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It is but, presuming Canada doesn't celebrate Memorial Day, having the game just after lunchtime in Alberta gives fans attending a chance to get home at a reasonable hour and get a good night's sleep before heading back to the grind in the AM. Lot's of Sunday games end up getting played in the afternoon presumably for that reason.

Yea and I lived in Georgia so I'm well aware of the differences. Couldn't pay me to live in Florida though.

Kind of an odd start time for todays game at 3pm

I've long maintained that the Sabres should have amenities that cater to wives and families so that they build the sort of culture that once they're here, it'll make them more inclined to stay, preferably at a discount. Buy a ski house in Ellicottville, a nice big boat and/or boat house on Lake Erie... This is for all the players and their families to share, and to get to know each other. Hopefully bonds are built to the point where they feel better about putting down roots in the area and potentially signing at a home town discount.

Bennett is a guy I want. Just a solid player than can play middle six C and doesn’t back down from any challenge.

I've lived in western NY, Florida and Ohio. You are underestimating just how expensive WNY is overall - and you're overestimating the value WNY brings in education, insurance and especially government. Ohio and Florida are lapping NY right now....and it breaks my heart. Maybe 20 years ago it was close...but it no longer is.

Both have put up good, but not great, #'s in the AHL. Both have had a cup of coffee in the NHL and neither has done well in their brief opportunity in the show. Still wanted either over Rosen with that pick. But pretty sure Adams didn't go there figuring it'd cost him Portillo (but trading for Levi did that anyway). Maybe he was afraid he'd lose Levi too by grabbing 1 of the 2 "big names" at G in that draft. Don't know the reasoning behind it, but was not a fan of the Rosen pick and even knowing neither of the 2 G's has been a stud yet would still have rather had one of them in the system than Rosen. Both will likely have better NHL careers than him.

And this. Sorry for those who think size and toughness don’t matter. You have to have someone like Tkachuk on your team. And Marchands only comes around once ever quarter century or so. The Sabres need a couple of tough guys to deal with people like this and their players as a whole need to get tougher.

This Panthers team reminds me of a modern — present hockey culture — version of the Philadelphia Flyers at their peak in the mid 70s. Known as the broad street bullies that was not why they won. They were a tough team. Grind it out. Had scorers and could play 200 feet and annoy teams. That’s what the Panthers do. They have offensive talent but they have some really tough forward in Barkov, Tkachuk, etc.

I think the most likely scenario is Buffalo starts ok and then upl sucks in November and Adams is fired before Christmas.

I haven't even mentioned the public school, insurance, or government in Florida. Gotta tell ya, if I'm a Canadian hockey player with a wife and want a family, ain't doing that in Florida even if their facilities are the best on the planet. The problem with these arguments is they assume almost all players value X the same when we know they don't.

You know what else can sway decisions? Family. Housing. Things that happen away from golf carts. I think it's ludicrous to say needing a golf cart to drive around facilities is somehow some magic benefit. Fun fact, the University of Georgia built their new field house and weight lifting facilities on top of each other so they weren't wasting time being bused around. Anyways... Buffalo has good facilities. They have 3 ice rinks next to each other. The Players have a lounge area. They have expanded recovery areas. Is it the best in the league? No, but it's better than quite a few places. If it was so ***** why would anyone sign here ever? Okposo, Hall, Moulson, Ehrhoff, Zucker, Dahlin, Thompson? Eichel? Why sign here if it's so ***** compared to Florida?

Yep. These scenarios never end with the GM who hasn’t figured it out in 5 years, suddenly doing so and going on to glory. Everywhere you look in the East teams are making front office or coaching moves with the intent of improving. The Rangers and Flyers didn’t bring in Sullivan and Tocchet for prolonged rebuilds. The Bruins made clear to their fans that losing is not acceptable. Columbus has $40 million in cap space and one, maybe two, free agents they would really want back; I’m not sure what they will do, but odds are they will do more than the equivalent of signing Erik Johnson and Connor Clifton. Montreal, Ottawa, and Detroit have passed us. Could that be fleeting? Maybe. But what has Adams done to have any confidence he will out manoeuvre Gorton/Hughes or Staios or Yzerman this off-season? Carolina has more cap space than us. So does Toronto. The best free agents will not be choosing the Sabres. At the end of last season, for the first time under Adams, there were reports of unrest amongst Sabres players. They are not dumb and they can see what other franchises are doing and how winning is valued elsewhere. If this season doesn’t start well, things will quickly implode.

