May Day 10

I have probably said it before in this thread, but I just can't get into it. I have tried. Usually around wrestlemania I get the itch, give it a shot, then watch a Raw or 2 after before losing interest. It is so vanilla and boring. Also predictable. It is just framed as a legitimate fake sport at this point with real champions and feats and such, but I just cant buy it. I need good and evil (and various shades of it) stealing titles, raising stakes, etc. When I did watch, I thought the 'fake sport' matches were the worst and most boring. Usually involving Jericho, Benoit, The Rock, etc. The 3-Hour Raw episodes are unwatchable. It is diluted and boring. Nothing really happens of consequence, commercials during all the matches, and I just cant spend 3 hours watching that. I dont even know when Smackdown is on. Is that 3 hours too? And yeah, a 5 pr 6 hour Wrestlemania is comical and out of control. Maybe split it up into 2 events or something? Just to watch Brock Lesnar powerblast someone at the end? I realize it is a bit sexist, but I can't take the over-emphasis and bulk on the woman's side. I will say though, the best match of the last Wrestlemania I watched was a Charlotte Flair match

I love Trader Joe's. great store.

Yes, that is exactly the case. The Sabres are who they are. There isnt some giant reset button that gets pressed if a new GM is brought in. In fact, they could flesh that out in an interview and figure out who has the best plan and attitude for the short and medium term. Their cap is already blown for the most part as far as high end players. They have Eichel's $10 Million and Skinner's $9 Million (barf) until 2026. Dahlin is going to command the same neighborhood. Reinhart is probably going to demand a long term deal in the neighborhood of $7 Million. Olafsson will also get a nice jump. I do believe Okposo's contract buyout is palatable after this season. The only high end player out there is Taylor Hall. Someone(s) are going to offer contracts that exceed his worth, and likely there will need to be a Buffalo 'premium' (Im sure he is itching to jump into Edmonton-east). There is flexibility to fill out the middle and lower end of the roster, but I am not sure where they are going to get the talent. Teams arent just giving away players who are good (unless you are Botterill trading OReilly who is precisely who they need). Botterill has failed miserably in identifying middle to low-tier players. He has cycled through them (often burning draft picks in doing so) at a rapid rate. The pipeline/futures is worse off than it was when Botterill arrived. I cannot name more than one or 2 things he has done well (Nylander trade?). Foremost though, Botterill portrays the alignment of a loser and a losing organization, as does Kruger's strange six-sigma shtick. I am so sick and tired of hearing about 'learning', 'growth paths', 'in position to be in games', 'goal is meaningful games in March' (failed), 'challenging each other with ideas' etc. The bar is set so impossibly low by these people. There needs to be some urgency and a lot of expectation of success. Losing is unacceptable and should be that way. Im sick of hearing people try to justify losses as some sort of moral victories because the Sabres were "close" (hint: all 95% of hockey games are close). We are celebrating because they gave Colorado a 'good game'? When Botterill took over, Colorado finished with 48 points and awful, and the Sabres had 78 points (about as many as they will end up with this season). Rocket surgery. Players love Kruger because he puts no pressure on them. Its all drum circles, espresso machines, and growth paths. Im not looking for a screamer, just some sort of priority placed on succeeding.

They are still burning picks though and the prospect pool is unimproved. Potato head avoids choosing players out of the best developmental league in the world. If there has been some ultra deep master plan to build futures through the 19-20 season, I dont get why they have traded so many picks for upcoming ufas in skinner, frolik, vesey, simmonds, etc. Got rooked out of higher picks for miller, beauleau, and montour. Got de-pantsed in the scandella situation. A pick for sheary and hunwick. The 3rd, Ennis, and foligno in the og scandella trade. The asset "management" has been terrible. Many of these cases you can say "only a 4th"... but in aggregate it adds up. They have needed to cast a wide net and develop. I get the concept of a rebuild, but that isnt what I am witnessing. At the cap, near the bottom of the league again. Not understanding where botterill is planning on obtaining "talent" for next year. Kruger and his silly six sigma coaching shtick can go too.

