Taro T

How friggin' frustrating could it have been? They were in the Finals 4 yeers after you moved there and started winning them in droves 2 years later.

Just hanging out with the dog on the deck listening to some serious Mark Knopfler riffs from Dire Straits golden era. (Moving Pictures - Brothers in Arms) And while doing so having some good internet conversations. B-E-A-U-tiful night out tonight.

If Kane is what it takes to keep Biro off the parent club, am all for signing him. You've just made the first cogent argument to sign him at this point. (Doubt Biro would make the team minus Kane being here; but if he would be on the team, the team WOULD be better with Kane.)

But he WAS a regular. Until his coach went away. Not his fault that the new boss (with no street cred) didn't see him the way the old one (with street cred in spades) did. And, in Buffalo, until his partner went away he was arguably the best D-man on the team. (Talk about a long time ago and how far this D has come. It's not inconceivable to say he's at best the 5th best D-man on THIS current team playing occassionally with a guy that will win a Norris or 3 before his career is done.

Which coach was/is the better hockey coach? (Not veering this into Liger's weeds about things non hockey related.) And which one actually played Henri? (Hint, it ain't the one that nobody can remember.) C'mon you're going to say if Nolan plays you but Ruff doesn't you're even a part timer? And vice versa?

You sure the split season doesn't count? Had Quenneville remained the coach he would've spent the full year in Chicago. He didn't fit into what the next guy wanted to do.

Hey! Somebody around here actually understands how LTIR additions work! Yes, this surgery opens up the number of teams that might be interested in him as some cap constrained teams might now be able to pull off adding him if that 6 month out slides to 8 or so. Hey! Somebody around here actually understands how LTIR additions work! Yes, this surgery opens up the number of teams that might be interested in him as some cap constrained teams might now be able to pull off adding him if that 6 month out slides to 8 or so.

This place ain't back to normal until PA brings back the Phantom List Writer. 😉

Five? Looks like nine from this vantage point. 😉

The trade being proposed at this point (13, UPL, & Kisakov/Rosen/similar) would absolutely be a great trade for the Sabres. For so many reasons already mentioned by so many here in this discussion. But the point that you allude to that isn't getting made strongly enough is Hellebucyk COULD be traded this year, even IF he and Levi are working well together IF Levi has a really strong year. If the team is going to be trying to ride Levi primarily in the playoffs, then if Adams absolutely knows he won't be able to keep Hellebucyk after the calendar flips from June '24 he can trade him for something and ideally they'd get back a Gerber-esque goalie back to fill that Gerber-esque roll from the Canes '06 playoff run. Wouldn't go that route personally, but it might make sense to do so. There are so many different ways for it to play out, but if they land Helly for that sort of a package; honestly can ONLY see it not working if Helly gets seriously injured early in the season. But that might blow up most plans should it happen to somebody else that's a key player. IMHO, that trade is a no brainer from the Sabres perspective. Git 'er dun, Kevyn. (And yes, getting Saros would be a surer thing that they'd have him for the next 2 years which is the time frame they'd want another goalie "ahead" of Levi; but because he has that 2nd year under contract, can't see him being available for that same package that MIGHT land Helly.) The Sabres would still have other assets to bring in the top 4 D-man they're looking to bring in too if they don't want to go through the UFA route. Just can't see a way bringing in Helly would be a bad thing.

Moral of the story, make sure you don't drive 100 million miles. You'll die 1.5 times over. 😉 (Yes, we know that's NOT how sadistics statistics work. It's a joke you hosers. 😜 )

No data. Heard some of his press conference. Looks like he'll be the interim GM for now (with no word on how long "now" is). He talked a lot about analytics and how all the different groups need to work together and not be in silos. (Silos wasn't the term he used, but the jist is the same.) So, we could still see Karmanos or Ventura getting plucked at some time in the relatively near future unfortunately. My interpretation of his words. YMMV.)

Can't help you with that but miss the old late '90's Moose. Somebody with a serious sense of humor had to have designed the costume. The antlers looked like fallopian tubes and the face pretty much looked like a giant *****. The hermaphrodite moose, a Ra-cha-cha original. 😄 (Note, the ***** was the anotomical term for a ball bag. Did not expect that to get censored.)

There's a reason they say the rink is in "South Florida" rather than in Miami. It isn't the same as the Bills playing in Orchard Park but still getting called the Buffalo Bills. If that team were said to be in Miami, it would be more akin to the Hamilton Rock calling themselves the Toronto Rock in the NLL. The rink is about 15 minutes due west of Fort Lauderdale. Miami looks to be a 40 minute drive away if traffic isn't bad. Interestingly (or maybe not) there's a highway that passes the rink to the north. On the other side of that highway is NOTHING but swamps and rice/sugar cane fields for literally miles. They couldn't realistically have found any land further from Miami that would still be considered part of that metro area.

They also altered the way the turn signal lever and windshield wiper levels are positioned too. A car crash was the reason Sammy Davis Jr. had a glass eye. Amazing how much safer cars are today for their driver and passengers.

In this tourney, since 2015 that's typically the case. But prior to that, Canada didn't do particularly well since the early 60's because the tournament goes on during the SC playoffs. Canada's best players had better things to do. The Europeans always took this tournament seriously. The North Americans, not so much until recently.

No. There were reports to that effect back when Ullmark signed with the B's. Buffalo and Ullmark had a deal worked out that he'd sign provided nobody beat it. The Bruins beat it. There were reports that Adams offered to match but that at that point Ullmark said the Sabres would need to beat that offer. And that's the source of all the speculation that Ullmark never wanted to be in Buffalo anyway.

