Taro T

1st off, his foot might have been on the line before he even got the ball. (TV never reshowed that far back.) But the ball didn't cross the line until MacKay falling into the goal knocked the goal behind the goal line which came WELL after not only the shooter's foot hit the crease but his other knee hit the crease too. The overhead view showed that NO part of the ball fully crossed the goal line (much less the entire ball) until well after the shooter had stepped in the crease.

He's kind of right. From the 2nd period of the Miller game, the Sabres had moments (sometimes a period or 2, occassionally a game or 3) of actually playing what the rest of the league (minus the Loafs & Eulers) consider playing actual team defense. The D would box out forwards trying to get to the crease and the F's would actually take time and space from the F3 and the D. But they'd then revert back to their earlier season defensive zone coverage for a few games at a time. Could never figure out the rhyme nor the reason for the regression to October hockey for them. Because believe they actually were preaching (teaching?) playing that tighter defensive zone play.

Way behind because watched the Bandits championship before switching to this. But how did Staal become quick enough to score on a wrap around after being the slowest guy on an entire bad Sabres team 2 or so years earlier?

Took 7 ####ing games, but the Bandits FINALLY figured out how to beat the friggin' Mammoth. (Yes, they beat them twice before in those 1st 6 games, but that's simply because they're so much more talented than them.) Pass the ####ing ball and get Ward moving and also setting back in his crease. And don't take dumb ####ing penalties because Colorado's PP is deadly. From the very 1st goal with Josh Byrne drawing 2 defenders to him to set Naticoke clear to go in 1 on 1 on Ward through to MacKay cleanly stealing the ball to run out the last 28 seconds; this team played disciplined clean lax. Matt Vinc had a mirror image season to last year - last year he was unbeatable to start the year and became a relative sieve (compared to the normal Matt Vinc) by the time the playoffs rolled around. And this year, he couldn't stop a beach ball in the 1st game against Albany and wasn't much better the 1st quarter of the season, but he found his game as the year went on and set a record tonight for the fewest goals given up in a finals game - 4. Stinks that this team had 2 championship chances stolen from them for Covid, but this team is REALLY good. And so cool that MacKay got to hold the ball to the final whistle. That guy has meant so much this year at both ends of the field especially with all the injuries to the forwards they went through this year. Let's go Ban-dits!

Hated the idea of losing on purpose and '13-'14 was an absolute horrible year. Thought the tank was a horrible idea and said as soon as Darcy promoted "suffering" he should've been canned on the spot. But had 2 choices in '14-'15, could've walked away from the team because 2 years of trying to support that ####show knowing management had actively stacked the deck against them would've been too much; or could hope that they actually managed to get the ####tiest team in the league that year and laugh at the joke they'd made of themselves because had they finished 29th there is no doubt that Murray would've selected Dach at 3. Never rooted against them in the building. (There were plenty of other games for them to lose over 82.) But otherwise was ok with the losses because AT THAT POINT there was no point to meaningless wins; that team was built to lose and as stated earlier the options were hop out of the car before it hit the skid and walk away forever or steer into it and hope it only ended up a sideswipe of a Fiesta and not a full on head on collision with a semi. Hopefully they never do that again. Will walk away if they head INTO a season wanting to lose. Taking a step back at the trade deadline because things aren't working is one thing; taking a step back at the trade deadline and then getting rid of everything else of value for 2 more years can't happen again.

Presuming you mean as a FA or a trade for the player's rights where that guy is the primary target of the other team. And that you don't mean somebody wanting to grab one of these guys a couple of weeks into July to fill out their AHL rosters. Pilut could find himself as an NHLer on a team with a very shallow pool of NHL D-men. (Even shallower than Buffalo's to start the year.) Like him and he's great at the AHL level, but he simply isn't any higher than an 8 at best on a team with reasonable NHL D depth. Would be surprised if any others except possibly Murray got any interest from other teams for actually playing in the NHL. Could Cecconi or Davies have an outside shot at NHL interest? Can't see that one personally, but maybe possibly sort of. Don't see Weissbach as an NHLer or any of the others as NHLers unless a team has a rash of injuries. The Sabres have a few guys in the AHL that could or will become NHLers. But really don't see any of their AHL vets nor AHL-NHL hybrids (except Pilut) having any legit shot at the NHL next year. Karmanos and the rest did a nice job of assembling the Amerks and they could bring most all this squad back as there doesn't seem to be a Dixon Ward (vet that should've been in the NHL but wasn't due to circumstances and promptly got back to the NHL) on this roster.

Pre NLL.com it is.

Let's hope he plays like he was before he was injured and not how he played against Colorado last year. That 1st Josh will be very hard to defend against and might help the Bandits to get that D to open up some. The 2nd Josh might as well be on the bench; Cloutier who hasn't been effective this round will be more effective. And hopefully @Eleven's intel about the OTA channel is correct for those in Buffalo wanting to watch. Otherwise, to watch in the States, you'll need ESPN+.

That team had been trash LONG before Stevie Wonder showed up. Why pick that year as your demarcation point for suffering if you aren't limiting it to your own personal experience?

