Skibum

Agreed - It's a very different league from when Lindy last had success in Buffalo, and a lot of his tactics, along with the types of players that could execute on them, are not part of the game anymore. That said, Lindy has clearly found success in the 'new' NHL as well. I just come back to 'these Sabres need a coach who's been around the block a few times and can get in their faces', and Lindy is definitely that.

Taking his Sabres history out of the conversation, he's as good as any other established NHL coach - call him a retread if you want, but what the heck. It's fine. It's not a great team anyway, so why not give Lindy Ruff a shot? Would Peter Laviolette or John Tortorella really yield better odds of Stanley Cup glory? And if there is some rising young genius out there in the coaching world that they could have hired instead, I don't even know who that would be. If the Sabres don't improve next year, it will be hard to blame Lindy. Let it ride, I say.

I guess if you look at it objectively (ie, imagine his previous Sabres stint was with some other team), it looks a lot like any other retread coaching hire. Not that I think Lindy is a bad coach, its just a boring hire the way hiring Laviolette, Hitchcock, Babcock, etc. would be. I didn't realize Ruff was so high on the career coaching wins list. But still no cups, and I don't see him bringing one to Buffalo at this stage of his career, nor with this particular team.

Sabres now have a kick-in-the-grapes Mount Rushmore: Sam Reinhart, 50-goal scorer Ryan O'Reilly, Stanley Cup Champion Jack Eichel, Stanley Cup Champion Linus Ullmark, Vezina Trophy winner

I know how this movie ends.

Darcy Regier had about a seven year run, beginning with the Drury/Briere/Vanek-offer-sheet debacle, and culminating with a team so devoid of hope that the only option was to Tank. And there are other examples from other eras that represent far worse GM seasons than this one. This year is nothing!

The problem is that they actually showed some legitimate promise in the latter half of last season. They have massively regressed since then. It's easy to be patient when the overall trajectory is upward, even if it's a slow climb. But right now, the once-upward trajectory has reversed. Badly.

It doesn't take insider knowledge to know that the Sabres organization is a dumpster fire.

Oh, for crying out loud. Of course they care. They just aren't very good at winning these days.

I know, it's like a good fart. Timeless.

Not always, but it certainly can be. Look at guys like Messier, Chelios, Jagr - or their football equivalents like Bruce Smith, Clay Mathews, Jerry Rice - They all had significant injuries at some point in their careers (I think), but mostly they played game after game of violent pro sports at the highest level for much longer than virtually all of their peers could. And many of those peers worked every bit as hard at conditioning. They had the luck of good genetics, and probably a good measure of balance, skill, and smarts to avoid damage. That's TALENT. That said, most guys probably have to rely on conditioning and luck.

Ideally, he will end up as the Biron to Levi's Miller.

Never.

Mair-Grier-Gaustad? With a sprinkling of Pyatt, Peters, and... the legendary Jiri Novotny?

The only Bruin I really like. A fantastic player, a true gamer, and a classy guy, night in and night out, for a long, long time. Happy retirement, Patrice.

This one was not really important in the long run, but I thought it was significant at the time, so I'll mention it since nobody else likely will. When they traded Andrej Sekera, in my mind they officially kicked off the tank era. He was a Sabres 3rd round pick who they had developed for several years into a rising star on D, and he had just signed a team-friendly deal. Then they just up and unloaded him for a pick and Jamie McBain. That was when I knew they were no longer trying to ice a decent team in the near term. I also thought he was a consistently really good player, and I was sad to see him dumped. That trade kinda made me sick.

Mogilny was arguably the best player out of him, Turgeon, Barasso, and especially Vernon. Vernon was never, at any point in his career, one of the best at his position. From his era, I would put Hasek, Roy, Brodeur, CuJo, Barasso, Belfour, Fuhr, and Richter ahead of Vernon. Maybe even Vanbiesbrouck. And a few others you could throw in who had shorter peaks - Khabibulin, etc. He was a little above average for a really long time. I don't get it.

I haven't seen someone so young look so good in a long time, including Dahlin. Smart and steady like a vet, size, athleticism, and skill out the wazoo that will only get more refined with time. I hope they sign him to a very long contract, and I don't care what it costs.

If Alex Ovechkin goes on the record criticizing Putin and the war, he's potentially signing a death warrant for his entire family in Russia, and he may never be able to return to his home country again. Same thing if Putin invites him to a rally and he declines. What is he supposed to do? I don't envy him at all, and I don't blame him for having shown support for Putin in the past. He pretty much has a gun to his head.

I think it's a legitimate option. Bottom line is this is a team that has showed it can win, with high scoring potential. Two weeks ago, they were in a very strong position to earn a playoff spot, with plenty of time to pull further ahead, and instead they have turned in one of the most embarrassing runs in team history, on par with anything from the tank era. It's possible Granato has taken them as far as he is able, and it's not far enough.

Caps had to play the Rangers in DC last night, then hop on a plane, do the hotel thing, etc. They could be pretty gassed with a 1PM faceoff on the road the next day. Oh dang, I just saw Dahlin is also out! OK, going to be a tough one even if the Caps are tired.

At least there was a proper make-up call (or non-call, rather) on the OT game-winner. I guess that also could have been called as holding the stick on TBL, but it sure looked like a big fat hook by Boosh!

It would be interesting to see what % of ST seats are actually filled by STH each game, for all the teams. It's probably proportional to the size of the local market. You also have to figure that even if all the STH don't sell their tickets, a big percentage of them can't go to a game on any given Tuesday night anyway. They have a school board meeting or dinner with the in-laws or what-not. Buffalo is just very, very unlucky to have a rival market that is significantly larger than them, so close by.

The Sabres still look like little kids when up against cagey veterans on winning teams. I suppose they can yet earn a playoff spot, but they are going to get annihilated in round 1.

This is the first chance I've had to watch a game in a few weeks. I was really looking forward to it; cleared my schedule, bought some nice beer and cooked up a pork shoulder. And here I sit, after half a period, and I just can't watch one more minute of it.