Taro T

He was but got called back up sometime around the WJCs. Guess this last stint was no more impressive than his previous ones. Too bad. Would've been a good story.

He probably wrote the general sentiments but somebody then edited it for him. Just like every other memo / letter that comes from the corporate world. Doubt writing the letter was his idea, but expect he was a willing writer & the sentiments are genuine. And doubt the person or people that pushed for this were thrilled w/ seeing Asplund & Bryson included among those that have been here through a lot of trials & tribulations. It was a nice letter. Hopefully it worked as intended.

Pretty sure they started them in '16-'17.

In addition to the other questions, the big ones IMHO (& don't follow the Nucks, so this question brought up by the way you worded your post might not even be relevant) would be is Demko the sort of goalie that needs a lot of work IN GAME & are the Sabres going to remain the sort of team that gives up a lot of chances or will they tighten up their D as the team figures out its O and as they age beyond the youngest in the league. Because if he does need a lot of work in a particular game to be good, it could be a match made in heaven at present but could become Denis Herron in Moe-ray-all a year or 2 from now. (For you younguns, Herron was an amazing goalie on really bad KC & Pittsburgh teams in the mid-late 70's. He had a bad GAA but that was because he faced a ton of shots, a lot of which were high danger. Those teams should've lost a lot worse than they did. When Dryden retired, the Habs picked him up figuring that w/ a normal workload he'd be even better. But he couldn't backstop a good team. He didn't get nearly enough work to stay sharp in game there and his time in Moe-ray-all was pretty much a failure.) No. But he might be.

Would like to have Adams inquire about it. But at the end of the day it comes down IMHO how much of an upgrade over Comtie do they consider him to be & is the difference between the 2 worth the difference in what you'd pay to get him & what you'd get back in a trade of Comrie. And remember, they (management & the players) like Comrie. He & Power were the 2 interviewees at the 1st Blue & Gold Insights this year. They don't usually ask guys they're about to jettison to sit through an hour long Q&A w/ the fans. Though will admit, nothing is static & if the team can be improved Adams should be interested. At the end of the day it is still a business.

This should be interesting. Please do. Going to go for counting partial calendar years as full years no doubt.

Had planned on going to that one. Turns out the tix were still up on Ticket Master & guess we're not going. Sold Saturday. Ooops. Will be there tomorrow though. You should see a good one. Really wanted to go to it.

EVER viewed him as a C, no. 2 years ago? Even Thompson didn't view himself as a C. Granato & Tage's mom were the last 2 holdouts. And per @Pimlach, there is at least 1 member of the Sabres coaching staff who was still in the 'he's a RW' camp as of this past training camp. It was a brilliant move. But it's not like Thompson would just be a tall Hinostroza were he a W. He'd still be a 2nd liner & maybe a 1st liner. He just wouldn't be He-Giraffe defender of all that's good and sacred & scourge of rouge enemy goalies.

Lafleur or Bossy could have that #6 slot instead of Jagr. The other 5 though are pretty much locks. And suppose Howe could be there as well, though he was on the (slow) downside by the time they expanded in '66-'67.

He also would've gotten an opportunity as a HC about a decade earlier minus the cancer diagnosis. Sabres completely lucked into him being available.

Nice propaganda video, just off on several facts. Already mentioned that Thompson didn't play for Bylsma, he was in St. Louis then. So it likely was Yeo that was the other lousy NHL coach he had. Though Thompson might have played W on the USD team, Granato is on record as having said Thompson played C back then which was what gave him the idea to try Thompson at C. And though Thompson believes in himself, he himself has said he did not see himself at C in the NHL. Granato is literally the only person that saw him there. Personally expect Thompson's breakout was due to 2 factors - getting moved back to C being 1, but the other being Thompson finally growing into his frame. Even if he were still playing W, Tage would be a very good player. He wouldn't be as good because having the boards near him does limit him to a degree, but it really only comes into play in his 1/2 of the ice as the F's do a lot of cycling offensively and don't just go straight up & down the ice. He'd still now have the toe drag & 1 timer which are huge parts of his game. (A 3rd factor is he worked his arse off, as rightfully stated in the video, & developed a quicker release to his shot. He was telegraphing his shot in earlier seasons & goalies will stop shots they expect & are square for all day at that level.) He's now strong enough not to lose the puck in traffic & that toe drag that worked at lower levels works again. But had he been playing C even 2 years ago, he wouldn't have been nearly as good as he wouldn't be winning battles & taking the puck from guys and he'd still be losing the puck when checked. Thompson was amazing in his 1st TC w/ the Sabres. He made guys look silly w/ that toe drag, but guys from his own team also weren't lining him up. Opponents did & it didn't work often even when he brought the puck away from the boards. Not taking anything away from Granato. Again, he is literally the only person that still saw Tage as a C.

You missed the point. Should've been more clear. Sorry. Was saying that Cincy fans are whining about holding calls KC got away w/. Based on the previous week's game, know that Cincy holds a lot too. So, am pretty sure Cincy got away w/ a lot of them vs KC too. Didn't watch the game closely enough to say if the refs favored KC or Cincy or neither. But expect it was neither. The unnecessary roughness call at the end was the right one. Mahomes was clearly into the white when 58 got to him and the main force of the hit came on the other side of that big white stripe. And 58 crashed hard into his own bench making the hit. It was a painfully dumb play to make & watch & really didn't care who won.

