Taro T

Yeah, the reffing left some serious room for improvement there. It was rivaling some of the worst youth reffing there is. At least in those games there's the excuse that the refs are still learning themselves. No idea what these guys excuses were.

My expectation is that it's good for the teams & leagues at least in the ST as it pumps significant advertising revenue into the coffers. (Even if the total # of ads don't go up, though they are as DraftKings & others find themselves mentioned more than Labatt's or Pepsi got mentioned; the demand for ads has gone up so the price per ad can go up as well.) Will be interesting how the inevitable gambling scandals get covered when another ref gets caught like the NBA guy a few years back. Doubt it'll really move the needle 1 way or another, but such an event could result in a serious black eye for a team or league. The pervasiveness of the advertising is troubling because there really are people w/ gambling addictions & even more w/ a propensity towards them and the seemingly 24/7 of gambling opportunities being blasted in everybody's face can't make things easier for those that do have/ could develop a problem. And the little phone # & disclaimer don't really counteract it much, if at all. Especially when we've just come through 2 years of lockdowns & still have rampant inflation and a major European war that may escalate, those little disclaimers don't do much for people that are hurting. If the ads didn't make the outfits money, they wouldn't run them. Would really like to see restrictions placed on them but don't know how that would legally be accomplished at this point in a way that passes Constitutional muster. Expect that when all is said & done, we'll find that they've created far more problems than the tax revenue they've generated can solve. Have absolutely no problem w/ casual gambling, but just expect that in the long run we'll find out 1st hand why unfettered gambling has been illegal in so many places. It's not because it's "immoral" to let people gamble, but rather because it brings too many people to a point where they can't fend for themselves through legal means & end up placing burdens on society that society isn't willing to accept. MHO. YMMV.

Didn't really see McCrimmon's status as being in doubt. Now DeBoer's ...

Why not simply pull a random fan wearing the wrong team's sweater out from their seat & let Sabretooth lead a good old fashioned pregame stoning out near center ice. Remember, if you are a 200 level or suite level ticket holder you are invited to join Sabretooth in greeting the infidel. This welcome to our barn ceremony is brought to you by Gerber Collision. Check out the DraftKings odds of just how much punishment will be inflicted & don't forget to sign in to the Sabres App to play along, as you could win a Sabres Prize Pack including a heated kidney shaped pool, a microwave oven, a Dyna-Gym, a kingsize Titanic unsinkable Molly Brown waterbed with polybendum, a foolproof plan and an airtight alibi, real simulated indigenous American jewelry, a Gucci shoetree, a year's supply of boosters, a personally autographed picture of Rick Jeanneret, and Dylan Cozens's new unlisted phone number, a beautifully restored Air Canada Centre swizzle stick, Reinharts baby, a dream date in kneepads with Jacob Bryson, a new Montador, a new mastadon, a Maverick, a Mustang, a Montego, a Merc Montclair, a Mark IV, a meteor, a Mercedes, an MG, a Malibu, a Michael Moriarty, a Maserati, a Mac Jones Tonka truck, a Mazda, an old Monza, or a scooter, a Winnebago, heck, a herd of Winnebago's, we're giving 'em away, a McCulloch chainsaw, a Vegas pregame show, a Filly divorce, a solid gold Kama Sutra coffee pot AND Austen Matthews' arm holding an apple. Now, if that doesn't get folks fired up, nothing will. Too much? Or, perhaps not enough?

He also has been slipping a bit on names & the like. Agree. Can't see him getting the promotion.

The only way the FLA pick winds up top 20 is if it is packaged w/ something else in a trade. If FLA is eliminated in either of the 1st 2 rounds, it will be 28. 3rd round elimination = 30. Losing in the Finals, it is 31; & if they take home Lord Stanley's Chalice it ends up 32.

Teams are allowed to have up to 3 skaters wearing a letter in a game. If nobody wears the C, there can be 3 A's. If there is a C, there can only be 2 A's. Goalies aren't allowed to officially be designated as in game C's/A's. How a team chooses who wears the letters for any given game is strictly up to them.

There is something to it that's truly compelling, no? Welcome back! 🍺

Told you, want the Sabres to end up w/ Jiricek & it likely won't happen from 9. 😉

Fun game to be at. Stating the obvious: that Rousek goal was huge. They had a chance to win it in the last minute of regulation but Gustaffson got just enough of a shot to get it to go off the crossbar. Haven't seen a crowd that big in Ra-cha-cha since before Dooner started playing stupid Cat games. We got loud in the 3rd & OT.

If the ticket readers could be located at the actual entrances or elsewhere rather than in the middle of that atrium basically making it pretty small on both sides, something like that might work.

Instead of only having the 1st 1-3 slots available to move, why not have a draft lottery where every slot is up for grabs, but in which teams are limited in both how far they could rise & how far they could fall. There'd be 16 separate drawings, with say an inability to move up or down past teams that were more than 8 slots away from them. So, in this year's draft, instead of Moe-ray-all having ~25% chance of staying where they are (their ~18% chance plus teams 12-16's chances), they'd also stay where they are if teams 10 or 11 won. That's all pretty much how this season's draft would work. The tweak would be that all lottery #'s stay in the subsequent lotteries, but the worst team that remains in the lottery would now win should there be a repeat winner. So, if Moe-ray-all didn't win the 1st lottery, but say Seattle did, for the next draft Moe-ray-all gets a W on their #'s, teams 10-16's #'s, and Seattle's. Team 10 still couldn't pass the Habs; so if they won that 2nd lottery, they get the 3rd pick, Moe-ray-all stays at 2, and now the Yotes win if any of the 3 teams now ahead of them win or if teams 11-16 win. The cons are it is complicated, but not really all that complicated, and occasionally somebody will fall even further than Detroit did that 1 year. The big pro is, now there's some interest in watching the results as seeing Vancouver at 16 doesn't mean Vegas is in slot 6 or 7, they could be anywhere from 8-15. And, the Sabres would have a pretty good chance to move up just enough to keep Detroit from snagging Jiricek on us. (Which is the real impetus for this thought exercise. 😉 ) Thoughts?

