Kelly the Dog

Agreed. A corollary to that pet peeve is, usually, the quotes that are referred to from these guys are answers to specific questions they are asked, and not the player just coming out and calling a personal press conference to say whatever it is he wants to say. Unless we know the question he was responding to, it's hard to even guess at what he wanted to say or get across. I'm not talking specifically about this Stafford statement; just in general.

"1.4 rating for Flyers-Sabres Sunday makes it the highest single-game regular season overnight rating for NBC since '06."

Love that!

With Erhoff, Myers, and even Sekera, you have plenty of offensive defensemen. We may want all of those three to score more points and be better on the PP, but it's still more than enough offensive minded defensemen. The more teams have offensive minded defensemen, the more that team needs solid stay at home defensemen like Sulzer. He and Erhoff really seem like a good pair.

Pegula is an awesome owner, obviously. And he seems genuine. But it's pretty easy to just throw your money around if you have that kind of money. Not that most or even many people would; but it's easy nonetheless if you want to. To me, Ted Black is the most impressive guy in all of the Sabres organization, including players, coaches, and management. That dude is brilliant at his job.

IIRC correctly, Sylvester did a game or two then and was unimpressive, and RJ's son did a game, and he, too, was unimpressive. I didn't hear Hamilton, and I am not a huge fan of his as an analyst on GR. But the highlights I heard today of the goals I liked a lot.

Agreed. One way to look at it is that Ott for Roy was a great trade for the Sabres because it gave them more grit, which is what they lacked. And Kassian for Hodgson was a great trade for the sabres, because it gave them a potential #1 or #2 offensive C and opened the door for Foligno, who provided grit and some scorin. The other way to look at it was it was blatant 10 years ago that the Sabres lacked grit, and to a lesser extent offensive talent down the middle (because a couple years they had it with Briere and Drury) and what the hell took Darcy so long to do something about it when it was glaringly obvious.

Agreed. It's actually an interesting argument all around. FWIW, Hartnell pretty much abused Stafford in the fight, as you would expect I suppose. The significance of the fight, however, perhaps can be measured by the fact that a lot of people where I watched the game (with, say, 30 fans at a bar in Los Angeles at 9:30 am when the game was on national TV) were talking about Ott and Stafford's fight and its affect, more than the fact Vanek had 5 points, which is quite a game.

You bring up good points, but I think as evidenced by the tenor of the game, Stafford helped his team significantly by getting into that fight, and Hartnell didn't help his team at all in it, and in fact, may have hurt his team, by igniting the Sabres. So instead of a draw, I would say it was a win for Stafford. Especially if you consider that a fight is engaged to help your team much more than improve your individual win/loss record in fights.

Well put. I would argue though, that it is a LOT easier for him to take that stand this year, with Scott, Ott and Foligno on his bench, than that exact same reaction in years past.

It's great, IMO, what he did for his alma mater. Pegula seems like as good an owner as you could possibly hope for. In the Sabres Press Conference the other day, he vehemently denied giving any money to Bill O'Brien for O'Brien to stay at PSU instead of taking an NFL offer. He was extremely adamant about it, and for now, I have no problem taking him at his word that he didn't offer that money. If we find out later that he did indeed make that blatant offer, I will think a lot less of him. I understand totally why guys deny stuff in public like that, and I wouldn't really hold it against him in normal circumstances. But the way he so violenty denied it, to me, it would become a Lance Armstrong thing if later on you find that he was so adamantly denying it, and calling anyone who disagreed with him a liar, and then we find out he was the liar. I'm not predicting or thinking this is what will happen with TP. But I love the guy now, and would be extremelyt disappointed if he turned out to be lying about this thing.

Actually, your evaluation is what I meant by "not a worthless pick". Some substance, a 2nd rounder like you suggest, not a great trade like Gaustad for a #1 and not a worthless trade, like a 3rd, 4th or lower draft pick which wouldn't be a fair or reasonable trade. Keep him if that is all you can get for him.

1] I only saw it once and could be wrong, but it appeared to me that right before the fight. Hartnell cross-checked Stafford from behind; behind the play. That is what caused the fight, not the Ennis incident. I told a guy I watching the game with, that I assumed Staff was jawing with Hartnell about the Ennis hit, and that is what caused Hartnell to cross-check him. Again, they really didn't show much of a replay but I think that is what happened. 2] As far as the fight goes, to me it was one of those rare occurences where Stafford may have lost the battle but won the war. I think that Hartnell clearly got the better of him, despite the end. But the fact that Stafford was willing to drop and go may have helped his team more than Hartnell winning the fight helped his team. And why else would you fight if not to help your team for the rest of the game and season.

