K-9

Per the bold text, I think this is a bit unfair to Mittelstadt. In college, he had the misfortune of playing for Don Lucia, a conservative coach who believed that freshmen shouldn’t get big, unprotected minutes in lieu of veteran upperclassmen who “earned” more minutes. In spite of that, he was still second on his team in scoring. He also missed three games playing in the World Juniors, where he dominated his international peer group. With their season on the line vs. Penn State to get a birth in the NCAA tourney, Lucia let Mitts play and he had a damned good two games with five points. His line was the only one to do anything. No, he wasn’t an Eichel (how many college players are?), but he played very well at the college level and dominated at times.

Oh, I’m excited by Jack and Dahlin’s play. But as as excited as I am abou their play, I am just as skeptical about how much of their primes will be wasted in this never ending rebuild. Look at Risto, for example. He is six years into his rebuild already. It goes by fast. How much patience can we expect these guys to have? Fair enough.

If I had to guess, I’d say it’s becsuse Nylander never showed the passion and tenacity that earned Mitts and Thompson the extended look in the show. Also, I think Mitts and Thompson are tweeners in the sense that their development wouldn’t be better served in the minors. Whereas it was essential for Nylander who never should have gone straight to the pros in his draft year. Shoulda stayed in junior that extra season.

All well and good. But we need to accept the fact that the building will be half full. And when it is full, it will be half opposing team fans. That’s gonna wear on the players, too, and Botts will have to do a better selling job to them than to us fans.

All fair points to be sure. But this fan base has had it, I’m afraid. It’s a tough ask of fans to be patient, yet again.

Unfortunately, again, you’re right. As Plenz pointed out, this team has actually regressed under Housley’s tutelage since replacing Bylsma, the 10 game streak notwithstanding. I admire JBott’s commitment to developing a consistent contender in Rochester. But he does that at the expense of the Sabres currently.

So, status quo then? What would be an acceptable length of time for the “process” to manifest into winning, playoff contending, and cup contending hockey? These are fair questions, especially since we’ve been rebuilding under several different administrations for seven years now. And counting.

Unfortunately, you are 100% correct; the Sabres are boxed in by their inflexibility when it comes to roster movement. Which is why they should go radical to create the room necessary. Assign Scandella to Roch, let him get plucked off waivers for nothing in return. Same with Beaulieu. Same with any of the dead weight that has shown no ability to turn it around and aren’t part of the long term plan anyway. Time for the full youth movement to commence. Housley is just an interim coach, anyway.

That is fair to the “Carolina connection narrative” people. What’s not fair, is those people applying that same narrative to the hiring of Heath Farwell.

And it’s unanimous, the eyes have it!

If McBeane had the same personal experience with the Carolina connected people mentioned in bold text above, you'd have a stronger point about their being the same kind of connection with Farwell. Again, it's the difference between a "connection" and merely having something in "common."

Expand your knowledge.

There is no "Panther Connection" as McBeane and Farwell were never in Carolina together. They have Carolina "in common" but that's it and that's different than being connected.

Manning thumb!

Yep. Even a bigger crime than pairing Scandella with Beaulieu. Those two combined make one poor NHL defenseman. At best. Make the youth commitment and let Pilut learn while playing through his mistakes. His upside is too good not to. If we are hellbent on developing Mitts and Thompson at this level, Pilut deserves the same consideration. Calgary must be licking their chops.

Eichel ain’t right. Then again, that’s the pattern in his entire career. Goes long stretches without doing anything and then strings a bunch of multi point games together and then goes quiet again. He seemed to be consistent this year before getting hurt, but he hasn’t looked right since coming back. Little explosion, if any.

Can’t wait to hear Housley explain this game. Pilut gets benched for a gaffe in a game. Scandella makes mistakes every fricken game and never sees the press box as a healthy scratch. Playoff contender my ass.

That's just not a true statement. And people never talked about Brady, Manning, or Brees' athleticism because they possess none (Brady, Manning) or very little (Brees). Commentators have been noting Rodgers's athleticism for a long time.

Say what you want about Nate Hackett, but go back and look at any of the All 22 footage either from when he was here or in Jax and you'll see pass game schemes that had guys running open all the time. I think, like any OC would, he's gonna do much better with Aaron Rodgers at QB vs. EJ, Lewis, Tuel, Orton, or Bortells.

I'm not so much pessimistic about the future as I am simply realistic about how long it will take to get there. It's not like we have a bevy of All Stars waiting in the wings to take over for the half dozen or so players who aren't cutting it at the moment. I mean realistically, who is down on the farm that is ready to step in and contribute in a major impacting way? And draft picks take a while to develop unless you land an Eichel, which is rare, requires a bottom place finish, and even then takes the luck of the lottery draw to take. Anything is possible. Even making the playoffs this year. But we just haven't shown we are a playoff team. And that's all I have to go by at the moment.

I'll say it for you; this team does suck when you look at the underlying metrics, with the exception of the Eichel, Skinner, Reinhart line. We have potential with three young players currently on the roster (Dahlin, Mitts, Thompson), but it's not wise to assume they will suddenly turn it around in the second half of the year as we are 45 games in already. Larry and Girgs are keepers on the front end for their defensive prowess. Risto, McCabe, Dahlin, and Pilut are keepers on the blue line, but the latter two are in development and not finished products at this level. Even Risto and McCabe have enough hiccups for me to think that neither one is a true 1st pair D man. So, we have a top line and nine middle/lower six forwards, two of whom are young and have shown flashes of good talent worth developing (and I commend JBotts for developing them at the NHL level), and four defensemen. EVERYBODY ELSE CURRENTLY ON THE ROSTER IS EXPENDABLE. Which means we are woefully thin at best. Unless this team plays nearly perfectly and the goalies play out of their minds and the Eichel line is on the score sheet, we don't have a decent chance of winning on any particular night. Puck luck, like the kind we saw during the streak helps, but it's not sustainable. And it certainly has a way of evening out as we've seen recently with the three "own" goals we scored for Carolina. Bottom line: we just aren't good enough and have a LONG way to go given what this team has shown to date. I have faith in JBotts, but little in Housley, to get us there eventually.

Nice work. Thanks for taking the time.

Sometimes, yes. Other times, if you don't have any place to throw, you lose, too. I think it's moot against a team like the Chiefs, though. You gotta pick your poison and we saw what they did on their first drive vs. four and five man rushes. I suspect it's gonna be along day for the Colts' D, regardless.

I suspect that reflects the averages league wide.