The Aisles kept pick 5(?) in a weaker draft year expecting they'd be giving up a significantly lower pick the next year. And their bet on themselves being significantly better the following year was right. Seriously doubt Vegas wouldn't keep pick 6. Would absolutely love to have that pick as it significantly increases the chance the Sabres land Jiricek and makes 9 a no brainer to grab the F the Sabres have assigned the highest ranking.

Clicked the Belleville - Ra-cha-cha game & instead of getting the "home audio feed" or "road audio feed" buttons got a "subscribe" button. So, it looks like the playoffs aren't part of the RS package. 😞

Hopefully people will keep posting ideas for what they'd like to see as a modification for pregame stuff. Willing to bring any and all ideas back to the Sabres when they're ready to speak of game "presentation" for lack of a better overriding term.

Well stated.

It doesn't seem to. Logged in & tried to select tonight's game & it came up w/ a subscribe button. 😞

Somebody here, probably @dudacek actually looked at the Sabres drafting by round for the last 10 years & compared it to other team's results. IIRC, the Sabres ended up w/ nearly the same overall NHLers as expected but rarely (nearly never) punched above their own weight class. (And if it wasn't Dudacek that put in the work, apologies to whomever did it. It was quite extensive. Danke to Dudacek or other. 🍺 )

No idea how they'd've done that w/out having a significantly altered design. (And it's a cookie cutter design; it's basically the Staples Center in LA minus 2 levels of suites.) But would definitely been nice to look out. (Most likely at the snow coming in off the lake pummeling the building during a dark, frigid February evening. Maybe they could've put more windows over on the south/east side where the main entryway already is. 😉 Just giving those in the 200's & higher up access to natural lighting would've been nice.)

Update. Just found out my wife was trying to kill us. Well, maybe not TRYING to, but just found out likely why my son & yours truly were having stomach issues the past week or so. Some of the candies she bought us for Easter were recalled for salmonella contamination! Yikes! But, on the flip side, am now very glad my doctor convinced me a year or so to take vitamin D (after years of giving me flack for having shockingly low levels of it). 😉 (Will credit the milder effects to the vitamin D even though the real difference in discomfort was more likely due to eating a lot less of it.)

The building could use a new coat of paint. Agreed. But the bowl is now blue & gold instead of Jennifer Smith's weird plum & lavender walls (or whatever the muted purples & pinks that were there are called) behind the blue seats. And, over near where the right escalator takes people up to the 300s there is a pretty big stand w/ a bunch of different craft beers and there are a bunch of beer kiosks all around up there for the more standard Blue & Coors Light & all sorts of seltzer. Beer is one of the few things that can be readily found up there. No idea where to go in the 300's to find wine or mixed drinks if they're even available up there. There's 3 main food stand areas each with 4 or so concession stands in the 300's - 1 at each of the tops of the escalators & a 3rd over by the red line on the camera side. Pretty sure there's a couple other full concession stands & then the cart vendors. They SHOULD be able to keep up w/ demand, but this year lines were long all season. Not sure why that was.

Knew who was responsible for what back when Golisano bought the team, but not sure who's responsible for what now. 99% sure the concessions are still run by Delaware North. But don't know which of the rest of the upkeep / facilities / security falls to the Pegulas &/or the county & the city.

300 level concourse is ridiculously narrow. (Thanks, Larry Quinn. <_<) Also, pretty sure there's only 1 elevator bank. (Can be a choke point for those needing "additional assistance.") Those are the only true "structural" issue that would cost real money to fix. Other issues: No hot water in many (all?) bathrooms. A few broken seats throughout. Many broken cup holders. Not really issues, but go towards the overall experience: The sound system leaves much to be desired. People in the 200's whine that they can't really hear it, and those of us that are directly in front of the speakers get blasted out of our seats. If you are in the 300's near the HVAC vents, the place is FREEZING. Not nearly as bad in the lower levels. This year it wasn't as big of an issue, likely because there were only 1/4 the people that would normally be heating the building up so it wasn't running as intensely. The WiFi is likely undersized which is probably why the cashless payment systems take a week & 1/2 to process a payment. (Only a slight exaggeration.) The food very often is cold/room temperature when you get it. When the food is hot, it is actually edible to quite good. The way much of it is served, it is close to inedible. Pretty sure there are additional issues, but that's a fair sampling in a nutshell.

Shouldn't you be working on a chart of some sort? 😛 At least 1 new logo you've got to add at minimum. 😉 Welcome back. 🍺

Interesting. Would expect the NHLPA to not go along w/ it as it's forcing players that could currently be eligible for UFA in the summer before a season to now wait until a whole bunch of teams are in cap trouble to try to sign w/ one & also because it's keeping a player that under the current system could be earning a living in the NHL to have to wait nearly 5 months to begin being gainfully employed. But it is thinking outside the box. 👍 And, your final statemenstatement your remedy likely won't ever happen. GM's can already protect themselves from this problem by not drafting NCAA bound guys in the late 1st or 2nd round. 🍺