I think Leo would get us something slighty more than worthless in a trade. And the swap of Brennan for Leo would hurt us a little on the defensive end, but, overall, may help us as a unit, with a little more offense on a regular shift, and a litte more grit on a regular shift. Between Regher, Myers, Ehrhoff and Sulzer (along with Sekera who doesn't suck) we have more than enough defense on the blueline, IMO. And if we need more toughness, Weber is okay. Not great but okay. I would prefer a forward as the other scratch, considering injuries will come.

thoughts overall: Seems like a different team. Ott makes a huge difference. Myers was terrible until that goal. Stafford in the fight obvious may be the real culture change. he got beat but it may have been the most important element of the game. Ennis looked very good to me. Hodgson was solid. Grigs was not out of place or overwhelmed. Great pass to Ott that could have been a goal. Vanek obviously was great. If there is anyone on the team (along with Myers and maybe Grigs) we wanted to get off to a fast start it's him. It's great that Kaleta is now the third most hated player on the team instead of the first, Ott makes such a difference on this team. Miller was fine. The NBC announcers were horrible. Hecht was fairly effective. if he is the #4 C he is a valuable player. if he is the #2 C he and this team stink. Maybe that is the way he has to be looked at, rather than what situations Lindy put him in. Leo was bad. I don't know why Lindy had him on the #1 PP unit either. Foligno makes a huge difference on this team. We got killed and outhit and outplayed a lot in the second. We got breaks from the officials, and we capitalized. That doesn't mean we are good though. Things seemed to fall into place. We got most of the breaks.

Check your local listings again. It's on NBC at 12:30 pm EST. I just looked at mine (in Los Angeles) and it lists the Sabres Flyers game.

Decent interview with Steve Ott on GR this afternoon. Obviously, fans will love this guy. Hopefully, he'll wear off on a lot of players. He's a very upbeat guy anyway, so one has to temper his enthusiasm about his teammates, but he really seems to like playing with Grigs. http://audio.wgr550.com/a/69817454/steve-ott-can-t-wait-to-experience-a-sabre-game-as-a-sabre.htm

To me, the thing about Brennan is this: If he is dressed, he's going to be the #6 defenseman. His real attraction, and maybe only real attraction in the NHL, is his hard accurate shot on the PP from the point. But Erhoff is going to be playing that position on the PP for more than a minute of the two minutes, and sometimes well over a minute. So the question is, unless Erhoff is hurt, or they are set to play Erhoff to mostly set up Brennan instead of using his better shot, he may be a waste of a spot for only, say, one-third of the PP as the second defensive pairing. I like Brennan though, and wouldn't mind him getting the shot, at least over Pardy. And I think Leopold is the best trade bait of guys I wouldn't mind leaving, even though he's pretty good.

I really like the idea of that line, plus it does all kinds of other things. Keeps Vanek/Pommer together with a good playmaker in Hodgson; keeps the Ennis line together, keeps Hecht where he belongs, and even makes the 4th line have some semblance of talent. That third line could give teams fits, especially as you say, going against other third lines.

I was thinking that at the beginning of the season, either deep in the offensive or defensive zone, that Ott should take the faceoffs. Outside the zones, and in blowouts, Grigs takes them to get some experience. When he starts to improve, then he can take over.

I thought it was pretty awesome that today Gergs offered $5 to anyone who unfollowed his sister on Twitter. ;)

There was a report this morning that it is down to three teams, and the Coyotes are out. I assume that spndnchz's info is that the sabres are not one of three teams either.

Possible but unlikely. No GM is going to lay off going after Doan just because his GM said "it may be weeks" before he makes a decision. But it opens up all kinds of potential criticism for Maloney if Doan were to sign with another team before those weeks transpired. Fans and media would be screaming that Maloney was asleep at the wheel, and thought Maloney wasn't going anywhere and another team swooped in and took him.

Hopefully. Yesterday, the Coyotes GM Don Maloney said that Doan "may be weeks" (from now) from deciding on a new team. http://www.azcentral.com/sports/coyotes/articles/20120717shane-doan-taking-his-time-phoenix-coyotes-dont-mind.html

That story though was in the Phoenix paper a week ago, and it didn't seem to alter any of the machinations of the deal or with Doan, and the emergence of the 30 mil offer came after that story came out. I lived in Phoenix for 11 years and follow a couple of the Phoenix teams like the Suns, so I read the AZ Republic sports section every day. That was the lead story on the Coyotes page when it happened last Monday. It still could affect his decision and it definitely could affect the team staying there, but it is old news for Doan and everyone after him.