Taro T

w/ Olofsson taking the selfie. Not sure who the kid behind Victor is. Maybe Levi?

Sorry, don't have those #'s. But judging from how many seats are available for single games, would say there's probably 12-14k in ST equivalents between full seasons, 1/2 seasons, 1/4 seasons, & build your own minipacks. It was down around 4k 2 seasons ago.

He did that all of last season too. For whatever reason, the league just doesn't give a flying #### about him doing that.

Ah, ok, those 3 items are "member only" but the whole event runs from 11AM - 6:30PM. Not sure what else will be going on. In the past there were a lot of autograph sessions and games around the rink too. Edit: the announcement says that "fans can take part in hockey skills activations (whatever the f that means), kid zone activities, and watch Sabres players participate in on-stage programming throughout the day." So, guess no autograph sessions.

Not sure if it's just for STHers or if it will be open to others after the STHers have had a chance to sign up for it, but next Saturday the Sabres are bringing Fan Fest back. This iteration will have a Kids Q&A session at 12PM, Sabres Trivia at 2PM, and then a B&G Insights with players apparently to be named later. (Those apparently are STH only events; though STHers can get up to 4 tickets. But there are other activities going on that day. See next post for details on those.) Personally am planning on attending. It should be fun.

White Goatheads were Reverse Retros. Those unis are 1 and dones.

So what are they due to?

What's surprising is that they don't seem to have taken out any futures contracts to hedge against inflation. Yes, that adds some up front costs, but it also insures that if prices do shoot up that you can exercise your options on those particular commodities / proxy for the commodities and still have the overall project come in on budget.

Heard that earlier today. Bummer. He put on one of the funnest live shows around. Just everybody having a blast being a beach bum for a day. RIP Jimmy.

And with Quinn out for a few months, it would be the easiest way for the team to try to have a 3rd good line. It SHOULD work. And it leaves 2 very strong top lines. But Olofsson needs to have his head screwed on straight and want to be here. Because if he pouts over the way last season ended and his still being a Sabre, then Rousek, Kulich, or 1 of the Winnipeg kids will have a great opportunity to not just make this squad but play in the middle six as well.

How do you think they landed Thornton?

It's not an option for day of watching, but pretty sure if you're willing to wait a day or 2 you can watch the game on ESPN+ even if you're in market. Not exactly the same thing; and it's much better watching day of, but at least it is possible to watch the games there. (At least the non-TNT games (and non-NHLN ones too?).)

No, the address bar which is above the individual browser tabs. The one identifying which website/page you are actually on. On the Samsung, anything at sabrespace is identified as www.sabrespace.com but when that is pressed, then the actual url gets displayed and after about 1 second, a bunch of "right click" (were it on a windows machine) options including "copy" appear under that address bar.

No differences since the "changeover" on a Samsung Galaxy tablet. Press the address bar at X until the actual url shows and the "right click" options appear underneath. Choose "copy" then in the Sabrespace posting window press where the link should be embedded until the "right click" options appear and then choose paste. "Same as it ever was." (Sorry, couldn't find this video on twitter/X; but it still is the same process.) Would expect an actual phone works the same as a tablet as they both use the android operating system. (Unless you're one of "those people" that uses Iphones. No clue as to whether those things play nice with other sites or not.)

Good thing it's still under warranty. With the labor, even if it's just the gasket that needs to be replaced and the heads and block are fine it'd be at least $1k. Could be a full short block replacement in a worst case. $$$.

You mean cut off beer sales in OT in the playoffs up there but not in the 100's and 200's? Been there, done that. (Of course, if your seats are in the 300 aughts (304, 305, 306, 307 particularly) have heard tell of a rumor that one can make the circuit to the 100's and back with a full load of cargo before intermission ends. It's good to be near the escalators. 😉 )

Pretty much this. Homerism and a faith in Levi & a hope that Comrie is what we saw on the western trip when healthy rather than what we saw most of the year after that gives the Sabres the slight edge over the Otters. But it could easily go the other way and actually both could make the dance this year. Expecting Detroit to be a high 80's squad. Better than last year, but hanging with the Habs and the Aisles; not the new cool kids.

Question: how many players not drafted in the top 1/2 of the 1st round make the Pro Bowl in their 1st couple of seasons? The Bills last player drafted in the top 1/2 of the 1st round is Ed Oliver who actually was playing very well last year until the high ankle sprain. They didn't have a 1st rounder in '19 (traded it in the deal to move up to get Edmonds); Rousseau was 30th overall; Elam was 23rd and is still working at becoming a zone corner as his skillset doesn't fit this team's scheme; and Kincaid hasn't played a down in real time yet. Personally, am impressed with their drafting track record since Beane took over as he's drafted ~11 starters on a 3 time defending division champion and has drafted at least 3 starters on other teams around the league. That's in 6 years starting out (prior to trades) with the 21st, 9th, 22nd, 30th, 23rd, & 25th overall picks. They also used one of those picks to land Stephon Diggs. That seems like a pretty good "pick" from this vantage point.

That's an interesting way to look at a rebuild. IMHO, a rebuild needs to be judged relative to how close the team is to being a true legitimate contender not simply whether it is seasoned or not. Yes, Detroit is more seasoned in general than the Sabres are at present, but simply don't see them contending nor close to contending. So, IMHO they are either behind in the rebuild because the Sabres are closer to contending legitimately. Or their rebuild has stalled, which again puts the Sabres as being closer to contending legitimately. Kind of like how the Sabres 1st 2 rebuilds stalled out. After year 2 of each, they weren't ahead of pretty much anybody. And they circled back to square 1 about 1 year later each time.

