Taro T

RIP George Wendt. Actor behind one of the greatest TV characters of all time.

Teams WERE aware of him. But still, he was sliding down the draft board. He went 13th overall. AND he was selected by the team that almost definitely had more interaction with him and watched him more than any other team. And the Sabres didn't just have their scouts watch him. Their development people were watching him too as he was Savoie's linemate. You will be hard pressed to convince me that he still would've been the Sabres selection had they not drafted Savoie one season earlier. This is a kid that did the Ryan O'Reilly and made the NHL straight out of junior in his draft year and WASN'T a top 2 or 3 pick. THAT doesn't happen often. ROR at least is a really big guy. Benson slid because of his physical measurements. The Sabres took the chance on him because they actually knew him.

Actually, they needed to do that at the trade deadline 2 years ago BEFORE missing the playoffs by 1 point. Could they have traded maybe say Rosen and a 2nd or 3rd for a W that could've helped them gain exactly 2 points out of their last 35-40 points that year? They needed exactly 1 single regulation loss to turn into a W to have gotten to the dance. Yeah, with that small of a move, they'd still be looking at possilby heading to year 3 of a new playoffless drought, but most all teams suffer those stretches. Going for 15 is friggin' epic and not in a good way.

Because they wouldn't have seen him play live anywhere near as often as they did watching Savoie's development in his D+1 year. And, honestly, that isn't a putdown on the scouting department. I believe that they watched this kid way more than they would've otherwise and they also even more importantly interacted with him, his coach, those around him way more than they would've otherwise. And those interactions swung them towards the kid that had the talent to be top 3, but lacked both the size and skating which went a long way towards scaring other teams off. They might've taken him if he could skate like lightning or if he were an inch or 2 taller; but that kid got drafted for the intangibles that come together and let him be effective even though he really shouldn't be as his only physical trait that's pretty much at the top of the scale is his passing. And the intangibles don't fully come through unless you actually interact with him. My 2 cents. YMMV.

Likely correct. But that's why these are a best out of 7 and not 1 and done like in the NFL.

True, but because the Sabres drafted him they ended up with 2 very useful players - McLeod and Benson. Really doubt they have either if they hadn't drafted Savoie. So, some good came out of that selection.

Still remember seeing Mike Myers leaping around at the end of an SNL broadcast as the Gilmour led Loafs won a game 7 against St. Louis to get to the conference final against LA. He didn't seem as ecstatic the next time TO played on a Saturday. 😉

Yup. And that Maple Loafs stink can wash off after a few dips in the Niagara. Not big on discussing him though, because really don't see any possibility of him coming here actually happening. And yeah, he stinks in the playoffs. 1st world problems. Worry about THAT when the Sabres don't have to cross a mile long minefield bordered by razor wire with armed drones hovering overhead to even think about it. (How getting to the mid-90s is equivalent to that for them is unfathomable, but yet, here we are staring at the possibility of reaching year 15 with the streak intact.) He'd help navigate the minefield. Still need extra help to get through the barbed wire and evading the drones; but it'd be a start.

You quoted @PromoTheRobot who's takes don't necessarily reflect the attitudes of the board as a whole. Just sayin'. Personally, would take the last 14 years of any squad EXCEPT the Yotes and Seattle. The Yotes because sneaking into the dance through the Covid play-in (that the Sabres would've qualified for had the league shut down 2 days earlier; & likely would've qualified for if it shut down 1 day later) is in no way shape or form worth the annual will we or won't we lose our team with that answer eventually finally ending up last year being "yup, you lose your team" and Seattle because their non-existance for the 1st 10 or so years of the drought and missing the playoffs in all but 1 of the few remaining years is less desireable than having what we've had for the last 14. Might take the Sabres plight over that of a handful of others; would have to think about it. But ottomh, the Yotes and Kraker fan bases are the only ones that haven't had an appreciably better 14 years than the Sabres fans have had. But that doesn't make watching the Biff Tannens of the league get their comeuppance any better or worse. They are 2 distinct items and some can view them in that light. To Biffs everywhere, enjoy your carload of digested oats as I get ready to take another run at that football. Know I'm gonna kick it THIS time. For sure. Well, maybe. Possibly.

