Taro T

Please, anything but that. They're worse than Loaf fans when you get 'em in mob mode. 😉

When he was making his push for bringing MLB to Buffalo, small/smallish market teams like Pittsburgh, Minnesota, Oakland, and Montreal were thrirving. KC and Cincy were usually up there too. By the time the Expos were toying with PR, that was no longer the case. (Though KC did come out of the muck briefly about 8 years ago.) Can't blame him for seeing that as a no win / no hope situation.

And, while not unexpected to see management willing to adjust their plan when the facts/situation change from what was expected, it is very nice to see it actually happen. That's what good leaders do - they alter their plan when the facts underlying the plan are different than what they were expected to be. The plan certainly seemed to be to give Benson a taste of the NHL in camp and then send him back to the WHL knowing what things he'd need to work on to make next year the true audition for whether he'd stay in the show. But he just showed such a mature game, that they have to at least give him his 9 games and then take it from there. One more item to like about Adams & Granato and the rest of the talent evaluators. This time THEY passed the eye test.

Agree with most all this. The one wildcard that personally still haven't fully come around to is still am not convinced that the "backup" plan wasn't a realization that the team even if it somehow snuck into the playoffs in the last year or two still wasn't ready to legitimately compete for the SC so he wasn't all that upset at the team falling short of where fans wanted it to be the last 2 years because that meant acquiring higher end prospects that would soon (not immediately) but soon be able to support the young talent he'd already brought into the fold. (And except for Anderson in the past and Johnson this year, ALL the talent he's brought it has been young. Even Tuch is in the early stages of his prime.) Hoping that's too cynical, but it would explain why true upgrades between the pipes didn't arrive in the interim from when Ullmark left through to now that Levi appears ready to take a shot at grabbing the reins.

Don't know what Ted Black was thinking with the Turdburger. If he really wanted a lot of gold on 1 side and a lot of blue on the other, he could've had the designers work off this concept. Significantly different than the primary sweaters of the time and yet pretty sharp in its own unique way. Take the gold pocket edges off the front, put the SABRES from the back over the smallish logo on the front, put the numbers where the logo on the back is and put arm numbers under the 2 arm patches and you've got a winner. Can keep the button effect on the front without actual buttons there.

Would personally have it Power, Mittelstadt and then in the off-season work Jokiharju and then Krebs. Expect that't pretty close to where Adams is at, but we shall see.

And there was much rejoicing! When Clifton gets acclimated, sure move him up to (preferably) Power's pairing or even Dahlin's. But while that's happening, he CAN'T be on the top pairing. Glad Don Granato saw that. Expected he would and did, but it is nice to know it officially.

Join the crowd. 😉

The $11MM is $0.5MM higher than everybody would've been extremely pleased with. Considering this guy is going to be in the Norris discussion for all the 9 years this contract will take him through, it's a good contract. He left money on the table and the team will still be able to add support pieces around him. Both sides should be happy with where it ended up. Now please lock up Power and Mittelstadt.

Maybe for water, they would let people keep the cap on. For pop, (at least up in the "cheap seats") they definitely didn't let you keep the cap and it annoyed the guy that sat next to us to no end. So, he came up with the work around.

Wilfred "Shorty" Green Started out with the Hamilton Tigers and moved to the New York Americans with the rest of the team. No, did not know that without looking it up. There may be 1 or 2 others like him, but haven't come across another yet.

Not McKegney. Was the guy the NHL was celebrating a season or 2 ago and had been brought up by Bowman specifically to kick the ever living snot out of O'Reilley. (Left his name off, in case anybody else wants to try to figure it out.)

True. But this might've been his last hurrah with Taylor signing the 3 year extension this past week. They didn't sign him to sit him.

One step further than I. When getting H2O at the rink, buy one and then refill it at the drinking fountains.

That was the policy before Covid. Guy that sat next to us for years brought his own lid into the buiding with him. Silly that he had to do that, but it worked.

Moss is one of those guys that needs a lot of carries to get into a groove. Was not going to happen in Buffalo. Good for him that he's doing well. Stinks that Hines is injured all year for the Bills, but that was a good trade for both teams.

Hate short term usage turf fields. Totally get why the soccer team doesn't want a football game played on their normal pitch. But if they can keep that alive and well for a few weeks while it's hidden under the stands, they can keep a 2nd grass field alive and well too.

Would allow them to waive Bryson. 😄

As stated in one of the other threads, not as upset about the 3 headed monster and keeping Bryson as the designated pressbox D-man now that Stillman cleared. Still not happy about those, but not ticked either. Until the injury bug hits the Sabres, the Amerks might have their best D-corp since well before Donner the Hutt broke up the marriage.

Nice comprehensive list. You forgot to add the anthem singer to the mix though.

Fortunately, only one of the 3 that the Bills have issues with will likely make the playoffs this season. The 2 good teams that they play very well against are going to be 2 of the other 6 playoff squads. Losing Milano is huge, but they've fought through him being out of the lineup due to injuries before. Hopefully they can do it again. Have no idea why any of this officiating crew is reffing at this level, much less getting a premier game. They give Hochuli's crew a run for its money as the worst in pro sports.

Any word on whether Stillman cleared waivers? If so, am less disappointed in the final roster moves. (Not happy with them, but not upset either.)

There's plenty of reasonably priced parking right across the street from the rink on 2 sides and plenty of other places a short walk away too. (If you're there early enough, you might even luck into on the street parking.) There's also Dinosaur a very short walk across the street from the rink (it's on the eastern river bank and the rink is on the western one). Concessions are typical rink food with 2 fairly large (for a small barn) food courts (one at center ice on the south side of the rink and the other behind the far goal line. There's also a large atrium near the main entrance to the building. Know there are additional beverage stands there. Never paid close enough attention to whether they also have food concessions there too. And there are several other smaller concessions around the rink. Both seating levels enter the rink at the same places, so everyone has access to the same concessions and rest rooms. Some of the rest rooms are VERY small. The seats are fine. Maybe a little small, but personally have never had an issue. There aren't any bad seats. The barn is small (maybe just under 10k, it was smaller prior to a couple of renovations). The scoreboard and accoustics could be better but they're good enough. It's an old time hockey barn.

Wasn't implying that you shouldn't be saying that. Sorry if it came across that way. Just stating why the post you quoted to which your response added both those other items hadn't already addressed them. After a certain point, see no reason in rewriting the entire novella of items that have been frustrating about this off-season. (Don't need to rewrite the entire novella of items that have been good either. 😉 )

Ukka Pukka Dukka.