SabresFan526
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Posts posted by SabresFan526
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It's been a long time since I've been here. Looks like I only post once a year, so let's make it a good one. From the outside, this seems to reflect more poorly on PLF than anyone else. Given his history in forcing a trade from Long Island, forcing a trade out of Buffalo, resigning from the Islanders after 40 days, and now abruptly resigning from the Sabres. It appears that while PLF is a very classy individual externally, his pattern of behavior indicates he's pretty temperamental and looks to dramatically leave a situation when things don't go his way.
Additionally, there were some rumors going around when Tim Murray was hired that apparently were planted by Jim Benning. So, it is not necessarily clear he is all that clean as an individual if planted rumors by competing GM candidates are to be believed.
Either way, while I am saddened by the trade of Miller and Ott, it was a huge haul for the Sabres and the right thing to do. Keeping Ted Nolan is also the right thing to do. I think Tim Murray is the right guy to lead the Sabres through this rebuild, and has remarkable candor that basically cuts through any and all BS is a welcome change from the previous regime that spoke primarily in ambiguity, excuses, and spin. I don't get much of that from Murray, which is nice.
Still would like to know why this all went down, but I imagine that this will largely remain a mystery for a while.
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My sense is that the lines will not fundamentally alter much for the rest of the season. I think Brad Boyes benefits most from this trade. My sense is that the lines will be:
Vanek-Roy-Pominville
Leino-Ennis-Stafford
Gerbe-Hodgson-Boyes
McCormick/Adam-Ellis-Kaleta
I think the fourth line turns into the "shutdown" line with now 3 scoring lines. But, if Hodgson is putting up points with fairly limited talent as linemates, I could see him simply moving into Gaustad's spot with Gerbe and Kaleta. Either way, I think this is a good addition to get some center depth with a true center and not some makeshift guy. We may lose more faceoffs without Gaustad, but I think this is a major upgrade in talent at the center position which has been desperately needed.
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I've heard a little bit about Hodgson prior to this deal. While he has been hidden in Vancouver, he's been very productive, and it's only his rookie year. His numbers from Juniors show he's an elite centerman
For me, getting a first rounder for Goose is just outrageous. Can't believe Nashville would turn a 7th round draft choice with limited skating ability, little offense, a little bit of toughness, and faceoff prowess for a 1st round pick. Great job by Darcy to get that one.
But, follow that up with this trade, in my mind is really good. Talked to some Vancouver friends and Hodgson is the real deal according to them. I fell for the Kassian hype as well, but his game hasn't really translated yet to the pros. Hodgson, joins the Sabres as the third leading goal scorer immediately. I understand he was going through what I call the Derek Roy effect when he was in Vancouver playing behind the Sedins and Kesler and getting some points like Roy did when he played behind Briere and Drury. But, it does seem like he's got some good talent and being productive with limited ice time. He's not a #1 Center today, but I think he could become one in 2 years and it does give the Sabres more scoring depth at Center now that we have learned Ennis is a revelation at Center. I'm excited seeing Hodgson play with say Gerbe and I expect Boyes (maybe Kaleta) and see how productive that line could become. Either way, I was never enamored with Gragnani and getting Hodgson for Kassian appears on paper like a good trade, but only time will tell.
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Sweet Caroline by Neil Diamond
Yup, that's it. Thanks.
Wow, not a very good song, but it sounds good over the TV when the game is in hand in the third period with under a minute left.
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This is totally random and probably does not even belong in this thread, but I'll give it a shot anyway. What's the song that they've been playing at HSBC with under a minute left and the game is pretty much in hand? It's a song that everyone in the stands seems to sing as well and it gets really loud. It sounds like some big band Frank Sinatra type song or Christmas jingle. I'm not sure what it is, but I'm curious to know.
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I'm a bit late per usual, but I enjoyed last night's game. Seems like the most complete win by the team this year and that, too, against a very good team in the Western Conference.
I know this was the 17th backup goalie the Sabres have played against, but I still believe they legitimately beat a really good team and even if Quick was in goal, I'm not sure he would have stopped some of those goals. It was great to finally see the PP working last night and against the best PK in the NHL. Notice that three out of the four goals were caused by getting shots on net and creating traffic in front. Wow, what a shock! A strategy that is known throughout the NHL finally working.
I really like Lindy's move of putting Roy on the point on the PP. It's really working and has been working for the last few games since he's been there. He's really aggressive about getting shots on net, and that's the key on the PP. You have to get shots on the net and let guys like Vanek and the other guys around crash the net and go after the loose garbage. It worked extremely well tonight, and will always work, it just takes getting shots on net instead of passing all the time. This move also puts Connolly in his more natural position on the half wall and puts Pominville up front where I think he's been more effective throughout his career on the PP than on the point.
