nfreeman

It's hard to imagine any record other than 4-3 or 3-4.

I generally agree, unless (i) he's told the team that he will not sign an extension with them or (ii) they monitor his off-ice behavior and are sure that he will self-destruct again.

So I get the weird necklace while you get the cool mustache and the embrace with a hottie? Such is the mod's lot in life.

I appreciate your generosity of spirit towards my favorite hockey team. But I have a hard time getting really excited about a 7-23 record, even though that record was assembled under difficult circumstances and even though it's better than most other teams' records under similar circumstances. I said "WC wins the point." Where is the rant?

I think these references are too recent. Where is Howie Morenz? Elmer Lach? Eddie Shore? Old time hockey, eh?

Well, I was leaning toward giving yse's theory some credit -- but then: Verdict: WC wins the point. (Although there is some mild consolation in the number of comebacks, since it means that at least they aren't quitting every time.)

Why? Because you think Montour is a lock to be a good top-3 NHL defenseman? Because you think Kane will not re-sign here and Montour is the best the Sabres could get for him? Other?

Marty doesn't strike me as the type of guy who'd fabricate something like that. I'd be interested to hear exactly what he said -- i.e. whether it was information from his sources, or whether he said he's heard rumors, or other. But if he said essentially that his team sources have told him that Kaner is going to be traded -- to me that is a solid piece of evidence to support a prediction that he won't be signing an extension with the Sabres and is thus likely to be traded either at the deadline or over the summer.

^^ Tough standards from Senor Doohickie!

This will be an interesting beta-test of whether the Sabres should've made this move.

I too was pleasantly surprised by Rodrigues -- he showed more speed and puck skill than I expected.

Pretty sure there was, in the last couple of years, a mini-epidemic of fed-up fans in Edmonton and Toronto (at least) throwing their jerseys on the ice in disgust with their teams, which occasioned much anguish.

There is zero possibility that Eichel will be traded.

It does seem like Lehner was referring to Eichel, innit? Not sure how I feel about this. While the best player on the team needs to buy into the system in order for the system to work, he also needs some freedom to be creative. OTOH, if his teammates are PO'd, it's probably because this is a consistent issue.

This doesn't seem likely to end well.

Did you see it happen? If you saw it, and if you don't think your son did anything out of the ordinary (or if you didn't see it but you trust him that he didn't do anything wrong), then I wouldn't make him pay for it. The stick isn't supposed to break under those conditions, and the store knows that potential customers are going to handle the sticks a bit before buying them. OTOH, If he was goofing around with it, being careless, pretending to pole vault with it, etc. -- then I would make him pay for it.

I too found that remark by DDB interesting. I suppose one reason we haven't seen much of it is that Kaner's centers have usually been Larsson and Zemgus -- who aren't the playmakers that Eichel and Reino are. I watched it and I agree -- he is definitely cutting Hammy off in a way that he didn't do to the other guy. Interesting.

Respectfully: NFW. It is crazy, IMHO, to commit to any goalie for longer than 3 years, especially well before his contract status requires you to do so.

I think this has been settled -- the Sabres can only call him up from juniors due to an emergency rash of injuries.

I noticed that too. The HNIC production is consistently excellent.

Yes indeedly!

Here's something else on Lehner: it's fair, IMHO, to attribute some of the Sabres' PK deficiencies to him -- I think there's more than a little truth to the axiom that your best penalty-killer has to be your goalie. Lehner ranks 21st in PK SV% and has surrendered the 6th-most PPGs. However, it's fair to note that Carey Price's PK #s are worse than Lehner's -- Price has surrendered the most PPGs in the NHL and is 25th in PK SV%. Price is 9th in overall SV%; Lehner is now 4th.

One Kane item from that interview with GMTM that I thought was interesting was GMTM's statement to the effect that they are continuing to work with Kaner regarding off-ice behavior. We'll probably never find out, but I'd love to know what he meant by that.

Good stuff here, matter, but it's time to set up an avatar.

Speaking of Ennis -- since Zemgus is still out, why not try him at center between Gio and Foligno?