Taro T

That's what was reported. Considering it was a private entity and was sold to a single owner, not sure how anybody but a couple of accountants not involved in the Golisano ownership group and the Pegulas would know for certain.

Amazing how many places will serve a bleu cheese dressing that doesn't have ground black pepper in it. Add a few shakes and stir it in (that's what the celery's for) and you can salvage it into something that resembles (but only resembles) Marie's.

Already addressed the bolded in the post you quoted. And from the rest of your post, we seem to be pretty much on the same page.

That one isn't spelled out in the CBA either. Expect your thought is how they'd work it (the team that was waiting on the player longer gets the 1st choice, then the other team, then the team that was actually supposed to get that pick in the current draft), but it's the NHL so who knows.

Since when does more popular equate to better?

Close. The goal this season is doing damage in the playoffs. It is a secondary goal to consistently being a contending team which will actually win the Stanley Cup (hopefully multiple times) at some point. Adams is expecting them to be in the playoffs. But, should they find themselves in a position where they were this season at the trade deadline (for whatever reason), Adams has adamantly said he will not sacrifice the primary goal to insure the secondary goal. If there is a move that supports both, he'll make it. On paper it is a good goal and a good plan. But if the team doesn't make advances on that primary goal, he'll be gone in a season or 2. So, if the team stagnates because Mittelstadt regresses, Quinn and Peterka have topped out, and Levi starts looking like UPL, and the team still gives up 300 goals even with Levi and a real NHLer paired up with him then Kevyn's seat (and Granato's) could get very warm. Really don't see much likelihood of that happening. If they miss because Levi and his backup both got injured and both Dahlin and Samuelsson miss significant portions of time while the kids continued to grow and the conference got back to normal and 98 points is what ends up needed to get into the dance, while people will be extremely frustrated wondering why the team is cursed, doubt Adams is on thin ice. Personally, expect them to be a playoff team next year, so this'll all be moot. And to add: IF the team is on the bubble come trade deadline, he isn't going to trade away a piece he sees on his top line for years starting 3 years from now for a piece that will be out the door in July. And that attitude is why IMHO he refuses to say the playoffs this coming season are the goal. Because that would sabotage the primary goal at the expense of the secondary goal.

YOUR Buffalo Bandits are the number 1 seed in the Eastern Conference and when they avenge their opening night loss to Albany next week in Kathy Hochul's backyard they will be the #1 seed overall. Again. Though Toronto Hamilton is at 13-5 and the Bandits are only at 13-4, should the Bandits lose to the Firewolves again, they'd get the tiebreaker over the Rock as they won the season series 2-1. They also beat the 12-4 Seals in SD so if they end with the same record, the Bandits would get the tiebreaker over them too. AKA beat the Firehoses like they should've opening night and the road to the championship runs through Banditland. They once again were a 2nd half team. Down 2-0 to Toronto Hamilton after 1 (way better than being down 6-0 in the 1st like the last time these 2 played). Down 4-2 at the half. Took a VERY brief lead at 7-6 in the 3rd but went into the 4th down 8-7. They got the job done in the 4th getting an 11-9 lead and holding on for an 11-10 win. Byrne with 3. The Great Dhane with 2. Frasier with 3. Buchannon with 1. MacKay with 1. Nanticoke with 1. Byrne's 3rd was the game winner. 1st game all season that Smith, Buchannon, Fraser, and Nanticoke were all healthy and active. (Smith didn't miss any but those others and Byrne missed plenty.) Pretty sure Robinson is the only guy still out on IR. Please dear Lord, don't make us have to listen to the Toronto Hamilton announcers again. They are insufferable

No. This is incorrect. The NHL doesn't work compensatory draft picks like the NFL does. In the NHL, if you lose a 1st round pick (due to death, bailing on the team, the kid deciding he hates hockey, or any other reason), you get the same pick in the 2nd round of the next draft. So if you lost the #1 overall pick, you get pick 33 in the draft and the team that finished DFL will now select pick 34 to start the rest of the 2nd round. If you lost pick 31 in a previous draft, then you get pick 63 (32+31). You don't get the last pick of the 2nd round. You aren't the only person saying this. But it is completely incorrect to say that the Sabres will be getting the last pick of the 2nd round in the draft after Johnson walks. They won't get the 65th pick. They will get the 63rd and 2 picks will be after it in the 2nd round (the picks of the 2 teams that end up in the SCF). Where it would get gray is if more than 1 team lost a pick and will receive compensation in the same draft. Not positive if say a team were to get the 3rd pick as a compensatory pick and another the 5th if that "5th" pick in the 2nd round would actually be the 5th pick (37 overall) or the defacto 6th pick (38 overall) because there'd now be two 3rd picks of the 2nd round and not sure if they consider that 2nd one still the 3rd pick or if it is now considered the 4th pick.

Which is why he should (especially if sent out in a package w/ a 1st) be able to return something the Sabres don't already have in spades.

Give the Sabres Swayman for UPL and we can take Reilly off their hands. ;) Would fix about 1/2 of that cap overage issue.

Fudge. Hoping that we didn't spend $30 for just 3 games.

Not quite true. Syracuse got at least 1 shot on net on the Amerks PP.

Was making a funny, but it couldn't have been that good of a joke if it has to be explained. My bad. 🍻

Tryst. Not trust.

Umm, isn't that usually used to describe a brief tryst?

Bummer.

