Samson's Flow

And a lady! Welcome aboard!

Toronto broadcast just mentioned Regehr not on the bench. Anyone see what happened to him?

Well two games and three days into the NHL season, the numbers seem to agree with you. Not sure it will last till next week but it's good to be in the conversation

With Foligno out on the 5 minute major, the inevitable Hecht promotion puts him to the second line. All we need now is for Vanek to get in a fight and its 1st line Hecht all over again. :lol:

Good teams win games like that. They aren't all dominant...

Let's come out strong here in the third. Way too much defending for my comfort. Earn this victory and put the game away

Maybe another one we chalk up to 'post-lockout emphasis'? :unsure:

After watching two games of Leopold this season, i'd be inclined to agree with you. Just mentioned the Greene injury on the Sportsnet CA feed. They mentioned that the Kings have enough depth to absorb it but looking at their roster I just don't see it...

Yeah, toronto broadcast said every person in the arena gets a free blue/white scarf. Happy lockout!

Well they did say that locally there was a big contest to line up in front of the ACC to get free tickets. Sounds like a good way to see a game for those notorious for pinching pennies... :devil:

Philly and Buffalo market on the Sabres home opener right before NFC and AFC championship games. I'm not surprised. Even casual sports fans had 2+ hours to kill before the Falcons v. 49ers game.

Watching the game broadcast deep in enemy territory is certainly interesting... The Leafs announcers certainly thought that Orr beat Scott handily with a final punch - I didn't see anything but a stumble but w/e. I don't think we have to defend our team's fighting ability anymore with Scott being our bruiser. Just enjoy watching the fight. The leafs announcers also were going crazy when Myers left the box when his penalty expired. Not sure why? at that point it was only Ott in the box and Stafford stayed in to prevent the too many men on the ice penalty. Seems like just a case of we would rather have Myers than Stafford on the PK for the remaining 1:15. What a PK regardless. Special teams may be a strength this year based on our two game sample yeah loved seeing that after a scramble on the PK. Clear the crease boys!

Hey that's 1/10th of the Canadian military - show some respect! :nana:

Would they get on with it already? I've been up in Toronto all day (for work - not shelling out a fortune to go to the game) and this is all anyone has been talking about. From the casual fan to the newscasts its all Leafs hockey all the time. I fully expect to ruin their day tomorrow morning by bragging about the Sabres beatdown.

It would certainly give us a faceoff specialist and more gritty play that inkman has been asking for (although not in the top 6). If it is for Sekera we would lose the youth potential on defense for a forward upgrade.

Yeah from the first time I saw this kid at the practice on Monday, it was pretty clear he was going to stay at least for the 5 game tryout. IMO there's no way he's being sent down, shortened season or not.

Agreed, which is why I identified O'Reilly as a player that could be targeted due to his circumstance that could pay off substantially in the long run. IMO it is always better to have a team full of centers that are forced to play wing rather than wings forced to play centers. I don't think it is super realistic that COL is going to trade a young NHL center prospect but I would certainly be asking about it if I were a GM...

Which is why in my fairytale idea to acquire O'Reilly I mentioned that we trade for his rights rather than go offer sheets. The offer sheet route is a lose-lose. You piss off potential trading partners and you don't get the player anyways cause they match. That and we need to trade roster players to avoid losing them for free. Why not take advantage of a unique scenario stemming from the lockout/KHL contracts? Which is why I don't think it costs as much as it would to trade for a signed O'Reilly that would play this saturday. The Avs seem to be in a position where they won't have him for the season unless they sign him for multiple years. Wouldn't they want NHL players that can help them rather than the idea of O'Reilly who will still be playing in the KHL?

Unfortunately, 99% of the trades discussed on message boards are wishful thinking and never happen. I appreciate the discussion at least :thumbsup:

To that point maybe Ennis is just that good at faceoffs that he made Grigs look bad. 50% on draws is far from horrible for a scoring type center. He may never get sent out there for the clutch draws but that could work for the average game faceoffs. It is the Q versus the NHL talent level though... Ott is probably the solution this season at least

I see what you are saying, but at the 1st and 3rd round price I think that COL would just match. To your point about getting the 1st back I think we could get that for Leopold at the trade deadline but not right now as by all reports it sounds like teams think the defensemen market is too high for trades and other teams may just want to wait until the waiver period on Thursday.

I agree that Regehr will be re-signed. He needs more than a few years to fully assert his change of culture on the defense. That is why most people around here seem to land on Leopold as the veteran expiring contract being moved. To the bolded above, does that mean that you are chosing Weber over Pardy and Brennan? EDIT: based on the assumptions above, it would look like the Sabres would need to trade Leopold and Pardy prior to the Friday roster deadline to get to a more reasonable 7 NHL defensemen. That would keep Myers, Regehr, Ehrhoff, Sekera, Sultzer, Weber, Brennan

Beacuse regardless we need to move 2 defensemen or lose them to waivers for free. I'd rather trade for his rights and all it does is cost cash as fixes the roster logjam than give up picks from the offer sheet and then lose the 2 defensemen to waivers or trade them for worse picks. It's all about maximizing the assets you have available to you.

Just throwing it out there but what are the chances the Sabres trade for O'Reilly from COL and offer him 5 years to get him to come back to the NHL from the KHL. Based on what I have read his issue is contract length and is planning on staying in the KHL until he gets a longer deal. If we could package multiple defensemen for O'Reilly that would solve the roster logjam and get a promising young player in return.

Good point on the PP issue. The sabres don't seem to be as weak in that department as they used to. I think the crux of the issue here is which of the bottom 3 waiver neccessary defensemen would you rather retain. The ones I am looking at is Pardy, Weber and Brennan. To me those are the bottom 3 NHL guys (with McNabb able to go back to AHL no problem IIRC). To me the best defenseman at this point and in the future is Brennan. Weber has been inconsistent on the defensive end and since he doesn't bring much offense that is a more glaring issue. Pardy we don't know what we have as fans since we haven't seen much of him, but it looks like he played sparingly in Dallas (who appear to have much worse D depth than Buffalo). therefore you find a lower end trade to move Pardy and/or Weber to keep the 23 yr old potential in Brennan. Unless you really shake the boat and make a package deal for a O'Reilly and picks.