Taro T

Congrats on seeing a great game. Been a long time since you saw one there in their barn.

THAT ... was satisfying. REALLY needed that one. Now keep it up on Saturday against the Habs.

Again, it ISN'T about Levi's development. Playing in Buffalo or Ra-cha-cha will not impact what he's about to become. It's about winning hockey games NOW. Not in a year or 2. And moving away from the 3 headed monster did NOT help in that regard.

So, basically, unless he sticks the entire year, he's free to Buffalo (there's only 58 games left this season). If he misses 14 games, he was FREE!!!!!!!

To the bolded, it probably is better for Levi to get extra work in Ra-cha-cha rather than to be a part of this tire fire that's gone to another level since he was spared from it. But, still not convinced that Comrie coming off injury is better than Levi is right now, and IF playoffs truly is a goal, they have to have their best options for the net available. Still don't see why they chose when they did to send Levi down. Again, IF playoffs is the goal. If they aren't, well, there's a lot of sense to what was done and the timing of it. But after 12 years in the desert, playoffs need to be a primary goal and they need to go w/ the best possible permutation of players for winning now; development be darned. UPL has outplayed the other 2, but he still hasn't had consecutive starts of Sabres games (NOT referring to consecutive starts of his own) that he's won both games for a very long time. He's playing like a poor man's starter or a very good #2, but until he starts showing an ability to get the Sabres consecutive wins, still believe he should be getting only every other start unless there is a significant layoff for the team. Until Comrie plays well post injury, would have UPL getting 1/2 the games, Levi 1/3, and Comrie the odd extra game. If UPL elevates further, cool (great, actually); if Comrie finally pulls it together, cool; or if Adams finally does what he should've done in the off-season and bring in a vet to pair with somebody, then awesome. But until then, don't see an issue with having Levi up for another couple of weeks. They aren't going to ruin him regardless of where they play him or don't play him. Realize that goes against board dogma, but them's this kid's 2 cents. YMM (and likely will) V. (And that's with expecting Levi to get lit up tonight. Why does he keep drawing Boston? St. Louis would've been a good start for him.)

Didn't read the thread, so if somebody already said this, apologies. The only silver lining to Tuesday's game is that there were only 9-10k in the building (announced crowd was 14k, but there's no way they were nearly 3/4 full. The top 6-8 rows of the 300's were packed (probably doing the $20 tix thing) but the rest of the barn was mainly 1/2 full with some prime areas only 1/4 full.) And it was an ESPN+ game only so there were relatively a very few that got the privilege of watching the debacle that was the 1st 45 minutes of that game. Soooo frustrating to watch.

Well, now only down by 2 with 200 seconds left. Pull the goalie again.

Really?

Did he also get the scoop that water above 32 F is still wet?

Does the bear count?

FYI, this from PFT via Greg Cover 1 regarding whether the Bills can get some relief from Miller's contract should the allegations prove true. IF the Bills can get off the hook for $17MM in salary / bonus guarantees, that should drop Miller's cap hit to ~$15MM. Wonder if they'd be able to spread that over 2 years? If so, it isn't too onerous to the Bills.

Least you got the night right. Really thought this game was scheduled for yesterday. Apparently not.

Probably good that the Sabres are playing the Blues tonight. 😉

No idea if they do that at college games. The NHL never did it until the 1st winter classic. They'd just clean up a little bit of snow around the creases and some other places where it built up. Larry Quinn's lasting legacy on the game. Not blue ice and orange lines, nor non-rectangular nets. Sending the maintenance crew out to clean the snow off most all the ice during breaks inperiod. (Probably wasn't him on THAT either, but he does take credit for it.)

No data. Feel pretty comfortable with most Q's about the NHL's CBA and Cap. The NFL's is a totally different beast. But even in a best case, he's been paid ~$35MM to date and has only counted $13MM total against the cap and only ~$7MM of that outlay has been in signing bonus (which prorates across the entire contract) so they'd presumably only be able to get $5MM of that back; which still leaves like $18MM to find its way against the Bills cap. (And all these numbers are from Sportrac.com FYI.) But, until somebody that's far more versed on this subject says the Bills can claw anything back, will assume they cant.

