...

Matt Moulson earned about $40 mil during his NHL career. He's fine. These guys are all fine, even John Scott.

This is something I definitely noticed. RK mentioned in the interview they really only had a day to practice with him (as I understood /recall it), but that these guys had been working with the Amerks' coaches. If nothing else, aside from the blueline, their attacking the front of the net was distinctly un-Sabre like. They have had the summer to sort out and discuss a framework for the system, and, again, other than instructing the D on how to manage the blueline, some simple instruction on getting to the front of the net is not out of the realm of possibility.

Sorry, you're right. I mis-spoke. Let me re-phrase it: The greed and ego on display here is pretty ugly.

The greed on display here is pretty ugly.

Agreed and agreed.

There has been dramatic change in this country as a result. I'm not going to whistle past the graveyard.

I miss the pre-9/11 America, still innocent then, even after the change of the millennium.

"It's creating pressure at the puck," he said. "And then as you move away from the puck and your role drops from second, third, fourth, fifth player, you will have more of a zone than a man focus. But at the puck, the aggressiveness is going to be important and what that does is stops those long, cycling shifts." "It's all about getting pucks back. It's about playing strong defense through strong offense and continuing to pressure teams when we don't have the puck." This sounds all so...elementary. Clearly they've identified this as at least one of the major issues. It leaves one to assume Disco Dan and Phil stressed zones and positioning over individual pressure. I do have to say RK is very openly stressing the concept of letting them play and seeing what they can do/what they have. I find this both curious and refreshing. Curious to see the results, also curious to know, again, to what extent Dan and Phil were dictating roles and responses, and refreshing because I don't think we've heard a coach say they want to leverage the player's individual strengths. Maybe Nolan in his own way, but definitely not Phil, Dan, Ron and Lindy. Whatever happens, October and November will be interesting just to see what RK does with the team.

No, because Bob was off all summer and his post came off more as an opinion than someone "in-the-know".

I'm not terribly upset over Dzingel and Gardiner and the rest of that tweet is speculative. I think what's upsetting right now is that Friedman didn't mention Risto today.

Here's a crazy thought: what if the intent at the beginning of the summer was to trade him, but RK has decided over the summer that Risto is a project he'd rather take on?

Not a peep about Risto in those 31 thoughts.

Yeah, no. I see how this happened. Mea culpa. I confused the fact that I think they're awful tasting with the fact they make me ill. I must think more of the bad taste than the illness they bring on. I can really only drink, and truly enjoy, IPAs. Not that I mind.

The only real surprise for me was Pekar. I don't know if he's NHL-ready, but I liked watching his game. Olofsson wasn't a surprise. He looked good in the games he played with the Sabres. He might be the droid they're looking for to bolster the third or second lines this season (wouldn't mind seeing him with Eichel again, too). I wasn't able to discern much on the D for whatever reason, so we'll see how camp goes.

Calling my taste in beer "issues" is hyperbolical. Are we supposed to enjoy gas station coffee, too?

That's most budget beers for me. I can't stand to even taste most of them, now. Shiner used to give me exceptionally bad headaches to boot. I did try an upscale wheat beer this past weekend at MiA. That was nasty, too. The only wheat beer I've liked since my 20's was an unfiltered wheat poured from a tavern in the Adirondacks from a brewer I can't remember.

FWIW: "The Buffalo Sabres today announced the team has assigned Lukas Rousek (Sparta Praha - Czech) and Matthew Welsh (Charlottetown - QMJHL) to their respective clubs, and released Stephen Harper, Bobby MacIntyre and Sebastian Vidmar from their tryouts. The team has also assigned Pascal Aquin, Justin Baudry, Tobie Bisson, Shaw Boomhower, Kurt Gosselin, Brett Murray and John Wiitala to Rochester for the Americans' training camp."

Is Keystone not beer?

I first encountered Shiner Bock when I lived in Austin. Stuff is n-a-s-t-y.

Yup, he's definitely gone.

Not on Twitter.

I don't think Aud's notice was based on that Tweet, though.