Taro T

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.

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.