BillsFan4

Yeah you may be right. Okposo seemed to think it sent a clear message of "get our **** together". Hopefully the rest of the team feels the same way. But hey, it's better than doing nothing and continuing to let Moulson take up an undeserved roster spot. And as for the Leafs, they absolutely tanked in 2016. 2015 they just plain quit on the season and were awful for the 2nd half of the year. But 2016 (the first year of Babcock) they absolutely tanked. Their goal was not to win games, and they actively did things to ensure they lost more. That, to me, is tanking. Just look at the moves they made... James Reimer got hot in goal so they traded him away (to be fair, he was a UFA to be). Then Bernier got hot and they benched him and rode Garrett Sparks, who was playing absolutely awful at the time. But they had no problem riding Bernier earlier in the year when he was playing badly. They called up a bunch of kids, and when they started playing too well, scoring goals and causing the Leafs to win a few games, they were immediately sent back to the minors. They traded away Kessel and Phaneuf for anything they could get (again, to be fair I guess they were deemed "problems"). Phaneuf, their captain and a top 2 d man on their team at the time, was given away for nothing tangible in return. Kessel didn't return much of significance either, considering he was their best player and leading scorer. Neither were UFA. And thats just off off the top of my head... Brendan Shanahan even said after they won the draft lottery that "we worked hard for this" (1st overall pick). I remember thinking at the time 'can you imagine if the Sabres had said that? They'd get slaughtered in the media'. And really, that was the biggest difference between the 2 tanks - Toronto's local media was fully on board and Buffalo's wasn't. Toronto's media praised every move, while Buffalo's criticized every move and wrote terrible stories that were then picked up by the national media. I mean, obviously Buffalo took the tank much further than Toronto as far as shipping away players. Buffalo did a full scorched earth tear down rebuild. Toronto did a retool and kept many players from previous rebuilds. But both teams still tanked. Buffalo for 2 years and Toronto for 1.

Wow. Moulson on waivers! About damn time. Hopefully the Sabres get the message - no more free rides in Buffalo (at least I hope that's what it means...).

I can understand that. I still think he handled it properly. He's trying to build a smart, well disciplined football team and as the leader you can't be flying off the handle if you don't want your team following suit. You've ve heard the post game victory speeches. He tells all his players to be humble and always show respect to the other team when talking to the media. Also, we have no idea how much emotion he showed behind the scenes. He could call the NFL and go ballistic and we'd never know. McDermott just isn't the type to air his dirty laundry to the press. If you haven't noticed by now, he's not the type of coach who is going to voice his displeasure (with anything) to the media. He's very bland when addressing them. Reminds me a lot of Belichick in that regard. BB doesn't lose his cool on the sidelines or to the media either. But if you think that means he doesn't show passion behind the scenes, then you'd be wrong. He's very passionate. But he keeps it behind closed doors. IMO McDermott seems to be the same way.

Any Bills player throws a punch a Gronk and they are looking at a 2 game suspension, maybe more. We just seen Crabtree and Talib get suspended 2 games for throwing a single punch. had Preston Brown "ripped Gronk's helmet off and beat him until someone stopped him" (or whatever the exact phrase the OP used), they may have been permanently banned. IMO the Bills players were right to let the refs and the league handle it.

I thought McDermott handled it fine. He addressed it directly with the head honcho of the Patriots - Belichick - at the end of the game. That's how a man should handle it IMO. You don't need to yell and scream and try to fight someone. You discuss it like a mature adult with the person in charge. He also addressed it with the refs, and I'm guessing that he will address it directly with the league as well. And in his post game presser he said he wasn't happy with it and there's no room for stuff like that in this game. I thought he handled it in a classy way and I really don't get what the issue is. Id much rather have a coach handle it like McDermott did, than have him acting like that buffoon Rex Ryan...

Let's go Buffalo!

Wow. That's a lot of money for Jeffery...

Eh, at least it won't be as bad as 2 weeks ago when we got to experience 4 straight days of losing... the Sabres lost Friday & Saturday, the Bills lost Sunday and then the Sabres lost again on Monday.

