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/message Just remember the next time someone makes a fringe statement like this and you're on the verge of freaking out on them for it: no one is freaking out on you for your fringe statement. /end message

NSFW: http://youtu.be/vpmgO4BTNCc

I hope everyone in WNY is ready to be nailed by a fast-moving blizzard. If you're unawares, go to your favorite weather site and read the warnings. It's apocalyptic! Be safe!

Dunno, I don't think they made a deal out of it.

Oh, look, Hogan's Heroes is on.

Weak, weak sauce.

But you said... forget it.

You're not missing much. 3-1 Nashville.

A new GM is going to help their record this season?

He said "whether that's in 2014 or 2015..."

Konopka and Scott on the fourth line. I like. Goose ought just go back to the bench. Hodgson = comic relief on ice tonight.

I fail to understand this comment. The Sabres get a pick from the Isles regardless of who the GM is.

The cats are in the tank and not in the tank at the same time.

I'd rather be living in Nashville than Buffalo, but, le sigh, I will probably always be a Sabres fan.

These days anything significant like that will probably cause a game to be rescheduled. It's just the times and how things have changed. I don't disagree with it at all; at the very least it gives one team more of an advantage if it's not their player.

Neuvirth mentioned something in his first interview here in Buffalo that I found positive: he recognized that this was a team that is rebuilding and he said he liked the idea of a team growing together, and, by implication, bonding together. Young players, especially, must find this prospect enticing. These guys grow up in team environments, and spend their formative years on the same teams in minor leagues; I would have to imagine getting onto a team and developing relationships within it, and then trying to take that bundle all the way to glory has a lot of appeal. Certainly, if I were a player, that'd be the path I'd like to take, rather than being with a bunch of mercenaries. Even now, we saw Miller and other members of the old "core" lamenting it being broken apart; guys becoming all upset when others are traded or leave. There are some players who are all about the money, but, to a man, I think they all in some way, yearn to be on a roster that stays intact a long time.

Anyone know what the average annual salary of a NHL coach is?

I think hosting a league-wide scouting combine is more a matter of PR and economics, far over preserving the ability to scout as many prospects as possible (which they can do, presently, outside an inclusive combine). That's not to say this can't be another bullet point among the reasons why, but I would hazard to say it's low on the list...right now. However, I do not understand the complaint from the GMs, other than it being a superficial "fairness" thing. How much can it cost that having dozens of personal combines is restrictive or unfair? Stupid.

Anyone else having issues with NHL video? Regardless of the team, if it's coming from the NHL video server, it's borked on my end. And that's over 4 different computers, and I have FIOS. Nevermind...if I turn the tracking back on, it works fine. Figures...NHL can't respect your privacy (pronounced "priv - eh - see").

Oh no! I've been deluca'd.

Agreed. I haven't looked up the numbers, but just by watching games it's clear the matches featuring Western Conferences teams are more intense. Even the crowds seem more into it in the west. It's a shame, too, because a team like Boston wouldn't make it to the finals against a St. Louis or maybe a Chicago (I haven't seen enough Ducks games to make this call, although I could surmise it, I suppose) if the playoffs were arranged without conferences.

You don't have to re-watch the game. He was bad. If memory serves, one of those spirited hits along the boards resulted in him flat on his little fanny, while the dude he hit skated past him. Now, Conacher and Ennis were spirited. Conacher has a pretty decent two-way game that needs work, but he's not far behind like Hodgson is/was, and it's seems he's willing to do it.

NHL to Sabres: "Be thankful you still have a team and shaddup".

That wasn't crème in the donuts PLF brought to work every Friday morning.