Great to see Pominville get two assists tonight. Vanek has been playing extremely well since moving to the Right Side, and I found he was very successful last season when he made the switch towards the end of the year too. In fact he scored 6 goals in 2 games while playing on the right side. Also good to see Hecht get a nice one-timer goal on a nice pass by Pominville. And Tim Connolly finally decided to show up (maybe he's trying to impress Lombardi so that Regier could get something out of him). Gaustad came in with a really inspired effort tonight, so great to see that. And Miller kept the guys in it until the offense took over. Good team win tonight.
By the way, I have refrained from posting in the Rivet thread, but boy he looked awful last night. He was scared of getting hit on Simmonds goal rather than focused on blocking the shot. Granted, if it were me, I would have done the same thing, but again, I'm not paid $3.25 million a year to do that either. The hook on his first shift was an old player who's slowed down and can't catch up to the forward's speed. It's getting ugly for Rivet. It's too bad because I think he genuinely is trying and is putting in the effort, but boy the performance is not there.
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Do we officially have a streak in place? Great to get a win. However, with the new tiebreaker rules, the fact that the last two wins have been shootouts don't really help the Sabres if they are tied for 8th place because apparently Shootout Wins are negated from the win column when calculating tiebreakers. If that is the case, why not just have a separate column in the standings for Shootout wins so that you can count them separately and eliminate them from the tiebreaker altogether? Anyway, enough on that rant.
Sabres won! Yay! Two in a row! Even more Yay! Enroth has won two games in a row as well! Triple Yay! The Sabres have finally found a backup goaltender to Miller who can win games in spot duty! Quadruple Yay!
Good win and good to see Pominville finally get on the board.
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This was horribly frustrating. It reminded of a 2006-2007 Sabres game where the Sabres were completely outplayed and dominated for most of the game and somehow found a way to win. Tonight it was the Sabres who completely outplayed the Blackhawks and somehow found a way to lose. Ridiculous.
How can the Sabres not take it to Hjalmarsson or to Kopecky. This is just an incredibly soft team. Where's Kaleta? Where's Gaustad? Where's Rivet? Where's anyone? These guys are a bunch of pansies, and I'm sick of it.
The Sabres again gave up two goals because of long cross ice passes in which the forward got behind the defense. Hossa did this twice last game, again tonight and so did Bolland, and he almost scored the first time he did it. Do these guys have any awareness of where the forwards are on the ice? Seriously, you've been burned twice before and a third time earlier in the game, how do you miss this? Bolland's goal was totally Rivet's fault and I can't believe he missed him. Rivet is also ridiculously slow as a skater. It's time to retire.
This team is completely off right now. I'm really not even sure what the root cause of the problem is. It seems like everyone up and down the lineup including the coaches are just in a complete funk. There's not just one person you can pinpoint blame on because no one has really been overly better than anyone else on this team. This is the true sign of adversity, and during the next three days when they sit on this 4 game losing streak and think about what's going on will we see how this team reacts. I hope they don't just fold up and let the losing continue, but nothing indicates to me that they will turn this around. This is frustrating.
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Well, I usually don't post in this thread, but I'm really pissed off today, despite the great news of Jason Pominville signing a long term extension. Sitting behind my computer screen, you have no idea what I look like, but I am in fact a very proud guy of South Asian (Indian) descent. I wanted to start a new student organization at my MBA school. The reason is because South Asians (read people from India) represent about 20% of our student population and there is no student organization dedicated to this minority group. I developed a business case for our student government that approves new student organizations. Well, they rejected my idea. Here is the irony, one of the core values at my MBA school is diversity. They believe that creating a new organization geared towards South Asians will hinder diversity because it creates exclusion because we already have an International Business Association. Apparently, starting a club for South Asians will take students away from the International Business Association and creates more exclusion instead of inclusion. Well, here's my question, why is it okay to have student organizations for Black MBAs and Hispanic MBAs, but not for South Asians when they represent 20% of the student body? Why is it okay to be diverse if you're black or Hispanic, but if your South Asian you're just lumped with everyone else and you don't matter? Why are certain racial groups deemed important and the rest are just marginalized? If you are concerned about exclusion, then there shouldn't be student organizations for Black and Hispanic MBAs either. Why is it acceptable for certain minority groups to have clubs and others are just lumped with everyone else? By blatantly discriminating against one minority group you are destroying the diversity that you are trying to further along through the program, and I'm totally pissed off by this. My choices are to go public and totally bring down the entire school, which will make me look bad in the long run, or just accept the racism. Considering it's MBA school, I'm really trying to get a good, high paying job after the program, so letting this go is in my best financial interest, but I have principles and this just seems wrong. Not sure what to do, but it bugs the hell out of me, that's for sure.
Shake up in the office PAT LaFONTAINE RESIGNS
in The Aud Club
Posted
I think you hit it. This looks like LaFontaine vs. Batistta and LaFontaine lost. If you believe that this had nothing to do with Miller and Nolan, then this is the only plausible thing that makes sense. This would also seem like a power struggle between an insider with the title of VP of Hockey Businesses who does not report to the outsider who is President of Hockey Operations but reports to the owner directly. And there is where I think the power struggle took place.