Taro T

IF the Sabres kept the right core of scouts they could do well this draft. The Peterka pick is encouraging that they do have the right core but that Quinn pick is equally confounding. It's just more angst piled on the past decade that the Sabres bottom out AGAIN this time in the year that the draft is the most unstable in at least 2 decades, if not 3, & the Sabres have a skeleton crew in the scouting department to make the questions as to whether they have enough scouts to accurately assess the talent legitimate. Hoping that they've really focused their efforts on the top of the draft & plan on going with some sort of analytics formula to throw darts in rounds 4-7 (maybe even starting at round 3). If they tried to have an expert eye on the full board, they probably stretched themselves too thin & will #### the whole thing up.

Based on everything that's been written, it seems that, yes, Adams is waiting to talk to Lambert to finish this search. But that Granato will be the one getting the job at the end of the day.

Kind of torn on this as a few players in less than a handful of sports make a ton of money for their schools & the NCAA and they DO deserve to get a piece of that. But the vast majority of sports & students within their sports do not make money for those organizations but rather cost them money. Take money out of the pie for the handful of athletes that do generate money & it'll likely come at the expense of those other sports. And many more college athletes will lose out because of this. On a slightly different note, it'll also be interesting to see what, if any, lawsuits end up arising out of Title IX and other such programs when the system(s) rising up out of the old one's ashes do arise, as really doubt nearly as many female athletes are in college sports that do earn money as there are male athletes.

Probably for 2 reasons: 1. Carlson was completely incompetent & Travis was the defacto radio station General manager. 2. It was funnier having Andy being "cold" to broadcasting the couple of times he filled in.

My expectation is Eichel & Ristolainen are gone & Reinhart is likely as well. Am also expecting Granato is retained. Take that for what it's worth, which isn't much. Since COVID hit, haven't had nearly the same access to info as in the past. @Brawndo is the one w/ solid sources & @tom webster as well. Most of my info has been pushed back at least 1 level on 1st hand/ 2nd hand / etc.

We're on the same page there. Give Bryson the 1st crack at Jokiharju's partner & give Samuelson a shot as well if the 1st pairing doesn't work.

Even when they weren't "neutered" Dahlin-Jokiharju was not good in their own end. They were very good at the other end, and many seem to be ok with their play in their own end because of how the played in the attack zone. Personally, would rather have Borgen with Dahlin as the slight drop off which MIGHT occur in Dahlin's offensive escapades is more than made up for by no longer being a defensive liability. And really don't see where Jokiharju was a key for Dahlin being good in the offensive zone; but he definitely contributed to the issues at the other end.

AND the Copper Cob.

Wow, Tage has his very own day? Cool beans.

This is what is so ####ing frustrating about this off-season, expecting everything to blow up. Bring McCabe back and keep him paired with Ristolainen (after he finally heals up). That was their best pairing last year. (Realize it's not a popular opinion, but they were. For large stretched Dahkin - Jokiharju was a disaster in waiting in their own end.)Bring in a 4 quality D to fill McCabe role until he's ready to return. The D becomes McCabe - Ristolainen Dahlin- Borgen Bryson/Samuelson/New Guy - Jokiharju. (Maybe "new guy" is Pilut?) w/ 2 of those the 7&8 after McCabe healthy. Bring in Daneault and keep Eichel & Reinhart. Ideally bring in a 4C to put Eakin on the bench. Bring Sheahan back as the 13th guy / fill in w/ injuries in the bottom 1/2 of the lineup. The forwards become: Olofsson - Eichel - Cozens/Reinhart Skinner - Daneault - Reinhart/ Cozens Asplund - Mittelstadt - Thompson/ Ruotsalainen Girgensons - 4C - Okposo Some combo of Eakin / Sheahan / R2 / Okposo as the spares. Bring back Ullmark & add a guy at least as good as him. Get the coach right & it gets them d*mn close to a playoff spot w/ no growth at all from any of the kids. (IMHO, that lineup should be in but it's a stacked division, so no promises.) And that lineup can handle the inevitable 6-10 games of Eichel out via injury & 10 games of Ullmark's inavailability, as a in IMHO.

