Innings Ireland 292 for 8 (Stirling 130, Porterfield 94, Jayed 5-58) v Bangladesh

Paul Stirling's eighth ODI century helped Ireland to 292 for 8 in 50 overs, a stern test for an experimental Bangladesh line-up. Stirling made 130 off 141 balls as he played the role of the enforcer through the first Powerplay, controlled the scoring in the middle overs and then again went after the bowling at the death. The only man to resist Ireland was Abu Jayed, who took 5 for 58 in his second ODI.

Stirling, who was Jayed's fourth wicket in the 47th over, was helped on the way by captain William Porterfield, whose 94 was his first half-century since March 2018. They added 174 in a record third-wicket stand for Ireland. It was a pivotal stand that took the home side to the above-average total.

Bangladesh also contributed to Ireland's big score by dropping Stirling twice off successive balls at the start of the third-wicket stand. They had also picked Liton Das, Mosaddek Hossain and Rubel Hossain to have a final look at their form and fitness before the World Cup, although Jayed stood out; he is the first Bangladesh pace bowler to take a five-for in ODIs since November 2015.

It was, however, Rubel who gave Bangladesh the first breakthrough, when he forced James McCollum to be caught at slip one ball after Stirling had slammed him for a huge six over long-on, in the fourth over.

Andrew Balbirnie struck four boundaries early in his innings, taking off from where he had finished during his 135 against West Indies in the previous game, but just when he had unfurled a beautiful shot off Abu Jayed, the seamer had him strangled down the leg side, Mushfiqur completing the grab. But replays were not conclusive, and Balbirnie looked distraught.

But Stirling, who had struck two fours and two sixes till that point, didn't let Bangladesh settle down as he reached a second consecutive fifty. Soon afterwards, he was dropped twice in consecutive balls too, on 57 and 58, when Sabbir Rahman, racing in from long-off, couldn't hold on to an inside-out drive. Next ball, Mohammad Saifuddin dropped a sitter at point off Shakib.

Porterfield, going through his own demons, then took a liking to Shakib, as he struck him for a boundary in each of his next four overs. But it wasn't until Stirling reached his century, in the 42nd over, did they go after Bangladesh's bowling.

Porterfield cracked Mashrafe for two big sixes over midwicket, and a four through cover, in the 43rd over, before slapping Jayed straight down sweeper cover's throat in the 45th over, six short of his century. Jayed had removed Kevin O'Brien earlier in the over, before getting Gary Wilson's wicket to complete his five-wicket haul.

Saifuddin, having recovered from a slight back injury, took two wickets in the last over as Ireland couldn't quite reach the 300-run mark, which would have given them a psychological boost. But the 98 runs the hosts picked up in the last ten overs would keep the momentum with them.

Legspinner Shadab Khan was left tense and frustrated after learning that he was suffering from hepatitis, two days after being picked for the Pakistan squads for the tour of England and the World Cup.

A blood test had revealed Shadab was suffering from hepatitis, and was subsequently replaced by Yasir Shah in the squad for the England series, while the PCB arranged an appointment with a London-based gastroenterology and hepatology specialist. While Shadab recovered from the viral infection over the last month, his health was still a concern, with his chances of playing the World Cup at risk. But now he has been declared fit and is set to join the squad after the England series.

"When you suddenly get to know that you have a viral [infection] in your blood, naturally I got frustrated but my team-mates and friends have been very supportive," Shadab said. "I have a strong belief that whatever happens, happens for a reason and for good. I was tensed up on the first day but then I told my friends that whatever happened was in the past. If anything good is to happen, it will happen. So I asked them to avoid talking to me about it."

Shadab was given a two-week course of medication and was prescribed complete rest. He was declared fit after undergoing another round of blood tests in Lahore earlier this week and is set to leave for England soon.

"I was always hopeful because the viral infection was found at its initial stage," Shadab said. "With two weeks of medication, it's out of my blood. Now I am heading to the World Cup. We [Pakistan] have been going there [to England] regularly over the last three years so it isn't really difficult to acclimatise. All I have to do is to get in my rhythm otherwise I am mentally prepared for the challenge."

