Taro T

Was goin' nuts trying to figure out who the 6th Sabre player was. Danke.

Can understand why McDavid didn't come back out to take the trophy, but would've hoped that he would. It's reminiscent of the Swedish Juniors not letting their silver medals get put on back in 18 and their Captain (?) tossing his into the crowd. (Fortunately the Canadian fan that caught it gave it to a Swedish fan near him that managed to arrange for him to get it back.) You were deemed the best player of the playoffs and your team came within 2 goals of being the 1st SC Champion from Edmonton since '90 and from Canada since '93. It was a special season for him, and there ARE Euler fans still in the crowd. Certainly getting to see him receive that trophy would've been a special memory for them even though they really wanted to see him be handed the bigger trophy.

So, is Draisatl the new Joe Thornton? Him doing anything AT ALL these last 7 games might've been enough to get them 1 more W.

We should be happy the Swamp Cats pulled it off. They proved you can have AT LEAST 5 Sabres on your roster and still win a Stanley Cup. If 5 can do it, why not 20?

Would recommend every Sabre fan run out and buy a lottery ticket that day to see just how much that day truly is ours. When the cards are falling your way, stay at the table.

Don't follow the juniors kids anywhere near as closely as some of you do. Appreciate all the info the draftniks here do provide. Based on what's been said, would be really happy with Catton or Iginla and am extremely intrigued at the idea of getting Eiserman. Would be pleased if the Sabres come away with any of them. And if they trade back in the 1st, want Jiricek's kid brother, just because.

You don't want to know what other used stuff he's kept. 😉

Personally, expect he did plan to sign with the Sabres but then when they absolutely #### the bed coming out of the gate he changed his plans. Adams and Granato seemed genuinely surprised when he signed with Detroit.

Pegulas aren't selling tix to both. By the time TC opens, they've already sold all the Sabres preseason tix they're going to sell (in STH packages, because nobody else is going to buy tix to a preseason game at window prices). And really don't see Terry caring all that much if STHs get stuck getting $5/ticket when they might've gotten $20/ without the conflict. Which is the sum total net effect of the conflict. There won't be a single unsold Bills ticket due to a preseason Sabres game. (Regardless of where either game is played.)

Well, Florida didn't have a 1st available until 2026, so Henrique was not an option for them. But surely Maurice would rather have added him to the lineup than Okposo. There just was no realistic way to do it. Personally, would rather see the Cats win than the Eulers tonight, but won't be all that upset if it goes the other way.

Expect Maurice believes he can regulate Okposo's ice time enough to make sure he doesn't get caught out against McDavid much, if at all. Having home ice, expect that Maurice sees the smarter play trying to have the slow W with a wealth of experience eat enough minutes to keep the other 3 lines fresh enough without him getting caught out against McDavid rather than trying to have the quicker more physical Cousins in the game because of the possibility of him taking a bad penalty now that the Euler PP has come back to life in games 4 & 5 particularly. Betting he wishes Zito found a guy a little bit better than Okposo at the deadline at this point, but you don't get a do over and he sees Opkoso being his best fit at the 12 slot with the game being at home. If the Eulers were hosting this one, expect that Cousins would get the nod again like he did last game.

Am on the same page as you guys. Agree that Adams SHOULD be gone if they miss the playoffs. But don't expect that he absolutely will be gone if they miss again. The owner seems to really like him and he's let him make moves that all seem geared to being a true contender in '27. Should they end up in the realm where they have more points than anybody else that ever missed the playoff, personally expect Adams gets yet another kick at the can. Should they miss with 91, do expect he'll be gone. Personally believe that if they make the playoffs with say 93 points but then get ousted in 4 or 5 that he should be gone in that case too. Because 93 SHOULD NOT be good enough in an era when there are so many loser points available. But, also expect in that scenario that he doesn't get punted there either because they will have actually made the playoffs. And, expect this discussion will end up being moot, because there's a good chance they get to 98+ and that they make the playoffs. Dumping Comrie and bringing in a coach that has a plan for what to do in his own end and how to run a PP should be enough on their own to get them to 98 PROVIDED the GT doesn't do a Comrie imitation and they don't have catastrophic injuries (both of which are possible, so this team needs additional moves to give it some wiggle room should either come to pass).