That's the way the CBA reads, but the way it is enforced in practice is if the team is cap compliant with the BF-LTIR guy being "off the books" then it is considered good on the opening day of the season. So, at a later point in the year, IF the team can either dump enough cap or get enough cap to the BF-LTIR they can get that player activated in the regular season. But yes, it is more likely that he'd end up coming into the lineup after the playoffs begin. Remember, the team may not get to use the entire cap with the player going onto BF-LTIR if they weren't at the cap prior to putting the player on BF-LTIR. Their effective cap of the other healthy rostered players will end up being what the team was at prior to the player going onto BF-LTIR. And putting a player on BF-LTIR to get to the cap floor is counter productive. That player would simply be on IR. BF-LTIR doesn't come into play until a team needs to replace that salary and find a way to stay UNDER the cap. You can have as many players on IR as you happen to have injured and the entire salary of ALL of them not on BF-LTIR counts against the cap. Boychuk 2 years ago and Bishop last year never were placed on BF-LTIR though they both qualified.

Jokiharju is a 2 way defenseman that has strengths and weaknesses at both ends of the ice and in transition too. He is in the mold of Toni Lydman. Hopefully with a couple more seasons under his belt he becomes that player. He'll never be a legit top pairing guy but could top out as a legit 4 on a good team; but with the 2 1st overalls the Sabres have, that could be good enough in a couple of years. (Remember, though Lydman was a 4/5, he was 1/2 of the best D tandem this team had seen for nearly 20 years since McKee Warrener.)

How friggin' frustrating could it have been? They were in the Finals 4 yeers after you moved there and started winning them in droves 2 years later.

Just hanging out with the dog on the deck listening to some serious Mark Knopfler riffs from Dire Straits golden era. (Moving Pictures - Brothers in Arms) And while doing so having some good internet conversations. B-E-A-U-tiful night out tonight.

If Kane is what it takes to keep Biro off the parent club, am all for signing him. You've just made the first cogent argument to sign him at this point. (Doubt Biro would make the team minus Kane being here; but if he would be on the team, the team WOULD be better with Kane.)

But he WAS a regular. Until his coach went away. Not his fault that the new boss (with no street cred) didn't see him the way the old one (with street cred in spades) did. And, in Buffalo, until his partner went away he was arguably the best D-man on the team. (Talk about a long time ago and how far this D has come. It's not inconceivable to say he's at best the 5th best D-man on THIS current team playing occassionally with a guy that will win a Norris or 3 before his career is done.

Which coach was/is the better hockey coach? (Not veering this into Liger's weeds about things non hockey related.) And which one actually played Henri? (Hint, it ain't the one that nobody can remember.) C'mon you're going to say if Nolan plays you but Ruff doesn't you're even a part timer? And vice versa?

You sure the split season doesn't count? Had Quenneville remained the coach he would've spent the full year in Chicago. He didn't fit into what the next guy wanted to do.

Hey! Somebody around here actually understands how LTIR additions work! Yes, this surgery opens up the number of teams that might be interested in him as some cap constrained teams might now be able to pull off adding him if that 6 month out slides to 8 or so. Hey! Somebody around here actually understands how LTIR additions work! Yes, this surgery opens up the number of teams that might be interested in him as some cap constrained teams might now be able to pull off adding him if that 6 month out slides to 8 or so.

This place ain't back to normal until PA brings back the Phantom List Writer. 😉

Five? Looks like nine from this vantage point. 😉

The trade being proposed at this point (13, UPL, & Kisakov/Rosen/similar) would absolutely be a great trade for the Sabres. For so many reasons already mentioned by so many here in this discussion. But the point that you allude to that isn't getting made strongly enough is Hellebucyk COULD be traded this year, even IF he and Levi are working well together IF Levi has a really strong year. If the team is going to be trying to ride Levi primarily in the playoffs, then if Adams absolutely knows he won't be able to keep Hellebucyk after the calendar flips from June '24 he can trade him for something and ideally they'd get back a Gerber-esque goalie back to fill that Gerber-esque roll from the Canes '06 playoff run. Wouldn't go that route personally, but it might make sense to do so. There are so many different ways for it to play out, but if they land Helly for that sort of a package; honestly can ONLY see it not working if Helly gets seriously injured early in the season. But that might blow up most plans should it happen to somebody else that's a key player. IMHO, that trade is a no brainer from the Sabres perspective. Git 'er dun, Kevyn. (And yes, getting Saros would be a surer thing that they'd have him for the next 2 years which is the time frame they'd want another goalie "ahead" of Levi; but because he has that 2nd year under contract, can't see him being available for that same package that MIGHT land Helly.) The Sabres would still have other assets to bring in the top 4 D-man they're looking to bring in too if they don't want to go through the UFA route. Just can't see a way bringing in Helly would be a bad thing.

Moral of the story, make sure you don't drive 100 million miles. You'll die 1.5 times over. 😉 (Yes, we know that's NOT how sadistics statistics work. It's a joke you hosers. 😜 )

No data. Heard some of his press conference. Looks like he'll be the interim GM for now (with no word on how long "now" is). He talked a lot about analytics and how all the different groups need to work together and not be in silos. (Silos wasn't the term he used, but the jist is the same.) So, we could still see Karmanos or Ventura getting plucked at some time in the relatively near future unfortunately. My interpretation of his words. YMMV.)

Can't help you with that but miss the old late '90's Moose. Somebody with a serious sense of humor had to have designed the costume. The antlers looked like fallopian tubes and the face pretty much looked like a giant *****. The hermaphrodite moose, a Ra-cha-cha original. 😄 (Note, the ***** was the anotomical term for a ball bag. Did not expect that to get censored.)