People that actually follow the NFL's salary cap mechanations (not one of them personally) make is sound like the Bills would still be on the hook for the $10.7MM of next year's guaranteed contract if they did. Apparently, the only way for the Bills to get out of having to pay him that would be to trade him to somebody else and then the other team would be on the hook for that. But that would still leave the Bills with ~$22MM dead cap next year. As it is, they'd be looking at $32.5MM in dead cap for '24 if he's released before June 1.

That is certainly possible. But IF Pegula really does want to 'win multiple Stanley Cups' (or whatever the exact quote was), dropping a few $MM the last couple of years would've gone a long way to helping make THAT dream a reality. With all the money that's been spent on facilities and failed coaches/GMs, it would seem to be a drop in the bucket overall. (And totally get not wanting to spend right after the lockdowns were easing; but by trade deadline day in '22 concerns about another lockdown and the corresponding pressures on cashflow shouldn't have been a major issue.) How much more does this team end up worth if they win Cups in '25 and '26. (Strictly a hypothetical, not suggesting that picking up some useless vets to land some good picks makes that happen; but it's more likely with more assets to work towards it than what that unspent cap is worth today.)

Mildly surprised that Biro would sit in his 1st game back up. But, if he's up specifically as insurance should Greenway not play, it makes sense.

Interesting. Makes sense to try to make the "checking" line as strong as possible and then try to only shelter 1 of the 4 lines, but thought he'd keep Greenway on the "3rd" line to keep from having one that REALLY needs to be sheltered though that gives them 2 that have to be sheltered. Or are they going off the board again and running 7 D? If they do run 6, is Jokiharju the odd man out? Personally would have Clifton as the 7 if they only run 6; Jokiharju is actually decent on the PK.

Expect they're in the order that Hamilton saw them run through drills. Had he noticed any of the others 1st, they would've been listed there instead.

To the bolded, yes he did. BUT he had a glorious opportunity to convert some of that ridiculously large amount of cap space into assets that would still have value today. For 2 years, the Sabres were scraping the cap floor, but they never sold any of that space to other teams. That was such a huge waste of assets because the day the RS ends all that cap space vanishes; it's day old news, there is no value remaining. Even if he only got a couple of extra 6th round picks which have very little value themselves, he could have used those as chips to help move up in the draft or to try to hit a couple of late round HRs. While, on the whole, like the job Adams has done, that is near the top of the moves (or lack thereof) that are completely exasperating.

The dead money drops to a "manageable" $15MM in '25. Prior to this latest turn of events, that was likely when they'd've parted ways with him. (It's ~$9MM the year after that and then only ~$2MM to get out of the last year of the contract should he last that long.)

Again, not an NFL capologist, so am relying on the work of others. If the contract ends in any way, have been told the cap hit next year will be ~$34MM $32.5MM. He's been paid a lot more money to date than his cap hit to date accounts for and he's guaranteed $10.7MM of next year's salary. (Apparently, it's that next year's guaranteed money that the Bills get out of paying if they trade the contract, but that'll cost draft capital in all likelihood.) That money gets recouped at some point under the cap. (Which is why teams keep converting money due in a particular year into signing bonus, so they can keep kicking the can further down the road to a point where the cap is significantly higher.)

Won't matter for the dead cap hit. If he's released there's ~$34MM hit next year. If they find a way to trade the contract, they can get that reduced to ~$21MM. He got a LOT of money up front and has a lot of guaranteed money. (And am in no way an NFL capologist. Read that from others that are.)

Ah, apologies. Thought you were referring to perception of the masses (fans, whatever you want to call them), not the players. IMHO, that perception changes once they've made the playoffs again. (And ONLY getting to the playoffs will change it.) And it likely doesn't change until they've done it 3 times in a 3-4 year stretch. And then, miraculously, players elsewhere will start listening to Tuch, Dahlin, and Cozens when they talk about what a great place Buffalo is to play.