nfreeman

Congrats Flagg! Excellent choice -- I think you will have plenty of good career options.

Congrats AA! Those first couple of months are pretty rough, but being a father is a great, great thing. I like the name, although I would echo Aud's cautionary words -- there is a surprising number of people that will be ill-mannered enough to criticize the choice. Congrats to your wife as well!

Good to see you sir!

Interesting. I didn't see this reported anywhere. Do you remember who wrote it? I hope it's true. I really like Kane's game, I like the idea of him converting feeds from Eichel and being Eichel's bodyguard for the next 5-6 years, and I like redemption stories.

I agree that they need a good defenseman, and I wouldn't be shocked if they trade Kane to get him. They do have 2 good assets in addition to Kane, though: Nylander and their #1 in this year's draft. I'd rather trade either of those than Kane, and a budget-conscious team like Anaheim might prefer those assets to Kane as well.

I found the following Kane items from GMTM's public statements this week quite interesting: 1. In his post-deadline presser, GMTM, when asked about Kane, used the phrases "on the ice" or "off the ice" at least 4 times. 2. In his interview the following day with Bulldog, GMTM threw out 8 years x $7MM per year as a Kane contract proposal that, for GMTM, would be NFW. 3. In the post-deadline presser, GMTM intimated that a summer deal with Kane was unlikely, and made it sound like it would be after the start of next season at the earliest. But in the interview the following day with Bulldog, he backpedaled and said it was possible next summer once deals with Eichel and Reino were done. I think I read those statements to mean: - GMTM thinks there is still a real possibility that Kane will be unable or unwilling to walk the straight and narrow, and isn't interested in giving him a big contract on July 1 and then praying every morning next summer that the phone doesn't ring with news about Kane getting arrested. - GMTM isn't sure there will be cap space available to keep Kane. - GMTM isn't going to publicly commit at this point to a "we're keeping Kane no matter what" position. ...which leads me to: - there is a greater than 50/50 chance that Kane is traded on or before the deadline next year.

I completely agree with all of this except moving Kane for the defenseman. The Sabres need to be able to find that defenseman without losing Kane, who is a key piece. And it was a great post by dudacek.

Seconded! Very nice.

Actually, this isn't nearly as dire as what I thought you and We've were hinting at. I thought you were referring more specifically to Jackie boy. Frankly, after pooping the bed vs Colorado and Arizona, it's hard to argue with your actual theory quoted above.

Oh, man. We've has voiced the concern that dare not speak its name. How can we go on?

Whoops -- sorry about that. My mistake.

Here's a Netflix find: "Terriers." It's an FX show from a few years ago that only had one season -- so 13 episodes. Beach bum private detectives in San Diego. My wife and I both liked it.

I feel like we're in a Seinfeld episode here. If you make $1000 in one business and lose $400 in another business, you can, in certain circumstances, write off the $400 loss against the $1000 profit and thereby pay tax on the net of $600 -- so you end up with about $350. But if, instead of losing $400 in the 2nd business, you break even, there is no writeoff and you pay tax on the full $1000 -- so you end up with about $600. So although in the $400 loss scenario you are better off having the benefit of the writeoff than not having it, you are still substantially better off in the break-even scenario. What specifically are you suggesting as regards political capital?

yes indeedly.

Interesting. I too would not be surprised if Kuli is re-signed.

Regarding the equity: TP spent $189MM to buy the Sabres and a substantial amount immediately thereafter on capital improvements. If you include operating losses he's probably in for at least $250MM at this point. There is really no way to know how much the team is worth now. I'm confident if the team were put up for sale subject to the condition that it could not be moved, there wouldn't be many bidders. Regarding write-offs: I have no idea what you mean. The tax benefits for operating costs are by definition much less -- in TP's case probably about 70% less -- than the actual cash spent. Regarding political capital -- again, I have no idea what you mean. Do you think TP has some kind of economic synergy due to the existence of WNY expats around the country? How many of those do you think they are? What exactly is the economic benefit to TP? If you think TP has some kind of plan going here to turn the Sabres into a cash cow, I'd love to hear some specifics. Because I think it's pretty clear that he has more cash than he knows what to do with, so (like many of us would do) he bought his and his wife's favorite sports teams and he's throwing money at them in the attempt to restore the glory days.

I generally agree with you. My point was just that Scotty seems to think that TP is laughing his way to the bank, having made millions by icing a crappy team -- and that this is way off.

Do you think TP is making money on the Sabres? I would bet that he's lost millions.

I agree that it's far too soon to come to any conclusions on GMTM. The fans that applauded the terrible decision to tank need to stop kidding themselves that it would be quick and painless to pop back up from the basement to contender level. They were historically bad for the 2 full years ending the season before last (and pretty bad the 2 seasons before that). There was reason to hope for better this year, but the odds were against it. HOWEVER -- I am gong to need something real to make me think that there is reason to hope for a better outcome next year. It can't just be maturity of Eichel, Reino, Risto, McCabe and Lehner plus a couple of Kulikov-level additions. I think I need a new coach, and I need to feel confident that this one is 100% GMTM's call. And if they're going to make that change, it needs to be pretty soon after the season ends, so they can have their choice of whoever's available, and so the new coach can install his system in preseason and hit the ground running. Otherwise, it's hard to avoid the cold premonition that they will come out to another crappy start, DDB will get canned by New Year's and it will be too late to salvage the season -- which will bring us to a full 8 years with no playoffs.

Works for me.

In all seriousness it's getting harder and harder to see DDB back here next year.

So you make the exact same joke as Doohickie 90 minutes later? No wonder this franchise is in the pooper.

What did McK say?

Yes, really, and pretty much 100% of neutral NHL observers would agree.

Well, I acceded to my wife's wishes and accompanied her to "La La Land" on Sat. night ... and I didn't hate it. If you find yourself similarly situated with your significant other, I will tell you that it's about 75% "regular movie" and 25% musical and that overall it's pretty well made and interesting story about LA.