Shadab has been Pakistan's key strike bowler in the middle overs for the last two years, and his return is a boost for the side. His replacement, Yasir, hasn't made an impact as Pakistan have struggled with their bowling in the ongoing ODI series against England. Yasir's ODI form has been a far cry from the quality that has marked him out as an elite Test bowler, and he was left out of the third ODI against England on Tuesday after conceding 60 runs in seven overs during the second ODI in Southampton last week.

Pakistan have taken only seven England wickets in the last two ODIs, after the first match was washed out. The hosts scored 373 in the second ODI and on Tuesday, chased down 359 with 31 balls and six wickets to spare. Shadab who has a knack of picking wickets in the middle overs, believes the Pakistan bowlers are not in rhythm.

"Nowadays you have to take wickets because cricket has become very fast and even 350 isn't a par score," Shadab said, reflecting on Pakistan's performance in England so far. "Yes we have been struggling with the ball in the middle overs, but the way the batting is performing is a good sign. No doubt we lost the games but we put up a good fight and played competitive cricket, which gives a lot of boost to the team. Pakistan, anyway, still have the ability to win the remaining games.

"I have already played in a competitive tournament, in the 2017 Champions Trophy, which we won. Victory indeed has its own taste. Even though we lost a few games, I know how to adapt in a big tournament. Our team has 100% skills to do well in the World Cup. Yes, they are struggling but so are the other teams in many ways. They are playing good cricket overall. Yes, the bowlers are not doing well, they are actually not in the rhythm required but once they start clicking, we will start winning the games. Overall, when you are missing four key players [Shadab, Mohammad Amir, Mohammad Hafeez, Shoaib Malik] it becomes increasingly tough. But there is a difference between pressure for a series and the World Cup, so I am optimistic about our chances there and we will try to win the World Cup."

England, 2-0 up in the five-match ODI series against Pakistan after three games, will be without Eoin Morgan when they take the field at Trent Bridge to try and wrap up the series, after their captain was suspended for one match for the team's slow over-rate in the third ODI in Bristol.

After batting first in Bristol, Pakistan finished on 358 for 9 and England crossed the mark with 31 balls remaining for a six-wicket win. After the game, England were deemed to be two overs short after time allowances were taken into consideration, and match referee Richie Richardson, in accordance with Article 2.22.1 of the ICC Code of Conduct for Players, imposed the sanction.

Morgan had been found guilty of a similar offence during the Barbados ODI against West Indies on February 22, and since this was the second such infraction within a 12-month period, he had to accept the ban as well as a fine of 40% of his match fee. The other members of the playing XI had to cough up 20% of their fees too.

Jonny Bairstow, the Man of the Match for his 93-ball 128 in the chase, was also pulled up after the match. Paul Reiffel and Michael Gough, the on-field umpires for the game, and Chris Gaffaney, the third umpire, charged him with misconduct.

Bairstow, after he was dismissed in the 29th over of the England innings, struck the stumps with his bat, and therefore breached Article 2.2 of the ICC Code, which relates to "abuse of cricket equipment or clothing, ground equipment or fixtures and fittings during an international match".

One demerit point has been added to Bairstow's disciplinary record - it was his first offence since the introduction of the revised Code in September 2016.

The fourth ODI will be played on Friday, and the final game is scheduled for Headingley on May 19.

CHICAGO -- Holy smokes. What a wild lottery. That may have been the wildest lottery ever. The NBA's new smoothed lottery odds raised the possibility of teams leaping from the middle toward the top, and boy howdy was there some leapin' on Tuesday in Chicago.

Here's how it went down from inside the locked-down drawing room, where the real lottery takes place about an hour before the television reveal.

• In all my years in the drawing room -- and I'm becoming the Elgin Baylor of that room at this point -- the loudest display of emotion I had seen was in 2012 from Dell Demps, then the general manager of the New Orleans Pelicans, when New Orleans won the Anthony Davis lottery. Demps pumped his fist under a table and stifled one celebratory grunt.

