vesey and sheary as his wingers


we are probably talking about a playoff team this current season instead of what we saw

Ok...
but while we don’t “need” those guys,
they aren’t useless either

- jdfitz77

our playoff record says otherwise

olofsson is a rookie, took him some time, and at that time the 2nd line was working.
- Buff36

but when it staled, there was no adjustment, which really killed our season

olofsson was brutal 5 on 5 the first half of his season

I mean he got 9 even strength goals with jack, how many would skinner have had


you really get the same production IMO from olofsson if he was playing second line wing with time on first team pp

but you get a lot more production from skinner if on the top line
- navinrjohnson

In the first half, sure
In the 2nd half, we saw growth from Olofsson 5v5

And while I’m actually all for Skinner back on the top line,
he also should’ve produced much better on line2 than he did
He has scored with sh!tty centers before,
so it’s logical to see that Botts/Kruger saw him scoring say 30+ on our line 2,
giving us some scoring depth in the lineup

Skinner’s disappointing season is ALSO on him too

We also don’t NEED to swap out 10 guys to put a good product on the ice either

- jdfitz77

is this like the preseason when you didn't watch Josh Allen?


this team was not good on many nights

I would be 100% ok with this. Would be a great 4th line at around $6-7m. What's wrong with that?
- adambuffalo

Nothing especially if he fixes the 2nd line, cause I think Kahun Cozens Mojo could make a very good 3rd line, so they are our 4th line.

but when it staled, there was no adjustment, which really killed our season
- navinrjohnson

Yes it hurt, but I think Hutton going on that 8 or 9 game losing streak killed it more.

I think if you play casey as the second line center with skinner and johansson with his wingers

and played e-rod with vesey and sheary as his wingers


we are probably talking about a playoff team this current season instead of what we saw
- navinrjohnson

Maybe?
But u were also just saying Skinner should’ve been on the top line

Sir, i fully get your frustration
There’s been decisions i didn’t like or understand either
But we also have hindsight on our side

You can’t get mad at them for putting Skinner on line2, then go and suggest we could’ve been a playoff team doing so

Don’t u think the plan was to move Mitts up to 2C at some point last season?
But coming off the season before where he struggled, they didn’t wanna slot him right into that spot RIGHT AWAY...
Isn’t that reasonable?

But instead of Mitts growing into that 2C,
he struggled again unfortunately

I don’t think too many of us thought Mitts would struggle so much he’d have to be demoted to Rochester

our playoff record says otherwise
- navinrjohnson

Terrible argument

Same argument ppl made when we traded ROR,
including you i believe

is this like the preseason when you didn't watch Josh Allen?


this team was not good on many nights
- navinrjohnson

Is this like when u liked the ROR trade & wanted us to bring in PK Subban?

Overreacting doesn’t solve problems either


PS
I was right that Allen wasn’t ready
He looked awful as a rookie for the most part
Especially before he got hurt

olofsson was brutal 5 on 5 the first half of his season


- navinrjohnson

If by first half of the season you mean 16 games that's fine, but once he got his first EV goal he scored at a 20g pace the rest of the season.
If he didn't miss 15 games in Jan-Feb, he's probably getting a lot more consideration for the Calder.

they talk all the time

they were on the same page with skinner


I have direct knowledge of this, so I really feel this post might be my most accurate post since the bills were trying to get antonio brown
- navinrjohnson

Direct knowledge that they were on the same page then please let me know why they were on the same page? I disagreed with Skinner's use but had no idea why he was being used this way. Why was Skinner, our newly minted 40 goal scorer and $9M man used as he was this past year? And when it was not working out, why did the two keep using him the same way?

PS
I was right that Allen wasn’t ready
He looked awful as a rookie for the most part
Especially before he got hurt
- jdfitz77

he had the worst o line and the worst group of wr in the nfl that season


and of course when those got better, so did the qb

Direct knowledge that they were on the same page then please let me know why they were on the same page? I disagreed with Skinner's use but had no idea why he was being used this way. Why was Skinner, our newly minted 40 goal scorer and $9M man used as he was this past year? And when it was not working out, why did the two keep using him the same way?
- TC4145

ask botts


if he says he has nothing to do with lines, he is lying

ralph and botts talked every day and they were on the same page how to use skinner 5 on 5

he had the worst o line and the worst group of wr in the nfl that season


and of course when those got better, so did the qb
- navinrjohnson

Then that’s another reason NOT to throw him to the wolves, so to speak

Predictions for Allen’s passing stats this year?