Taro T

So, maybe when Quinn isn't getting shadowed everywhere on the ice he can still be noticeable. Good for him.

They're going w/ the same 11 & 7 they went w/ on Thursday.

Mammoth had the late lead last night, but lost in OT, so we won't know the opponent until next week. Hopefully it's a hard game as the Bandits rest up. Hoping the Mammoth win, so the Bandits can say they didn't play a single team they didn't beat this season. They split (embarrassingly) w/ the Riptide in the RS, went 1-2 in the RS vs the Rock, but 2-0 in the playoffs, and Colorado was their only other loss but they've only played once so far.

Wouldn't ever trust what the clock says on any internet fed game. Can't even begin to count the # of times the time shown in an Amerks game or an NLL lax game has been off by a second or 2 (or 20). Quite often the clock shown on TV tends to start late & stop late, too. It even skips ahead occasionally then might stop briefly, too. In the broadcast, one of the 2 TSN announcers even said they didn't have the clock to show in the replays. But, of course he was sure it was in by at least 0.1 or 0.2 seconds. 😉

Actually, if he's playing in junior all he gets paid by the Sabres organization is any signing bonus he might have negotiated. Junior players get paid a small stipend by their teams, but you'd have to ask someone who follows junior hockey far more closely to know how much they get there.

Was surprised Reinhart got that late goal in game 4 the previous round that saved that series. There's always at least one 1 seed that goes out in the 1st round. Thought they were it, & they were less than a minute away from a 3-1 hole, but this year surprisingly there weren't any. Go figure. Long worded way of saying didn't see FLA's game translating to the post season well.

Had posted this in the Random Thread yesterday. Good to give it it's own thread.

If the Swamp Cats lose this series, the pick WILL be 28. Otherwise it will be 30, 31, or 32 depending on whether they lose next round, lose the Finals, or win them respectively.

The counter has been provided already back on page 2 of this thread (among other places): Speaking as apparently one of those you're calling out, will explain why he's been penciled in as an early season callup rather than an out of the gate Sabre. It comes down to 2 things: 1 - he was very out of place in his brief callup to the Sabres. Quinn looked like he belonged, Peterka not so much. And 2 - his play in the defensive zone has for the most part been adequate at best between poor coverage in zone to leaving the zone early looking for that breakaway that has been a large part of his offense. Both of which will cost the team goals at the next level. Now, that said, his play in the playoffs (which btw are quite recent and haven't yet been factored in 😉 ) is making that expectation that he won't make the Sabres out of the gate less certain. Will wait until the playoffs are done to revise the expectation, but it could change. And, even if it does, if he looks as out of place in TC games as he did this season, it will shift back to an e petition that he's an early season callup. And, it isn't a knock on JJ either to say he still has some things to work on & the wings are crowded this year, especially if a Hinostroza or 2 are brought back/in next year to keep from being entirely young, so there's a possibility he isn't a Sabre on opening night. You mention Vanek, but forget one of his teammates in Ra-cha-cha. Pominville put up 68 points in 78 games in '04-'05 and had to clear waivers the next year and still got sent down before finally becoming a regular later in the fall of '05. Peterka doesn't have to clear waivers. No. That was not what was said, though it could've been clearer. That game that @Weave commented on JJ's play was AGAINST Laval. (Yours truly was also at that game and thought he gave an accurate assessment of his play that night.) It remains to be determined how he will play against them, and as much as we all hope he's a PPG player against them in the playoffs until he does it against them in the playoffs he hasn't. Fortunately we get to start to find out if he can do it in less than 2 hours.

Players playing in any of the 3 leagues in the CHL are not allowed to play in the AHL until they've turned 20. (There are a very few exceptions to this, but for the most part that's the rule.) That's per an agreement worked out between the NHL & the CHL. Apparently, he'll be 16 days too young to play in the AHL this coming season. ALL ELC's are 2 way deals w/ a limited range of allowable salaries, but they are also one of the few contract categories that may allow performance bonuses to be included. The concern here has nothing to do w/ the ELC & is entirely related to his age & having been drafted out of the Q.

And last year's draft was like a journey back into the 70's or 80's in regards to knowing so little about where they really should've slotted due to so much disruption worldwide due to the lockdowns.

Yep. The valuation of EVERY pro sports franchise (with the POSSIBLE exception of the Packers) is a guesstimate as they are all privately owned and there are very few entities (Federal & State IRS, & to a degree the NHLPA, maybe a couple of others) that have auditable access to info that goes into the numbers that get published. Some stuff does get made public, but a lot doesn't & there is a lot of guess work involved. The only times we know what they're actually worth is when they're sold or in bankruptcy proceedings and info gets released as a part of discovery.

To the bolded, that's not what was reported. Supposedly Adams DID agree to match the Bruins offer. Which means his "best offer" wasn't actually his best offer.

Yikes! Glad you're ok.

