MattPie

"Well, back then they didn't say anything about their life, laughed at our gay jokes, and when we insulted people by calling them fags it they didn't make a stink. Life was so much simpler." 🤮

I took a look and it's not really close. Winnipeg is 730k, where Buffalo is 1,135k, but as you mention, Rochester is another 1,054k. You could dig up close to another 1M if you start talking about Syracuse, Ithaca, Elmira, maybe Erie PA (but they might be Pens fans over there). https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_metropolitan_areas_in_Northern_America

This only works if Buffalo keeps locking up players early. GMs don't seem to want to use offer sheets, but a retaliatory $13M/yr offer for Quinn (or whatever) would be annoying.

Hey, that's right now! lol

The Buffalo Renaissance Foundation has a section labeled, "Positive Thinking and Positive Change". Seems like a good fit for Buffalonil.

As he projects to be a 3/4 liner, 20 goals is the minimum acceptable number. The Sabres will never be good otherwise.

I really hope the Sabres do not pencil in three Rookies for the season along with the 3-4 2nd year players.

To be fair, there were several rookies and 2nd year guys on the roster. The growth can come from them learning, not like a team of vets that are already done getting better. Also:

That sounds ominously like "We're going to spend in FA."

Good news kids, you're no longer playing just during the intermission.

I took the original Ullmark suggestion as tongue-in-cheek. Is my humor filter off?

He's not as flashy and doesn't have the draft pedigree. But I agree with a bunch here that he's more likely to be playing in the bottom-6 this year than the younger guys in the [AW]HL. Those other players probably benefit more getting lots of top-line work in their leagues. The Sabres are *finally* at a point where they don't need 20 year old high-level offensive prospects playing 3rd and 4th line minutes because there's no one else to put in there, hopefully they'll use that.

And the dreaded Flyers won cups in year 7 and 8 of their existence. Vegas is not an really an outlier, other than their success the first year or two.

FUCALE! There's struggles like everyone else, and there's struggles *more* than everyone else, which is the implication here. While it seems like a goaltender is plug and play, some are better in some scenarios than others, and if you team tends to give up chances in certain scenarios it helps if your goaltender isn't below average when that happens. Once upon a time, there was a great analysis here on why Ryan Miller struggled in St Louis despite being solid here. I forget the details, but it was something like Miller liked to play at the top of the crease and relied on his D to shut down shots from the sides, where St Louis' D did not do that. So goals were pouring in on passes to the low circle. I honestly forget if this was the issue or the other way around, but it was a subtle observation and one of the best pieces of analysis I saw anywhere.

Did the podcast bring up taxes? It seems like those are two different things, maybe even in opposition in some cases. A place where the player wants to play isn't directly related net take-home pay. Sure, for some players that will be a big part of the calculus. But the Sabres have two players (so far 🤞) that have taken less money in a high-tax state to play. For normal people state taxes may be a sticking point, but when you're in the 1% of earners it becomes less of an issue for a lot of people.

Binghamton would seem to be a good fit, they (and Elmira) are in the FPHL (the what?) right now, but Bingo is a much larger city but still only three hours by car to Buffalo or Rochester. Erie PA might fit, although I'm not sure how much competition with the CHL Otters there'd be for entertainment $$.

IT'S HAPPENING!

Yeah, no. That's been going on well before the past 20 years.

That'd be cool. I lived in Binghamton when they were the AHL B-Sens. Lots of local Sens fans weren't happy when Pominville scored, lol.

Established teams can pull that off. Plus, Buffalo is constrained by the lake and border. Putting it in OP is probably easier as far more people live in suburbs east of Buffalo than downtown. Now, if you wanted to argue that the Bills should be in Lancaster, Amherst, or Cheektowoga, I'd fully agree. It's central to the local population and easier for Rochestarians to reach. The Meadowlands is right on the NJ Turnpike and there's a NJ Transit (train) stop on the edge of the parking lots. It's relatively easy for anyone in NYC to get there (subway to Penn Station, NJT to the Meadowlands (2 stops or something like that). The entire state on NJ seems to be oriented to the turnpike corridor, so there are plenty of trains running between Trenton and the Meadowlands. The primary people who lose out on that deal are the Long Island people, they have to do LI rail road and then NJT, but even that's not the end of the world. If anything, Batavia is a good parallel, but with Buffalo and Rochester are nowhere as big as the other cities we're talking about so it's not 100% dense suburb the whole way between them.

Some people aren't happy, and need to complain. But I suspect complaining about the weather is a placeholder for what they're really unhappy about, and that's something that's not acceptable to complain about. As you say, there are solutions available. As the sage Daniel Tiger teaches us, "try to solve the problem yourself, and you'll feel proud". Complaint: coming back from a few days of fun-work trip followed a few days by solo vacation, it's hard to get back into normal life. I realize this is a crappy complaint since I had a great time last week. Bicycling in Colorado is a blast.

That sounds like an FCC complaint in the making.

From what I remember from when Modo was relegated, the players have an out and become FA or something. I'm sure if varies by league/team/contract. Tidbit I didn't remember from before: VO was the top scorer on that Modo team. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Modo_Hockey

That's kinda wild, and fun.

At 40 points this year, he'd be around 160th in forwards. On average, that's 5th of 6th best on a team (160/32). If he'll sign something about $5M/yr you do it; having 2nd line production on your 3rd line is how good teams work. And that's 40 points, not the 59 points he actually scored this season which puts him coincidentally #59 in points. That is solidly 1st line (!!!). Now, if he was playing like a floaty winger (ahem, VO) maybe you don't, but he's also playing a solid all-around game.