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I think TD Garden in Boston is actually older than the Arena in Buffalo, and it too, blows it away. It isn't the best place I have ever been, it it looks like a concrete box from the outside. However, they keep up with the condition of the seats much better, it just seems more loud/active in the arena bowl, the South entrance is really cool going into the arena, Its NICE that if you take a train to the arena it actually stops inside the arena (you don't have to go outside), and it just seems a lot more 'upscale' yet approachable. Again, I'm pretty sure its older tool.

Wasn't Quinn Golisano's main franchise representative when he bought the team? And because the owner believed he did a sterling good job in guiding the franchise out of its financial peril that he gave him a chunk of money when he sold the team to Pegula?

With respected to your comment about being able to learn when dominating at a lower level, that isn't the issue. The primary issue is whether he would have benefited more in the juniors or playing in the NHL. @LTS gave a strong argument why it made a lot of sense for him to play in the NHL given the rules that would have prohibited him from playing in the AHL. And there is another element to whether Benson would have benefited more in the juniors than the NHL i.e. physical development. It's more likely that the workout and training facilities and staff would be at a higher level in the NHL than it would have been in the juniors where a lot of his time would have been spent on buses.

To the bolded. It might be true, to a degree. But I largely reject the notion. I mean, is anybody seriously arguing that Benson would have dominated junior hockey as an 18 year old more than McDavid dominated the NHL as a 24-25 year old? And, is anybody seriously arguing that McDavid stopped learning once he started dominating the NHL? The list of players who dominated lesser competition for a year or two in junior, post-draft, and who then went on to have great NHL careers is very long. Very long. Benson, in my view, is the sort of player who would have found many things in his game to improve on whether he was in junior, college, the AHL, or the NHL. He's not the sort of kid who would have pouted, or got lazy, or forgot about the defensive side of the game.

In fairness to Quinn (shakes like Lurch, uuuuuggggggghhhh) on the cheapness. Need to remember this building was built at a time that the Knoxes were slowly bringing the Criminal on as a minority partner to help with cashflow issues as expenses were increasing exponentially and though the Knoxes were rich, they weren't THAT rich. So, that explains getting essentially a duplicate of the Staples Center but with blue seats instead of purple and only 1 ring of boxes instead of 3 and no full ring video message board. That board that goes all the way around now didn't come in until Golisano bought the team. But Quinn's disdain for the "commoner" was evident in items such as his insistance on using metal bars at the front of the 300s rather than glass like there was from day one in front of the 200s and the boxes. "Glass is unsafe for the 300s" was the arsehole's reasoning. But yet, somehow it's perfectly safe with the metal posts coming out of the concrete up there held in by welded wings off the posts. The metal bars lasted until the team's 1st extended road trip. When the team was back, fans came back to the newly installed glass that still had metal posts coming up to partially block the view of roughly every 3rd person in the 1st or 2nd row of the 300s. It was also his decision to just have handicapped seating be considered good enough by sticking those wheelchair bound behind those sitting in the 1st 2 rows of the 300s every so often. So, after a lawsuit that he lost, they started blocking off seats in the 1st 2 rows of the 300s so that those that were wheelchair bound wouldn't have their views obstructed when people stood up. Heck of a job there, Quinny, heck of a job. Wouldn't put it past him to have been the impetus for buying substandard pulleys to raise and lower the scoreboard resulting in the famous videoboard crash postponing a Bruins game back in the day. Hey, we saved a few bucks and insurance covered the replacement of the jumbotrons, so all good, right? He was given an edict to build the barn cheaply; and he got 'er dun.

Oh yea... sure right. Can't wait until the midterms when they "help" at polling places in a "supporting role"

The flaw in this argument is that he's been in Buffalo during his critical developmental years. He has not played any years in the NHL where he would be beyond his critical developmental years and as such you cannot predict whether it's stunted his growth or not. If he had played the past two years in juniors then he would have been a player who played in juniors with no NHL stats and a question of whether it would translate. Then we'd talk about him being 21-23 and his early growth years in the NHL and still be trying to project his growth and what he would be when he hits 24. The only way to know how this has impacted him won't be known for another few years and even then you won't know what could or could not have happened. He may never have been the player you think he was supposed to be. And the problem with staying in juniors is that if he's too good for that level, then it does not benefit him to play there either. You learn nothing by dominating lower competition. The thing is, I don't think anyone would argue that the AHL was where he would have been best served but because of the system (not the team) he was unable to get there. The system could have failed him, but the Sabres did what they could which was play him in the NHL. And given his ability to stand toe to toe (he won't really ever be eye to eye) with some pretty tough people in the NHL, I don't think it's harmed him at all.

