Taro T

I L Well, if the crowd at the Fishies game was any indication, they've already sold a #### ton of the Lions/Cowboys Bills jerseys.

And why presume, if they don't pay Tuch, that they'll pay ANYBODY the money that he would've been getting? Wouldn't have minded the Peterka trade as much had they been sitting at $1MM in cap space now rather than $5.1MM. Trading Tuch (because he'll be the best player in the trade going either way) or letting him walk is the proverbial "canary in the coal mine." Still have time to sign him; but have little faith that Adams will be able to adjust capably to the Kaprisov signing and what it implies for new contracts moving forward.

The proposal was SPECIFICALLY for setting up that full concierge service between the blue lines at ice level. Know this one for a fact.

They probably did. And if they did, it would be because they're dumb. The players collectively get exactly 50% of HRR. Not a penny more or a penny less. If Crosby on paper is getting $12MM / rather than $8.7MM/ then the denominator that everyones salary gets parsed by is $3.3MM larger. Wgaf what you earn on paper when what matters is what you actually have in your pocket at the end of the day. This ISN'T Gordie Howe artificially lowering everybody's salary by accepting a $1k raise each year and a new varsity jacket. (As the legend goes.) Crosby is actually RAISING everybody else's salary by a few bucks by taking the deal that makes him happy.

Haven't seen any of them officially put in place yet. Not saying they haven't been, but haven't seen any reports of them actually getting enacted on an expedited schedule. And, you seriously believe the N-H-friggin'-L can't change a rule interpretation mid-year? We did mention we're talking the NHL, right? This is the same league that put out a "clarification" memo on how to enforce the in the crease rule about a month before the RS ended and THEN completely ignored that guidance when it was expedient. (Note to people in the Keystone State, not taking your bait from anyone when you respond to this post.) This league also decided in late '06 that it wouldn't let players play in the playoffs if they had been on IR all year; a position the league has since done a 180 on. But, teams have been told that it's very likely the new rules will be in place for the playoffs this year. As long as they're up front about it and everybody gets the same info at the same time; of course they can change the rules. You can argue all day as to whether they should or shouldn't; but it's not a should/shouldn't thing. It's a will they won't they one; and they absolutely can so they likely will.

AND 1. it is ENTIRELY self induced by ownership and management; and, 2. It won't go away until at a minimum they've either won a playoff series or made the playoffs 2 years in a row. That'll be necessary to not be viewed as being an afterhought, though it won't necessarily be sufficient.

True, but aren't even those still seeing them in only the low 90's? If that's where they are they're still putting a huge portion of their destiny on others failing rather than them succeeding. (And yes, in the East, it's been that way for at least 3 years, so it makes sense for it to happen again. But it's just so frustrating to see them once again not step up in the off-season and put themselves in a position where it would take some serious bad luck for them to miss rather than needing some serious good luck to make it.)

Technically it kicks in next year. There have been credible reports the league and PA are looking into implementing some provisions of the new MOU (due to take effect in September '26) as early as during this season. No data on exactly what will get implemented and what will slide to September.

Uh, define "lose seats." One of the proposals they seemed VERY interested in back a few years was replacing a lot of the seats down along center ice in the 100's with tables that 3 or 4 could sit and and watch the game getting a full concierge experience. Think the seats over by the bar on the 200 level behind / near the goal line that the Sabres defend twice. Hoping they don't decide to do that, because that would result in a full reshuffling of where everybody that's put up with this team for the past 15 or so years (with many being there for much longer than that) ends up having their tix.

That "big and opaque bug" is actually the ribbon board below the jumbotron (or whatever the monstrously big TV is officially called) that has the stats shown in rink. Would have money on it that isn't the MSG "score bug" we'll see when they start broadcasting the RS games.

He was recalled when Jones was sent down. D'oh! Meant to type Komorov.

And that's 8 healthy/available D for practice with Novikov. Komorov. 🍺

Yes, he's still waiver exempt. So, they aren't "sneaking" him down or up.

Kind of surprisng that Komorov is getting brought back up. There was no need to waive him the other day if they were considering keeping him up. Is there another injury to the D that we don't know about? Because with Samuelsson injured, that would give them 9 healthy D on the big roster.

Could definitely see FLA missing the playoffs if they get just 1 or 2 more LT injuries to KEY players. Until the Loafs miss the playoffs, won't expect it. Though they MAY take a step back to upper 90s, very low 100's with their latest moves and Tavares being even 1 more year older. But BOTH of them dropping all the way to sub-90? NFW.

Umm, Buffalo with 91 and BOTH FLA and TO with 89? Probably wouldn't be betting the farm on this model's output.

Reinhart. Ullmark. Give them both LT deals instead of 1 year deals and the whole trajectory of this team changes significantly.

Good GMs get out of bad contracts all the time. (So, yeah, it likely isn't expendable. 😉 )

Not convinced they "know" teams will give him that. But it does seem the PA is telling them somebody will and wants him to hold off from signing for anything less.

Could see him wanting to keep him around, but depending upon who's injured/ close to ready, he might not have the luxury of doing that. He's got 3 players out that might not be someone he wants to put on IR (Luukkonnen, Samuelsson, and Kulich) and if at least 2 of them are day to day but not ready 10 or so days from now, then he might not have the luxury of keeping Geertsen up. Do expect he'll see some action this year; and again, do believe Ruff would like to keep hm as a spare from day 1; but not convinced that makes sense as he'll likely keep Johnson and Bryson up (presuming Samuelsson doesn't go IR) leaving only 1 healthy spot in the press box. If Kulich's injury drags or if UPL is close but not quite ready; there's no room for Geertsen. (And am expecting Greenway to start on IR.)

Spencer Brown was clearly missed. Both of the 1st 1/2 sacks were likely due to him being out - the 1st one Jordan simply abused Van de Mark and the other one, Torrance got caught cheating too much to his right expecting to need to help Ryan and the stunt left him in no man's land. The good news is that apparently they were close to having Brown play today so he should be in against the Cheats next week. And, getting 31 points in a game where you were awful for an entire 1/4 without getting any particularly short fields until the very end, even against a bad team, is pretty impressive. As for the D stinking against the run, hopefully getting Hoecht into the lineup will help with keeping RBs to get the outside. Bosa's a great pass rusher, but he wasn't quite there on at least a couple of long Kamara runs. And the other guy hopefully will help too.

With Samuelsson injured, real good chance for Johnson to start the year in the top 6. Actually prefer that to Jones taking that slot all things equal as Johnson's still on the upswing and Jones is what he is.

Johnson - Mrtka Novikov - Komarov Metsa - ??? He'll gain more playing 20 minutes per game vs men than he would playing 27 vs kids. MHO. YMMV. Plus he's getting used to a potential future partner as a Sabre.

Cool. Did not realize that. Then he should be Ra-cha-cha bound. Sorry @DarthEbriate. 🍺

Figured they were down 2-1, gave up the empty netter and then scored very late in garbage time. So, other than the not scoring in true garbage time, nailed it. 🙄