...

Always a slight chance. There is one spot open effectively but maybe two for the opening night roster. You don't want Benson being the 13th or 14th forward.

He looks so cute and huggable next to the beastly Boston players. He needs to have his man-body develop more.

I think they increased the meds for Boston's PBP guy.

Is he brave? Or is he stupid? If Russia is back to its heyday of '60s-style oppression isn't he putting his family at risk regardless of their difference of opinion? They could be arrested and thrown in the gulag. Sent to Siberia. Undoubtedly his family will become pariahs. It's a pretty selfish act that will have zero impact on the decisions of such a ruthless, heartless villain like Vladimir Putin. He says "I probably can't go back to my Motherland, where I grew up" but the article ends stating "he has not gone back to Russia the past off seasons and does not intend to until matters improve." Well, which is it, you can never go back or will you go back later? This is like Russian media asking Jake McCabe to opine on the illegal immigrant crisis here. Someone is selling a narrative and Zadorov, with his "child's hope", happens to be happy to help. It's not about hockey and it's off-topic.

That's the "take away Tua's first choice" discussion. If they can do that and force him to think while the pocket collapses he becomes a crash test dummy.

The game will hinge on Buffalo's ability to hit Tua. Miami will do whatever they can to prevent sacks and will have to sacrifice other parts of their game if Buffalo can figure out a way to breach the offensive line. Sacks would be ideal, but clean hits would work, too.

Pfft. What are they predicting the playoff threshold to be?

I thought he started calling plays in the third strictly to run down the clock. Seemed to me the offensive strategy for the entire second half was time management first, every thing else second.

Not how I had you pictured in my mind. Well, I had the physique correct. I missed the blonde hair.

That's people: once they have acquired a bias even when directly exposed to the truth they will not revise their thinking.

Is Rochester out of market?

Yeah, but, why?

Why?

Just because it's a hockey player talking doesn't make this anything more than an OT thread.

They're going with three goalies, what do you expect?

Not according to about half the pundits I read and listen to. The complaint is that he hasn't been managing the Sabres' roster well enough to assure making the playoffs this coming season. I think this is valid and I think the complaint that the Sabres have been perpetually building toward the future is valid. I think the "goal" of this season should be to for the Sabres to lay down their hand and prove something.

Brian Duff said this on Tuesday; that the internal expectation for this season is to make it to the playoffs and compete for the Cup.

I think there are two far more appropriate takes on the Babs-n-Buffalo narrative than what @PASabreFan is proffering: Buffalo Sabres fandom ought to be thanking Mrs. Babcock for being snooty and not allowing Mikey to play with us. We avoided an awful lot of additional dreadful theatre thanks to her. Assuming Babcock did indeed merely use Buffalo to maximize his contract with Toronto, he is now suffering the bad karma he earned by doing so. The problem with constantly pointing out the failures of the Sabres and weaknesses of the Sabres' fan base is that all teams and fan bases, in time, are prone to the same failures and weaknesses. It's not just us; it's people. We have other issues that are idiomatic which never seem to roll into the discussion and that is because, IMHO, such a discussion would be exceptionally polarizing here on Sabrespace.

There's a certain class of citizen in this area that loves melodrama and this is a great illustration of it. And I'm not saying this to knock down the events described or the people mentioned, I think those are certainly excellent examples of good folk doing good things. But does it make Buffalo "the nicest place in America"? Not to anyone who has traveled the country. The entire country, except for certain pockets where citizens have been thoroughly transformed into ugly things, is full of nice people. This kind of article ignores tragedies and stories of humanity that occur throughout the country like hurricanes in Florida, 80 dead from a tornado in Kentucky, and on and on. Every area is tested eventually. Every area has people so traumatized by those tests that entering a prose contest is some sort of catharsis for them. Which is fine, but this article is a brief moment of feel-good that's more useful in an incumbent's re-election campaign than it is in establishing any particular measure.

Of course it wasn't going to be a match. However, it seems to me the reason Babcock is being roasted is because it's been shown - since he landed in Toronto - that he's a creepy troglodyte. No one until you has brought up the Buffalo connection and that his wife was offended by the shopping options here.

Okay, everyone, listen up! @PASabreFan is mocking everyone who was angry that Babcock passed us up back in the day and is now down on him because he's too old school to keep a coaching job in the NHL. If this is you, feel shame because you're being called out by a guy who certainly saw through everything starting the moment it was leaked Buffalo was talking to Babcock. PA knew this is how it would end for Babcock - you didn't. That's the message. Live with it.

Average would mean the list represented only 20.83 teams.

Nearly everyone is one-n-one and all is right with right with the world.