Seven years later, with Davis hovering over the lottery in a very different way, Alvin Gentry, the Pelicans' coach and drawing room representative, threw all decorum out the window when the fourth pingpong ball drawn (numbered 13) completed a four-number combination that belonged to New Orleans.

Gentry rose from his chair. "F---, yeah!" he exclaimed. He raised his arms in celebration, and even turned to high-five six rival team representatives behind and around him. They reciprocated. "Sorry, sorry," Gentry said to the room as he sat back down and the drawing continued for the second, third and fourth picks.

He didn't need to apologize. Almost everyone in the room was smiling along with him. Gentry has always been popular, but the Davis debacle turned him into a more sympathetic figure. Most of the people in that room were happy for him.

• After the lottery ended, Gentry approached the dozen reporters in the room and offered another wink-wink apology. "Sorry, guys," he said. "Not really."

• Gentry wore a black tie with silver-gray striping. It was his good-luck charm. David Griffin, New Orleans' new executive vice president of basketball operations, gave it to Gentry. Griffin was a member of the Cleveland Cavaliers' front office during a stretch in which the Cavs won three lotteries in four years, from 2011 to 2014. Each time, a man named Jeff Cohen -- a former vice chair for the Cavs and confidant of owner Dan Gilbert -- represented the team in the drawing room.

I began referring to Cohen as a warlock. Gilbert and Cohen had some sort of falling out, and the Cavs have not had him in the room in either of the past two lotteries. (Cleveland owned Brooklyn's pick a year ago.) I half-jokingly said the Cavs had cursed themselves.

And then Gentry revealed the ultimate plot twist: The tie Gentry wore Tuesday was the same one Cohen wore in each of those three lottery wins. Griffin had phoned Cohen and asked for a good-luck charm in the lead-up to the lottery, he told ESPN.com in the aftermath Tuesday. Cohen scoffed at the idea that any trinket could win the favor of the lottery gods. Griffin asked if he might please send the tie. Cohen did. Griffin passed it on to Gentry.

Put Jeff Cohen and his damned tie in the Hall of Fame. Gentry said he is going to frame the tie and the lottery balls, and hang it in the Pelicans' practice facility.

• Upstairs in the ballroom, Griffin saw Celtics assistant GM Mike Zarren, embraced him and screamed, "What did I tell you?" In the leaguewide general managers meeting earlier that day, Griffin apparently told everyone New Orleans would win the lottery. "I've already seen it," Griffin recalled announcing to the room. "We're winning this thing."

This is exactly the sort of borderline spiritual language Griffin used when his Cavaliers trailed the Warriors 3-1 in the 2016 NBA Finals. He insisted that the Cavaliers were going to rally and win. If you looked at him funny, Griffin just stared back at you, dead serious.

Between Griffin, Cohen and Cohen's tie, I'm starting to believe in some real mystical stuff. I'm a little scared. I also worry that in excising all three, the Cavaliers will suffer years of self-inflicted bad luck.

• Speaking of Tuesday's GMs meeting: Multiple sources say the liveliest topic of discussion centered around the possibility of implementing a coach's challenge at some point soon. Some in the room favored a more limited challenge system focused on black-and-white rulings: out-of-bounds plays, goaltending, and the like -- but not fouls. Others argued coaches should be able to challenge foul calls.

The league would likely favor the more restricted concept, if anything. Allowing coaches to challenge fouls is something of a Pandora's box. Should they be able to challenge non-calls, too? There was also discussion of whether a challenge should cost a team one timeout regardless of whether the coach "wins" or "loses" the challenge. Some in the room were wary of coaches using the challenge to create an extra timeout. Also: What if a team is out of timeouts?

There is a lot to determine, but accounts of the depth of the discussion suggest this concept has some new momentum.

• Also discussed, per sources: stationing a "replay official" at the scorer's table who could make some determinations (was that shot a 2-pointer or a 3-pointer?) without stopping play, and flag other plays right away so that referees would not have to huddle up and decide whether to trigger review. Thumbs up!

• Back to the lottery: How crazy is it that we spent the past two months wondering how the lottery would impact the Davis trade sweepstakes, only for Davis' actual team to win the lottery? You cannot make this up.

