Taro T

Nope. Only 4. 😉

The guy that posted here was NOT the safety for the Bills. As any of those who have met him can attest, he was built far more like a guard. 😉

100%. Adams has been very open in what he looks for & if one compares his words w/ his earlier selections, he hasn't been coy. One additional thing he really focuses on is the late bloomer &/or the guy that might not have had the physical tools as early as others in his draft class. There is a large value placed on those guys being forced to understand the game to be able to hang on whereas the more physically gifted guys could just impose their will w/out necessarily understanding the nuances of the game. And a guy that may have not been selected for the AAA's but came back again the next year & tried again & eventually succeeded is someone he'll look at very closely. Which gets back to the things you mentioned.

With the latest CBA rookie salaries are pretty well set based on position & where the guy was selected. There's only a limited # of things that are negotiable. (Somebody w/ a better working knowledge of it could add what they are.)

Well, if they can't blow a 3-1 series lead, the next most painful would likely be blowing a 3rd period lead in game 6 & then having Matthews biff in the neutral zone w/ Campbell letting a trickler get through w/ wonder boy Bunting slamming it home. And THEN blowing game 7 at home, again. PLEASE let that happen.

But rather than go to Baltimore on short rest, they go to face Tua trying to learn a new offense 3 weeks into the season. Schedule is about as good as it could be. No opponents coming off a bye week. The largest diferential in days off before the next game relative to their opponent in the league. The only troubling thing is a night game in January in Cincy. Dan Fouts is still trying to get the feeling back in his fingers.

True. Plus, if the trade doesn't pan out, there's a very good probability that at least for the last 2 years the team doesn't have its own 1st rounders it's somebody else's problem. 😉

OK. A few pages back peeps were complaining about her. She seems fine IMHO. Not going to get confused w/ Hewitt, Gallivan, nor Jeanneret anytime soon, but definitely not bottom of the barrel either.

She is leaps & bounds better at hockey pbp than Beth Mowins will ever be at football pbp. Can't hate on her for the job she does. Now, for being a Hextall; that's a different matter. 😉

2 things to add: 1. Botterill was on record as saying that if he did land Dahlin it would be easier to tear down the team he had. Considering O'Reilly was out of town before Berglund's agent had a chance to submit his client's NTC, it sure does seem that the idea to trade ROR was J-Botts. Though the timing of the trade (after the decision was made) was due to accommodating Pegula not paying the bonus. 2. Aren't we about due to have a certain poster respectfully decry the soiling of this Amerks related thread with non-Amerks discussion? Oh, probably not, he seems to only do that when he doesn't want to be involved in the thread derail. 😉

Oh, the Beemer would've hit that in a NY minute.

After Cooper & Grigorenko dropped significantly & did basically nothing (less than in Dave's case) am perfectly fine w/ Adams letting a guy like Nazar or Lambert drop at least 1 more slot when the Sabres is on the clock.

Who wouldn't want to play for Kerri Russsell?

So, at a minimum Adams & this kid's agent expect Russian hockey players to still be able to play in NA. Maybe that hand wringing over the Amerks having nearly 0 prospects is a bit premature. Sweet. 🍺

Really expect people to be very pleasantly surprised by what Olofsson brings next season when healthy. Could see him in the 30 goal club & not strictly a 1 trick pony like Skinner WAS prior to this past season.

Skinner Thompson Tuch (it's the top line until it isn't 😉 ) Hinostroza Mittelstadt Olofsson Girgensons Asplund Okposo Krebs Cozens Quinn Spare: Versatile bottom 6 vet in either the Lazar or Sheahan mold; Peterka gets a call-up to the Sabres around Thanksgiving (US version) Expecting the lines to be fairly balanced in ice time overall but ranked the in order of ice time. (Lines 2 & 3 could flip based upon opponents. That "4th line" could be a RAV Line redux.) Samuelsson Dahlin (Expecting Muel to not suffer the sophomore slump; his game is just too elegant defensively) Power New Guy Bryson Jokiharju Spares: Pysyk & Fitzgerald. (Yeah, they're both righties, Bryson & Pysyk can both slide to their off side in a pinch.) Expecting ice time e to be very unbalanced. Fleury Luukkonnen (Lord help us should MAF get injured. Expecting (hoping?) Anderson saves Adams from himself.) Realizing it's ridiculously few moves for an off-season, but just don't expect the BIG trade to happen & Adams & Granato are high on the kids & leaders.

True.

Gut feel is that his drop-off is as simple as running out of gas at the end of his 1st full pro season. (Remember he dealt w/ a couple of issues last year (mono & sports hernia?).) Haven't noticed him on the ice in ~ a month. He was the most noticeable F on the team before that (as the stats well document).

Yes,he told a STORY. A very entertaining one at that. But to say Koivu couldn't play the rest of that series because of the events of that story and NOT because of the eye injury is not credible when compared to the actual events.

But that's NOT what happened. Game 2 was in Carolina. Game 3 was in Moe-ray-all. He played in both. Both were after he'd been hurt by Rivet. He stopped playing ONLY after catching a stick to the eye.

And not saying Koivu & Rivet weren't screwing around prior to that game in Carolina, nor that the toilet didn't break possibly even cutting Koivu. But to believe he got 30-40 stitches before that game & then played more than 23 minutes that night & got an assist on the game winning goal and then played over 9 minutes into the 2nd period of the next game until he got high sticked in the eye by Williams and then could not play any more in any of the next 3 games because of his butt boo-boo rather than his eye injury strains credulity at a minimum. THAT is what doesn't pass the smell test. He could play a game and a half while being unable to bend over (which is possible - Lemieux did it many times with his back troubles) but then AFTER suffering an eye injury which required hospitalization he couldn't play again because of the butt cut & not the eye trauma. Does that HONESTLY pass the smell test for you? How?

Fair enough. Only heard the version on the podcast. And what he said in that did not state that he played in Game 3. (Though he in fact did until he got high sticked by Williams. He did not play again after the high stick.)

Three actually.

3 people who have never been in my kitchen. 😉