May Day 10

Spencer brown not having a great evening

He had no choice but to send Risto and Reinhart (and Eichel) out. Due to organizational ineptitude, they walked Reinhart right to his UFA year (they are doing the same with Dahlin). They also did the same with Ullmark leaving them with zero goalies. Risto's (who seemed at the point of malaise here in this situation) return was OK I guess, although 1st round picks this year weren't worth much, especially looking at the Sabres' threadbare scouting staff and lack of data last season. Reinhart's deal surprised me, I thought they could get more for him. We will see how the Eichel thing pans out. Common sense says he has the least value right now because any contending team doesnt have the cap room and doesnt want to wait until rehab is done. Maybe Im wrong. Don Granato doesnt move the needle for me. Happy for him to get a chance, but if/when the Sabres ever get good, he should be long-gone. One of the Sabres' problems and miscalculations is, they always seem to be looking for a life-partner in a head coach. These guys are thrown away all the time based on the whims of the players and flipped as a motivational tool. Also, with development, they have another coach in Rochester with a rather dubious resume (Appert), and also just promoted everyone from the Harborcenter/Jr Sabres as their development staff (Mair, Ellis, Kennedy, etc). This all has a huge Bills 2000 vibe to it. An inner trusted circle, while the Earth turns and the benchmark of success is a 'team that tries'. The 2 wins are nice, and its nice to see Okposo play like ovechkin for a couple games... but the crowds of about 5-6K speak volumes of the damage done and the amount of buzz around this team. There is a lack of talent. They are going to need to keep getting results, but I feel like we are going to go through some more bizarre ineptitude like failing to score more than 2 goals in a game for an entire month and stuff like that. I really do hope they succeed. Honestly. I just see no signs of it. I was a season ticket holder for over 20 years up until last year. Its terrible, they have crushed my will as a fan.

They jumped off the page in Kruger's 1st home game and blew a New Jersey team (who on paper loaded up) right out of the building. That was off of winning at Pittsburgh opening night. They started off like 9-2-1. Its a long season. The two games were encouraging (I watched most of the Montreal game).

Basically, yes. Beane came after McDermott, hand-picked for being willing to work in cohesion. It works out great No doubt, that is what the Pegulas were going for with the Sabres. The Bills' model was working, so they decided to empower the head coach at the top of the Hockey department (as we see in the NFL). The problem is, NHL coaches are all temporary mercenaries, whose time runs out as quick as it starts, with very few exceptions. And the guy they empowered was completely out of his depth. NHL front offices/ops are a bit more tricky than the NFL. In the NHL, you are scouting 18 year old players across the world playing against/with apples to oranges competition. You need to properly develop. You also have a rigid, unforgiving salary cap where mistakes are amplified. In the NFL you can churn the whole organization in 1-2 years, grabbing several starters in 1 draft class. Adams, I have my doubts. He has zero NHL executive experience, and if he hit the streets now, he would get Zero offers or probably zero interviews to be a GM for any NHL team. He has been GM for 16? months now and brought the worst or second-worst team in franchise history... While the 2-0-0 start is encouraging, this team will also contend for worst in franchise history. He neglected the goaltender position since he got the job (did they even interview anybody for that?). I guess I can be patient and wait 5 years or however long it takes to definitively declare 'failure'. I would be much more comfortable being patient if the team was being run by somebody with some track-record.

Not for the Patriots. They lived in a fan fantasy land for 20 years. Championships, perpetual comebacks, every single bounce going their way, etc... They have a lot to make up for. I wont feel bad for them for a long time.

They did their job hiring Botterill and sitting there while he did (more) damage in the first place (as well as Housley, refusing to fire him while funding his wife's silly Senate campaign). They actually gave Botterill a vote of confidence and were prepared to retain him, only until Krueger made some sort of powerplay, they demanded the entire hockey staff must be fired, and Botterill wouldnt do it (but lackey from the Jr Sabres Kevyn Adyms was more than willing..... So Kruger, another disaster mistake. They actually made that guy the 4th highest paid coach in the NHL with term when they hired him. They dont play the games, but man. They have made terrible decisions. I am about 0% convinced about Adams and the current front office at this point.

I was scared of the Dolphins/Flores. I saw what they did when they started out like 0-5 and looked historically bad 0-16 candidate and started to play for their coach and very respectable. It felt McDermott-like. Then you saw they were going to have (a few) cracks at franchise quarterbacks as well as an embarrassment of riches as far as premium draft picks go. Some really good pieces on defense too. Im surprised it has gone so far off the rails.