You might be interested in knowing that at last night's B&G Insights, both he & Frack (or is he Frack & the German one is Frick?) mentioned that their cardio training is almost entirely practices & games and their off-ice training is nearly exclusively strength training under the supervision of the training staff. Everybody knows the biggest thing holding these 2 back is not being man strong yet. (Though Peterka seems closer to it at this time than Quinn IMHO.)

Expect it would come down to how well he plays in that 9 game tryout, should he get it. Each of the 3 waiver exempt rookie/2nd year players that the Sabres have sat on occasion either had a fair amount of NHL games played previously or blew the AHL out of the water. They gain nothing by being in the AHL. While Savoie likely won't gain anything by playing as a 20 yo in junior, if he isn't ready for the NHL but would be an ideal fit for the AHL not sure that they'd have him ride in the pressbox for nearly an entire year. If they think playing 30-30 games would benefit him, then sure they might make him next year's Krebs. But if they expect him to be Mitts in D+2 or Thompson his 1st year in Buffalo at best, could see him going back. As both players seemed to regress from where they'd been and both would've been better served in the AHL and both improved their play in the AHL. The other thing to consider is, his ELC can slide 1 more year. With all the big contracts anticipated to be getting earned in the next 2-3 seasons, having what should be a solid contributor on a 3 year ELC starting in '24-'25 wouldn't be a bad thing. And IMHO that was part of the reason they didn't give Frick & Frack a 2nd look down the stretch last year. It kept them each from burning an ELC year. All that said, especially if Okposo decides to move on, expect him to get his 9 game try out & unless he looks like Reinhart did in his tryout that he'll stay up w/ the Sabres & Kulich will be the 1st injury call up. If Savoie falters in his tryout, then Kulich grabs his spot. (Can't see Asplund happy w/ this season's turn of events as he needs some guys getting hurt to get into the lineup now & there are at least 4 kids that could be better than him next year pushing for a job.)

Doesn't matter how many games he plays or sits for in Buffalo in '23-'24, if he's playing in NA he's either in the NHL or the CHL. Those are the 2 options. Snd, to @dudacek's thoughts on him going to Europe. Have never seen the CHL-NHL agreement, so not 100% positive that a player can't be loaned to a European club if he has signed a contract there, but pretty sure that's not possible until the CHL player is 20. Under the CBA, an NHL club is required to offer 18 & 19 yo players to their CHL club before loaning them anywhere else. So, really doubt that Europe is an option either. Matthews went to Europe on his own prior to being drafted. He wasn't under contract to the Loafs.

He was born a few hours too late to be AHL eligible next year. Which is why he likely gets 9 games to start the year presuming there's an opening. Whether he gets a 10th game is on him.

Dom was only a Sabre for 9 years.

Cozens needs to occasionally shoot the puck or dish it to whomever is the guy to his right whether it be Tuch or Skinner. None have as good of a shot as Thompson nor Olofsson, but if the D & goalie are focused on stopping Tage, a shot from any of those 3 can be just as deadly. Realize it won't happen, but would like Skinner off the top PP unit w/ either Mittelstadt or Quinn replacing him. It would get quicker puck movement from that spot & a better passer that can still have a reasonable shot. Would also open up give & goes w/ Cozens where Cozens could either shot or give another pass to Thompson (w/ a mix of 60/40 being preferred).

Having Meier w/ Cozens is intriguing, but really like having Frick & Frack as his wingers for the LT.

None of those 3 have to go anywhere (other than Ra-cha-cha) if a better D-man is brought in. & by that mean, if a D is brought in then they waive Bryson and his overly large 2 year deal and watch 31 teams pass on picking him up. Clague likely would get nabbed. Jokiharju ain't going anywhere. Nobody is overpaying for Bryson's potential next season.

Well '99 was 24 years ago, so ...

Not saying they are, because they aren't. But, there's a better chance that 1st is top 5 next year than this year. But there's a real possibility that pick is 11 or 12 this year. Could be the long play on that piece of the deal.

Again, maybe it happens. But really don't see Granato doing that. Said what this kid's expectation is for Wednesday.

On the MF'n PP. On the PP, how often do you see Ovie loop around the zone while waiting for the 1 timer feed? Thompson, Eichel, Olofsson? Not very often. Even on the play where you show VO getting the 1 timer off the rush, how many strides did he take in his last 40' of movement? (Hint, it rhymes w/ Miro.) The concern w/ having VO & Tage on the same PP unit is you have 2 guys barely moving around waiting to get fed for a 1 timer. It worked once when the other team likely wasn't expecting that configuration. The next game, the unit didn't even get a single shot off. Stuff like that, & putting a big D-man down low works occasionally when you can get a mismatch & is unexpected, but there's a reason the Bruins didn't set Chara up on front of the other team's goalie every game. When you're ready for a gimmick, you can shut it down pretty easily.

You're going to send UPL down to Ra-cha-cha and run w/ 1 of the other 2 goalies against arguably the 2nd best team in the league to keep from playing your #13 forward & being able to instead play your #14? In what alternative reality does that make any sense?