Taro T

It might be marginally better. But when you're done watching, does it really matter whether you want to wash your eyes out with bleach or gasoline? Wouldn't watch either.

On a scale of 0-100, it would be a -572. F' TO and everything and everyone associated with it ('ceptin' the Blue Jays and the handful of posters here that are from there).

Good for her.

Bandits are looking to lock up home field throughout the playoffs tonight in Albany as the 13-4 Bandits take on the 3-14 Firewolves. Albany won the season opener in Buffalo. Game started at 7PM, but you can watch on delay on ESPN+ if you'd like. (And you have ESPN+.)

What, they didn't go with the lady of African descent who always wears the blue lipstick?

This should be ban worthy.

But that was with THE Eleven. Ours is just plain old Eleven. 😉

Power thrives with Clague as his partner. Pretty sure it's the rookie, not the other guy making that pairing. Have said all year, wanted to see somebody better than Jokiharju teamed with Power so Power could be "unleashed" so to speak and know there was a pretty strong possibility that any mistakes he makes get covered and so that he wouldn't need to be focused on covering for his partner's shortcomings. Pretty sure Adams feels the same way, though he isn't going to throw Henri under the bus. There's also a possibility that Henri will still improve from where he is. He is significantly better than he was right after Scandella left. (He's probably better than he was when he was paired with Scandella, but not positive of that. A case could be made he was the Sabres best or 2nd best D-man when he had Scandella as a partner.) But Power (and the team) deserves to have HIS Scandella that will allow him to do the things he's capable of without worrying that he's going to get hung out to dry doing so. Get that guy (maybe he's currently on one of the teams that made the playoffs (bringing this back to the topic of the thread 😉 ) so the top 4 is legit and that along with Levi (and ideally another quality NHLer in net, maybe he's on a playoff team currently) will go a long way towards ensuring the team is in the mix for top 3 in the division and solidly in a playoff spot when April arrives.

More likely other teams could utilize. Really hard pressed to see who he keeps out of the lineup with just what we know they'll have in October. Any other additions up front and there simply isn't room for this potential 30 goal scorer. (My how this team has evolved from even just 2 seasons ago.)

Hodgins replacement. Why they kept that kid on the PS rather than elevate him last year still is puzzling. With the way Bass puts the ball through the end zone when they want him to and the hang time Martin had, didn't understand why they insisted on keeping the best STers they could around at the expense of the other 2 units which get way more snaps per game.

Yes, to the bolded. With 1 year prior to becoming an UFA, his trade value will diminish to close to 0 within 1 year. He has a very good shot and is reasonable as a passer. There are many teams that have a need for a pure goal scorer. With the additions of Jost and Greenway, and the potential additions of Savoie, Rousek/Kulich, &/or a 4C simply don't see Olofsson fitting into the top 12 when the team is reasonably healthy even if Okposo &/or Girgensons aren't back. He HAS value, but expect his value is greater for a team that isn't top 3 in goal scoring leaguewide. Really hope they trade him as he could (either on his own, or more likely in a package) bring back something they need and will have more value than the 30 or so games he'd play before he walks in FA.

Thought we were having a discussion, but one where we had differing points of view. Nobody needs to "win" the "argument." You say Eichel is in the 2nd round sooner than anybody else (well, specifically before a particular individual) and technically that's correct. But personally see it more like the USPTO views patent applications filed on the same day - they don't look at which one was submitted earlier in the day, they both came in that day. Any applications filed the day before another gets submitted are considered to be prior art over that later submitted application but those submitted earlier in the same day as another aren't. Any team that makes it out of the 1st round this year got to the 2nd round at the same time IMHO. Hopefully that other guy gets to the 2nd round significantly later than Jack did. (Never is sufficiently later btw. 😉 ) Will try to refrain from replying to your posts if we don't see exactly eye to eye for a while. (Won't promise it, but will try.) Not sure why you see disagreement as an attack, but you seem to and really don't want to be contributing towards running good posters away from here. 🍻

Well, if you're going that direction with it, there's still a chance Auston "sees" the 2nd round before Jack (God forbid) because unless the Vegas series starts a day or 2 before a potential Loaf series would, the game in the Eastern Time Zone will start before the Vegas game in either the Mountain or Pacific Time Zones would. ;) But personally would be fine with Auston never getting to the 2nd round (or at least not until he's playing for his hometown Yotes). Eichen being there really isn't an issue IMHO. (Now, should the Knights win it all before the Sabres do; that would stink.)