"We're going to get a great player," Gentry told ESPN.com after the drawing. "We have something to sell."

I asked: You mean sell to Davis? "To Anthony and our fans," Gentry said. "Everyone forgets he's still a part of our roster."

• Griffin echoed that during a brief chat with ESPN.com after the televised reveal. "We can be Oklahoma City with Paul George," he said. "We can hold onto [Davis] and let him see what we really are. [Winning the lottery] changes how quickly he can buy into it. It gets us closer. Every day, maybe he believes a little more. As much as elite talent likes to play with elite talent, I can't imagine any elite player in his prime looking at our situation and saying to himself, 'There's a better grouping to play for' than ours."

We'll see. Several reports late Tuesday suggested Davis had not changed his stance post-lottery. Griffin has to create the perception of leverage. But it's not crazy to suggest that the Pelicans could build something very interesting -- and lasting -- around Davis, Jrue Holiday, Zion Williamson and a couple of other young pieces. If they trade Davis for another top-four pick in this draft -- more on that later -- building around two top-five picks in the same draft is kind of cool.

• The first three balls drawn on the winning combination were numbers 7, 4, and 12. The worst teams -- New York, Phoenix, and Cleveland -- owned 420 of the 1,000 four-number combinations, and most of the combos featuring 1s, 2s, and 3s. There is real suspense in the air when the first three numbers drawn are 4 or higher. For 10 delicious seconds -- and exactly 10 by league rule -- a lot of teams are in play.

Gentry knew the Pelicans had a shot. "Oh, s---," he thought to himself after that 12 came up, he told ESPN.com. Tommy Sheppard, the Wizards' top executive since the team fired Ernie Grunfeld, also felt butterflies, he told ESPN.com afterward. The Wizards owned a few combinations featuring 4, 7, and 12. For a moment, Sheppard let himself envision Washington erasing a year of rotten feelings. "Of course you do that," Sheppard said. "But then you remember this is like bingo. You can't control anything."

And then Kiki VanDeWeghe, the NBA's executive vice president of basketball operations, announced the number on the last ball: 13. Gentry rifled through the eight-page printout listing all the combinations to see if New Orleans owned 4-7-12-13. It was taking too long. He gave up and waited. An NBA attorney proclaimed that New Orleans had won the No. 1 pick.

• Maybe the most fun part of the drawing room experience is watching the TV show knowing the results. When ESPN cut to the bar of New York fans celebrating that the Knicks had cracked the top four, everyone either chuckled or winced. If only they knew the letdown that was coming.

As the Pelicans' big TV moment approached, Sheppard declared to the room that Gentry had to re-enact his "F---, yeah!" moment. Gentry announced that he was "feeling good again" even though he already knew the results. When ESPN's Adrian Wojnarowski reminded television viewers that Davis was still a Pelican, and that Griffin would fight to keep him, Gentry bellowed, "Thank you!"

• It's strange to declare the Knicks slight "losers" for landing at No. 3 and the Lakers "winners" for rising from No. 11 to No. 4, but that assessment is correct. For all their flaws -- and perhaps too much has been made of those flaws considering the players' age -- the Lakers' young players have more combined trade value than Kevin Knox, Frank Ntilikina, Dennis Smith Jr. and Mitchell Robinson. (Does Robinson have the most trade value of those four guys? He might. He had the best 2018-19 season among them.)

The No. 3 pick in this draft plus all of those guys does not carry the same appeal as the No. 4 pick plus Brandon Ingram, Lonzo Ball, Josh Hart and Kyle Kuzma. I'm not sure the two Dallas future first-round picks the Knicks received in the Kristaps Porzingis deal tilt the equation in their favor; the Lakers can add their own first-round picks into any Davis package. If the Davis sweepstakes still happens, the Lakers probably come out of the lottery ahead of Knicks.

Some in the league wonder if the Pelicans' ownership and the New Orleans Saints officials who once had so much influence might still hold some grudge against the Lakers. Maybe. The door is slightly ajar for a surprise Davis suitor beyond the Lakers, Knicks and Celtics. But Gayle Benson has empowered Griffin, and the bet here is that Griffin will push for the best deal -- if a deal happens -- without much regard to the destination.