I always hesitate to characterize these people whom we don't really know. For example, Kyke Okposo Good Man. Who knows? We can only go by what we know. Terry might not be mean, but on Day One he went to visit TBN and he went after them. I might never forget how he sat there and scraped the junk out of his fingernails onto the conference room table. Yes, it happened! I think there's a passive aggressiveness to the man. Mean? How about ghosting Sabres fans? Cruel, at the least. And that's not to mention what he's actually done to come close to destroying the franchise. I've always suspected that a change took place when he was booed on RJ Night.

I not clear at this point whether they really will do something, and if they do, what they are looking for. Keeping Adams as the GM for at least this year creates all kinds of complications for this search. Who will this advisor report to? Are they looking for an advisor to Adams, and if yes, what will be his role, if any, if Adams is out after this year? Who would be interested in this role if they could be out after one year? Are they thinking that this hire potentially is someone who will replace Adams after next season? Just seems like a very unattractive situation with very limited upside in the near term where you are not GM, may have to report to the current GM and you are stuck with a head coach (who has a history with the owner and fans) and coaching staff that you had no role in choosing.

There's so much about next year that points toward another 2020/21 or 2017/18.

I’m not even sure. Once Sabres don’t draft them I don’t really pay attention. So I’m not even sure if I was right or wrong for wanting them. I just remember I really really wanted one of them.

That COVID draft was a real crapshot. Combination of weaker class and lack of scouting. None of the top 9 picks look like surefire stars yet, but most of them still could be, and there's not a ton of separation there. Then you get the Wyatt Johnston outlier — potentially the best player in the draft at pick 23, who didn't play in his drat year. But the rest of the 1st round is a whole lotta maybe. You've got 6 picks who have yet to play and NHL game, and 8 others who have played 25 games or less.

If Adams was fired today and Dudley was hired as a senior advisor to help Pegula find a new GM, that would be amazing. Adding Dudley to advise Adams though, would only give me hope because Dudley might eventually get Pegula’s ear and explain that big changes need to be made. It would give me no hope for a quick turnaround . The scenario that is unfolding, has disaster written all over it. Adams and Ruff are, demonstrably, among the current worst to hold jobs in their respective positions in the NHL. And they are lame ducks. And players know, generally speaking, that the rest of the league looks at Sabre players and thinks they are likely better than what they have shown in Buffalo. If and when things start to go south, the booing will start and there will be zero motivation for the average Sabre player to lay it on the line for the current regime. Team failure will mean a new GM/HC and/or individual players being sent to a new team. Losing this year will be a no lose situation for many key Sabre players.

I’ll be spending most of the summer in Buffalo again and I want to point out that I see more Bandits tee shirts and hats than I do Sabres. People wearing Sabres gear are becoming more scarce. The Bills dominate all of the sports talk and the merch market by a huge margin. Thankfully they are lots of young kids playing ice hockey which is the future fan base of the Sabres if they survive. Yet, I see the league changing and hockey popularity spreading to the south and west and I don’t think the Sabres can survive another 5 years unless things change and they become competitive once again.

Harrington advocating for Shanahan. why go get a Shanahan or Dudley when you can keep the entire group that has failed here for years. Why succeed when you can fail but be heard. Just watched the CBC’s documentary on Harold Ballard and the way he destroyed the Leafs franchise in the 70s and 80s. I can see a Pegula one in the future. He’s not as abrasive or as mean as Ballard but there are parallels to the damage they did to their teams.

How are they doing now?

Terry's insane loyality to Adams is setting this franchise back horribly.

I like Dudley a lot but I agree he should not be the big boss and he might not fit in at all in Buffalo. He is up there in years and probably doesn’t want a full time gig either but I think he would a very fine exec advisor to the big boss. Zito seems to love him. His style of play is what Buffalo fans want. I saw an internet rumor, could have been from here, that he did not want to work for Adams.

They do. But taking the risk is where the reward typically is. (And maybe they'd've gone that other direction had they not been so displeased with how Murray's tenure went. In hindsight, grabbing a sociopath was a bit more risk than they should actually have been taking. 😉 )