It should be about making the playoffs. And, expect that in large part it IS about making the playoffs. But personally don't expect that Pegula would fire Adams if they get to 98 points and it isn't good enough to get into the dance.

What jets need to be calmed? Didn't state that the Sabres will trade for him. Said that if they do expect it to happen on day 1 at the draft and do not expect it later than that because he would be able to shut any attempt to trade him 3 days after that.

Poor kid pitched his hissy 1 year too late. Sabres were all in on not blocking prospects until a few weeks ago. 😉

Pretty sure the fascination with Jeannot is due to him being able to play hockey at a good 4th line level and also kick the snot out of guys that have historically been considered to push the Sabres around. Doubt anybody expects him to magically become a good 3rd liner. But, unlike John Scott, who though he was an ASG MVP, made one heck of a mechanical (or was it aeronautical) engineer as a hockey player, he can actually play hockey.

There often is a team or 2 that doesn't hit NHL 0.600 but still makes the playoffs. In the modern era, exactly 1 team (the '70 Habs) hit that mark and missed the playoffs. And that was in a year that ALL the new teams that pretty much stunk were in one division and all the established teams were in the other and the Habs actually tied the Rags for 4th but lost out on tiebreakers, the 1st of which was goals scored so in their final game of the year when it became clear they wouldn't win that game they pulled the goalie trying unsuccessfully to get enough goals to get the tiebreaker over the Rags. 98 points is just below that 0.600 threshold; 99 is just above it. You break 0.600 and you get it; you miss it, you take your chances. The post you replied to was in response to a post saying if the Sabres miss the playoffs Adams is gone. Was pointing out, it depends on HOW they miss, should they. 98 and a miss and he likely gets one final try. 91 and a miss, and it's bye bye Kevyn.

Considering Mittelstadt's 26 and Byram is only 22 and playing a position that takes longer to develop, even if they bring in Danault or Eriksson Ek or the like to round out the top 3C's would still say that TODAY the team is worse off with Byram than with Mitts on it. Because Cozens or Mitts (or maybe even the other C they'd bring in) could slide to W leaving you Tuch, Mitts/Cozens, Peterka, & Quinn as your top 4 W's with Benson, Greenway, & Skinner (at least for another 2 days) rounding out the top 9 with Kulich or Savoie or maybe even Rosen ready to challenge for a spot in the top 9 come December which makes for a very formidible top 9 even if Kane doesn't finally fulfill his childhood dream. Whereas whatever Byram brings THIS year could likely have been supplied by either guys in house or via a lesser cost than a Mittelstadt to bring that in. Mitts for Byram was a 'we've got a whole bunch of guys to fill out the top 9 come '27 when we're really seriously challenging and now we expect we'll have a really formidible top 4 & even top 6 on the back end' that we wouldn't have had then without this deal. IMHO. That trade was made, again IMHO, because in the Sabres view it bolsters the team when it finally gets to its window and as Byram showed in his "new car smell" phase that it won't be much of a step back overall if any in this coming year when the full set of moves on the chess board are completed.

And this is where having a billionaire owner SHOULD be a net positive rather than the net negative it's been for a solid decade. Need to have (and maybe they've already made the case, we just haven't seen the results yet because the changes are too recent) the bright guys like Ventura show just how big the ROI is for spending on analytics and developing better models than everybody else has. It's also interesting that Ventura is 4th on the org chart under Adams but the only VP of those 4.

So, if the Sabres ARE trading for Eriksson Ek expect it to happen draft day and expect 11 going back as part of the package. Because that trade AIN'T happening 3 days later.