Let's hope. (Yes, technically if the Loafs win 1 more against the Bolts, Jack will have gotten there sooner than Auston; but being there 1 or 2 games sooner doesn't really matter. They'd be playing at the same time. Really want the Bolts to find a way to win the next 2. They've outplayed TO for the most part, but have simply broken down too often. Stop the breakdowns and they can send Loaf Nation home early once again.)

They now have a pair of DK's at TE.

Seems like a good pick. Had to give up 130 to get ahead of Dallas who does not look happy now that the Bills took the TE they were likely coveting.

Murray did get more picks. He'd had more guys traded away for futures just before his tenure and he traded more away than Botterill had. And he didn't trade the "future for now" but he absolutely intentially "accelerated" the rebuild. Murray's big issues IMHO were 1. he flat out didn't see any point in considering chemistry within a team, on a line, on a D-pairing, in a dressing room, etc and 2. he was too willing to throw extra pieces into a deal to make sure he got the player(s) he really wanted. The 2nd was by design. He often talked about how he'd have too many prospects/picks to have all of them make it onto the big club if some weren't traded away and also that his job was to know which of the prospects were going to pan out and to trade away the others. Which was reasonable as a philosophy but when combined with #1 it was a recipe for failure. Botterill's issues were he couldn't pick a good head coach for the type of team he was trying to build to save his life (his 1st pick was lauded for making Nashville's D something special which was nuts because by pedigree that was a stacked D and most of those guys were studs long before Wowwee got there; and his 2nd pick to run his fast paced high event hockey team he was building (as a direction change from Murray's big bruising LA/Anaheim model) was a coach who's claim to fame was making bad teams play very low event hockey to have opportunities to be competitive against significantly better teams); he couldn't land a legit goaltending battery; he wasted 3rd round picks on overpaid bottom 6 F's; he couldn't figure out how to not bump against the salary cap; he didn't build a farm team; and he was afraid of drafting CHL prospects (pretty sure Cozens is the only one he drafted). They both had way too many flaws to get a team that intentionally made itself irrelevant back to relevancy. Especially when they both were 1st timers and had such radically different plans relative to their predecessor. (Regier - we're going to rebuild through the draft. Murray - we're going to accelerate the rebuild and we're going to try to build LA/Anaheim East. Botterill - we're going to switch to a fast team that somehow outskills other teams.)

