Taro T

Barn was full a few times at the end of the season last year. Opening night this year was pretty well attended too IIRC. (This season everything's kind of blending into itself, so that could be misremembering.)

Would prefer to get away with just 2 pieces given up for him. And 2 1st equivalents is quite a bit to give up for a guy that is still a high end prospect. But have only minimal pause before making that deal. (Sabres would likely get a B prospect or a 3rd or 4th rounder too; but yeah, really expect Jiricek to be something special and he's cement the D-corp for a long time. Dahlin, Jiricek, Power, Johnson, Samuelsson, & whomever else (Jokiharju, Clifton, Novikov in a couple of years) is a seriously solid D-corp a couple of years from now. And would be pretty good next season too.

They chose him a few picks before Savoie so they'd presumably want quite a bit more than just him. Just because Jiricek doesn't want to be in Columbus doesn't make the Sabres the only suitor for his services. (Presuming the Sabres would be interested and IMHO they should be interested. He's going to be a heck of a player.) They'd have to make an offer better than any other team that might want him would make. And, because there would be more than one or 2 teams interested in him, his wanting out of C-bus is pretty much immaterial, again IMHO, to what he'd bring back in a trade. And according to fans, if the Sabres wanted Lafreniere it would've taken Eichel plus. Fans can be, and often are, delusional.

Personally would offer Savoie and the Sabres '24 1st (w/ Lottery Winning protection).

Makes sense on a certain level. Gets the slow guy off the 4th line so theoretically that line will be better at pressuring whomever they're against. Also doesn't mess with the 2nd or 3rd line which have been going well though in very short samples. And Skinner pretty much does his own thing, Thompson still hasn't been fully back to form though hopefully this extra week and a half off will help him get back to there but even when he is at the top of his game he has 2 scoring modes - 1 timer and do his own thing and dangle through and around the D and goalie. Okposo can pass well enough to set up an occassional 1 timer when he gets the puck and he's better along the boards than either of those other 2 guys. Plus, he should be rested and might have an extra pace to his stride (at least for a game or 2). But when 2/3's of the line do their own thing, does the 3rd member of the line really matter ALL that much? Not the expected deployment of the troops now that Quinn is out until late March at the earliest. But they could've come up with dumber lines.

No, you're right.

They are doing what they are coached to do. And their PP is absolutely pathetic. And they don't have A persistent problem. They have the proverbial truckload of them. They typically get into their "position" and don't move appreciably from there. They run the PP from the BL with the primary goal to get Thompson "open" for a 1 timer. How exactly they expect that to work when they don't force defenders out of their lanes remains a mystery. As you mention, they often DON'T have a netfront presence. And watch where they are when the puck is at the BL. Unless Benson is on the ice there is about a 40% chance that not one single Sabres will be below the faceoff dots. ALL 5 skaters are high in the zone very often. That is mind numbingly dumb. They don't often have guys slide below the goal line and the few times they do, they NEVER have that player slide over to the other side of the net. Why try to cause a defender to lose track of one of the forwards. When there is a loose puck they rarely if ever have an overmatched situation in their favor. You have the extra skater, get 2 men in on the loose puck and make sure you win that battle. Their entry gets laughed at by youth hockey cooaches. It is slow as sin and the drop pass is beyond telegraphed. Every person in the building, including the opposition, knows it's coming. Could go on, but this is already becoming a novella. THAT all is COACHING. (Or a lack thereof.)

It is INCREDIBLY rare for a player to flat out say to management, the way you are doing things HAS to change, and here is what SHOULD happen. Chris Drury told management that Satan was a cancer and with the end of the lockout letting teams get out of contracts and simply walk away from players management was able to listen to him and let Miro walk. It was the right move. The season after Bob Woods left, the PP still had pretty much the same talent but it wasn't nearly as good as it had been the previous year. Pretty sure the players took it upon themselves to go back to what Woods had been having them do and it started excelling again. It ALSO was the right move. But without a Ryan O'Reilly to push for that change, nothing improves. Does anybody see the players led by Okposo going to management or the coaches and telling them the system is f'd? Personally don't see that happening with the current cast. And without a leader that will tell the emperor he has no clothes, the PLAYERS aren't going to make the adjustments. That's not how things work unless you have a REALLY strong personality in that leadership role. As an aside to highlight this point, how often did your boss tell you to do things one way and things weren't quite going right following his plan and you simply made "the adjustments to get (your team) back on track" without having the boss buy-in ahead of time? If it doesn't usually happen in the "real world" why would it happen in this environment except under extreme circumstances?

Well, at the ASG last year, Upper Deck was giving out trading cards of the mascots. There were 31 total. 30 guys in fuzzy suits w/ some sort of cartoon animal head for the most part. And 1 that was just a big rubber octopus. Will let you guess which team that was for. 😉 The NY Rags were the only team with no mascot whatsoever.