The answer is yes. Very obnoxious, but in a different way. Boston fans in general are grating. They were lovable and easy to root for pre-2000, and even a little after. The whole thing is summed up in that annoying kid's sign who attends parades. The kid is like 15 now and has enjoyed like 12 championships. They are a bit entitled to their championships now, not unlike the Yankees fans of the late 90s that they loathed so much. Buffalo fans are like ooze that gets in everywhere. Part obsession, part inferiority complex. Someone on the telecast says an off-handed remark in good fun about Buffalo and he gets swamped with letters. A columnist dares rate Buffalo too low in the power rankings, he gets swamped with letters. We travel (and also have many, many expatriots) to away games and loudly tell everyone how great they are and make a big mess. During the 05-07 run, the Sabres and their fans were hated by a number of other fanbases, mainly in the Southern markets. We would flood their arenas and forums, tell them how terrible their fan bases were, and be loud and obnoxious (like Leafs fans do to us).

At least we don't need to hear a week where Mac jones' 10-12 for 100 yards tracks him to be the next brady

Okposo looks visibly happy that Hockey-Joffrey is out of the picture

I watched a lot of the game last night. Was pretty good. They played well and took advantage of a sub-NHL goalie. Effort was there though. Okposo was a beast. It reminds me of when they blew New Jersey out of the building in the opener a couple years ago

It is honestly the only hope at this point, other than an epiphany and they decide to bring someone in (with experience and credibility), grant them autonomy and budget to build the team from the top down, and restore credibility (which is at zero) as well as relevance (which will be at zero once they trade Eichel). I really don't understand what the goal and end-game for this current path. They are going to run Dahlin through misery right to his UFA year just like these previous guys. Nobody worth anything is going to voluntarily sign here, as I'm sure their dealings with Eichel carries a very negative perception within the NHLPA. They really lack any top/high-end prospects other than Dahlin, and maybe Power really. Cozens is all well and good, but I would trade him for many teams' top prospects without thinking. I also have zero faith in their ability to develop anybody. Their development staff is just their former loser players who worked in Harbor Center.

This. They have absolutely killed this franchise. Worse-yet, it is ongoing. I went from watching about 98% of their action over about 30 years to watching perhaps a full 60 minutes combined last year. I have no urge/desire to watch them at all this season either. I was a 20-year STH too. It is amazing at the contrast between the Bills and Sabres with the same exact ownership. They have made every single wrong decision when it comes to the Sabres. It is time they seek help (Kevyn Adams is a cruel joke as a General manager, especially with such a gargantuan lift).

There is a huge level of trust and buy-in required by the players with a coach. Lose that and you're drawing dead. Im assuming just that one email probably cost him all his currency with many players in the lockerroom. This next batch would surely completely make Gruden's job impossible. Like with the Bills... When Trump went after the NFL's players, the Bills allowed McCoy to go out there and say his peace and get involved. Also allowed the players to decide on what to do about kneeling, anthem, etc... you had Terry Pegula, who probably voted twice for Trump go out on a limb and write a letter to denounce him. On the other hand, I truly think they gave/give Beasley the autonomy to do his thing and fight his battle if that is what is important to him. I do think McDermott may have drawn the line though when it became player vs fans. McDermott seems to really value the connection fans have to the players. Putting down the fans with a broad brush is a no-fly zone... But a lot of that goes into why these players seem to want to work for this and put it all out there.

You need to factor in the Mark Davis looney tunes factor

This is a very good summary of collinsworth. It drives me nuts.

I didn't hate him last night, really... for most of the game I was bothered they didn't even mention the kelce pi pass was 15 feet out of bounds, and they seemed to purposely not show where the ball went on the replay. Then Oliver's terrible roughing the passer call. The game was dead right there without that help (and that was before the kelce play) The diggs no pi call too. All this right in succession. Followed by the bills, starting to stagger and get a huge allen first down nullified by a phantom holding call. So then you get the roughing the passer on allen. Borderline to soft, but the way Allen's feet kicked up sold it to the ref, and it did appear the defender drove him down just a little. Collinsworth then decided to make that the major narrative on why the game turned out the way it did. Very low class and terrible announcing

Browns in the playoffs.

Rousseau, Edmunds, secondary

Cam Newton?

Imagine being a public figure and dumb enough to put that in an email

good for him. I wish him the best, especially in the other conference.

I actually like subtitles because my hearing is terrible

See that huge crowd last night?

Rays