Taro T

True. Minus their fans, they're essentially Minnesota on the wgaf scale. But their fans bring them into Boston/Filly range. The short bus riders that wear helmets to sit in the stands do lend new meaning to the term "special."

And had Tkachuk messed up his hand with that late block, it could've significantly altered the course of this series.

The team has 10 returning players (not counting Olofsson who IMHO won't be back this coming season) battling out for 9 spots in the top 9 plus there are kids like Savoie, Rousek, and Kulich who will get looks as well. Who does Kane bump out of the lineup presuming he wouldn't be brought in specifically as a PP specialist? (And why would a team with Thompson, Tuch, Cozens, Quinn, Skinner, Mittelstadt, Peterka, Krebs, Dahlin, and Power need another PP specialist?) 2 years ago the team could've used his offense. Right now, that's the thing they're actually really good at generating. Would much rather have a PK specialist 4C brought in.

Agree. Good for Krebs. This could very well be his last opportunity to play for his country unless he really settles in a a Selke type 2 way forward or his offensive game takes a leap beyond what it seems it will. Glad he and the Sabres decided to let him take this opportunity. (Still sad for Derek Plante and his not being allowed to play in the Olympics way back when because the Sabres had so many injured C's and really needed him to hold down the fort.)

Seeing that list of prospects helps clarify just how far this team has come from the initial stages of rebuild #1. That team had O'Reilly, Kane, Eichel, Reinhart as the core pieces of the top 6 F's with Fasching, Carrier, Baptiste, and Bailey in the system and Mittelstadt drafted to try to fill out 2-3 scoring lines. This team has Thompson, Tuch, Skinner, Cozens, Mittelstadt, Quinn, Peterka, and Greenway (with Krebs also in the mix) as core pieces of a top 9 F corps, with Savoie, Kulich, Rousek, Rosen, Östlund, Neuchev, etc to try to supplement those other pieces. The contrast in depth is stark.

And, not that it matters, but the NHL in their mid-season awards was giving the Norris to Dahlin. Even ahead of Karlsson and his crazy offensive #'s. @Thorny was right about the injury induced swoon that Dahlin had right after the ASG. It cost him a finalist nod. And agree with you, that this snub might be the best thing that could've happened to the Sabres next year (well, 2nd best right behind Levi being what he's certainly appeared to be capable of being) having their best skater playing with a chip on his shoulder.

Yeah. Would put Dahlin at 3, just a smidge ahead of Matthews. Matthews was in the Eichel / MacKinnon tier; not the McDavid / Crosby tier. (Of course, at the time of their drafts, Eichel and MacKinnon were being considered borderline "generational." What a strange label as it gets brought up seemingly at least once every 5 years.) And Lafreniere seemed to have more hype than Power. But neither of those 2 were being viewed as "all that" IMHO. But the guy getting compared to Potvin has to be ranked higher on the hype machine than Hughes. Again, IMHO. Other than those 2 tweaks would agree with the Athletic's list.

The team certainly seems to have reached an inflection point. The monster question is will Adams be able to bring in the right guys to fill the few remaining holes to have them see the exponential rise that they seem to be on the verge of? Personally, expect the odds are good that he will. (Though if he doesn't, pretty sure goaltending will be the culprit yutzing the works up. (File that last bit in the "No Schlitz, Sherlock" folder.))

Will be very surprised if Adams doesn't bring in a top 4 guy on D this summer. Expecting 1 other 3rd pairing / tweener guy as well along with 3 or 4 guys specifically for Ra-cha-cha which won't factor into anything. Expecting he'll not make any additional upgrades to the F's (with the only real changes being Savoie and 1 of Rousek or Kulich make the roster out of camp and Olofsson gets traded away; maybe 1 or both of Okposo and Girgensons decide to walk) or G but really hoping that's incorrect. And really want a PK specialist 4C brought in. Varlamov too. 4 pieces, is it really that much to ask for? Doesn't seem like it, but expecting to only get 2 of them. (The 4D and an extra 6D.)

And the reason we have DTv is back when Empire still existed, Time Warner bumped it up to a pay tier (replaced it with the Hallmark Channel on their regular package). Rather than pay $5/month extra for the tier that included Empire switched to DTv and started getting Sunday Ticket. That decision cost TW a truck ton of money through the years.

Half way there. 2 down, 2 to go. Was getting a kick out of the TNT announcers ball washing Nylander. "He's putting on a clinic." Yep, didn't get an assist but started the play that got Florida back in the game and then was the place where scoring chances went to die at the other end.