To the bolded, the PP WAS effective, for ALL OF 6-7 WEEKS. End of October through mid-December it was hitting at 34%, the absolute best in the league. It was below 15% on either side of that BRIEF span when it was all-world. And IF a PP can hit at 34% for a month and a half, it shouldn't be absolute trash the rest of the year. But yet, here we are. Replace that coach. He doesn't know what he's doing.

What do the Sabres need with a goddess of power? They've got Owen.

At last year's ASG SC they also held the mascot hockey game after the broadcast was over. It was the best part of the night. The range of skills from some of them being barely able to skate to others being REALLY good at the hockey was surprising. Expected they'd all have at least reasonable skill. Sabretooth was solid last year. The Eastern mascots won last year because Carlson was a brick wall. Looks like both of those are still true this year. Interestingly (or not) the Rags didn't have a mascot last year and Detroit's mascot is a giant octopus but it isn't a costume (or at least it wasn't), so at last year's game the Eastern Conference was down 2 skaters but still won going away. Didn't pay close enough attention to see if those 2 finally got ones this year but didn't notice them if they were there. No idea why they couldn't find a way to broadcast these games. They're the best part of the AS weekend. But how pathetic is it that they had to set up Carlton with a situation that even a Loaf in the 1st round of the playoffs couldn't have not scored on? The game itself is entertaining enough. They don't need to coddle the stinkin' Loaf employees and fans. Pathetic. Pathetic indeed.

Not a movie role, but what could be bigger than playing himself in Arrested Development? RIP Apollo.

Yes, the celery is to the blue cheese what the cigarette is to the nicotine. It's the delivery device.

That's WHY everybody's a fat, as you put it, fuzuck. 😉

That's probably correct. Doesn't mean we can't pine for better. (But this year am not going to do so. #### 'em. Not losing an entire day of productivity watching Jordan Greenway end up the prize at the bottom of the Cracker Jack box.)

Still expect that Adams gets at least 2 more years (maybe if things really go off the rails next year that could be it for him) and that Granato gets at least 1 more year. (Though if Brind'amour truly were to be open to walking away from the Canes, Adams should be on top of that like white on rice.) And Adams has said repeatedly that he won't sacrifice the future for ST benefits. So, am expecting very little leading to and at this trade deadline. Unless the possibility of forcing their way back into the playoff picture has happened or looks likely by the deadline, the Sabres will sell some of the impending UFAs. Whether it becomes a wholesale dumping of them remains to be seen and will be very dependent upon them still hovering around an NHL 0.500. Do expect a couple of trades bringing in lower end guys for cheap much like the Stillman and Greenway trades last year. But just not seeing the blockbuster as it sure seems like Adams still believes in his guys and expect he chalks much of the nonmeeting of expectations on the injuries they've suffered. Trade deadline day used to be so fun and lately its just a big disappointment. Well, this year there are no expectations of anything fun happening, so it by definition CAN'T be a disappointment. So, take THAT Mr. Adams. You can't ruin trade deadline day because it's already reeking of a 2 week old whale carcass. And should you find a way to either sell some of the rotting blubber for something good or accidentally blow up half the beach trying to move it back out to sea, well either will be entertaining but neither is expected.

Wadr, no, THAT is what the blue cheese is for. Wings do not need blue cheese on them. And, can't really come up with anything that needs ranch on it. (At least not a straight ranch. When real dressings aren't available, a peppercorn ranch dressing is acceptable for a salad, though it still isn't necessarily a first choice.)

3rd death of a friend or sibling of a friend in just over one week. 1 from a battle with cancer. 1 from an illness. And one from complications from a fall. Hopefully that's it for a while.

The AHL.tv freebie was only Saturday and ONLY for watching the games live. (Had not caught that last part as was planning on watching the Amerks after the Sabres and Bandits games. Oops.)

Love Johnson, and he'll likely be a fixture in the top 4 LT. But, can we PLEASE stop projecting 2nd year D into major roles? Let him be 1/2 of the 3rd pairing next year and look like an absolute stud rather than force him higher into the lineup than he's likely ready for. Plus, it would be really a nice change to give Power a partner that can help cover his young D-man mistakes rather than the other way round. These kids have to cover for F mistakes often enough; cut them some slack.

There are. But am curious how good his English is. Being interviewed when upset and in a language that isn't your 1st is a recipe for giving a "good" quote to the reporter.

Whatevs. You responded before the edit took hold.

But on the broadcast they said he DID put weight on it once he got to the tunnel. If a lateral ligament in the knee was injured, he may not have wanted the skate on the ice because any twisting of the knee would've been excruciating but straight ahead movement would've been fine. It also could be the ankle. (Your guesses are also valid at this time, too.)

Always have viewed the green check mark as a "yes" and the red X as a "no." If they are viewed in that light, they are FAR more flexible and useful. Because 'yes' can also be a very brief 'agree with you here' and 'no' can also be a very brief 'nope, we are in disagreement.'