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Can't listen to the video but I can tell by breezing through it the crust is all sorts of wrong. Dunno what he's doing with that sauce, either. Pizza across the Buffalo metro area, including the Falls, varies widely. The elements that are common to pizza in WNY is the texture of the dough and not necessarily the flavour (although I tend to think the dough is fundamentally heavy on the yeast flavour), the pepperoni, a shockingly basic sauce, and a slight emphasis on the oregano and garlic. If the crust is stiff or too dense and not slightly chewy then the crust is a fail.

It is surprisingly generic. La Hacienda Brighton has really good pizza and wings.

Sure, it "could unlock an unprecedented ceiling" and I'm for acquiring McDavid if it can be accomplished prudently, but let's examine the statistical problem. Are we not expecting more points from the entire (projected) second line (Peterka, Cozens, Quinn - Quinn's injury notwithstanding)? How much of a drop in scoring are you expecting to see - enough where it isn't offset by an increase in production by said players alone? Although I think it's reasonable to expect other players like Dahlin, Mitts, Krebs and Power for example to score not a lot, but a few more. I don't expect the defensive responsibility adjustment to yield a terribly large drop from our standing in the seasonal scoring chart after factoring in expected gains from players as mentioned above. Unless it all goes wrong and the adjustment impedes our skaters' ability to score. That would be something. I don't know if Meatballs would have had them play the game the way they did just to tell them not to play that way. We've seen that before. Anyway, almost like being a President's Trophy winner automatically disqualifies a team from winning the Cup that year, I think the numbers below plainly show that being a league leader doesn't always give you a free pass to winning the Cup. For 3/4 of the time the average standing is 9th (7th over an 8 season sample). I think we'd be okay without McDavid coming in and blowing up the roster plan. It also shows us that a McDavid team isn't all that special in scoring with the exception of this last season. YEAR SCW STANDING GOALS 2023 Vegas 14th 267 (Oilers 1st 325) 2022 Colorado Avalanche 4th 308 (Oilers 8th 285) 2021 Tampa Bay Lightning 9th 180 (Oilers 7th 183) 2020 Tampa Bay Lightning - 1st 243 (Oilers 11th 223) 2019 St. Louis Blues 15th 244 (Oilers 20th 229) 2018 Washington Capitals 9th 256 (Oilers 20th 229) 2017 Pittsburgh Penguins 1st 278 (Oilers 8th 243) 2016 Pittsburgh Penguins 3rd 241 (Oilers 25th 199 [tied with the Sabres FWIW])

Tage + four first round picks + Quinn or Peterka + prospects to fix a statistical problem we don't have and to gain ephemeral labels and status we could earn by winning a few rounds in the playoffs? I think you're just playing around now.

Yes.

Without a Quinn or a Peterka added to that list it wouldn't be enough IMHO. And at that point you're certainly gutting the roster train KA has been building up. You're doing this when scoring is not an issue. There would need to be a guarantee McDavid extends his contract here If you're giving up all of those assets. Right now I'd rather use those assets on an elite goalie and/or a top 3 defenseman.

Last season: Oilers scored 325 (1st) Sabres scored 293 (3rd) Vegas scored 267 (14th) We don't have a scoring problem that's worth gutting the team to fix.

If McDavid wants out and he wants to come to the Sabres specifically he might have to wait until he's a UFA to make that happen. There is no way whatever we would give up will amount to a fair trade for McDavid. We absolutely will not give up any of our core players and our high-value prospects. It's not even worth speculating that we will because we know we won't. The only exception that I see possible is if McDavid actually does start saying publickly that he wants out (which I would be surprised if he goes that route being "the face of the NHL" but it did work for Eichel). If he does then that leaves the Oilers no choice but to accept whatever the best offer is from the team(s) McDavid is willing to go to. We could send them a single high-value prospect but not one we value the highest, another non-valued (to us) prospect, plus a Middlestadt and a Jokiharju. It would clearly, obviously, not be enough but unless the Oilers want to suffer the bad press until McDavid walks in free agency, they'd have no choice. It would be the NHL scandal of the year +.

If the Bills can remain relevant in the NFL for the next three seasons and the Sabres can start making the playoffs the media will have no problem promoting a Sabres team with McJesus on it. We've all seen the numbers from years past: for some reason the Sabres draw viewers when they do well. In addition to the McJesus-choosing-the-Sabres angle to pumping up those playoffs, they'll have the first-time-to-win-a-Cup narrative to whip out. For a content-stagnant media entity like the NHL, it would be like manna from Heaven for the years the Sabres contend for the Cup with McJesus on the team.

He'll still be better than > 95% of the forwards in the league. He won't be motivated by money because he will have already made his money. He'll be motivated by Cup wins and if KA's vision for the team plays out we'll be in a position to provide one of the best opportunities to achieve multiple Cup wins. It's a bonus that he actually likes the area and the team. In fact, it's the last box to check off on KA's player acquisition list.

Exactly.

I have no problem with this. For all we know he's spending his summer working on faceoffs. He proved to be a team-first guy last season who put in the work with 4th line, maybe 3rd line, skill. Gives him a chance to raise his value and earn a better contract next season either here or elsewhere. Can't dismiss the fact he got along very well with his teammates.

Isn't the effect of this injury the same as when Pominville's leg was sliced by a skate? Sabres’ Jason Pominville understands long recovery Erik Karlsson faces - Buffalo Hockey Beat

I like this point. I think Krebs, Mitts and Power should definitely be expected to exceed their goal totals from last year. Not by leaps and bounds, but a modest increase for each. Let's say Krebs gets 14 (+5), Mitts 19 (+4), and Power 10 (+6) then we have +1 goal added over last season. So, if Rousek gets penciled in, whatever he totals for the season is in addition to that. If he gets 10, then our goal total, all other things not discussed here being the same, is 304.

This is incredibly helpful to someone like myself who is too lazy to compile such a list on my own. I would be very interested to read assessments of our prospect pool now that that the draft is over. For example, I recall Pekar from years ago and am surprised to see him still considered a prospect and not an AHLer by this point.

He definitely does speak with an accent. He's very sharp and smart, I like him. Hope he does well.

Benson won't be able to immediately play his game in the NHL. He will need time to grow and transition gradually otherwise he'll get crushed. Remember, the NHL is where the world's best hockey players play - even a 4th liner is good compared to the typical competition the elite guys see in the lower leagues.

If this forces them to keep VO for the beginning of the season then it merely gives VO the opportunity to raise his trade value. It could be a blessing in disguise.

Uh-oh. Am I going to regret posting that? Most of the people here should get the joke.

It's pronounced like "Trebek" except the "S" is slient and "bek" sounds like "back". That reminds me of your mother last night, Trebek, on her back and unable to speak - although she wasn't exactly silent!

What makes this pick such a smart one is that it gives us a lot of flexibility when it comes to making trades. We have a solid selection of forward prospects, if we lose one or two of them it won't hurt the forward pipeline at all.

I love this kid. Everything about him is perfect: attitude, skill, the way he instinctively uses his team mates and how he thinks around the opposing players, the look in his eyes makes me smile. As @LGR4GM said, he is instantly our best prospect. He's young and could easily grow a few more inches before seeing the NHL. This kid was a steal and we're going to love him when he gets here.

Capisce is a neutral word. It literally means to ask "message received?" or "are we clear?"

I think we'll have enough information to make a solid preliminary judgement long before the season is over.