As long as there is learning how to learn in a learning atmosphere based on growth, I'm excited for the future I guess. The bar has been lowered so much here its unreal.

"Growth path". Sounds great. Let me renew my sharply increased season tickets for some more of that! Just got back from vacation. Did they provide some kind of justification on why they gave up another draft pick for an upcoming ufa (simmonds)? Their 2020 draft has been looted by botterill, which seems strange in light of this pretend master plan we keep hearing about. Been working at 2022 as well.

I think this will create a bit more randomness in who comes out of the playoffs. Huge advantage to the bye-teams, but other than that it is a dog pile. I dont hate it, I dont like it.

I would attend more UB games if not played at that awful stadium. Didnt they just pump a bunch of Merchie money into it to make those boxes and stuff though?

Gary Bettman is reviled by all NHL fans. Most of it is un-just IMO. He took over just when the league and pro sports lost their innocence, and he takes the blame for that in hockey. Golisano saved the team and made them financially solvent, which was a miracle. Had some good seasons under his stewardship. Had the waiting list for STH. They mismanaged the team really badly. Allowed many players to go to arbitration, and focused on Drury when he didnt want to be here, and could have signed Briere who did want to be here. Things were very stagnant with Quinn-Regier-Ruff-and the roster when Pegula came onto the scene, which is a reason he was welcomed as a conquering hero. Pegulas have been nothing but fail as owners of the Sabres. Eichel is now one of the best players in the sport

lol, sorry. Just needed to blow off some steam that this loser franchise fills me with

There was no rebuild that started 3 years ago. Revisionist history. Botterill has been trading picks for NHL players all along and nearly everyone he has brought in was awful, and many are even gone for pennies on the dollar. He has been terrible at asset management (the backbone of a 'rebuild'). If you compare this team to Murray's teams, they have gone nowhere. Backwards if you consider Jack Eichel is now playing Hart-Level hockey. Comparing them to Botterill's previous failures, yeah, they are doing marginally OK. By 2027 they may reach 100 points. 88 points is such a low-bar (and they arent on pace for that anyway). 3rd Highest payroll in the league and they will (again) finish in the bottom third. No reinforcements on the way. The pipeline is shockingly light for a team who has been bad for so long and seems to be perpetually 'rebuilding'.

They could have still done it. Also, the team being 3rd in the league in salary is a joke and self-inflicted.

The sabres arent a budget team. They have retained salary in the past. They brought on hunwick to do pittsburgh a favor. No problem bringing on frolik's salary when the same contribution could be found from sabertooth. The ability to eat 10 games of scandella's salary isnt an advantage montreal holds over the sabres

how embarrassing for Jason Botterill.

This team is the same as last year, but with Eichel on a 50-100 pace and the Skinner production transposed to Olafsson. That is the improvement. Let's see them play inspiring hockey the last 23 games here and I will listen to the reasons why we should be excited moving forward with Botterill steering the ship.

Without looking it up, it is close to that. I believe they were like 1-40-1 on the road or something like that ok, looked it up. 10-70-4. And they were actually 1-41-0 on the road with a 38 game losing streak in there.

without Eichel, this team is 92-93 Ottawa-bad

no way Courtney Love could execute a murder with a shotgun, stage it as a suicide, and get away with it.

Raising the prices a few bucks every year to meet demand is fine. Bills tickets are actually still vastly under-priced for a relevant NFL team in our market. when I say "Buffalo cant afford it", it is more in reference to the highly priced clubs, corporate suites, and amenities that all of these new facilities are built around. Nor do typical football fans around here want those things. We do not have the corporate or white collar upscale base to support high priced bells and whistles to make building them worthwhile.

Woods and Gilmore were both cases of guys who had enough here, unfortunately. I think Woods really wanted to go to the west coast anyways and everything, at least publicly seemed amicable. I love his game.

ha, I thought that after posting it. Not Plenz. The train of thought that you cannot move on from failing management just because you previously moved on from failing management.

