Taro T

They may not have to, but the city skyline is on their chrome domes. Just sayin' ...

Would agree w/ the bolded. The team definitely has an identity of fast and if the youth continues to develop skilled should also be an accurate descriptor. But, though there are some small guys like Skinner, Bryson, Krebs, & even Fitzgerald that doesn't seem to be defining especially on a team w/ Thompson, Tuch, Power, Dahlin, Samuelsson, Okposo, Girgensons, & Cozens.

Hopefully Hoppe's article is not just technically accurate (R2 Rou2 hasn't signed in Switzerland YET) but that he'll actually re-sign. He's too small for 4th line duty & there's a serious log jam above that, but could see him being part of a trade package to a team that's tight against the cap w/ most of the players longer in the tooth. And if he ISN'T part of a trade package, he's been a high level AHLer & he can replace a guy that IS part of a trade package.

Correct. It was "that 70's Line." Maybe. Hard to say. Filly's been hot garbage since trading Giroux. (Not that they were good before that, but ... )

Thought it was just Connolly that the league said couldn't play in the playoffs if he didn't get activated in the RS because he hadn't played any games that year coming off his Schaefer fun. (Could definitely be misremembering.)

Th event was actually pretty interesting. Adams answered questions from Duff for about 45 minutes then took Q's from the attendees for ~ half an hour more. Will try to track my notes to give a more thorough update tomorrow, but some points that stood out were: Adams highlighting (it was actually a recurring theme) that when evaluating a player he looks for whether the player is someone you want in a game 7 and whether he wants to be in Buffalo. He wants any moves to make sense both ST and LT. He would like to bring in a RHD but would also like to add a F or 2 as well & a goalie. Regarding the goalie, he feels they're in good shape LT but need a "bridge" guy. He does plan to talk to Anderson after the season & if he wants to play again, he will try to bring him back. (My impression of his comments was that he'd be OK w/ Andy & UPL if he can't find the right deal for someone better. Hope that isn't an accurate reading.) He's happy w/ the analytics group, but would like to add 1 development coach & 1 scout. Talked about how he feels 1 of his strengths is having honest conversations w/ his players & others. If that's an accurate read, then his not being worried about the 3 big college prospects not coming out this spring is reasonable IMHO. He told us Levi was heading back to school (not news now, but a week & a 1/2 ago it was). There was a lot of other stuff he covered, but want to recheck my notes to make sure the items are accurately summarized. PS - The guy there w/ Skinner at the 1st one (the Zoom 1) was Mittelstadt, not Krebs.

Thanks again, Inky. Good time. Bad hockey, but a good time.

Actually, for a long time the Sabres home games have fallen w/ ~ a 50/50 Monday-Thursday and Friday-Sunday split. Including games scheduled on holidays usually skews it to slightly more weekends. Fridays don't help folks like you traveling 7+ hours, but they work for those of us w/in 2 hours of the rink. Can't realistically see the Canadian governments (federal down to locals) keeping the border effectively shut through another winter, but who knows. And pretty sure restrictions have been significantly relaxed already, but way to late to get people that were guaranteed the ability to renew their seats next year with no penalties to bother to jump through even minor hoops to attend games this "non-tanking tank" season.

But aren't Chechen soldiers fighting for Russia the equivalent of Puerto Ricans fighting for the US? Chechnya IS a part of the Russian federation.

e4

Can't believe he's behind them. But, if there are nibbles on any of them can see them staying in the lineup ahead of him. Also, can see Quinn going back down for "conditioning" to stretch from hitting his 10th game.

Miller was practicing today? Not Butcher?

You're likely right about the bolded, but the teams on those guys wish lists might not have the cap space to give them what they're worth, so that overpay necessary to woo them might not be as much as in a normal year. Plus, any guys they're looking for wouldn't be the high end top line/top pairing guys (hoping G, whether by FA or trade is an exception), but rather middle 6/ 2nd pairing types. Hate that they don't have a real goalie right now, because getting back to even winning 1/2 their games could go a long way towards convincing someone they are on the right track.

Were he not recovering from injury would agree. But he doesn't seem to trust his surgical repairs yet & bumping over to wing should ease his workload while getting back into the swing of things. Wouldn't be surprised to see him take the faceoffs though. Except for that one at the end of the Blues game vs ROR, he hasn't lost many since coming back. Also, it gives them an opportunity to see how ready for C at this level Krebs is.

Miller or Butcher?

Yep. Every single game is there. And they stay in the library for about a month (maybe a little less).

Not interested in having an out of town Hammister taking over. We dodged 1 bullet. No thanks to the possibility of another.

There WILL be goalies available. Adams won't have to give up Quinn, Peterka, & a pick to get a good one. And nobody said it has to be a Price brought in. They've got what is said to be a top notch analytics department & one of the best respected goalie coaches in the league. That Adams has done nothing in the immediate term to solve goaltending doesn't mean it's not possible for him to do something about it. Heck, grabbing Levi gives hope that he actually knows what a legit goalie looks like. IF he still does nothing this off-season, common sense says it's not a priority to him. And with attendance where it is, that'll be beyond arrogant, should it pass.

Again, that's the fear. (Concern?) And why getting a REAL goalie (or not) will be such a tell. If they get a real goalie, they really are trying to not just develop but actually learn to win (which is, in itself, a huge part of development). If they don't, well, hello darkness my old friend ...

Yeah. Not a fan of publicly funding billionaires play toys. But there's no way Gov. Hochul isn't going to make this happen. So, good for us, right? And am very glad they won't be moving for a very long time. At least unlike federally wasted $'s, our kids can always move to another state to get away from that debt. 😉

Hope you're right. Just not convinced the thought of possibly bringing in a Wright & Bedard with all the guys already here isn't overly tempting to the guy calling the shots. Especially if the lottery balls don't pop up right this year. (But there's THREE of them there. There was only 1 this year.) That empty barn might be our ace in the hole forcing him to play it straight.

Agree, and to further that thinking. Why kick off the Fan Council if you're dumping the team? Why bother when it's the next guy's problem? Yep.

Again, couldn't find anything stating that 6 games was the threshold LAST year and IF the # of games to work towards that threshold was pro-rated like the ELC kicking in threshold was prorated in the COVID affected years then his 4 games last year was like 6 this year. Not positive he actually will be a rookie next year. If you've seen something official that definitively states that, cool.

Sorry, with your comments about potentially canceling tournaments rather than canceling individual players in the time period mentioned didn't see the distinction. And the other 2 examples you brought up were also Olympic years coincidentally (1 summer, 1 winter).

The interesting thing is Murray saw the glut of picks & thus prospects that were there & that was a big part of his willingness to overpay slightly to get the guys he wanted. He had THAT part right. And on paper he was following the old adage that the team ending up w/ the better player wins the trade. He just tended to go after flawed players because he couldn't look past what guys could be minus injury troubles &/or personal troubles (including Lehner's issues here though not absolutely fitting the category strictly). Hopefully Adams can get that part right unlike his predecessor.