• Rob Pelinka, the Lakers' GM and drawing room rep, was candid in a post-lottery chat with ESPN.com about the team's urgency to improve immediately -- and how the No. 4 pick might play into that. "We are coming off a very tough season," Pelinka said. "We are going to do all we can to increase our chances to win next year. This pick is a powerful asset. We'll be methodical with the options of either selecting the right player or using it another way to get better."

• Pelinka of course cannot say the words "Anthony Davis." He's also well aware that the Lakers' brain trust -- him, Jeanie Buss, Linda Rambis, Kurt Rambis -- is taking a public beating. (That beating is deserved, by the way.) "The important thing in the eye of the storm is to keep your mind on doing your work excellently and not getting caught up in public opinion," Pelinka said.

• The Mike Conley sweepstakes has to be back on with Memphis in position to draft Ja Morant after jumping from No. 8 to No. 2. Trading Conley would hurt the 2019-20 Grizzlies, which makes Boston an indirect winner on at least one lottery front. With Memphis keeping its pick this season, its obligation to Boston now rolls over to next season with looser protections: The Grizzlies owe their next first-rounder to Boston with top-six protection in 2020, and then (if necessary) with no protection at all in 2021.

If Memphis goes into full rebuild, that pick increases in value.

• The sort of jumps New Orleans, Memphis and the Lakers made Tuesday -- and the connected drops of the league's very worst teams -- were precisely what the NBA intended, or at least what it conceded to as a possibility, when it tweaked the lottery rules for this year. There is less benefit to being abjectly terrible.

Some league officials braced themselves Tuesday for something of a backlash: Have we gone too far? Meh. This is what happens when you disincentivize finishing at the very bottom, and incrementally bump up the incentives for finishing in the middle of the lottery order. The tweaks didn't really even change team behavior that much. Three teams still tanked their way to fewer than 20 wins. Tuesday's results could even inspire more last-minute jostling for position in the middle of the lottery next season.

"One year doesn't tell the whole story," VanDeWeghe told ESPN.com after the lottery. "But the intent was to make it a little more random. It certainly doesn't solve everything, but I think it was a good move by the Board of Governors."

• Another possible consequence of Tuesday: Teams might be even more reluctant to trade potential lottery picks, and haggle even harder about the specific protections on them. After seeing these colossal jumps, will every borderline playoff team hunting a win-now move insist on top-four protection for its draft pick? That could chill the trade market a bit.

• One Eastern Conference executive in the drawing room Tuesday: "Three out of the first four out West? If it's not us, I'm at least glad it went that way."

• More trinkets from the lottery room! Zarren brought a Hoyo de Monterrey cigar -- Red Auerbach's preferred brand, apparently. Mike Gansey, Cleveland's assistant GM, brought nothing. I'm telling you, the Cavs are going to suffer the Cohen Curse. Pelinka brought "optimism," because his 11-year-old son, Durham, is an "eternal optimist" and told Pelinka optimism was all he needed, Pelinka told ESPN.com.

Zach Kleiman, Memphis' new executive vice president of basketball operations, brought an engraved watch his late mother gave to him in 2009.

No one could compete with Ian Hillman, the Sixers' vice president of strategy. Philly entered the night with a 1 percent chance at winning the No. 1 pick -- the last remnant of a laughably lopsided 2015 trade with the Kings. Hillman wore a "Simmons-Embiid" mock presidential campaign T-shirt underneath his dress shirt -- the same outfit choice he made for his job interview with the Sixers.

In an envelope, he carried several coins from 1963, the year the Sixers franchise moved to Philadelphia. He added a special edition South Carolina state quarter from 2000 -- the state in which Williamson grew up and the year he was born. He even had an Australian coin from 1996 -- the year Ben Simmons was born.

"When you have a 1 percent chance, you need as many lucky charms as you can bring," Hillman said.

• Even the timekeeper monitoring the 10-second intervals between the drawing of each ball -- Micah Day, the NBA's director of event management -- has a superstition: He uses the same red stopwatch every year.