True. But when there are only 32 jobs above your current one, sometimes you leave a place you're really happy in because you don't know when or if that opportunity to move up will come around again.

Was going to go with Swamp Cats in 7 over the B's, but BuffaloNill picking the Cats caused a quick rethinking of that pick. Ended up going with the B's in 6.

You leaving your map of the world in the place or hiring a crane to take it with you?

Several things were the issue with the PK. 1. The goalie is your best PKer. Enough said on that one. 2. Because Granato philosophically wants to be able to attack at all times he puts his scoring forwards with reach on the PK. Thompson and Tuch probably would not be regular PKers on most teams except late in the game down a goal. Cozens was either the 2nd or 3rd PKer and he'll get very good in that role, but he is still young. Quinn was getting PK time at the end of the year and Krebs too. Young guys getting their 1st crack at it are still learning and will get better but it doesn't do much for the PK today. 3. The PK is ridiculously passive. IMHO that is due in great degree to #1 above. If guys agressively attack the puck carrier and close the primary passing lanes, they will typically cut down on the shots given up but when there is a shot it will be from a high danger area more often than when playing passively. If they have no faith in the goalie, they will rather suffer the good shot from outside and the opportunity for a rebound chance rather than trying to force a turnover with the knowledge that if they fail in their pressure they are giving up a shot their goalie probably can't stop. It'll be interesting to see if they get more agrressive next year with Levi between the pipes. Expect they will, but we shall see. 4. They are REALLY bad (even at 5v5) at defending when the puck is below their goal line. Far too often BOTH D crash below the goal line at 5v5 leaving a F crashing the low slot open unless the F realizes what is going on and gets back to cover. They tend not to crash both D down below the goalline on the PK but they still get too low to the goal line IMHO leaving space in the slot. 5. The one place where they do pressure the PP is when it is down low near the boards. Several times this season, we'd see Lyubushkin chasing a F to the boards and then one of the yound F's also cover the puck carrier leaving a 4 on 2 in the rest of the ice without any passing lanes taken away from the puck carrier because the D and F were on top of each other rather than at least working in tandem. (See Carolina's PK for how teams are supposed to pressure the puck carrier. The Sabres DON'T do that.) 6. As mentioned by posters above, the D try to play the puck when it is low rather than boxing out the F in the low slot leaving the puck to either his partner or the goalie. Take the PP F out of the play and then let your teammate (ideally the G, but the other D or even the lower F is a better choice than the 1st D on the scene) get the puck out of danger. 7. That doesn't even take into account smaller things like losing the initial face off far too often or having poor reverses or F's losing battles for loose pucks when the puck is close to the blue line. Getting another Samuelsson type should help with the poor reverses. And a legit 4C should help with the lost face offs and lost puck battles high in the zone. And if you get Levi a legit NHL goalie to tandem with, you will necessarily fix several of these other problems (or should be able to do so). Am HOPING a lot of the poor scheme was due to #1 and not simply having really poor concepts from the start. Because doing a lot of these other things right, with the goaltending they had most of the year would've very possibly (or rather likely) resulted in them being even worse. My 2 cents.

Roy for Ott didn't fail because Roy's production wasn't replaced. That was. (At least the end of his Buffalo tenure Roy; Roy himself didn't replace earlier Roy.) Hodgson replaced Roy's scoring. But nobody stepped up and replaced Hodgson's 2C scoring. Not Ennis, not Leino, not Grigorenko, none of them. In hindsight, it was foolish to expect that crew to do so. And Hodgson only replaced Roy's production for a very brief time as his genetic disorder kicked in about a year after Roy left. On paper the transaction, should have worked. Roy and (the concept of) Kassian for Hodgson and Ott was effectively what was swapped out. But they forgot they'd already swapped out Connolly for Hodgson. And Hodgson hadn't fully replaced Connolly. They needed 1 more move to make that work. That or Hodgson staying healthy. At minimum they needed 1 of those 2 to happen and ideally both. And, Olofsson down the stretch was only playing about 2 of 7 games. Doubt without some serious reshuffling that he'll have any chance of getting regular action in Buffalo should he stay a Sabres. How tough will it be for them to replace 20 games worth of VO's scoring just with youth being 1 year better than they were this season?

Agree with most of this, but don't understand the bolded. He won't max out his points in any given season by being the 3rd option at top of the umbrella, but how will that prevent him from being an effective player in the other aspects of the game?

The answer has to be either "ones with tails" or "ones with really friggin' good balance," right? ;)

Seems the strategy should be assume he is now the 63rd pick in the 2024 draft. If that, as part of a package, is something other teams would want for something that would help the Sabres this coming season and moving forward, great. If not, well they now have 2 2nd round picks next year and 7 total picks in that draft (they traded away their 5th). He likely tops out as a 2nd pairing D-man with 3rd pairing the expectation. It would be nice to have one that will stay in house for several years as he wouldn't have the learning curve/adjustment phase to your system that we see when bringing in FA 3rd pairing guys; but there are a lot of 3rd pairing guys available every year. Hoping his signing or bailing doesn't materially affect the Sabres strategy at this draft nor during the 1st week of July. (Would hate to see them forego adding an extra 5/6 guy because they don't wat to scare Johnson off only to see him walk anyhow.) Assume he's the 63rd pick next off-season and if they get him instead, well instead of having a 3rd pairing D 3-6 years from now (or a bottom 6 F 3-4 years out), they can have that sometime between now and 3 years from now. Woo hoo.