Taro T

And yet the expectation is that both Peterka and Byram will be ex-Sabres by October.

(In honor of year 31 of the drought.)

Thanks for bringing that up. Was going to say something to that effect but got caught in a meeting. Not that any teams nowadays send fighters out to set the tone or change the momentum, but the Sabres fights ALL seem as being reactionary to somebody having had significant liberties taken and none of them, with the possible exception of Krebs who is a bantam weight at best, seem to have the slightest idea of what they should be doing in a fight. And, if the Sabres weren't getting liberties taken against them, they'd never be in any fights. (Which wouldn't actually be a bad thing. Don't need to see Thompson nor Tuch out for 3 weeks with a broken hand from punching somebody's visor.) Because it seems NOBODY EVER starts a fight because a Sabre took liberties against somebody else's teammate.

IF Quinn is back and isn't part of one of the packages that hopefully shake up the player ranks (considering they don't seem to be making any coaching changes (friggin' morons), can see him getting back on track to the 25-30 goal pace he was on in that injury filled season. Not only can see it, kind of expect it.

Not the Sabres giving him the bridge, the Stars giving him the bridge. The OP didn't see where bringing in Peterka saves Dallas any money.

Depends. They could give him a 3 year bridge and STILL have his rights for 1 additional year at the end of that to give him a LT deal. That would end up cheaper for each of the next 3 seasons than Robertson will be.

They fired the REALLY good coach they had because he got into a public pissing contest with Oettinger. Yes, on really rare occassions BOTH sides of a pissing match get sent packing (Nolan and Muckler being the example that immediately springs to mind). But that is EXTREMELY rare. Far more often, the guy that doesn't get punted ends up a key piece they build around. Don't see any realistic way Oettinger gets traded anytime soon.

Peterka, 9 (or the pick from Byram's exit), and a prospect (hopefully likely a Rosenesque one, not necessarily a Helenius) really does seem to be a realistic package for Robertson. Because it makes sense for both sides.

Tkachuk tore the adductor off the bone and also had a hernia on the same side. And he still played. And played well. It is absolutely AMAZING how tough these guys are. HE should've been OUR GM. Fack.

Watching it on TV doesn't do it justice. That friggin' trophy is SOOOOOOOO polished it LITERALLY seems to glow reflecting the lights in the building. THAT is truly amazing to see in person.

You're really asking this on a hockey board for a team based in the same city as the Buffalo Bills? (Well, same county. And OP is close enough for gubmint work.)

Yes, Dwight, we know. It's why he'll never amount to anything. 🙄 (Not a shot at you. Back in the day, we had a poster that made a VERY big deal about Miller's non-level eyes.)

You stay classy, Evander.

How do you figure? Didn't he get goals 1, 3, 4, and 5?

McDavid and Draisatl have been playing a LOT of hockey this series. Getting scored on by the 1st shot against has to be tremendously deflating.

And if this score holds up; Reinhart has 4 of the Swamp Cats 5 goals but won't get credit for scoring the series winner (this year).

UFA's: Bennett; Marchand; Ekblad; Schmidt; Nosek; Vanecek; and a couple other spare pieces (Sturm, Megna). They have $19MM to sign 7 more players presuming no trades or buyouts. They'll be fine.

Since it's in FLA is it a Rattie?

It ain't Stuart Smiley's fault. He's not good enough; he's not able to do it; and gosh darn it, people don't like him. (Swap Bob and Stuart Smiley (or Pickard) and it's a VERY different series. Sometimes goalies ARE worth $10MM.)

But if the last game in FLA is any indicator of how tonight's game will go; drinking a shot when the SC is shown or mentioned during the broadcast will leave one significantly more sober than they'd be if they drink one every time Travis and Taylor Swift are shown/mentioned. Is there NO media at all that those 2 don't polute?

And the mofo's running the show don't seem to be smart enough to ask these guys who've all said they WANT to be here in the past (most of them multiple times as they've had multiple end of season interviews with coaches and management) what THEY (management) need to do to get them to continue to feel that way. IF your metric and a key factor in what players you want is a player WANTING to be a Sabre; well wtf are YOU (management and ownership) doing to KEEP these guys wanting to be here PLUS getting other players that aren't here to have the opinion that Buffalo IS a good place to play hockey and those other pleyers would wear the sweater WITH PRIDE? And the mofo's running the show don't seem to be smart enough to ask these guys who've all said they WANT to be here in the past (most of them multiple times as they've had multiple end of season interviews with coaches and management) what THEY (management) need to do to get them to continue to feel that way. IF your metric and a key factor in what players you want is a player WANTING to be a Sabre; well wtf are YOU (management and ownership) doing to KEEP these guys wanting to be here PLUS getting other players that aren't here to have the opinion that Buffalo IS a good place to play hockey and those other pleyers would wear the sweater WITH PRIDE?

Things to be hopeful about. (With the team as currently constructed; realizing there will likely be on-ice changes between now and October.) The players are all 1 year older and except for Zucker and Greenway (and, if he's back, Reimer) that is a good thing. Norris having an unusually long off-season to heal up and get stronger and Quinn having a full off-season to fully recover from his leg injuries could allow them to both actually be who they're supposed to be would they ever be healthy. UPL MIGHT have a bounce back year. (Goalies are fickle.) Levi might finally be ready. (Goalies are fickle.) Samuelsson did look better in his late season stint with Dahlin than he had in a long time. Perhaps, if he's still here, he can continue to build on that play? They'll have a REAL training camp rather than an abreviated one, so they'll actually have time to learn for a few weeks what they're supposed to be doing (and what they were supposed to have been doing) before the bullets start flying for real. We keep getting told this players really like each other and like playing for and with each other. Perhaps all the lalk this off-season of changes if things don't improve actually lights the fire under them that if they don't play with desperation they won't be playing with their buddies much longer. Didn't include any personnel changes into the above, though we can be hopeful that those changes bring additional improvement. And, because the team is young and now the players closer to being in their primes, it is possible to HOPE without it being totally unrealistic that the team stays at the relatively injury free end of the leaguewide injury reports. There is no way to go injury free, but these guys are getting to that sweet spot where they're still resilient and also strong enough to not break when losing a battle for the most part. MAYBE that's enough. Wouldn't have money on it and would still like to see several other changes, but we've kind of beaten that horse to death.

Yeah, whoever was making the logo patches in the early 80's definitely did not have fine attention to detail. Officially the logo never changed (the ones at center ice stayed consistent) but that version on the sweaters had a serious humpback and either a tail that was larger than the legs or else the lady buffalos were REALLY glad that one was around.

Well, if you flat out refuse to make any changes to the scouting or coaching departments and you know SOMETHING has to change to keep from spinning your wheels even further into the muck, then you have to swap out some key pieces if not even "core" pieces. The fear is that Adams gets competing offers and instead of evaluating them primarily on what the BIG piece coming back in any package happens to be, he ends up evaluating it on the "total value" of pieces coming back. He needs to stay focused on what the main piece coming back is because all of the ancillary pieces are essentially interchangeable. Hopefully Kekelainen and Karmanos can keep him focused on that part of the deals. Whether the sweetener is another team's 5th best or 5th best prospect or a 4th this year vs a 3rd next year; they don't friggin' matter in the grand scheme of things. Come away with the Robertson by himself rather than Petterson and a 3rd pairing D-man.

Yep.