Interesting times. I wonder if the NG will be conducting law enforcement operations or if they're be working with ICE in a supporting role.

Interesting points. Leave it to Larry Quinn. The St Louis arena was built in 1994 and Buffalo's was built in 1996. In every aspect I can think of the St Louis arena is superior and it is still in great condition today. The main level corridors are wide with an open and comfortable feel, and they have more restrooms and more concessions. They also have more suites, they have more room walking room and concessions on every level. Most important is the seating is steeper, like the old Aud, so you seem to be closer to the ice even in the 300's. The place is extremely loud when the crowd gets going - I never looked at the ceilings to compare them- I attributed the loud and intimate feeling to the steeper design. We were in the first few rows of the 300's and my wife commented that it reminded her of her tickets in the Aud - that was a compliment, she loved the feel of that place and the overall experience. The last time I was there I was amazed at how much nicer it is than Keybank, especially since they were built in the same time period. Since a new arena in Buffalo is not in the near term plans they should fix up what they have.

https://www.facebook.com/BuffaloBatHabitat/videos/1025967066117751/?mibextid=rS40aB7S9Ucbxw6v

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cd7yperjxneo "Despite declaring the Washington DC mission a success, Trump said that he is considering declaring a national emergency once the deployment's 30-day deadline expires. "If I think we're in great shape here, that's one thing. But if I don't, I'm just going to say it's a national emergency," he said. "If I have a national emergency, I can keep the troops here as long as I want."

1. Goalie, and I assume UPL will be back on track to start the season. The question is how long will he keep it together, what does it take to break him again? 2. and 3. Kesselring and Byram. They will be paired with Power and Dahlin and get over 20min each every game. Kesselring is new to me, I just know he is big, shoots hard, but is unexperinced. Byram is a great puckmover that had a hard time on defense last season. He finds himself out of position way to often and I have wanted to see him traded for a player that has defensive positioning in the DNA for two summers. If Kesselring and Byram can show us a defensive game at a level of a top4 D wingman. And UPL is back on track to play at his best. Then we might be playing meaningful games in April.

I think they have improved and will be better, how much better is hard to predict, we'll see. Just as an example, what I think made Montreal a playoff team was that they had better match-ups, they had players that would give StLouis the possibility to have a player like Laine on the ice and use him on PP, even if he was a disaster 5v5. I think they are worse there this season and it will be very interesting how it affects on Habs overall play. I don't see Habs as improved as many other, just because of that. I sure think Sabres look more like a Ruff-team now, I am just not convinced that they have the experience and disciplin to play as he wants them to. And talking about Ruff, I expected him to be better to adjust his coaching to the material he had to work with, that was a dissapointment.

Roslovic (and to some extent Gryzlyk) still not signed by someone is a little surprising. Do they have kids playing hockey? Maybe we should tank for their draft year? 🙂

So is the short version you agree with me that Norris and Tage should play together on the top line?

They'll probably superimpose pictures of fans on the seats soon.

The Cult will be at the OLG stage in Niagara Falls in October. But you’ll be paying re-sale prices if you don’t already have tix.

His potential is really interesting. I'm not sure he ever becomes a 70-80 point player but I think he's one of those players just below the known names that are extremely hard to find. My guess is he'll be one of those players that's so responsible, you need them to win.

The sparkle in your eyes keeps me alive.

Maybe. He played Briere at C for years even though he was better suited as a W in his own end. Expect the preference is to keep Thompson at W, but could see him move back in a pinch. If he does move back to C would expect to see him teamed up with someone like Tuch that is defensively responsible and oftentimes is the 1st F back into the zone. Similarly to how Briere played with Hecht and then as a Phlyer with the one we try not to speak about here.

4th youngest as a 2nd year player. That’s insane.

Unless Lindy Ruff gets fired, Tage isn't going back to center.

How about instead of gold, red, blue, and orange they go with gold, red, blue, and black? Not sure where you'd have the 100 level split between red and gold; but expect black works better than orange and it fit with the historical blue & gold and red & black.

A very simple thing that would've been nice would be renaming it the KeyBank Aud. Also when they redo the seats do them up in the old colors/pattern of the ones in the Aud, I'd rather that than a clean but drab design that is done these days