K-9

With all due respect, your first sentence states you understand but disagree with my point and then you finish the first paragraph by essentially re-stating my very argument. Eichel is the best player in the deal. Hands down. Full stop. Which is what I said in my original post and, again, you go on to make the same point in your second paragraph, so I’m not sure that you disagree there either. It’s in your third paragraph that you actually disagree and that’s fine, but if Tuch and Krebs improve our team by adding to a greater improvement in overall team performance, then I’ll stand by my barometer for measuring which team benefits more from the deal. So, to sum up: Eichel is the best player but he can’t improve a cup finals team to a higher degree than Tuch and Krebs can improve the Sabres. Per your last paragraph, when Eichel returns to full form, how will we know if Vegas becomes “more of a beneficiary of the deal?” How, exactly, will that become readily apparent? By what measure? And I thought the change in text color was a nice touch of flair.😄

If winning the trade means the team that got the best player, it’s Vegas hands down. Full stop. But that is a shortsighted view. My barometer is what team is improved more? Vegas is a vastly superior team with less room for improvement, so it’s a taller order for Eichel. Can he improve Vegas more than Tuch, Krebs, and whatever future draft pick can improve the Sabres? Vegas has been to a cup finals already, so it could be argued that unless Eichel leads them to a cup then his addition will have improved the Golden Knights less than if Tuch and Krebs can help improve the Sabres enough just to reach the playoffs.

Maynard G reporting for duty, sir.

Per the bold, I think that’s entirely on us as a fan base. We are naive to think that any kid short of a Gretzky, Lemieux, or Crosby is gonna save anyone. I don’t blame the team for hyping up their prospects, but it’s on us to be smarter about an 18 year old’s ability to immediately impact change. We fans need to be smarter.

For crissakes. His record should be worse than Krueger’s given his best goalie, best center, and best winger all departed and the sheer number of injuries this season. What an absolutely myopic take. And please, point me to any post that has crowned DG with anything.

Eichel was a captain. Peca was a leader.

I feel the same way about DG. My only concern is his tactical/strategic ability; especially in game adjustments. Which is why I’ve said he is the right coach, right now for this team, but he may not be the one to take us all the way. I hope I’m wrong, because he will have deserved that.

My post wasn’t a knock on Tokarski, just a realization that he’s just so limited compared to Petersen. He’s having a good game, but I think we need a great one.

That's what prompted my concern about goaltending.

Why do I have the sinking feeling that this game will come down to goaltending and that LA has a goalie who will make the game saving stop and ours won't?

Who? Petersen?

Depends.

Agree with all of this. Still wondering if it’s a league wide mandate. After all, there are Russian players throughout the league. Some of them super stars like OV.

Is this a league wide policy? I know that political signs have long been barred from sporting events, but this is the first I’ve heard of actual flags being disallowed.

The only way Putin is not in charge is if someone in his inner circle takes him out.

I had you pegged as more of a Sandy Duncan as Peter Pan guy. 😂

Done!

There’s a certain kind elegance to the economy of words. Well done.

Cozens will demand the D assignment and shut Matthew’s down. Matthews will need PP points to get in the scoresheet. Matthews wilts

Houston here we come.

Per the bold, perhaps you haven’t been paying attention to Russia since Putin gained power 22 years ago. The oligarchs have never pressured Putin; in fact it’s quite the opposite. They do his bidding, not the other way around. That said, I agree entirely that the only pain Putin responds to is financial.

You’ve done a complete 180 from where you were a few short years ago when I was screaming for Housley’s and Botterill’s heads on a platter over at the Off the Wall Sabres thread at TBD and you were telling me we had to have patience. 😂 What are the owners’ expectations? What is their limit with KA? Given that the current rebuild strategy is different than what we’ve seen previously, I suspect their expectations are radically different than yours. I think they may have found the patience you have lost.