Taro T

And, as @Thorny states, he DID pursue him to the point he believed he had a deal.

Possibly. But Miller looked like dog doo doo on the Blues, but was pretty good on his next stops. Ullmark not being an ideal fit in Beantown doesn't mean he wouldn't have been better here nor elsewhere.

He shouldn't have put himself in a place where he'd need to beat a reasonable offer. Make the Bruins offer while you still have the exclusive negotiating rights & make the Bruins either beat it or make a liar of Ullmark. Really don't believe Ullmark would've gone back on his word, so your question becomes & should've been from the start: can & will the B's go to the higher $ amount. Everybody standing up for Adams on this negotiation are neglecting 2 items: 1 he claimed his 1st choice was to have Ullmark as his #1 until one of his prospects could take the job away from him & 2 he knew he was going to have a cap floor roster and that a lot of teams that might be interested in Linus wouldn't have much, if any, spare capspace. If 1 was true, and have no reason to not believe Adams so take him at his word, then wtf didn't he consider 2? Because if he does, Ullmark is still a Sabre. We don't have to analyze the decision making only at the endpoint of the process; better decisions earlier in the process can lead to better results.

Beat the Simean led NO squad this Thursday, split w/ the Cheats & don't lose either of the 2 remaining "gimme's" and they take the division.

That doesn't help but Star being out is a bigger factor. Give the Bills him & Brown and the game looks significantly different.

Would agree w/ the bolded and a big part about what was so maddenly frustrating about this off-season. There's almost no possible way Adams expected any of the 5 guys (6 including whomever the guy still in Cincy is) he has to be reasonable answers to the quest for solid goaltending. But, if they cost the team 5-6 more games than they steal, it could boost their lottery odds from those of the ~8th worst team to those of the ~4th worst. And am REALLY tired of watching (on TV & in person) teams that are highly overmatched but getting good wasn't a goal this year so we get another year of being overmatched at least on the road. If it happens that they do climb the standings, they aren't trading away Girgensons to further torpedo the season, but the topography already has enough potholes that no additional ones such as that are necessary in all likelihood. Gutting all the good players that are more than a year removed from ELC's wasn't enough. Effectively gutting the netminding also happened. When the goalies are on, these kids, has beens, & never were's are good enough to beat the defending champs, Crosby's squad in Pittsbugh, & McDavid's, & Matthews' teams as well. W/out goaltending, these kids will get to lose a lot. Really don't expect the better lottery odds are worth all the extra losing that not addressing GTing entails.

Except, should they split or better w/ the Cheats, unless they lose at home, they do hold the tiebreaker that matters- division record.

Yeah, not sold on Apert yet. Still would like to know the real reason for punting Taylor. He was good.

Hopefully Kuemper & Vanacek are both on their radar. Offer a ridiculous $/yr to keep the term reasonable. This team will be so far below the cap ceiling that there is no reason not to spend on a ST goaltending fix.

Everybody & their dog knew the Sabres needed a reliable guy to pair w/ Ullmark last year. Hutton was not that guy. Even Adams knew it & came close to working out some deals, but in the end couldn't pull the trigger on any. Going into last season w/ the goaltending they had was a recipe for a failure & that baked up beautifully. The lack of goaltending 2 years running is 100% on the GM.

Right after he gave up the 4th goal early in the 2nd.

If they want to be developing the skaters, they need Anderson back in Buffalo soon so Dell can go back to doing what he does well - stopping AHL shooters. If they're relying on UPL or Houser, expecting they're in trouble.

The Original 6, Phlyers, Kings, possibly the & Knights are about the entire extent of teams the league would want to move even less than they'd want the Sabres to move.

The border opening won't help as much as it would've had that happened over the summer because people like @Zamboni that would've been to a lot of games will likely only go to a couple of/ a few games. It WILL help with next year's attendance.

Fortunately they do seem poised to have finishers he can play with when he's ready to move up to the big squad in the near future.

Krebs got a breakaway & had it roll off his stick just as he was about to shoot. Utica goes down the ice at the next faceoff and UPL's night is through. 4-0. UPL back to having trouble w/ high shots. Going to go back to watching college hockey.

Pretty sure you meant to quote a different post for your 2nd comment. As to the 1st part, yeah, they eventually will be relevant again. But it is hard to blame people for not wanting to spend money on this team. Never thought they'd see attendance this poor but also never thought they'd be working on their 2nd decade w/out playoffs, never expected the border to be shut down, & never expected to see a 3rd reload in only 7 years. Really thought this market was bulletproof. Guess not. (And realize there were downtimes attendancewise in the past, but flipping the calendar into the new year was always the cure. Not nearly as likely this year, though that'll help.)

Without an open border AND in the 11th year of a playoff drought in a year the team traded it's 2 best forwards for futures & had its best defensive defenseman & planned #1 goalie both walk with no FA signee making over $1MM/year AND had to buy an effectively retired D-man to guarantee they'll hit the salary floor all year. Those 2 forwards having been deemed by ownership & prior management to be worth intentionally making the team the worst in the league for 2 full seasons. Show me ANY fan base that could support a team through all that. If this team didn't come into the year with all that baggage, the fans would still be in the building in reasonable #'s even with only 1/2 of the fanbase having access to the games. Only loons would still be paying to watch this show. 😉

Just found out I've got 4 tix to Amerks games. (Wife'll want to hit up at least 1.) So can catch up w/ you at least twice. Always have a blast at their games hanging w/ you.

Well, yeah, it is. Except they didn't have to blow everything up. Yes, yes, we know there was no way guys that were going to FA a year from now would re-sign and the captain was a doody head &, & ... Maybe it works out, but considering it's 2 more years of losing hockey, it becomes frustrating. And maybe those guys do re-sign. Anybody else remember the angst TB felt when Stamkos tested FA? How'd that work out?

OK. Missed the sarcasm of your earlier post. Sorry. It was a long week and our oldest gave us a good scare today. Beer is good.

Mike Peca & Brad Marchand say 'hi.'

They've only got 1?

Was a Bandits STH when they beat Filly for their 3rd league championship.

Oh, well then, guess we already know the backstory. 😕