Great read Yolo. Thanks for sharing. I really have have high hopes that McDermott is going to be the guy who turns things around here. I still trust "the process", even after those brutal losses (and another one likely this Sunday...). Can't wait to see what this new regime is able to build in the coming years. Loved this quote by Matthews - Also, I think this article, as a whole, demonstrates pretty well why all that talk of McDermott losing the locker room was just a bunch of nonsense.

Tennyson cleared waivers. Rochester just got a bit stronger (and they were already looking pretty damn good). Tennyson is a good top 4 d man in the AHL, and it'll be nice to have him around still as a #7/8 guy for Buffalo. We may need him after the trade deadline (depending on who's shipped out).

Ain't that the truth...

Sabres waive Tennyson. http://www.wgr550.com/articles/news/sabres-place-tennyson-waivers This was probably the right defenseman to waive IMO. I kept calling him our new Mike Weber because he always seemed to be on the ice for goals scored against us. Plus, he's coming off an injury so the chances he makes it to Rochester are (probably) better. The other choice was probably Gorges, but I think there's a better chance that he may be able to return a pick at the deadline.

For me, it all depends on what they could get in a trade. Im not interested in giving him up for a late 1st in a 2018 draft that isn't exactly considered deep. If they can get something worthwhile, like an A level prospect and a 1st, or a good defenseman (and maybe something else added in, depending on the defenseman) then I guess you have to consider it. But if he isnt willing to re-sign here (for a price we can afford), then you obviously have to take what you can get for him. Kane has said he is happy here and made it sound like he's interested in re-signing. So that's probably the route I'd go first. He is only 25 after all... Plus It's very hard to justify everything Murray gave up for him if he only ends up being here 3 years and is traded for a late 1st... that would be some bad asset management (not that the blame would really be on Botterill for that).

Yeah. Definitely looks like a great trade for NJ as of now. I'm a bit jealous as a Sabres fan. I think Vatanen would have been a nice fit with Housley. They've made a few nice trades recently. Ive been quite impressed with what Ray Shero has done with that team in a pretty short amount of time. Lou is a legend, but it was definitely time for a change in NJ. Looks like they may have got the right guy...

Well, damn. You can take the Ducks out of the Evander Kane sweepstakes. I thought theyd try to trade Vatanen for Kane... (not that I necessarily want Kane traded or anything)

Yup. I believe that was right after Lawyer Malloy was released by the Patriots days before the season started and signed with the Bills. We beat them 31-0 the first time we played them that season. Then in the second game against the Patriots that season, they beat us by the exact same score - 31-0. I'd love it if we could somehow split our 2 games with the Pats this year. It doesn't even have to be a shutout! I'm not picky... lol.

http://buffalonews.com/2017/11/29/lights-camera-action-sabres-hope-to-provide-some-as-winter-classic-filming-begins/ The camera crew crew started following the Sabres today (for "road to the winter classic"). I'm excited to see it when it starts airing. It'll be very interesting to see behind the scenes. Although I'm a bit worried what it'll look like if they go on another prolonged losing streak. It'd be amazing if they could go on a tear and start winning some games just in time for this filming... yeah yeah I know I know. I'm a dreamer. lol

I was just looking to see if anyone had posted this yet. I didn't find it so I posted it in the "Rex rips McDermott" thread. Looks like we were both posting it at the exact same time OP... lol.

Rex Ryan said he was told to bench Tyrod Taylor last season, which led to his firing. http://buffalonews.com/2017/11/29/rex-ryan-says-he-was-told-to-bench-tyrod-taylor-last-season-which-led-to-his-firing-bills/ I'm not sure if Rex had a NDA (non-disclosure agreement) in his contract. It seems to be something Pegula puts in all of his coach/exec contracts. Id laugh so hard if Rex violated the terms of his NDA and lost out on the last couple/few years of his Pegula bucks.

