Taro T

But the Manningcast is VERY unique in that though it isn't giving the pbp, it also isn't telling those carefully crafted stories about the players. They're telling stories, but they're watching the game and actually ENJOYING it. (Doesn't hurt that they're up against the insufferable Joe Buck and Troy Aikman either. If the networks never hire another legendary announcer's kid again, it'll still be too soon.) And though they are bantering throughout the game, the game is actually the centerpiece of the banter. It isn't about what Pat Mahomes HS Shop Teacher's favorite lunch item happens to be or some other equally unrelated item. It might be about something the guest fan of the quarter they brought in did but it still ends up in relation to THEIR fanhood. Would actually probably be pretty entertaining to have a couple of former player brothers banter completely for the full game. (Think the Hunter brothers could take a couple hours per week out of their schedule of running an OHL team to do so? That could be fun as heck.) Go full on Manningcast or go to Danny Gallivan Dick Irvin, Ted Darling Pat Hannigan, RJ Lorentz. But enough of this mushy middle that comes across as not caring about the game itself and is purely pandering to somehow get people that don't follow hockey to like it by not paying attention to it NOR enjoying it. And one more item that helps the Manningcast's popularity. There is ONE football game each week that gets that treatment. If they ALL did, it'd likely get old quickly. (So that suggestion to have the Huntercast was strictly to do ONE game per week (or even 1 every 2 - 3 weeks), not to make that the regular primary broadcast of YOUR Buffalo Sabres.)

Craig Patrick. From the Patrick family (essentially NHL royalty, his grand dad was Lester Patrick (yes, THAT Lester Patrick) and his father was Lynn Patrick). Played in the NHL for a long time, was one of the few GOOD (not great, but good) California Golden Seals that didn't get immediately poached like some of the others such as Reggie Leach. Had a long career but always seemed to end up on bad teams. (Even though he was a Patrick, he also was an American, might've had something to do with the good teams staying away.) Was the Assistant Coach to Herb Brooks on THAT Olympic Team. GM of the Pens when they won back to back Stanley Cups. Was an advisor to the Sabres soon after Pegula bought them.

It's possible. In that regard, there's a lot of parallels between Terry Pegula and Ralph Wilson. Ralph was instrumental in starting the AFL (not Bud Adams or Lamar Hunt level of instrumental in starting it, but he was part of that original Fool's Club and really helped it stay alive and successful early on) and in keeping the Raiders afloat. He also helped keep the Cheatriots in the Boston area when Billy Sullivan was having money issues. He saw the big picture league-wise. But he also was instrumental in causing the football men that really understood the game and were hugely instrumental in the Bills early glory years (Saban, Knox, Pollian) to all leave the organization. Ralph lucked into great football minds, but ended up driving them away. So far Pegula has built up the Penn State hockey program from scratch completely altering the college hockey landscape (and not for the better IMHO), he built Harbor Center and Canal Side. He also lucked into McDermott & Beane (the latter who is truly one of the absolute best in the game) and Chugger and Tavares, but there has been absolutely no indication at all that he'll chase any of them away. He'll eventually luck into the GM & Coach for the Sabres (hoping he already has, we'll see if he did), but unlike Ralph really doubt that he'll chase them out of town. If the Sabres get back to relevant and Terry lives a long time, could see his other accomplishments in the hockey world being enough to get him into the HHoF. But he came to the game so late, expect he needs to have a very long life to get to the point of being part of the "old guard" that the builders always get chosen from.

Was saying this back when the league came out of the lockout and still expect they should do this: pay Syracuse U (or any other school with a truly top notch Communications Department) to develop the optimal way to broadcast the game. Getting 4K & 8K HDTVs out there means not being able to see the puck should NEVER be a reason for people to not watch games. Be innovative, but intelligent about the way they do so. (This isn't directed at the Sabres but the league as a whole.) Heck, they actually DID do something innovative on Saturday. They broadcast the game with an ASL interpreter doing the play by play on one of the alternate ESPN channels. Didn't watch it or even know about it before it happened, but THAT is innovative. No idea if they did anything to highlight where the puck was as watching the announcer would necessarily distract from following the play on ice (tough to watch 2 things closely at once). But for once, the league was thinking outside the box. (It was likely ESPN's idea and not the league's so they could test it out on a sport that gets lower ratings and work out the bugs there before implementing it in NFL coverage.)

