Taro T

Each draw has 14 lottery balls numbered 1-14 and 4 balls are drawn. The order they come out is immaterial, so there are 1,001 combinations. Teams are randomly assigned enough combinations to meet their odds. (Sabres have 5% chance of winning, they get 50 lotto tickets. Moe-ray-all has 18.5% chance of winning; they get 185 combos. And so on & so forth.) The Sabres had 5% odds of winning the 1st draw w/ 1,001 combinations (one of which is a "do over" not assigned to any team). If Vegas w/ their 0.5% chance of winning wins the 1st draw, then in the next draw their 5 combinations join the other 1 out of 1,001 to become a do over. And now, the Sabres 50 winning combos out of 995 valid combos gives them a 5.03% chance of winning that 2nd draw. (Had thought Vegas had a 1% chance of winning, an article on NHL.com said it was actually 0.5%; thus the discrepancy in #'s between this post & the one you quoted.)

Will give you that it's petty. Not sure it's stupid. Kings management would be pretty ticked if the Eulers win game 3 off a weird bounce off the boards that those guys were ready for because of extra time on the rink learning nuances.

He's not officially available & might not actually be available. People are speculating that w/ getting rid of the old coaching staff & their leaders getting long in the tooth that the Jets might be looking for a full rebuild. If they go full rebuild, maybe Hellebucyk becomes available for the right steep price.

The Eulers were trying to get extra practice time in. The rink crew didn't give them any more time than they were officially alloted. Don't see a big issue w/ it & it isn't the 1st, nor the last, time this has / will happen.

Back when the Superbowl Era Bills team was being dismantled a few of the players took out full page letters in the BN to thank fans for their support through the years when they left town. Can't really think of a lot of other examples. So, yeah, it seems quite uncommon. But also remember that the Sabres PR group is MUCH better now than past incarnations & the new team was installed starting around last summer. It may have been Okposo's idea, but it also might have been suggested by others. Not saying it wasn't cool of Kyle to do so. It was.

Well, also in fairness to John, he & GoDD interacted fairly often on TBD. What you see as John stirring stuff up might have been merely a return salvo. (Or, it could've just been a post bar closing rant. On occasion we'd catch a two-fer. 😉 )

Except the odds of winning the 2nd lottery ARE better than 5% because if the team that won the 1st draw wins again, that result is voided and they draw again until a winner is chosen. In that 2nd draw, if Vegas won the 1st, the Sabres odds are now just about 5.05% and if the Habs won the 1st draw, the Sabres now have nearly a 6.1% chance in the 2nd draw. And by weighting that full distribution is how they get the 5.4% chance of winning the 2nd draw.

Pretty sure, just about anything that wasted time historically would get labeled as "immoral." And, when pretty much everybody in a society is living day to day worrying about whether there'll be enough grain to survive the winter or whether the Dutchy just down the river will try to steal it & the women folk, can kind of see a point to it. Some of the activities that were considered immoral have gotten a better rap through the years. Others, not so much. Pretty sure a lot of what's gone from taboo to OK depended highly upon which vice has had the best lobbyists.

If the Sabres win the 2nd OA pick, if a deal can get worked out to move back to 4 w/ AZ or Seattle & they agree to not take a D at 2, do it. And then take either the guy that's left of Jiricek or Nemec or just take Jiricek outright if they're both there.

Well, was getting at it's probably not worth it when for a mere $22 more you can watch every game of their run to the Calder Cup championship.

Yes, but it is ~$8. Pretty sure it gives you all the games for that evening, not just the 1 you care about.

The AHL, & the Amerks, will be fine once the AHL & NHL adjust to having added 2 more NHL teams in the past 4 years. Except for the tweak to the SHL transfer agreement, all those issues you mention were there prior to adding Vegas & Seattle.

You were correct there. Their 2021 10K shows that they are, in fact, still losing a bundle. But revenues (not profits) doubled in both 2020 & 2021. And through a VERY quick look, it seems revenues are increasing faster than costs. So, would be surprised if they trim back advertising anytime soon even after the market is "stabilized." But, doubt they

Kea was one of the refs? Didn't realize that.

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.