Got an e-mail from the Sabres that there are also T-shirts w/ the Sabres emblem available in the One Buffalo Store like the Bils ones in the tweet below to support the victims of last week's horrific shooting. (Didn't see the Sabres version of the tweet & no data on whether there's a Bandits version. Edit: There are Bandits versions also available.) The net profits are getting donated to charity. (The tweet & the e-mail imply that the entire purchase price will go to charity, but that isn't the case. It still is generous.)

Would say it IS social media but isn't "mainstream" social media.

Particularly how much ice time he gets. If he's still in full game condition would be interested to see if he's just over 20 minutes per game or if Appert rides him harder to close to 30 minutes/ game. If he can do close to 30 minutes, even Laaksonnen might get to play as the 7th D specifically for the PP. (Presuming he'd still like to run just 11 forwards after Mersch comes back as it lets him double shift Quinn or Peterka.)

Probably not on an engineer's salary. (You've shown us the before photos. Would be expensive to get to even THAT after. 😛) Sorry, that meatball was just hanging too high not to give it a rip. 😉 🍺

If we weren't in the middle of a pandemic that shut the world, and significantly impacted the owners' main cash flow sources, maybe he would've. Considering nobody knew what was coming a year down the road, am willing to cut him some slack on the 1 year deals. (And it wasn't the only 1 year deal that hurt.) Owners knew what their cash flows were short term, but if things stayed locked down they were very much in doubt LT.

Things people continually dismiss in discussing Ullmark is that the Sabres had exclusive negotiating rights to Ullmark, that he agreed that the "final" offer from the Sabres was acceptable if nobody else beat it, AND reportedly the Sabres offered to match the Boston deal. Rather than keeping some money back in his offer to Ullmark, Adams should've and could've made the Boston offer BEFORE he hit FA. If Ullmark was honest w/ Adams, and there is no reason to expect he wasn't, then at that point, the B's that were far closer to the cap than the cap floor chasing Sabres would've had to beat Buffalo's offer. People always seem to look at it from prior to the trade deadline or after the Boston offer. But Adams still could've gotten the prize by simply making his "best offer" actually his best offer. He got cute, trying to save cash when he didn't need to do so. And it burned him. To your point on the Hawks, yeah, those 2 trades were the final nail in the wheels falling off.

The primary (only?) reason to remain hopeful is that he was the best goalie in junior hockey prior to the elective double hip surgeries and all accounts regarding the surgeries say they were successful and though they have obviously bothered him he has fixed one major issue he was having since the surgeries. Last year & in the preseason, he was letting a LOT of pucks go in over his shoulder both glove & stick side. He still occasionally gives up that goal but not appreciably more than other goalies. So, he's either managed to get his butterfly back to what it was before the surgeries, has adjusted to them, or a combo. If he really can get past the mental hurdle of the hips just not feeling "right" when they do what they're supposed to, he could be a solid NHLer. This past preseason was completely ready to give up on him. But he has improved. Who knows, maybe this leg injury might be good in the long run as he has had a really awkward leg movement NOT result in a major injury. Wouldn't be at all surprised that he isn't playing shy for fear of a hip failing. On a different note, Adams believes (or at least states) that w/ the additional structure that there is at the NHL level will allow UPL to be better at the higher level as his is a more technically correct style when it is on. Hopefully he's right. But it is far from certain. IF UPL can get the low shots (especially 5 holes) under control he could be a Biron. Still want someone better ahead of him and don't have a good feel for whether he can get the hips out of his head which keeps him ceiling even lower. And, yeah, Adams does seem to have UPL in the backup role penciled in. But, though we fret that another year of subpar goaltending might mess up the team chemistry; expecting that view doesn't take into full account just how high character these players are. So, even if goaltending or injuries torpedoes next season, don't expect it'll doom the next. But it will hurt attendance tremendously & therefore profits. Hoping that causes Adams to not just come close to a deal for a real starter but actually land him.

If the Bills could go from the NFL's equivalent of Siberia to a place that a guy like Von Miller would rather play for than the defending Champs in well under 5 years, the Sabres can become a place NHLers want to be as well.

IMHO Dell remains the starter until he has a bad period which sees the Amerks down by at least 2. At that point UPL finishes the game & if he looks good he gets the next start. When UPL is on his game, he is significantly better than Dell. Problem is, he's only really been on his game the couple of weeks after Dell get sent back down early in the season. When UPL isn't on his game, Dell w/ all his flaws is the better goalie. Dell also seems to be better when he's under siege & can't handle prosperity. How many times in this playoff run did Dell give up a goal on the 1st or 2nd shot against when it came 5 minutes into the game? At least twice and pretty sure 3 times. UPL probably doesn't give up those "prosperity" goals, so the Amerks might actually be able to get a big lead w/ UPL but in a tight game he'll be more likely to give up that late critical goal than Dell.

If Peterka continues his strong play in the playoffs, he is earning getting penciled into a slot to be beaten out to not make the opening lineup. But let's see how he does versus Laval before putting that in pen. He didn't do much in the RS game that @Weave was talking about in an Amerks thread.

In the playoffs, the same could be said about R2 Rou2. Those 2, along w/ Krebs, have been the offensive drivers. Is R2 getting penned into the opening day lineup as well?