That train of thought is ridiculous. The Sabres are where they are. It doesnt matter who is GM or Coach tomorrow. There isn't some magical 3-5 year reset button that gets pressed on a rebuild when you make a change. Just ask the Islanders or Hurricanes. Any GM would also be highly motivated to win now with Eichel in his prime. Those things can also be fleshed out in interviews. None of the Bills GMs or Coaches during the drought amounted to anything and were able to gain equal employment elsewhere. The best ones, you could argue, were the two coaches who quit. Was it change's fault or the organization's fault? Pretty easy choice says it was the organization. What I do know is that 95% of Botterill's moves have been trash. He has built a trash team and they have shown no progress (actually backward) in 3 years. Publicly, he speaks like a loser. "in a position to be in games', trying, learning, experiencing growth, been within 1 goal after 2 periods in x of y games, etc. He has hemorrhaged picks almost as rapidly as Murray with nothing to show for it. The pipeline is a tragic comedy. He isn't going to magically produce a winner. He is out of ideas, and organizationally, they are clinically dead. Again, after a hot start, they are among the NHL's worst 2 or 3 teams. The fact that they are at the cap with the 3rd highest payroll is sad. I also think they need to get him out before its too late and he used more of that cap flexibility on trash. They are also soft and boring. I hate them and cant waste time watching. Its awful. I wouldnt miss a game for like 35 years and I cant even justify the 2.5 hours. I have season tickets and have been to 3 games this season, all theme nights, motivated to go out of nastalgia. I am cancelling my season tickets of >20 years next week. They havent had a meaningful or relevant game in like 9 years.

A large part of me wants Brady to walk and have a gratification of a tangible end of this tormenting era. However, I think the best thing from a Bills standpoint is if he strong-arms Kraft into giving him a 2-4 year deal with a large bucket of guaranteed money. This will lock up their cap, lock them into an old and 'unathletic' QB, and very possibly will alienate belichick, who is probably the real reason for the dynasty. Brady walks, and I can picture Belichick getting better results out of someone like Bridgewater, or getting through to Rosen on the cheating system, or finding the next Lamar Jackson, etc. Also, arent the Patriots subject to a pretty big extra cap hit of $7 Million if Brady gets to March 18th, and they sign him anyways?

It is definitely coming Pegula himself said that a top of the line, state of the art $1-$2 Billion building does not fit the market here. It seems like there are 3 choices of location currently everyone is talking about Renovate in place Build a new facility on-site in Orchard Park Build Downtown, the most assumed spot is S and E of Cobblestone there. * - I think over near the 'elbow' of 190 and 90 would be the best spot. Lots of room and simple to set up the traffic pattern. IMO, building a new facility in OP seems like the most cost-effective option for all parties. Roughly, a major renovation of New Era Field will cost a similar amount as a new 'modest' build on-site, and a renovation is much more restricting than the clean-slate of a new build. There is also the question of where the Bills play during a renovation and the logistics of planning a major construction project in the snowbelt around a football season(s). Downtown, from miles above seems like the obvious move. However, land acquisition, demolition, updating infrastructure, updating the rail, Buffalo red-tape will add a great deal of cost, like maybe a 50% of the actual stadium price tag. I think we could be looking at $500K+ of costs before the building itself is taken into account. As it is now, I leave Sabres games early in the third period when there are only 14,000 people there because I dont want to get stuck in gridlock. Money is better spent, and the public ask would be a lot more reasonable in Orchard Park, where most things are in place and there are open lots to build in. There is also the number of meaningful events that are realistically going to be held in the facility. It is not enough to have a meaningful impact on businesses downtown. If it were an MLB ballpark, put it there at all costs. I think an Orchard Park Lucas-Oil-type 'fieldhouse'-style build is the most likely scenario here. If I could have my choice of a new facility, as much as I love New Era Field, I would love an outdoor, natural grass, semi enclosed/roofed stadium similar to Centurylink. It seems like some concrete details are going to come down this Spring or Summer. Looking forward to it.

I dont mind toronto if it isnt a dress rehearsal that the bills in toronto series was.