Pretty sure MLS teams are privately owned. So there is no requirement for having the books open to public inspection. Until somebody puts in a bid to buy a team, the valuation of a team is just somebody's estimate. And usually that estimate will reflect the biases the appraiser has. MLS (and their partners) have a great incentive to overestimate the value of the franchises because it makes them seem more popular than they are. At least for now, we don't have a wealth tax in this country, so there are no consequences whatsover in overvaluing a privately held team. But should an owner go for a loan/financing for the team, the bank will see the books and know what the team is actually valued at. And the tax man sees the revenues and expenses but those are supposed to be held as confidential between the taxpayer and the IRS. But neither of those transactions will make the books public. Forbes valuations placed on sports teams are held to be accurate, but except in very limited cases even those are just mildly educated WAGs. But, to have an idea of what an MLS team is worth, take a look at the expansion fee paid by that new team. That should be a reasonable proxy of what at least 1 owner sees as a value.

To the bolded, once again, Ullmark and Adams had a deal worked out that Ullmark said if nobody beat that after he tested FA, he would sign it with the Sabres. The Bruins BEAT that offer. It certainly seems that Ullmark then told the Bruins that he'd sign THAT deal provided nobody else beat it. And he apparently went back to the Sabres and told them that if they'd beat the Bruins deal he would go back to the original plan of signing with the Sabres provided nobody topped THAT new deal. It seems that Adams offered to match the Bruins deal. He f'd up if he was really willing to go to that point with Ullmark, because then the Bruins would have had to beat that offer rather than the other way around. And there was no word from any camp that Ullmark told the Sabres he'd let them match another deal that beat the one he'd worked out with the Sabres. Don't see where in any of that Ullmark was saying he wanted out of Buffalo. And honestly, that shows that Ullmark is honorable and takes his word seriously. He negotiated in good faith with both teams and once he had a deal he could live with (but would like to do better than) he told the team that make that offer 1st that he'd sign the deal unless somebody beat it - matching it wouldn't be enough to get him to go against his word that he'd sign that deal. He wanted what he was worth on the open market. Which is what he'd earned the right to do per the CBA. And, again, if Adams really was willing to match the Bruins offer he screwed the pooch by not making that offer initially. The team had the cap space and no other goalie in the system that would be pushing for a bigger contract than the Sabres wanted to offer based on the more lucrative Ullmark deal. And the Sabres offering to match the Bruins deal would explain why Ullmark was upset with the negotiations. Adams presumably told him he'd made the best offer he could and Ullmark took that as truth but then when the offer was beat, Adams (again, apparently) made an offer to match it. Which implies that the offer the Sabres originally made to Linus wasn't the best offer they could make and that Ullmark felt lied to. (Whether he was lied to or if it was a misunderstanding is moot. At that point they now needed to up the deal beyond what the Bruins had offered.) Maybe getting Ullmark signed would've cost the team Savoie as the Sabres almost definitely would've had more points the season before last, but they would've landed another guy in the Ostland level should that have happened. They also likely would've been the 7 seed this year so the Eastern playoffs would've run completely differently than they did.

Rick retired mid-season. Since, Stevens has either been solo or occasionally he's had Duff. (Guess he had Suzie Kool some too, but she's moved on as well.) Rick retired mid-season. Since, Stevens has either been solo or occasionally he's had Duff. (Guess he had Suzie Kool some too, but she's moved on as well.)

Really like Mittelstadt. Would offer him & a '25 protected 1st for Matthews. That's about it. With, or without an extension in place. Matthews is a great individual talent, but don't see him making others around him significantly better.

Because their D scheme is EXTREMELY unconventional. Ward comes out of the net like an NHL goalie and the D scheme is almost like an NFL Cover 1 where the coverage is mostly man w/ just 1 guy in the middle sliding to help when somebody comes clean. Because Ward is so high, you need to get him moving or get a pass to somebody down low, effectively behind him. And Colorado takes away that pass. That's why shooters are moving laterally before shooting & also why it's so effective to get the ball to Nanticoke. They're trying to force holes through / around Ward. They also have a lethal PP, which works against the Bandits as well, as they tend to take a lot of penalties. But their PP also gives up a lot of shorties. They get very aggressive & can't get a defender out the door before the counterstrike is past them. Bandits have a shortie in both games, need to keep that up in game 3. 1 on 1 is effective against Ward when the threat of going across the crease is credible. Both in 5v5 situations & short. They've capitalized on their own PPs & that should continue. Colorado isn't good defensively when Ward CAN'T cheat high. Missing Byrne hurts a lot. But he did bupkis against Colorado last year, so maybe not. Stay out of the box & be patient (another thing the Bandits aren't known for) and let Vinc do his job keeping Lee from diving at his knees & they've got this. Third time's the charm. ;)

Said it in a different thread, Krebs looks like he could become a Gilmour-lite player with the 200' game, the feistiness, & ~75% of the scoring. Adams really does seem to be building a well rounded team. Granato will have a lot of looks he can give opponents up front. Let's see if over the summer Adams can give Granato the same flexibility in net & at D.

Have only been to the Ra-cha-cha one. (It's the 2nd one that opened.) And they really do a great job there with a great location. Bummer that the Buffalo one is a disappointment.

Might have to check that out next time we're downtown. (Provided the lure of the Dinosaur isn't overwhelming. It usually is.)