BillsFan4

Thank you. I appreciate it.

Bogosian day to day with an injury I actually don’t mind the line combinations for a change. I really hope he keeps Reinhart off the Eichel line for the rest of the year. I like Sam so much better driving the play on his own line. Plus it gives the Sabres 2 lines that can score. They are just not a deep enough team to have all 3 of their top scorers on 1 line.

I don’t know if they will move up from pick #9, but I fully expect them to move around in the draft. I would be more shocked if they picked at all of their original spots. In both drafts since McDermott and Beane got here, we have yet to pick at our original spot in the 1st and rarely picked at our original spot in the 2nd and 3rd. They have shown a real willingness to move around the draft board as well as trade up for players they like. So it wouldn’t really surprise me if they traded up from #9. But I wouldn’t be surprised to see them trade down from #9 either. Your guess is as good as mine (as to what they’ll do)! lol

Bargain deal compared to the $17M per year he was supposedly looking for? Yes, I’d agree. But a bargain deal overall? I definitely wouldn’t call it that. (IMO anyway) He has the 2nd highest RB contract/cap hit in the NFL, and the most fully guaranteed money (at the time of signing) of any RB. His cap hit is a reasonable $8.5M this year, but after that it’s - $15.5M in 2020 $13.5M in 2021 $15.5M in 2022 Thats not exactly what I’d call a bargain deal.

https://profootballtalk.nbcsports.com/2019/03/25/brandon-beane-bills-were-never-even-close-to-a-deal-with-antonio-brown/?unapproved=6730168&moderation-hash=73d82cf134d2cd310e903ca8c21fbb11#comment-6730168 here is the full interview (it’s the video at the top of the article)

Yeah I figure that they have at least 1 recall left, maybe 2 if Pilut was called up due to injury. I thought it looked like Bogo was possibly playing through some pain in the 3rd, which is why I thought Pilut may be an injury recall. Agreed that it really doesn’t matter though. The main reason I was wondering how many callups they have left is that I am still holding out hope to see someone like Olofsson get a look before the season is over. I am also guessing the O’Regan callup was on an emergency basis. Seems stupid to waste 1 of your 4 callups to have him up for 24hrs. Edit - I just went and checked the Sabres twitter feed just out of curiosity. Looks like Bogo did miss practice today, which is why Pilut was called up. So it’s almost definitely an emergency recall. But I wouldn’t be surprised if Bogo isn’t ready to play tomorrow.

Losing Gronk is definitely a blow to the Patsies. But, unfortunately, since they still have Belichick and Brady I fully expect them to adapt and hardly miss a beat. Ive heard way too many times now that the Pats were going to struggle after losing (fill in the blank) and it has yet to really happen. So I’ll believe it when I see it at this point. It does have to happen eventually though. I’d love for this to be the year it does, but I’m not holding my breath.

sounds like the patriots were kind of expecting him back this season. Im glad Gronk at least waited for the first wave of free agency to be over before announcing it.

https://thehockeynews.com/news/article/dahlin-passes-orr-marking-major-milestone-in-18-year-old-sabres-rookies-superb-season Pretty damn impressive, in my opinion.

I wonder if Bogosian is injured? Curious to see if this is considered an emergency recall. NHL teams are only allowed 4 regular recalls after the trade deadline. So if Pilut counts, he is either recall #3 or 4. - Nylander was one (even if he was initially called up because of eichel’s absense, they’d have to use a regular recall to keep him up after Eichel came back). - Tage Thompson was #2 (sent down at deadline to be eligible for AHL playoffs, and had to be recalled). - Danny O’Regan was called up on Feb. 26th and sent down on Feb. 27th. I have no idea if it counted as 1 of the 4 recalls though.

I just heard that Jason Botterill will be team Canada’s GM for the upcoming World Hockey Championships. I guess Elliotte Friedman said it last night on Hockey Night in Canada. Its a nice honor for Botterill. And maybe he can help butter skinner up a bit up more (in contract negotiations) with an invite... lol. For all those dying to have Housley gone, it could also potentially be a good opportunity for him to take a few week test drive with another head coach...

I don’t know, I guess I just look at it differently than you and k9. Eichel was suspended and buffalo needed a forward. Nylander was currently the best performing Amerk, so he got the call up. That doesn’t automatically entitle him to top line minutes. Then after he got here and played a few games, he did/showed enough to earn a tryout on the top line with Eichel. I am fine with that. I know how I used to feel about stuff like that when I played hockey (handing guys opportunity vs making them earn it). We all had a lot more respect for the coaches that made guys earn it and didn’t give preferential treatment. We would bust our asses every day in practice all season long. When someone would come in and be immediately given opportunities we had been busting our ass to earn, it didn’t go over too well in the room. I think Housley understands that, being a player himself. Anyway, I’ll let this topic die now... lol.

Glad to see they are working out/meeting with RBs. This seems like the absolutely perfect year to select a RB in the draft. The Bills have 2 future Hall-of-fame RBs under contract for this season and then both are free agents. Might as well take advantage of the situation and draft a young RB who can learn from these guys while they are still here.

I would too, but not if it meant losing out on signing Mitch Morse.

