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If you've never done a Finger Lakes wine tour complete with overnight stay (at some place nice), you're missing out. NYS is blessed with those lakes, no other scenery/environment quite like it in North America. Would also recommend a day-trip, picnic and walk along the trails at Letchworth.

This I agree with. Each regime since Eichel didn't know how to - or wasn't allowed to - build a competitive team. Those players you mentioned, none of them were going to be placed in the correct environment with a competent roster which, as history has proven, is exactly what they needed to succeed (who doesn't?). We know Pegula has been meddling. Strike one. Therefore, we know they would never assemble a proper roster. Strike two. And, we also know a capable coaching/front-office regime would never manifest during this period. Strike three. All of the above aside, IMHO none of those players is the kind of character that can drag a team into the SCFs, let alone the play-offs (history proves this, too). And, sorry, we've also seen what Ullmark would look like in a play-off series. Assuming one of the players in question remained with the team and we made it into the play-offs with Ullmark, we'd still be talking about goal-tending. The only thing we'd have is a break in the play-off drought. We'd also have a roster and regime that no one wants to mess with because - at least - it got us a round in the play-offs despite its faults. I suppose my error here - my "perfect world" failure - is that I'm thinking of this as if we had an owner that learns from past mistakes.

Lots of "in a perfect world" in this statement. Not a one of those forwards plays a heavy SCF type of game. They all require a person on their line that relishes playing that way. Dahlin is the only one with all of the skillz including taking pleasure in playing mean. Montour was next closest. McCabe hits but, as I see it, doesn't enjoy it and he is a middling, or maybe slightly better, playoff D man. Put this way, we actually managed to retain the meanest of the bunch in Dahlin. When they were here, only ROR and, to some extent, Montour had the two-way game that eventually developed to help them win their Cups. You'd need to have a coaching staff, supporting players and especially a goalie to make it work, as we all know. Of all of them I think Reinhart would have been best to keep assuming his development arc remains as it has been - which is impossible without Maurice and Barkov.

It will be the final nail in the coffin for the Sabres' front office if it plays out like this. No one will want to get near that stink afterward. The rest of the hockey world understands that KA should not be GM of this team. KA has no leverage and if anything happens, it will be KA vacating the GM position. I would rather this be a move by Pegula to shake up the front office in a controlled manner.

Agreed. It could very well be a "play it as it goes" situation. As I've been reading this thread I'm struck by the notion that they may want to keep the present structure through the draft. Whomever they bring on will have input on the draft, and after that, based on the how things shake out, they proceed to solidifying a new management structure before the season begins. That would make the most sense both internally and as a PR exercise. Let's hope this is actually what they're thinking.

Against the McDavid line. Bodes well for the Cats.

Dallas is going to get steamrolled tonight.

I didn't think he liked women, so, okay.

Edmonton will make the series interesting again, at least more interesting than Dallas, but I do kind of like a "The Battle of Dixie" theme.

Aho, Stahl, and that Russian kid can all think about their sins over the summer.

Florida looked so dopey in the first period, too. They do this every year. Like a rope-a-dope.

Bennett planned the whole thing.

They literally can not talk about anything else for 90% of the time they have a local show on, so, that's what you get. Brought to you by Big Pharma®.

They looked tired. Would've been better to have won tonight to get a little extra recovery time before the SCFs. The Canes put in all they had and their 1/2 D pairs are going to be super sore.

Absolutely not. The bias of the league will be on full display, too. Double the penalties for Florida each game will be the norm.

The Panthers' PP can be very Sabre-like.

Man, I just can not get into this Oilers/Stars series. Especially tonight with the Stars clearly thinking about other things. I could never stand to watch the Oilers, generally, regardless of McDavid and Draisaitl on that team. I think we already had the best series of these playoffs with Florida vs. Toronto.

Samson out after a hit to the knee. I'd call it a dirty hit but at this point it's difficult to call any hit on a Panther "dirty".

Overall I agree with this except for the Sabres' part. I think the colors are right for our sweaters; always liked the original color combo. It is curious that the Sabres took basically the same exact color scheme as the Blues three years later.

It'll be quite the party atmosphere in Sunrise.

Our offense would be certifiably lethal. Maybe get another guy in there somewhere on offense who has some skill, isn't afraid to take hits and who can dish them out. Replace Sammuelson (and Power - but that ain't going to happen) with a person not made of thin glass and who knows how to clear the front of the net. This could be a good team and that's before finding a goalie who is top 16 NHL caliber.