I wonder how much Bogo's snit and demands distracted his teammates? It's not like they didn't just win their third in a row the night he sat against the Preds. It's also not like they didn't go 1-6-1 in the 8 games immediately afterward.
I'm of a mind to hate this guy even more. It could be coincidental - Jack had the game he missed against the Flyers in there, they had the "we played well and lost" games against Boston and Tampa. But man, just from a distance, that doesn't look great.
I think it's hard to imagine that it wouldn't be a factor that has at least some sort of negative impact. He's a guy who, despite acting arguably unprofessionally and clearly having an evaluation of his own performance not tethered to reality, has been in a leadership position and has a salient place in that room of players. He's also the explicitly acknowledged best friend of your current captain, leader, best player and the person most important to the franchise in the immediate future. As much as an argument can be made that these guys (the players) are professionals and should be able to objectively evaluate the situation and conclude that he's a detriment to the team, most people generally don't work like that.
Given the lack of grace and self centered manner with which Bogo handled his decline and reduced role, I don't think he did anything to potentially help mitigate that negative impact. And while I can understand his motivations from a human/ego perspective, it also shows why he is a poor choice for any sort of leadership role. His conduct is definitely worthy of at least some level of scorn.
It's one reason where I give Kruger, but not Botts, a bit of a pass for playing Bogo somewhat. If the guy is here and on the roster, given the dynamics of his relationship with the team and it's most important player, I think that's a situation (adopts JBotts voice) where a coach feels like he has to compromise what may be his ideal preferences somewhat and has to try to manage things--give him at least
some playing time (he had the least average TOI of any D in the games he did suit up), keep things somewhat neutral in commentary, etc. I think the option of trying to manage it rather than just be blunt in handling it also is preferenced in that while things were playing out, the Sabres weren't totally out of it. If the season is clearly a write-off or you're clearly in a playoff position, then it's more viable to just be direct and not to let to have things play out.
Like so much else that is wrong right now, a lot of it goes back to the poor roster decisions by the GM. His trickle-down incompetence just ends up tainting so many facets of this team.