Well, unless he gets into at least 13 playoff games over the next 13.5 months, that bet is done. Still needs 95 more NHL games to reach the plateau with only 82 more RS games available for him to do it.

Hey, let's leave NY Giant fans out of this discussion. 😉

While not disagreeing with this. Believe the bigger issue is he has rarely been put in the position of being the 2nd pairing stay at home D and the corollaries of that is he's been asked to be the stay at home guy on the top pairing far too often and also at least from the eye test, Samuelsson - Power is a really bad combination for whatever reason and is a big part of why they don't use him as the 4. (And if he COULD play well with Power, then they could probably find a way to make stuff work with keeping the top 4 together while having Bernard-Dockery and 1 vet waiting for the 2 defensive D-men down in Ra-cha-cha to be ready to graduate to the show. But he just can't for whatever reason.)

The issue with that trade is, while you've now found Power's partner, you also are back to square one in finding Dahlin's partner. And finding a guy that can play as the 2 would seem to be a tougher hole to fill than finding the 4. (But it does SEEM the Sabres are determined to not keep Byram, so guess that boat has already sailed, or at minimum is rigging up to set sail.)

The Rush were desperate, particularly in the 4th, and the Bandits weren't. Too many loose balls lost. Too many shots JUST wide leading to easy clears for the Rush. Wyers had 1 bad minute (got beat on a 1 on 1 battle, then was off his mark on a shot he should've soaked and normally would've) in the middle of the 4th and the Rush ended up with 2 goals because of it. They gave up a goal with less than a second left in the 2nd Q after having just about every single Bandit go into a very un-Bandit-like scramble leaving an easy nearly uncontested 3 on 1 shot to go into the 1/2 tied at 6. Bandits might've been better off heading into the 4th down a goal instead of up by one. Then THEY might've had some desperation to their game. Saturday will be a good one. Hopefully the Bandits win that "race to 11" this time. They did Friday and didn't quite yesterday.

Close, not 0 for the 80's (to follow on the Bills 0 for the 70's) but it was 10 years - '83-'92. And of course the 20th Anniversary Slogan, to follow the 10th Anniversary's "The Best is yet to Come," was "Celebrate the Tradition." After 7 consecutive seasons of not getting to the 2nd round, the marketing department chose "Celebrate the Tradition" as their rallying cry. Tone deaf for sure. But, regarding the actual focus of your post, YOU don't sit in the stands when the A-hole Loaf fans invade OUR building. Some of us do. And, for those of us that do, we despise the Loafs even more than the B's, the Phlyers, or the Aisles, or (pick your own personal squad of demons). Their fans are beyond obnoxious. And they paid for their tickets, so they get to do whatever those all so wellknown for being the nicest people on earth (yeah, right 😒) Canuckleheads want to do short of inciting violence. But it doesn't mean any of us have to like them and we sure as heck can take small comfort from them getting their just desserts handed to them. They're the NY Yankee fans of the hockey world, except nearly all of them have NO SUCCESSES within their OWN lifetimes to celebrate. (Cowboys fans are quickly joining the Loaf fan ranks as well, too. Good for them.) They've not even made it to the Final since the league expanded beyond 6 franchises. And, while it isn't classy to cheer for the bully to get his arse handed to him, it sure does feel good. (Until next year, when it'll all likely repeat itself, and the Sabres end up pitiful again and the Loafs are certain they'll finally have handed to them what they've richly deserved (in their fans own demented minds) for nearly the past 60 years only to have it ripped from them again.) And while the Sabres fans may be Charlie Brown getting the football pulled away once again by Lucy. At least we're not Biff Tannen getting the car full of #### that he so richly deserves once again. Was it classless to laugh at that? Perhaps. But it sure did feel good. Well, with that said, time to make like a tree and get out of here.

