Leo Roth

[MLLE2383]

I grew up in Rochester(now i'm in North Blo) and i read the D and C sports page every day. I remember thinking Leo Roth was a pretty good writer. This article i just got done reading kinda PISSED me off though.

A lot of us fans were hoping to add someone at the trade deadline, but it didn't happy, oh well, move on with it. Leo needs to say the same thing. This just seemed out of wack and it pissed me off.

Your thoughts......

http://www.democratandchronicle.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060526/SPORTS0103/605260379/1007/SPORTS

[Bay Side]

suppose he could do a better job than darcy??

[beTough54]

The trade he suggests the Sabres should have made was for Witt????

Hint to Leo: Witt Sucks, and the third line center on this team is Timmy Connolly.

The Carney trade was the only feasible trade where the Sabres could have offered a better package than the other team. Even considering that, nobody was calling for Darcy to trade for 3 defensemen in anticipation of hitting the 9th D-man in the lineup.

[WhiteRabbit]

I am baffled about how he can tell a team, who is in the Eastern Conference finals (and up 2-1) ... what they should have done. It's funny to me and makes no sense.

[Ralonzo]

Yeah, of all the trades he could have suggested that Darcy missed out on, a first-rounder and roster player for Witt made almost no sense. Witt floundered for most of the year under the new rules. I've made no bones that of the 10 or so marginal NHL defensemen Washington had to offer, Witt was way down on the list. Jamie Heward would have been ideal. Heck, even Matthieu Biron would have been an upgrade to Rory and a vast upgrade to Janik. Since the Caps are going to let him walk for nothing in the offseason, a bag of pucks would have gotten that done.

Bash Leo if you want, but he's making the right point the wrong way. Go back to the deadline threads and see what the buzz was then. Fitzpatrick forced into the top-4 is definitely on Regier; Rory showed long ago that he's a liability even as a #7, and Regier intimated as much in the time leading to the deadline. Then he did nothing about it and trusted luck. This spate of injuries may have been unlikely, but was definitely foreseeable.

It could also be that Darcy's penchant for not even considering a deal that isn't a total butt**** of the other team has made opposing GMs shy to deal with him for anything, lest they look stupid.

[beTough54]

That's all well and good Ralonzo, but in what trades that were actually made could the Sabres have made a better offer? The lack of a 3rd round pick really hurt, as that seemed to be the asking price for a lot of defensemen.

[mosuavea]

Fitzpatrick forced into the top-4 is definitely on Regier
.

This is ridiculous. How can 3 injuries to players be on Darcy? Did he go down personally and pull a Tonya Harding on them?

You absolutely cannot blame Darcy for not having depth at the 9th defensemen position! No GM in the league currently or ever has had that much foresight and if he did hes better off handicapping games than pulling the strings at GM.

Injuries happen, the Sabres did fine with having two injuries but 3 could be the straw that breaks the camels back. Darcy making a move would not have eleviated this IMO

[Ralonzo]

That's all well and good Ralonzo, but in what trades that were actually made could the Sabres have made a better offer? The lack of a 3rd round pick really hurt, as that seemed to be the asking price for a lot of defensemen.

http://www.buffalorange.com/showpost.php?p=1269642&postcount=6

This is ridiculous. How can 3 injuries to players be on Darcy?

Having 6 competent NHL defensemen in the system is on Darcy. Any injury at all puts Fitz in the lineup, but Ruff can hide a #6 back there for 10 minutes. Two injuries (not uncommon) moves him to #5 and puts his ice at 13-15 minutes, AND puts Campbell into a top-4 role he's ill-suited for. Now you're playing with fire. Three injuries (unlikely, but not impossible with a 37-year-old and a guy leading the NHL in blocked shots back there) and now you have a guy who'd be mediocre in the AHL playing 20 minutes on one of your top 2 pairings. Yeah, I'd say that's failing to prepare properly, when you have 16 or 18 forwards who are NHL caliber and only 6 defensemen. It's not a coincidence that the team carried on quite well through major injury problems at the forward ranks.

When we had a couple guys on defense nicked up earlier in the year, Ruff had Pominville playing D in practice. Know why? Hint: It's not because he's a stud defense prospect. It's because there was nobody else. The well was dry. That should have been a bit of a hint right there that depth needed to be addressed. Darcy knew it, talked about it, and did nothing about it. You're damn right the people that were upset about it in March are going to be really damn upset about it if the team doesn't make it to June because of it.

