Taro T

Will be very interesting to see how it plays out. And this prediction could be correct. But personally don't see that happening as this change seems like it will favor the current "haves" at the expense of lower leagues. Currently, the lower tiers (both Canadian and American) can get kids that want to end up going to US college on scholarship but aren't quite there (typically due to age but sometimes due to being a late bloomer) as they've been shut out of the CHL by the NCAA. Now, those kids can play in the CHL without effecting their NCAA eligibility. So, personally expect those lower tiers will see a bit of a talent defection rather than an infusion of talent. Kind of like how with all the consolidation of the big NCAA conferences and the football playoff there is more money than ever in college football but it seems to be going more and more to the dozen / couple of dozen programs at the very top. (The odd Indiana story not withstanding. Would be very surprised if they manage to be in the top 10 again moving forward as the coach won't get to bring a whole lot of transfers along with himself again. Though maybe his eye for HS talent that should be but aren't recruited by the big boys will be sustainable. Will be interesting to watch play out either way.) And apologies if your comment was directed to the US National Team and not the 17-20 yo hockey landscape in general. Expecting that will remain strong as the ADM does seem to be effective at least for the upper echelon players.

Pretty sure you're being optimistic there. 😉

Forgot about that. (The way Ruff had talked about taking him out of the Habs game, made it sound like it was an illness and forgot they'd said it was a minor injury that held him out of the next 2. So, still had that thought of it being an illness in the back of the brain.)

Expecting @mjd1001 is onto something with the possibility of UPL getting the start tonight. He had a relatively light work load, has only played twice in the past week, and will have 3 days of rest before the Sabres next game. Also, would expect Aube-Kubel to be the player coming out of the lineup should Thompson be ready to go; but hopefully we shall see.

More similarities: the starter missed time in November due to injury and they had a 3 headed goalie monster with management wanting to put at least one of those goalies being waived with the intension of spending time in Ra-cha-cha and also one of them finding himself on a west coast team. Almost nobody expected that team to make the playoffs. In no small part because it had been years since the offensively challenged team had seen the playoffs and they simply walked away from their best pure goal scorer who was viewed as an impediment to playing winning hockey.

Except there is a logic to having a reluctance to trade with your rivals; especially if the trade involves a "star" player. Your fans will come after you with pitchforks every single time that star player does something good against your team. And even if the fans get to a point where they might forget about it, the local media drums the fury back up every time it happens and the pitchforks and torches are back out. If the fans come after you often enough and hard enough, your job security tumbles. It's the psychology of the game. And it's in the same vein of why a guy like Danny Paille essentially got ran out of town here in Buffalo but was a contributor on a SC winning Bruins squad. He was a 1st rounder here, and had expectations of being a top 6 F because of that. And he couldn't live up to those expectations because he wasn't anywhere close to a 1st or even a 2nd liner. But he was a very effective 4th liner.

And when the Sabres win tonight, the Sharks will only be 0.667 in their last 9. #### Dumbo D'oh and his big night. Go, go, Buffalo.

Not really the right place for this, but got tired of scrolling back through topics to find a Quinn specific one. Until he tried to set the Ducks up with a breakaway in the last minute or so of the game that they were unable to take advantage of; thought Quinn had his best game of the season last night. If he is finally starting to understand how he fits into Ruff's system we should see his play actually being useful like last night rather than like his 1st nearly 20 games. Though he didn't score, he was driving to the slot with the puck creating HD chances, he made some nice passes, and he wasn't randomly turning the puck over (well, at least not until his last shift in regulation; baby steps) nor noticably seeming lost in his own end. Will be paying attention to his play tonight vs the Snarks to see if it was just a 1 game fluke or if he really is finally getting it.

They didn't pick the Sabres game because of the Sabrepede incident. IF they chose the Sabres for a historical reason it is because Thornton played his 1st ever game as a Shark in Buffalo.

How many of those other teams had to play a "home" game in the backyard of their opponent much less 2 of them?

Gotham didn't have a Duck. Just a Penguin. Sheesh.

The Sabres have "hosted" 2 Winter Classics and one Heritage Classic. The 1st was in the Buffalo suburb of Orchard Park. The 2nd was in the Buffalo suburb of the Bronx. The 3rd was in the Buffalo suburb of Hamilton, ON. Maybe the Sabres can host one in Las Vegas so Eichel can play in front of the "hometown" fans once again. Money grubbin' ######.

Of course they can. They can even have another home game. Which local suburb would you like this one to be played in? Boston? Filly? Maybe they could go to the other side of the county and play that home game in Seattle or Vancouver.

You're related to Elizabeth Warren? 😉

The "best culture" comes from having really good hockey players during their peak years. Good coaching helps; but that's really at the heart of it.

Since when does @Brawndo need to be confirmed? If HIS sources say it happened, $'s to donuts, it happened.

Yes, Allen saw that the Chefs were actually in zone on that play; but it doesn't appear that he changed the play out of one that was (per Orlovsky) designed to beat man and not zone which is why all the Bills receivers were covered.

One of the 2 equity groups does have that group within it's 10% stake. (The article had it somewhere between a 1% and 3.something % stake; don't recall as the list of smaller investor groups was fairly large for only a 10% stake.) The article said that at the end of the day, Pegula will keep a 79.9% stake in the Bills. There are 2 separate roughly 10% equity groups that are up for league approval, one of which is actually a whole bunch of groups each getting a much smaller stake in the Bills to add up to their ~10% stake.

Expect the bigger issue of the leg room is people that have arthritis or other leg joint ailments tend to have issues with the seating and those of us fortunate enough to not have them yet don't have issues with them. Gentleman that sits near me really dislikes sitting in our row even though he's relatively short as the leg room is noticably less than it is for rows behind us. Have never had major issues with it personally, though when sitting next to someone who likes to "spread out" it can be a little awkward as their leg keeps brushing up against the people sitting next to them. As others have said, a new arena could likely overcome this issue but at the cost of the seats being even further from the ice surface unless each upper section is directly above the one below it (like the 300's pretty much are directly over the suites at the MMArena).

All you had to do was ask, Snoogums.

Not thrilled with Pegula selling off ~20% of the team, but guess he has to cover the stadium overruns somehow and "drilling another well" doesn't seem to be on the table. Mainly unhappy with it for what it might mean to the long term picture for the team when TP passes on. Realize the family (Kim or the kids) would still own nearly 80% but no idea how estate taxes might factor into the mix and not sure how much of a stake the new ownership groups would have in keeping the team in Buffalo. Guess worry about that when it comes. But that day will be here sooner than later and after ~20 years of rumors of TO the past decade with no real threat of them leaving has been a nice respite but would really like to have seen the respite last longer.

Actually, according to Orlovsky it was Spagnola who made the better chess move on both that play and the other big run that Allen had in the 4th Q, but that Allen simply made it not matter. Apparently, Buffalo expected zone when they got man and then expected man and got zone (but the way the Bills ran the routes on the TD it effectively became man coverage due to the routes the Bills ran) and Allen simply took off when KC had everything covered on both plays. It's good to have an alien under center. 😉

Based on his play in the last 2 games, it isn't surprising. Wasn't sure if they'd send him down before heading out west or after; guess we got the answer to that. Guess it was smart of him to go with plain brown pads this year. He'll be fine, but right now this move should be good for both the Sabres and him.

You probably should see a doctor for both of those issues. 😉

Pretty sure it was more his entrance onto the scene, more specifically his entrance into Timmy Ho's, that soured that relationship from ownership's perspective.