Sure he is handing him something. He would be handing Nylander a spot on the top line. Again, I have no problem with Housley making Nylander earn it first. That is how it should be IMO. How well has it worked out so far, with Tim Murray and Darcy Regier handing these young kids spots they didn’t earn? We now have a bunch of entitled kids who won’t listen to their coaches. I think it’s even more important (to make him earn it) with a kid like Nylander, who is known as a bit of a floater on the ice and not the hardest working guy. He’s a guy who’s had some issues staying fully engaged. I think it’s important for him to see that he won’t just be handed a spot because of his draft position. And again, we are talking about a whole 3 games, and really 1 game with Eichel on the ice.

Why would they put him on a line with Eichel in practice while Eichel is suspended? They want guys practicing with their linemates for the next game. That is standard practice across the entire NHL. Guys practice with their linemates. eichel was used as an extra because he wasn’t playing in the next 2 games. We are talking about 1 game that Eichel’s been on the ice since Nylander was called up. So It took 1 game with Eichel on the ice for Nylander to end up on his line. As far as the callup, I have no idea if a trade factors into it. It very well could, but it’s just 100% speculation at this point. Like I said, I honestly think the biggest factor was his play before the callup. I don’t think Nylander would have been called up if he wasn’t the best forward on the ice those last 5 games in Rochester. Botterill has been very consistent about calling up the best performing Amerk at the time of the callup. Yes, guys like Smith may have had better overall seasons, but Nylander was playing better at the time of this most recent callup. That is how botterill and Sexton have said they will operate and IMO they have lived up to that word. Anyway, like you said, we will have to agree to disagree here.

I don’t know man, I disagree. If you’re trying to build a culture where young guys have to earn their opportunities instead of just having it handed to them, you can’t really say “oh, well, we are taking a break from that whole ‘earn it’ thing because there’s only 10 games left this year”. If you’re going to make young guys earn their opportunities then I think you need to be consistent with it, and I think housley has for the most part (you can’t blame him for someone like Thompson being in buffalo vs Rochester. That’s on botterill). I also don’t think Nylander was called up just to see if he has top 6 potential. I think he was called up because he (finally) earned it. I think Botterill probably wanted to call him up all season long but Nylander never really gave him a reason to. Even when he was playing well, there was always someone in Rochester playing better. The last 5+ games before Nylander’s callup, he was legitimately the best forward on the Amerks. He had 5 goals and 8-10 points in 4 games. I am not sure if he’d be in buffalo right now if he hadn’t stepped his play up in Rochester. Obviously, now that he’s here it makes sense to see what he looks like in the top 6 and I’m excited to see how he does. But I guess I just don’t see it as an issue that it took a whole 3 games... (and Eichel was suspended for 2 of those games) Theres plenty to complain about with the Sabres/housley/botterill. This isn’t one of those things, in my opinion.

Eh, I have no issue with a head coach not handing a young prospect a top line spot and making him earn it with his play. ? Ullmark seems like quite a character

Interesting interview with Mike Gillis (subscription required) https://theathletic.com/881310/2019/03/22/lebrun-qa-with-mike-gillis-who-travelled-the-world-to-find-out-what-sets-elite-organizations-apart/ He was the Vancouver Canucks GM and built the team that made it to the Cup finals (and lost. Then Vancouver fans set the town on fire. Literally...). He has spent the time since he was fired “traveling the world to find out what sets elite organizations apart” from the rest. This answer made made me think of McDermott/Beane and what they’re trying to do in Buffalo -

https://wgr550.radio.com/articles/news/sabres-nylander-getting-chance-eichel Nylander getting a shot on the top line with eichel. Hope he makes the most of it!

So sad. I can’t imagine what her parents are going through right now.

I think that is a different restaurant/dinner. This looks like one with the wives/girlfriends and the other looked like a guys night out or something. Pretty cool that it seems like these dinners might be a common occurrence. I love the term camaraderie McDermott is building. I don’t follow other teams as closely, but it doesn’t feel like it’s all that common to see groups of teammates from both sides of the ball hanging out in the offseason (and with their wives, too).

https://www.buffalobills.com/video/behind-the-scenes-of-bills-free-agency sorry if this was already posted. I tried searching and didn’t see it.

Yeah it definitely hurt Mittelstadt for sure. Even Botterill said that Berglund was acquired to help ease Mitts into the 2C role eventually. But if it is true that Berglund is dealing with some serious mental health issues (and I am pretty sure that is the case. IIRc beeglund gave an interview to a Swedish paper alluding to that fact), I have a hard time holding a grudge against the guy. He has a wife and kids. His health and well being comes before hockey, without a doubt. Honestly, I blame St. Louis more than anyone else. The way they went about trading him was shady and not the way you treat a classy, well respected veteran who’s spent his entire career in your organization. As I’m sure you already know, Berglund was late turning in his no-trade list and Doug Armstrong quickly pounced on it to include him in the buffalo deal without Berglund’s approval. It sounds like Berglund has struggled with mental health issues for quite a while and had a strong support system in place in St. Louis (which makes me believe team management knew of his issues/struggles), and when he was screwed over by the Blues and then shipped to a place where he had no family, no friends, no support system at all, he wasn’t able to cope with it all very well. Edit - here is the article I was talking about - https://www.diebytheblade.com/2019/1/18/18188513/buffalo-sabres-patrik-berglund-tells-his-side-in-exclusive-interview-in-sweden Die by the blade translates some of it. the link to the full article from Sweden is at the bottom. But it’s a PITA cause you have to google translate it paragraph by paragraph. Basically it says what I wrote above about the St. Louis stuff.

Sabres are playing 2 games (against Tampa Bay...) in Sweden next year on Nov. 8-9th. I bet Dahlin has to be excited!