If we were sweating just having to dress Rory because 3 other guys got hurt, then I wouldn't be on Regier's case. That's where we should have been, organizationally speaking.

The only way I see the Sabres pulling Darcy's ass out of the fire on this one is maybe Jillson magically fulfills his potential and takes a top-4 role on this team and we get Teppo back for the duration of the playoffs. Jillson is the only guy who has the potential to take top-4 duties, the others have been, are, and will be, limited role players.

The Sabres just might squeak to the finals with a corps of Lydman-McKee-Numminen-Jillson-Campbell-Fitzpatsuck. It's a shame, because just one competent NHL'er at the deadline gets Rory out of there, and this team walks over the Canes.

[beTough54]

Look at that list. Every single one of those teams is lower than the Sabres in the standings and therefore has a higher draft pick. For the Sabres to beat their deal they would have to up the draft pick a round.

That is my major point. It takes two to tango, and when a hotter third person asks to dance, you are going to dump your current partner and go with the hotter one.

[Ralonzo]

A sixth for Rivers or a fifth for Simpson or a fourth for McCarthy breaks the bank when you're fighting for 1st place in your division and setting up for a Stanley Cup run? And I'm to assume GMs won't take other forms of compensation (like one of our plentiful forwards)? C'mon blue, I know you're not that obtuse.

[PG 13]

Hard to blame Darcy. Fitz is a good 6-7th D. No way he would ever figure that 3 guys would get hurt, not his fault at all.

I read the D&C off these boards. But their writers are the worst that I have ever read, especially Leo Roth, he's awful. Some of the articles are painful. Buffalo News guys are good with the exception of Bob Dicesare. He should be demoted to the D&C he's so bad..

[beTough54]

It's hard to give up an asset like a forward for someone who at that point in time would be sitting on the bench as an 8th defensemen. Those D-men you listed are no better than or equal to Rory.

This current team was built on draft picks and a few select trades for young prospects, and will have to be built that way in the forseeable future. I don't blame Darcy for wanting to hold on to as many picks as possible.

[Ralonzo]

Those D-men you listed are no better than or equal to Rory.

Hard to blame Darcy. Fitz is a good 6-7th D.

No. Rivers > Rory. McCarthy > Rory. I happen to think an empty Genesee can floating down Cattaraugus Creek is about as talented as Rory.

That said, it's a reasonable difference of opinion.

Still, even at the deadline, what did we really think we had for spares on defense anyway after the top-6?

Fitzpatrick: AHL-caliber, NHL-er by default.
Paetsch: AHL all-star, 1 game NHL experience. Then injured. Projects to #5 or #6, in Campbell's role.
Jillson: Bust.
Janik: You need potential to be considered a bust.

Fitz is the only guy that could be considered even a tweener NHL-AHL player (although I'd say more of an ECHL-AHL tweener). Guys like that are called depth. Simpson, Rivers, McCarthy, O'Donnell, Cairns, Poapst, etc. My contention is Rory is on the low end of that spectrum and shouldn't have been considered good enough to be #7. Maybe a #8.

We could have used a #7 who can take 12 minutes without me screaming at my set every time they're on the ice. Was I the only one who got sick of seeing Swinging Gate #8 cruising past a group of toothless grinning high-fiving mother****ers celebrating their goal against the Sabres? Or seeing the name "Fitzpatrick" on the back of the sweater desperately lunging at the guy scoring the goal? Or seeing him painfully try to turn and skate to his corner on the soft-dump only to be beaten there more often than not?

[foster]

In an average year you might have 2-3 guys get hurt after the trade deadline and during the playoffs and not be able to go. The Sabres have had more injury days than most AND they have fallen on the D.

Hecht, Mair, Connolly, Kalinin, Tallinder, Numminen....

This is one of those odd situations that you just can and shouldn't plan for. It could have been 3 forwards out of the top 6 and we had depth on the blueline instead it was 3 D and our depth is up front....which by the way has save our collective behind's throughout this series - Pominville, Novotny = Jillson/Janik/Fitzpatrick before the playoffs started.