• Upgrade alert: The NBA now has a backup pingpong ball machine in case the real machine malfunctions. The NBA's contingency plan until this season: stuff the 14 pingpong balls into a basketball with a hole cut into the top. I swear, that is a real thing. League officials on hand told me that even with the backup machine, that carved-up basketball remains Plan C in case of a power outage and/or double malfunction. One day, people. One day.

• The league keeps the pingpong balls in a black briefcase secured with one of those plastic zip ties. When an NBA official cracked that bad boy open, it almost had the drama of Vincent Vega opening the briefcase in "Pulp Fiction."

• Touching moment in the drawing room: Hillman, of the Sixers, and Andy Elisburg, the Heat's senior vice president and general manager, discussing the pain of being on the wrong end of historic shots. Hillman confided that he was still not over the Kawhi Leonard Game 7 buzzer-beater. Elisburg warned Hillman he would never be over it. Elisburg told Hillman he can still remember exactly where he was (and many other details from) the moment Allan Houston hit the rim-backboard-in floater that won Game 5 of the 1999 first-round series between the Knicks and Elisburg's Heat.

• Actor Jami Gertz, wife of Hawks owner Tony Ressler, has started a new tradition of eating a piece of chocolate cake from the same Chicago restaurant -- the RL Restaurant, i.e., the Ralph Lauren restaurant -- the day of the lottery. In related news, Jami Gertz is an absolute delight. Also: Ralph Lauren has a restaurant? Another thing I learned walking to a meeting in Chicago today: Weber Grill has a restaurant here with a giant red grill sticking out of the facade. What?

See you next year unless the NBA bans me!

Texas Rangers shortstop Elvis Andrus left with tightness in his right hamstring after grounding out to end the seventh inning against the Kansas City Royals on Tuesday night.

He will be evaluated again Wednesday in another blow to a team that has lost five straight to fall a season-worst five games below .500. The Rangers and Royals next play Wednesday at 8:15 p.m. ET on ESPN+.

Also, Rangers left-hander Cole Ragans, the team's first-round pick in the 2016 draft, will need a second Tommy John surgery after tearing his ulnar collateral ligament. The 21-year-old Ragans was close to pitching in a game for the first time since his last surgery when he began feeling discomfort about a week ago.

"It's obviously concerning,'' Rangers general manager Jon Daniels said, adding that the surgery will be Wednesday. "This is the first Tommy John surgery we've had that's failed.''

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

The Buffalo Sabres have hired Ralph Krueger as their next head coach in hopes of ending their eight-year playoff drought, according to multiple reports.

The news of Krueger's hiring was first reported by Canada's SportsNet.ca.

The 59-year-old Krueger coached the Edmonton Oilers during the NHL's lockout-shortened season in 2012-13. He was fired by the team via Skype after the youth-laden Oilers finished 19-22-7.

Krueger has vast coaching experience, including overseeing Switzerland's national team to Winter Games appearances in 2002, 2006 and 2010.

He returns to the NHL after spending the past five years as chairman of soccer's Southampton F.C. of the English Premier League. Krueger was born in Winnipeg, Manitoba, and played hockey professionally in Germany from 1979 to '91.

Krueger replaces Phil Housley, who was fired after just two seasons. Last season, Buffalo won just 16 of its final 57 games following a 10-game winning streak in November.

In finishing 13th in the Eastern Conference, the Sabres joined the 2016-17 Philadelphia Flyers as the only teams in NHL history to miss the playoffs in a season in which they won at least 10 straight games.

The Sabres' playoff drought stands as the NHL's longest active streak.

The hiring came as Sabres general manager Jason Botterill returned to Buffalo for a number of scouting meetings this week. He had been in Slovakia working as a management member of Canada's national team competing at the World Championships.

Krueger's experience includes coaching Team Europe to second at the 2016 World Cup of Hockey. He also served as a special adviser to Canada's national team when it won gold at the 2014 Sochi Games.