Still say that the proper way to run the playoffs is a modification of what they did shortly after the Sabres came into the league. Have the top 4 in each division make the playoffs, 5-8 can go golfing early. 1 plays 4 and 2 plays 3. After that, play within conference with the higher remaining seed from each division hosting the lower seed from the other division. Round 3, do the same, but now you're having the top remaining seed from each conference hosting the lower seed from the other conference. Finals. The 2 remaining teams battle it out. If they both had the same seed from their division way back when this all started, then the team with more RS points gets games 1, 2, and 5 and 7 if necessary. If they had different seeds (1 v 3, 2, 4, 3, v 4, etc.) the higher seed gets the home ice advantage regardless of RS points. This has several advantages over the current format. The biggest: if the Bruins and the Sabres are the 2 best teams in the league, they aren't forced to play each other in the 2nd round; that can wait until the Finals. Shouldn't the 2 best teams play each other in the Finals? 2. You will definitely start to get some matchups you don't normally see in the 2nd and 3rd rounds as the teams go out of their division and conference sooner than with the current system (neglecting that in the current system the WCs could find themselves within either in conference division). It increases travel SLIGHTLY over the current format, but not significantly as at most you are adding 2 extra cross conference series and about 50% of the time you'll only be adding 1 extra cross conference series. 3. You have the possibility of seeing a true battle of teams that TRULY hate each other in the Finals. Wouldn't Boston Buffalo or Buffalo Otterland be fun? How about Boston Moe-ray-all, a "Subway Series," the battle of Pennsyltucky, or the battle of Alberta. Any of those would have the intensity ramped up to an 11 automatically. The only thing that is doesn't work ideally with is March Madness style playoff brackets where you know for sure which pair of potential opponents the team your team will face will come from long before the games are played. To that, the NFL doesn't know which team will play which in the Divisional round as that is totally dependent upon which teams win in the Wild Card round; and it doesn't seem to affect interest there. So, wgaf? And again, shouldn't we want to see the 2 best teams in the Finals? IMHO, the answer is a resounding yes. And this format is the only one that insures that should those 2 best teams have been at least one of the best 2 in their own division through the RS that they can in fact meet in the Finals. No other format does that. And this insures against 1 division having their top teams with skewed results from the RS due to either having (relatively) very good teams at the bottom of the division or several truly awful teams at the bottom getting rewarded or punished for the other teams in their division. All the teams in the division will have their results skewed in a like manner, and seeding in the 3rd and 4th rounds goes by divisional seeding 1st and then RS points so a team doesn't get automatically get rewarded for being from a bad division or automatically punished for being from a good one. My 2 cents.

Allowed to walk out the door as they are UFA's: Anderson, Hinostroza, and Okposo. (Yes, Kyle'll be back, but he shouldn't be IMHO.) Traded: Olofsson and UPL. (And realize UPL will be back, but he shouldn't be, again IMHO.) Buried in the AHL: Bryson, Clague, and Comrie. (This actually is likely to happen.) The rest of the F's are brought back with Jost as a spare and Girgensons starting on the 4th line and hopefully made a spare by the end of the season because other players have taken that spot away from him. The rest of the D come back with Stillman as the 7 or 8 and ideally not just 1 D gets added so the lesser of Jokiharju, Lyubushkin, or the 2nd new D becomes the 7.

Am on record as wanting the Sabres to make a push for Varlamov. And ftr, it was @dudacek who made the observation about what Adams likely means when using the term "fearless." Hope his interpretation is off, but expect he nailed it. And also, have said numerous times that UPL's issues seem to be mental not physical so it IS possible (especially at this age) that he can and will figure it out. If he does, he could be better than Ullmark. Won't put a single penny down on it actually happening as the expectation is he won't figure it out. But if he does, he won't be the 1st to take a long time to figure it out. Thomas and Roloson are the poster boys for figuring it out later in life. Dubnyk, to a lesser degree as well. If he's still a Sabres come October, hoping he joins their ranks. (Again, not betting on it happening.) Adams, Granato, and Bales are around the guy every day. Hoping whichever way they go on him, they get it right. It literally could be the difference between year 1 of a playoff streak and year 13.

Pretty sure he's agreeing with you. Believe he expects Adams to run with 2 of the 3 heads of the 3 headed goalie monster. AKA, he's going to be fearless of the criticism he'll receive all off-season as we watch guys that could solidify the goaltending as Levi's partner in crime get signed by teams playing in barns not located on the shore of Lake Erie.

Yeah. Originally saw the conditional pick as a 2nd rounder, but if he stays healthy (takes 2/3's of the snaps) it becomes a 1st next year. Not as little a return as it looked like on 1st glance. Still, was hoping it would cost them more.

Guess it actually is happening. Not much of a return for him IMHO.

Yep. September 1982.

When egos are involved a lot of stuff gets mischaracterized for silly reasons or otherwise. But, have no reason to believe he didn't own roughly a 5% stake in the team. Was merely pointing out that whatever #'s are out there are literally estimates or more likely guestimates.