Give Power a legit partner rather than Jokiharju and a lot of those "defensive issues" clear up. (Provided he finally figures out how to not deflect the puck past his own goalie. THAT issue wasn't on Henri.)

Bummer. That statistical slide he went on after getting injured on the Florida trip near the AS break really took the wind out of his sails. He was getting hyped hard before that. Hopefully he gets it next year.

Would like to see at least 1 more team do that and ideally 30 more do it.

Not sure why the Thursday complaint thread hasn't been opened in 2 weeks. Had a couple of pops tonight for the 1st time in a while. Probably best that that thread isn't open. Whatevs.

They had it down pat in the late '80's. The Wales Conference played on day 1 of the playoffs and the Campbell played on day 2 and they kept alternating from there on out the rest of the way. But TV money f'd that up and we're never getting it back. Carolina was the Sabres kryptonite this year (that last game when Carolina had nothing really to play for not withstanding). Watching the Devils (who are the Sabres with a couple of additions 1 year earlier) get destroyed in game 1 just reinforces this kid's belief that the Sabres would've been a lot better off in the 8 seed rather than the 7 seed (and obviously either was better than the 9 seed). Carolina was the Sabres kryptonite. They do what Buffalo tries to do so much better. Soon our boys will be there, but not yet.

F1 takes the puck carrier, F2 takes the (now loose) puck. F3 cycles down low to give an option to F2. F1 cycles back high. Lather, rinse, repeat.

Gee, Power ended up a Calder finalist. Never saw that coming. 😎

No, jam is only what you use on radars and only one would dare to give the raspberry to Dark Helmet.

Expect there's all sort of field hockey specific training there.

And nearly forgot, 1 of the best things Adams said was that the PP needed to be better too. (Not just the horrible PK which also needs to improve.) Agree with him, with the personnel they can put out on both units it needs to be cranking more than just 5-6 weeks out of the entire season.

Yes. It was very specifically referring to the situation after Levi arrived, it was not referring to the upcoming season. Separately, an item that stood out IMHO was Adams saying he expected the team overall to be even younger than it was this season. With everybody on the roster being 1 year older than before, simply losing Anderson doesn't make that happen all by itself. (Yes, knocking a 41 year old off the 23 man roster lowers the age, but everybody else on that roster is 1 year older, so you knock off 22 years replacing him with a 19 year old but you add 22 years with everybody else aging 1 year October to October.) Especially when it is likely another D-man gets added to the mix and he will likely be older than the team's average age. Which would imply that at least 1 of Okposo or Girgensons isn't back and that there's a really good chance that 1 or 2 of Savoie, Rousek, and Kulich make the opening night roster. None of which is overly unexpected, but considering how in his press availability right after the season ended it sounded like it was up to Okposo whether he'd be back (and IIRC Girgensons too, could be mistaken on that front) maybe Kyle's pretty far along in that decision or the team is making it for him. He spoke a lot about Ventura and a fair amount about Bales. Never heard him mention Karmanos. Not sure if that means anything regarding the Pens or not. He also did mention Mittelstadt at 1 point. Jokiharju too. Those were the only 2 of the board's whipping boys that got mentioned for whatever that's worth. Most of the rest was the core (though never heard Skinner's name) including Levi, Frick & Frack, and Greenway. Very good interview. Jeremy and Joe had good questions for Adams and he gave what seemed to be thoughtful honest answers.

He could, but there are limits to how much salary can rise or fall throughout the term of the contract, and for accounting purposes, the contract will count the same against the cap each year at total money earned over the life of the contract divided by the contract term in years. Signing bonuses really only get a guy his money earlier in a given year than he'd get it as pure salary. It also isn't subject to escrow withholding, but if the player ends up being due less money (due to HRR being lower than expected) than the nominal value of what the contract stipulates he'll need to pay money back. (Kind of like how the government withholds money from your paycheck then you either get some back at the end of the year or owe some when taxes are filed.) A signing/roster bonus in the NHL just adds to the base payroll of the player for that particular season, it doesn't get spread across multiple seasons like an NFL signing bonus does. Also, NHL contracts don't get altered during their duration unlike NFL contracts. And there are very few performance bonuses allowed and they are only allowed under special circumstances (ELCs, old vets signing 1 year deals, guys coming off major injury) again unlike the NFL. And that's why the NHL's cap is a hard cap and the NFL's is for the most part largely imaginary. (Eventually, it becomes real in the NFL, but teams are able to put off the hurt of big deals for many years.)

Varlamov.

Nope. Umbergered as in Meier got left in a pool of his own drool with no idea of where he is just like when RJ had his last name converted into a verb.