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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.

Those are Kane's drinking buddies.

Drew with the epic back check!

He seems very calm for a goalie on a crappy team playing a Cup contender.

By the Paddle of Ethron!

WTF? How can the crowd be so dead? This is a pretty good game.

Praise be to proper stretching...can't say enough about how that can contribute to preventing an injury.

Might have been a fluke, but it looked to me like Conacher undressed that guy. I haven't seen Ennis undress a goalie that I can recall. I would say Chicago's shots on average are a much higher quality.

Possible hyper extension, I'd say. I think the status of the injury will depend on how well he stretches pregame.

Was that a slew foot on Myers?

Leino, you suck. In other news, NBC is saying nice things about Sabres players; what's going on?

Conacher took the goalie out with a move, who else can do that on this team?

I do not want this to turn out badly, however, this game here will be Enroth's first test in a while as a starter.

Yes, but his confidence and ego needed to be reset. This is what the Sabres needed for him to do.

I've been on board with this particular trade; it was pretty shrewd to set up the team with another potential starter. This is the reason, along with the cap space the Sabres have, I said elsewhere they could ice a team next season that could compete for eighth. If both goalies continue to play at the level we have seen, they'll either have a goalie problem of the good kind, or go back to calling them 1a and 1b.