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My first "social media" exposure was detroit.freenet.org in the mid 1990s. Because it was still a local forum, we had meet ups once in a while.

Eh. Getting intercepted deep on third down is kind of like a punt.

You don’t need to follow the national or local media to form an opinion on the owner and the organization he assembled. When all is said and done the team’s record speaks for itself. You can’t hide from it because its existence is a non-erasable fact and not an opinion.

Arch Manning, of course. I still believe Justin Fields could be a decent QB. He needs the same development track Josh Allen had.

It's always a surprise when bad teams become good. Especially to national writers. They can't follow every team close enough to know what's going on.

That's because Jack is just one piece of the Vegas machine. He's not the center of their universe like he was in Buffalo. I believe things would have gone far differently if McDavid were a Sabre, but then having Tim Murray as your GM is still a handicap. It's true the Sabres are not considered a well run franchise. But one thing I've learned about the media, especially the national sports media, is it's lazy. Once an opinion forms, it sticks. No one bothers to update it, especially when everyone just repeats each other. So things could change but you'd never know because of the prevailing opinion. And much has changed with the Sabres this year alone. It's better to follow local beat writers. And even then, few are any good. Bill Hoppe is probably the best since the late Jim Kelley. Sneaky Joe DiBiasi is one of the worst.

It shouldn’t be s surprise that a long-term middling team that doesn’t do anything compelling in the offseason to change that perception doesn’t attract much scrutiny entering the season. Why bother? What the Pittsburgh Pirates are to baseball the Sabres are to the hockey world i.e. an afterthought. It’s a shame and self-inflicted.

They're going to trade a fourth-round pick for Shedeur Sanders.

I doubt it happens, he makes above league minimum too, although many teams have the space. Baby steps, KA caves in and waives him first. I would love him to get claimed, be done with him until his return tribute video that KA personally produces.

So what kind of QB will the Jets be corrupting with their very early pick coming up in the draft?

If you think we're a goalie away from being a playoff team, you do believe we're better than the Eichel years.

Happy to see Penticton get promoted to the big league. Good for them.

No matter how much you may dislike Tyreek Hill, it won't make you feel better about watching his leg injury against the Jets. Ouch town, population you, bro.

I think Lindy is conveniently making space for Mrtka to get his nine games.

These CBA-related rules? Yeah, they can’t just change them on the fly. The only thing you mention that was is the 2006 stuff. I don’t specifically remember what you’re saying, maybe that was the case, but I thought it was an issue where Darcy thought they’d handle it that way but was wrong. But if they’ve been told it will be in place, I’m good then. When it comes to how people are paid, it needs to be set in stone already at this point.

I hear that, but Drake Maye will never play a snap against Josh Allen.

Haven't seen any of them officially put in place yet. Not saying they haven't been, but haven't seen any reports of them actually getting enacted on an expedited schedule. And, you seriously believe the N-H-friggin'-L can't change a rule interpretation mid-year? We did mention we're talking the NHL, right? This is the same league that put out a "clarification" memo on how to enforce the in the crease rule about a month before the RS ended and THEN completely ignored that guidance when it was expedient. (Note to people in the Keystone State, not taking your bait from anyone when you respond to this post.) This league also decided in late '06 that it wouldn't let players play in the playoffs if they had been on IR all year; a position the league has since done a 180 on. But, teams have been told that it's very likely the new rules will be in place for the playoffs this year. As long as they're up front about it and everybody gets the same info at the same time; of course they can change the rules. You can argue all day as to whether they should or shouldn't; but it's not a should/shouldn't thing. It's a will they won't they one; and they absolutely can so they likely will.

If Mrtka goes back to Seattle, I could be seeing him Nov 7. They play Penticton and my buddy got tix for it already.

I feel like they’d have to know by now if they were going to do the playoff thing and we would have heard it. You can’t change an accounting thing mid-season. If a team makes a move thinking it will be counted one way, changing that on them suddenly doesn’t go well. Which ones have they actually said are in place now? I can’t remember and the only things I see with a lazy google search are non-CBA rule changes.

And he’s been waived before.

AND 1. it is ENTIRELY self induced by ownership and management; and, 2. It won't go away until at a minimum they've either won a playoff series or made the playoffs 2 years in a row. That'll be necessary to not be viewed as being an afterhought, though it won't necessarily be sufficient.

I think a large portion of the hockey media spent exactly this amount of time on the Sabres. 1. Pretty bad last year. 2. Long history of being bad. 3. Didn't do much except trade one of their most exciting young players for two guys I don't know much about. 4 Next team please. Doesn't mean they're wrong: many of us have come to a similar conclusion knowing the entire roster inside and out. But they didn't do the work.

I did hear some of the guys on the NHL station in XM last week, ones who I would say are particularly harsh on the Sabres, picking Thompson as one of 4-5 players who will hit 50 goals this year. It caught my attention because one was saying Matthews won’t get there because he’ll get hurt. I would expect the same to be said of Thompson. Let’s face it, he typically misses a decent stretch of games, or hits a slow patch because he’s fighting through something.

After reading your post (same sentiment expressed by many), what I find most aggravating is the lack of urgency to make additional moves to improve. It's not to say that the deal to bring in Kesserling and Doan wasn't a good deal that improves the roster. It's just that there weren't other consequential deals. It seems to me that if KA could have added another second line player (not necessarily a star caliber player), the response/perception would have been much more positive about the roster and season prospects. I needed to see more urgency in action rather than this casual pace to upgrade the roster.

I certainly do not believe that the Sabres are a better team now than if they would have remained.