He is known for being an innovator in hockey strategies, developing young talent and being a motivator. In 2014, he authored a book, which was published in German and titled, "Teamlife: Über Niederlagen zum Erfolg," which roughly translates to "Over Defeats to Success."

Krueger's hiring allows Botterill to turn his attention to the Sabres' next most pressing offseason need: making a bid to re-sign forward Jeff Skinner before he enters the free-agent market on July 1.

Skinner was acquired in a trade with Carolina in August, and he scored a career-best and team-leading 40 goals in 82 games last season.

Although Skinner and the Sabres have engaged in contract talks since January, the team elected to put off further discussions until after its coaching search. In clearing out his locker in April, Skinner did not rule out re-signing with the Sabres but added that he didn't want to rush into his decision.

Krueger becomes the team's fifth coach since Lindy Ruff was fired in February 2013. None of Ruff's replacements has lasted more than two seasons.

The Sabres are in the midst of the worst stretch in franchise history. They've finished last in the standings in three of the past six seasons and haven't won a playoff series since 2007, when they lost to Ottawa in the Eastern Conference finals.

Krueger inherits a team that lacks chemistry and has struggled to build on a foundation of several talented youngsters, including captain Jack Eichel and defenseman Rasmus Dahlin, the first player selected in the draft last year.

The latest shake-up comes two years into Botterill's tenure as a first-time general manager and after his decision to hire Housley proved to be a bust.

Although Botterill said the blame for Buffalo's collapse deserved to be shared among players and himself, he added that it became evident that the team was not responding to Housley.

"Unfortunately, the message wasn't getting through," Botterill said when he fired the coach one day after the Sabres concluded their season.

Secondary scoring has been an issue, with Skinner, Eichel and Sam Reinhart accounting for 90 of Buffalo's 226 goals last season. The Sabres also committed far too many defensive lapses for a team coached by a Hall of Fame defenseman.

Housley's largest failure was an inability to get the Sabres to adapt to the creative, high-tempo style that relied on defensemen in jumping into the rush.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

While preparations for the 2019 NHL draft are in full swing, it's important to keep one eye on the future. Every player develops differently, and these projections could change over time, but let's look at the early favorites to be the No. 1 overall picks in 2020, 2021 and 2022, along with other talented prospects who might challenge them for those top spots.

2020: Alexis Lafreniere, LW, Rimouski Oceanic (QMJHL)

Born three weeks after the draft cut-off, Lafreniere would surely have been a high pick in this year's NHL draft. Instead, he'll have to settle for being the early odds-on favorite to go first overall in 2020. With 105 points this season, Lafreniere posted one of the most productive U18 campaigns of the past 15 years in the QMJHL and earned MVP honors in doing so. He matched Jonathan Huberdeau's and Jonathan Drouin's totals from their age-17 seasons and trailed only Sidney Crosby's two highly productive seasons at ages 16 and 17.

With only a smattering of tournaments, the AHL playoffs and Memorial Cup still going outside of the NHL, now is as good a time as any to take a look back at the season from a prospect standpoint, beginning with the Atlantic Division.

The Atlantic has some of the more intriguing teams in the midst or on the front end of rebuilding situations. There should be a plethora of top prospects within this division making their way to NHL rosters as early as next season.

Note: "A" prospects have a higher potential of being impact NHL players, while "B" prospects are more likely to be everyday players and contributors on NHL rosters, based on what I've seen to date.

Boston Bruins

A prospects: None
B prospects: Jack Studnicka, Urho Vaakanainen, Connor Clifton and Trent Frederic

The Bruins don't have a lot of very high-end prospects, although Studnicka and Vaakanainen in particular have good upside. Studnicka really popped this season with 83 points in the OHL and is trending up as speedy middle-six option for down the road.

The Bruins have a lot of AHL options who can be called up or fill holes quickly. Frederic is looking like he could be a low-lineup contributor as early as next season, while Clifton has already taken on a depth defenseman role in the postseason for Boston. The team also has a number of intriguing goaltending prospects, with Kyle Keyser and Jeremy Swayman looking to have the most potential.

Breakout prospect: Jack Studnicka

Buffalo Sabres