Really expecting pretty much the same season from Tuch that we saw last year. @dudacek talked about "right place - right time" and Alex might be the poster child for that. He's a special player (not in the Dahlin type special, but special none-the-less) playing in the place he always dreamed of playing. Really believe that being here in Buffalo, he's a bit more than he'd be elsewhere. And absolutely love that he's a Sabre.

Yes, 2 of those arrived prior to Beane. But both of those 2 were well within the MC portion of the McBeane era. Edmonds, who is getting a truck ton of money from Chicago seems to be much more highly rated elsewhere than in Buffalo would, by the way he gets ball washed on the broadcasts, also arguably be called a star. Wyatt Teller is a star (well as much as a guard on a horrible team can be). And Harrison Phillips is still a beast. All, Beane draft picks. How many players selected outside the top 1/2 of the top round are expected to be "stars?" Especially w/in their 1st 3 seasons? Beane has had exactly 3 picks in the top 1/2 of the 1st round in his 6 drafts: Allen, Edmonds, and Oliver. Oliver was looking real last year until the high ankle sprain. Let's see how he does this year before declaring Beane can't draft "stars." He absolutely can draft starters.

They had Rick Dennison as the OC the year Mahomes was drafted. Can see why they didn't see that as ideal for a QB brand new to the league. Pretty sure they also thought there was a solid possibility that their draft spot in 2018 would be pretty high as they dumped nearly all their "name" players and kept Tyrod Taylor at QB. Had they started out at 10 in that draft rather than 21 they definitely don't have to give up as much draft capital to get to 7 and 16 in that draft. So, the plan from day 1 when McDermott showed up to not let the outgoing GM draft the QB of the future (hello Buddy; been there, done that) and instead wait until the GM he trusted was in place with a draft class that next year coming along which compared at least prior to the draft as in the same league as the vaunted 1983 QB class. And the reason many (not sure if it's most or not, but many Bills fans, this one included, felt this way) Bills fans didn't want Allen is while he had the most raw tools of any of the QBs available in '18; he also was the most raw and the Bills coaching staff included a HC with a defensive pedigree, an OC who had success as a receivers and TE coach with some schmuck named Brady but had no success in any form as an OC in the NFL and had spent the previous year as an OC at Alabama, and a QB coach (David Culley) that nobody had ever heard of. Throw in arguably the worst WR corps in the league and a mediocre at best offensive line. Who in their right mind EXPECTS that to be a successful situation for him to walk into. Had Mahomes gone to the Bills and Allen to the Chefs; expect Josh would be the one with 2 SB's but not positive we'd be looking at Mahomes as a sure fire HoFer. And as for Beane not being any good at drafting, pretty sure 11 of his picks are going to be starters on this team this season and at least 3 others will be starting for other teams. And if the "Punt God" weren't railroaded out of the league, it would be 15 of his picks are starters. 15 out of 25 (11 O, 11 D, 3 ST) in 6 years. That seems pretty good from this vantage point. And on a team that won it's division the past 3 years and is the favorite to do so again.

And getting away from the focus of this thread, but Lyubushkin was very bad when he was playing through the early season leg injury especially when he was paired with somebody that should've been in Ra-cha-cha (which was pretty much everybody on the depth chart below Fitzgerald). When healthy, he was pretty much as advertised. Still am disappointed that we won't see how he would've worked out in his 2nd year in Granato's system especially when he'd've been paired with a player better than himself when on the 2nd pairing or drawing relatively easy minutes with another actual NHLer on the 3rd pairing. But they likely made assurances about playing time to Johnson to get him to sign and Granato loves him some Jokiharju; so he likely was pencilled in as #7 and it's understandable why he'd want out if he in fact did want out. Hoping the estimate of 20 games for Bryson is on the high side. But would be very surprised if Samuelsson and Johnson both exceed 65 games and the rest of the crew will get dinged up some too.

Expecting him to get mostly the same usage (at least until Quinn is healthy and back to game shape) on the 2nd line and 2nd PP with getting shorted ice time in the 3rd of games they're protecting a lead; so with no increase in responsibility. But do expect to see him nuzzling just above the 50 point plateau. So, didn't vote because it's a pretty fair split between option 2 and option 3.

Never said it does directly affect (nor directly effect) the STH base. This policy is strictly for single game seats. But, if a 20 something from Fort Erie or Niagara on the Lake has to wait until the people in Kenmore and Penfield all get cracks at tix and he either can't buy a ticket or ends up in the corner in the nosebleeds when tix at CI were still available; maybe he gets ticked off and says screw it and eventually gives up on the Sabres. There'll be a few people that happens to. How many people that grew up Sabres fans that were planning on taking a trip to Buffalo are now going to bag the trip because they can't get good seats on day 1? There'll likely be a few of those as well. Rather than worrying about whether people are rooting for the Sabres, Loafs, or Kraken when they're in the building; how about worrying about how do they convert those that are within what should be their market that aren't Sabres fans into Sabres fans. A much bigger priority of theirs should be getting the Sabres on TV on the NP. And an even bigger priority than that should be making the team good again. (Which is outside that VP's responsibilities; but coming up with a better TV plan isn't.)