To the bolded, pretty sure we all are. But take it up with people that have some say in the matter. 😉

And oddly enough, for box lax, the sport is still niche enough that the broadcasts are more pbp than just banter, and John Gurtler has become a pretty good annoucer. He seemed very bad following in the footsteps of the legendary Ted Darling, but he's found his footing calling the Bandits. Would really like ALL NHL coverage to get back to more of that style pbp. Doubt it happens. And might try to catch more Preds games. Pete Weber is still oldschool enough to call the game the right way. But he's a dying breed.

Dan is absolutely not a radio guy and it's a shame that the 2 roles don't get broken back out to being separate roles. (Totally get why they don't go back to that (don't want to spend money on separate announcers and crews for providing commentary for the same event), but it is still a shame they don't. That said, through the years, TV broadcasts of NHL games across the board has moved away from true PBP into more of an NFL style TV broadcast where they PBP guy and the color guy end up talking about a lot of other stuff than just the game action. It works in NFL broadcasts because they have 20 seconds or more to kill after every single play. It doesn't work with end to end action sports like hockey. But, not completely convinced that Dunleavy couldn't do a very good TV broadcast; at times he does, particularly when the Sabres are in the mix for being relevant. But he's never going to give you the true PBP that you're looking for. That, unfortunately is no longer in the job description.

Was hoping Buffalo would go after Danault back when the Sabres were still on Rebuild 2.0. Still would be very happy with landing him, but not sure why LA would be willing to part with him.

Krebs WAS pencilled in as the 3C after Mittelstadt was traded and he spit the bit. If as @LGR4GM seems to contend (apologies if it isn't your contention, Liger), Adams is looking for a 4C and not a 3C, then either Krebs or one of Savoie or Kulich HAS to be pencilled into that role. And just don't see Ruff being fine with having a rookie pencilled into that role on day 1. So, until an established C is brought it, Krebs is pencilled into that slot, IMHO. And, Krebs is the one guy on the roster (besides Skinner, who gets to nix any trade package he's a part of, so don't even consider him tradeable) that would be my 1st choice of both having an expectation he'd be traded and wanting to see traded. Either Krebs is going to be JAG or he'll pull a Mittelstadt and come close to the ceiling he had when he came into the league but don't see that happening this current season. So, either way, he won't help reach the playoffs THIS YEAR. Just never saw any sparks of the player he was expected to be after a few glimpses of great passes in his 1st season in Buffalo. Mitts always had SOME games that you could see the potential was still there and even when most here were down on him still a year ago, there were parts of his game that were actually good. Personally don't see that from Krebs. But, another GM very possibly could like Krebs for the pest role and even think that he could get some of the game he had in junior back playing for a coach not named Granato. Having a pest in the middle 6 could be a poor man's Marchand. Hopefully some other GM thinks his coach can make that a reality. Am not convinced it can be.

But when he came in, didn't they say that Pegula wanted to bring him in a couple of years ago to run the Sabres but the Giants wouldn't let him go for something they saw as a demotion? So, though the Bills are definitely the more glamorous team to run, he would seem to not just see the Sabres as an afterthought.

Initial reaction to this is - don't like it. But IF they continue to maintain the 50 contract limit on players in system, expect it wouldn't end up getting abused by the big money teams and a team with really good analytics and scouting departments could make hay with it. (And the Sabres SHOULD be a team with good analytics and scouting departments - they have a billionaire owner and a general impression that established players don't want to be in Buffalo (a perception that will change as soon as the team actually becomes good again), so the team has a vested interest in finding and landing good prospects.) So, maybe it would be a good thing.

Mogilny ended up the last of the major defectors before the Soviets decided they couldn't keep holding all their hockey players in country. Can see the case for him being in. Expect he eventually will get there.

Puckpedia recenlty changed their look and interface pretty significantly to make it (IMHO) look more like CapFriendly. Liked it a lot when it was NHLNumbers. It's been OK as Puckpedia (which bought NHLNumbers a few years before changing the website name).

Figure for 100 level corners ~$80/seat or $3,500 for the 40 games plus how ever many preseason games they stick the STHers with. Front row is $150/game. Clubs are $104-$135 each/game. The cheapest seats up in the 300's corners are $26/game.

Heck, Bogosian was supposed to be part of the core as well and he's got 2 IIRC.

Have liked him ever since the WJC's in Buffalo way back when. Took a while to get going, but he ended up everything he looked like he would be back then. Would love to have the younger him, but would still take the current version. (Provided when they do their due dilligence they don't figure out that there was actually a legit reason for Tortorella to go all Torts on him.)