The power play was clicking almost every night in the run up to the Finals. It went ice cold against Dallas. Which explains just about the entire drop in scoring after the Semis.

Peca exploded up into his hits (which is why a guy as small as he was hit so hard) & if he mistimed them at all, he left his feet before the hit which is a textbook charge. It was one of those mistimed ones that caused his suspension.

True.

You could've just said the piece about Anderson to let us know which game it was. The 1st 2 items didn't exactly narrow it down much. 😉

Pierre & Micheletti had LITERALLY gotten done saying SEVEN SECONDS before the goal how Fleury's puckhandling had been a difference in the game. Well, yeah!

Home opener '80. The 1st time the goal posts got torn down. Shula's last game in the '95 playoffs. The Snow Globe game vs the Fish. Those were fun. 😉

Yes. He also was typically 5th in ice time for the D on those squads.

You didn't have to say you were the youngest of the 3. Simply telling us you got "stuck" being Robert would've said that all by itself. 😉 #14 - get well soon. Plaese don't hurry off yet. Rico'll be waiting for you and Bert at the bar w/ a good single barrel malt & stogies. But, he's still golfing & in no rush to get there.

Watched "Frog Story" after heard about Frank's passing. We were rolling. So many great episodes: Hoodlum Rock Turkeys Away The Contest Nobody Could Win A Commercial Break Fish Story Baseball Carlson for President The Americanization of Ivan Jennifer Moves Hotel Oceanview Bah Humbug Frog Story A Simple Little Wedding The Consultant Fire All of those with just such great writing. There really wasn't a clunker episode out of the whole batch of 88 shows.

That was arguably the funniest TV episide ever, from Johnny's reply of "I do" when asked by the Big Guy "do I hear dogs barking" while listening to Floyd's "Dogs" to his response to Bailey's question of whether to give away Boston or Foreigner T-shirts, to Art trying to get Jennifer to help with his meeting, to the broadcast of the "major event," to the classic line quoted above and so many other more subtle lines. That whole episode was tight.

"(i)ntentions on being pre-med?" 🤨 So, wtf was he majoring in this year? Pre-law? General studies? Intentions of going to med school makes sense and can be impressive. Intentions of going into pre-med, not so much. (If this is strictly due to his transferring late to UofM from Haaaavaaaaad, then it isn't QUITE as egregious. 😉 )

He looked good in his brief stint after Minnesota's season ended and he earned a spot on the roster that next year but got injured toward the end of October & never really got another true crack at it. Had he stayed healthy &/or had Murray not been replaced by Botterill he might have fared better. Interestingly, turns out he actually got into a handful of games for AZ this year. (With pretty much the same effectiveness as he'd had for the Sabres.)

Interesting. Not a fan of them using a Cowboys/Yankees owned firm to be handling the marketing of the suites/ etc of what we all know is inevitably a new downtown stadium being built. Just too much opportunity for them to mess that up the way Doug Moss did setting up the pricing structure when the MMArena 1st opened.

The thing with the "conditioning" injury was it was never reported just what it was. We were hearing ribs and also shoulder through the grapevine. Talking heads were saying rib(s); other sources were saying shoulder. During the season, Rob Ray actually talked about Eichel playing through a shoulder injury during a broadcast. And the way he tended to avoid contact when possible would support the rib theory. The way his shot still had velocity but not the same accuracy supported the shoulder theory. Hindsight being 20/20, now suspect he was playing through both though the "shoulder" was likely actually the precursor to the severe neck injury that ended up ending his season.

He did really want out after he believed that ownership lied about "bringing in the tools to finish the job." And, Rigas did, in fact, lie about that. Give that '01 squad Peca or equivalent after they'd burned the bridge with him & that team wins the SC. Heck, as it was, even without him, they were a fluke bounce in game 6 away from & then a non-delay of game call in game 7 from having an excellent chance of getting the Devils whom they OWNED that season. And they won in OT in Denver with Biron in the net. They were that frigging close. And, they didn't try to even get fair value for Peca at the next draft, so Hasek wanted out. He also had a VERY credible threat of moving back to the Czech Republic if the Sabres didn't accommodate him. He'd already planned to "retire" to there a year or so earlier, but changed his mind because he didn't want to walk away after an injury plagued season.