No, it IS true. ONLY ONE player has SURPASSED 200 points and that player is the Great Dhane Smith. The current Head Coach for the Bandits, who happens to be the greatest box lacrosse player of all time, REACHED 200 career playoff points. Reaching 200 is NOT SURPASSING 200 points.

Don't care who they SAY is the best goalie. The ACTUAL best goalie put on a clinic after the 3 minute mark. No goals at all given up for the last 1-1/2 quarters. With some absolute highlight reel saves. My boy MacKay continued to show us why they've moved him from transition to (nearly) full-time O with 4 of the Bandits 1st 8 goals. Smith set the all-time playoff record for scoring as he became the 1st player ever to surpass 200 playoff points in a career. He finished the night with a hatty and 5 helpers. Buchanan also had a hatty. Byrne and Frazier rounded out the Bandit scoring. Can take their 3rd consecutive and 7th overall championship Sunday night at 8PM Eastern in Saskatoon. Game will be on the same networks this one was (ESPN+, NLL+, TSN, TSN+). LET'S GO BAN-DITS!!!!!!!!

Shouldn't "fans" be in quotation marks?

Not gonna celebrate until they've lost one more to the Swamp Cats besides tonight's game. Like Magic Max said "MOSTLY dead, isn't ALL dead." Hopefully they're all dead soon.

Hope not. And then hope it continues into the next 37 consecutive seasons. Let them annually score A goal against the Otters, just because.

So, seriously, you WOULDN'T see bringing in a guy like Lamiorello as an indication that Pegula is changing the way he operates? How would that in any way be keeping to his modus operandi we've grown accustomed to since Craig Patrick and Pat Lafontaine left?

Game is airing for free on FloTV's YouTube channel.

Why necessarily a FORMER Sabre? Why not a CURRENT Sabre? Maybe THIS is the REAL reason Jacob Bryson was re-signed. Not to spend his game days in the press box, but rather to spend his game days in that area NEXT to the bench. He should have very good insights into what the team is doing as he'll be helping the equipment bring the sticks back into the dressing room after the game and he'll be practicing with the regulars the next day. On the rare days that he's an injury fill-in imagine how much better his reports to Dan Dunleavy will be. 4D chess indeed Mr. Adams.

Sadly, believe @SwampD nailed it.

Not sure that Lamiorello (if he were to come here) is the right guy for the PoHO. But bringing someone in of his stature does do one thing for the organization. It gives the team (and more specifically ownership) the greenlight to make wholesale changes. A refrain we keep hearing is that Adams still has a job because of 2 reasons: 1 Pegula likes and trusts him; but also because 2. Pegula has a reputation for being too quick to fire people and then make significant course corrections from there. Well, if Lou were the one to say "wtf are you doing with this guy as the GM, and wtf are you doing with Forton as the Associate GM, and wtf is Nightengale doing here, ...; then it isn't "Pegula is off making changes willy nilly again" it's Pegula is listening to a HoF executive (if Lou isn't in the HoF as a builder, he certainly will be when he finally retires and becomes eligible) and finally heeding good advice. THAT's the biggest thing that ANY potential PoHO or Senior Advisor or whatever you want to call it brings to the or-gan-eye-zay-shun. Regardless of whether he technically reports to Adams or Pegula; don't think for a moment a guy like that would be afraid of going around Adams any more than Adams was afraid to go around Botterill. So, though Lou isn't my 1st choice, would love to see him come in because he brings credibility to the team. If not today, then by mid-season or next off-season at the latest. Because either that blind squirrel finally finds his nut and Lou doesn't HAVE to say punt anybody (though he still mght), or the blind squirrel fails once again to land the nut and Lou is there to help ownership make the "no brainer" decision. Either way - victory. (Small as it may be; and personally will take a small W now and hope it's the beginning of a streak.)