Get your frustration at the "we're open to anything" comments. But for a guy that continually talks about honesty being a key value of his, if he does say "we have no intention whatsoever of moving up in the draft" and he stands by his values then if say the Phlyers get the inkling that Buffalo might want the same guy they want then they only have to burn enough capital to move up 2 slots to get their guy whereas they might need to burn a lot more than that to make sure the Sabres themselves don't move up the same 2 slots and still end up ahead of them. Personally, would rather have him use that GM-speak as part of the answer and essentially tell us that he's not looking for a goalie to have Levi beat out and that Skinner is as good as gone than have him tell us he absolutely is or isn't looking at moving up in the draft and giving us nothing at all about the roster itself all the while it might all be 100% pure BS. In other words, prefer his telling us something we could misinterpret (much like the most successful politicians do and the best Fed Chairmen do) rather than flat out lying.

Personally, don't expect Adams gone if they end up with say 98 points and miss the playoffs by a point because they didn't clear the 0.600 threshold by the slimmest of margins. But, didn't expect they were going to fire Granato either, so take that for what it's worth. But, should they struggle to get to 90 points once again and miss the playoffs once again, yep, he's toast. But, unless they have a serious rash of injuries that young teams simply shouldn't be suffering, or the goaltending doesn't hold up due to their youth (a much more likely scenario than the former), can't see this team struggling to get to 90 points. Can absolutely see this team (as currently constructed) not getting in, though personally do believe it's good enough to sneak into the last WC w/ 96-98 points. Which leaves absolutely no room for a couple of key performers having off years nor having a serious rash of injuries, nor the GT not being up to snuff. With the rebuild being at the point it is, can see Adams standing pat with G & D (because he's pretty much told us that's his preference for the past 3 months) but can't see any way there aren't at least 3 changes at F (and maybe 4-5) w/ at least 2 of which we'd consider significant (aka not just swapping out 4th liners). Not convinced the D will stay pat; maybe he makes 1 pseudo-major move, most likely Jokiharju going away and somebody else (w/ no idea at all of whom that would be) coming in to give them what they'd consider 5 legit top 4 D-men.

One thing that doesn't get brought up when discussing Woods absolute dominance when he was at his peak is that many golf courses got lengthened at that time as well. There were guys that could drive like Tiger or putt like Tiger, but nobody had that same combination. The PGA knew that he was ratings gold and adjusted the conditions to emphasise his strengths. Not completely convinced that Woods would've been AS dominant as he was if the courses weren't modified because his driving wouldn't have been such an advantage. So, since that was such an unusual combination - having a great long game and an incredible short game and both were necessary to win, just how deep was the field he was playing against relative to the field Jack was playing against? It seems there are more guys that can do both well today than there were in Tiger's heyday. (Will readily admit to only being a casual observer of golf, so maybe that combination is still as rare as it was, but it sure seems there are a lot more guys that are jacked than there were back in the 90's and early 00's.) And get that the rationale for it was the advances to the equipment happening at that same time that was causing scores to get crazily low. Balls carried a lot farther and the advances in materials science made drivers rocket launchers relative to what they'd been. But, didn't see any of the higher ups crying over that happy coincidence that it also made the most marketable player of his day all that much more difficult to beat.

Yep. Chanting Bob's name right through the US Anthem was awesome. 😒 (Realize you weren't including that in your review, but really don't believe it can/should be taken out of it.)

Not insane, but it would be a huge gamble. Personally expect the deal to be 3 or 4 years. If he can get beyond his one major remaining hangup - he doesn't play lights out (often, if at all) when he hasn't been annointed the clear #1 with no viable competition for that role on the roster - he could be a Vasilevskiy. And he very well could get beyond it, but until he's actually demonstrated that he has gotten beyond it, he hasn't. He's played at that level briefly (when Levi hasn't been around and when they were all but buried). But when they''ve needed him to sustain it when they've actually been within striking distance of the playoffs, he couldn't get it done. Maybe he was battling injury that was never disclosed, but there was nothing in his movement that would suggest that. His slump seemed more mental than physical. Whether the Sabres pay for it, or it comes out of his own pocket, he might be a great candidate for seeing Miller's sports shrink. How many MILLIONS of $'s are on the line for him and are available to him over the next decade + should he get past that 1 final hurdle. That seems like a no brainer. (And if he doesn't see her, wouldn't hurt to see someone with that kind of resume.)