Nah, that one's just what his parents expected his profession to be and then his 1st name. Kinda like Dr. Phil. 😉

Thing is, we both know that in Reinhart's 3rd full season, on a really bad team, he got to 25 and 25, which is what this season will be for Quinn realistically. Had Quinn only been out for 1 of the 2 stretches he missed, he would've been in the 30's again as he was pretty much a 0.67ppg player. This coming season should be considered Quinn's 3rd NHL season, not merely his 2nd. And based on what he has done in the past, personally will be very disappointed if he isn't 25/50 (so, yeah, there'll be a bit of disappointment if he isn't 25/55). YMMV and apparently does. 😉 Truthfully, would likely be more disappointed if Quinn misses those thresholds than Peterka does. But do expect both are very reachable for both,

Seeing as you've got some time to kill waiting for the plumber, might not be a bad idea. Particularly as you quite likely might be able to fine those shut off valves (should they actually exist) and you might then have water in other parts of the house while waiting for said plumber.

You know this kid will be there.

There IS a difference (to a degree). But DURING the season (which is when Adams 1st spoke) if you are the GM are you going to go on record publicly as saying the guys that are actually at the level you're looking to upgrade aren't good enough? Personally, can't see a GM do that, especially 3 days after the opportunity to try to bring that guy in has passed. And, am not 'arguing." Am "discussing." Simply not agreeing in lockstep does not mean an argument has entailed. My 2 cents.

Agree with all that, PLUS if a guy is from S. Ont. Buffalo is about as close to home as they're going to get presuming they don't end up in what @Sabres Fan in NS likes to call the Great Satan. For guys that want to be in/near Canada (particularly the Ont. version of said), well Canada is just over the river. For some, that's a draw. For others, not so much. But the biggest factor on whether a guy (that has legit NHL talent, rather than a tweener) will want to come to a team is does he think it'll be in the mix during the bulk of the time he's on that contract and will he fit in with the room. If the answer to both is 'yes,' well, you've got a shot to sign him. And hopefully bringing in Ruff will cause players to believe that 1st answer is 'yes.' Remains to be seen if it will help, but it has to be better than having replaced Granato with another 1st time HC.

Couldn't read the article, might ask the 'rents to save it. But, it'll be real interesting to see what the STH base ends up at. Everybody in our row came back, but when they were letting STHers choose different seats that their current ones there were a lot more than 8,000 seats available. People in the rows behind us were really not sure they were going to renew &/or had already decided not to renew. There also were a LOT of 1st time STHers that bought into the hope of the previous season's finish which is how the base got to be ~10k. A lot of that hope was dashed by the way last season went. Maybe Ruff coming in restored the hope. But they're going to need a LOT of new people signing up to hit 11-11.5k IMHO. Guess that's why they're opening up the next BG&I to people that aren't STHers. (Even though that's supposed to be an exclusive perk of being a STHer.) Hoping that hearing Lindy's enthusiasm (and Kevyn's for that matter) will seal the deal on getting people to put down their deposit. Hope they do hit that goal and exceed it before the season is out, because games are a LOT more fun when the barn is packed. But this past season did them no favors in that regard.

He was saying back in mid-March that he wants an experienced top 9 W (personally took that as another shout out to Kane that he'll always be welcome) so that IMHO is actually looking for a 2nd line W. He also said that he wants an experienced 4C that is excellent on the PK and on faceoffs. As am in no way convinced that Krebs will be effective in a 3C role (nor that Savoie or Kulich can win that job out of the gate; really hope they can't and it could be that hope factoring in too much) but they (he and Granato at the time) had to talk up the possibility of Krebs being the 3C & being given the opportunity to be the 3C that though he said he wants a 4C, he really is in the market for a legit 3C (and if a legit 3C with 2 way game gets forced to 4C, all the better). So, again, personally don't see a shift in what Adams has been publicly calling for because he's been calling for those 2 roles since the trade deadline passed. He also said he was looking for a top 4 D for 2 years which is why he pulled the trigger on the Mittelstadt trade and he's also talked about the 4th line having an identity since about that time. But have always seen the reenvisioning of the 4th line to be in addition to those other 2 moves, not instead of them.

And the rink in Sunrise is effectively LITERALLY right on the edge of a swamp. There's a road that goes past it on the north side and then pretty much nothing. Head east or head south and there is massive development. (There is a HUGE mall on the other side of the 4 lane road the rink sits on.) Head north and bring waders and some sort of device to keep the gators at bay.