I thought they actually played a pretty good game tonight. They just can't score... Oh, and I just seen this - http://buffalonews.com/2017/11/28/sabres-road-to-the-winter-classic-will-air-on-nbcsn/ NBC Sports will be airing "Road to the winter classic", a behind the scenes look at the Sabres in the weeks leading up to the winter classic. It's supposed to start sometime in December. So glad this is moving from Epix to NBCSN since I don't get Epix. Should be interesting... I am very curious to see what the glimpse of the culture inside Buffalo's locker room looks like.

Buffalo Sabres: Rasmus Ristolainen finally turning the corner https://puckprose.com/2017/11/27/buffalo-sabres-rasmus-ristolainen-finally-turning-corner/ Like the article says, it's only a 15 game sample size. But it's still nice to see Ristolainen s underlying analytics numbers improving. Maybe he'll start getting the respect he deserves (outside of Buffalo, as most of us already knew that he was much better than his terrible analytics showed). I always felt that that some of his numbers, like shot suppression (etc) were a product of Bylsma's system first and his D partners, as well as playing on a terrible team (obviously). Bylsma asked/wanted him stay in front of the net and push the shots to the outside. He wanted guys staying in their positions, not attacking the puck. The purpose was to keep the shots on goal limited to the low(er) danger areas along the perimeter of the ice. He didn't care if teams took a hundred shots from along the boards (etc). as long as we didn't give up the slot area. So obviously that is going to make Ristolainen's shot suppression numbers look terrible. That doesn't automatically mean he's a 2nd/3rd pair defender, like those stupid hero charts show... analytics are just 1 small piece of information. Not the be all end all that some make them out to be. I'll definitely be interested to see if this new upward trend in his numbers continues.

Well, you can add them to the growing list of teams that will most likely draft a QB in 2018, and sit ahead of us in the draft order. Cleveland San Fran is a ?? Giants Jets Broncos Miami (possibly) Cardinals (possibly) Redskins (possibly) San Fran is sitting in a perfect spot to start a bidding war between QB needy teams and collect a massive haul of picks (assuming they go with Garoppolo, or Cousins).

Yeah I didn't think the offense played very well as a whole. That's why I only mentioned a few runs and the o line doing better in pass protection (compared to the last few games, anyway). Like i said, I don't think the team played great or anything (nor do I expect them to with the talent level they currently have). I know they are nowhere near playing on the level of the better teams around the league... I just though that it was nice to see them rebound. They were so awful the previous 3 weeks. I just wanted to see them get back to the level they were at earlier in the year and I thought the defense did that for the most part. It was also also nice to see our rookie draft class playing pretty decent. Im the type that will take any positives that I can get. I always try to look for the positive in any situation. That's just how I am... The Bills are currently at the very beginning of a rebuild. So I guess my expectations aren't all that high.

So I just seen that Alex DeBrincat just got his first career hat trick 22 games into his rookie season. He has 10 goals and 17 points in 22 games so far. That would put him 2nd in goals and 3rd in points on the Sabres. The reason I mention that is because Tim Murray traded the 2nd round pick used to draft him for Josh freaking Gorges! Its really going to start start showing how badly he wasted some of his picks. It bugs me when you look at how strong those 2015 and 2016 drafts were and the players that were available to us had Murray kept all those 1st and 2nd round picks we had. I think he really squandered a golden opportunity for Buffalo to build a true young powerhouse of a team...

I wouldn't go as far as to day that the Bills sucked yesterday. I know Alex Smith was playing like crap but I still thought the defense rebounded nicely. They were actually getting pressure on Smith, they took away a lot of his (favorite) short, quick throws. Did a good job stopping the run. Were much better tackling and swarming the ball like earlier in the season. I also thought the offensive line rebounded pretty nicely. They were much better in pass protection. Opened up some nice running lanes at times. All in all I thought the team looked much better than the last three games. They don't have the talent right now to be some great team. But they can at least play fundamentally sound football and not kill themselves with mistakes, which I thought they did for the most part.