nfreeman

Me too.

Congrats!

I assume you mean "the most logical spot for him to be when DDB is PO'd at him and trying to send him a message," innit? (This is the impression I got from DDB's interview on WGR the other day.) Or do you think that Moulson is a more effective player than Kaner?

Interesting. So you'd like to see, say, Reino centering Okposo and Kane at even strength and working the half-wall on the PP? I kinda think though that Reino had a number of opportunities at center while Jackie Boy was injured, and failed to deliver -- although to be fair there wasn't much in the way of scoring wingers for him to work with, since Kane and Ennis were also hurt and Zemgus and (to a lesser extent) Moulson just don't have much to give at this point. You are right that I haven't watched the World Juniors. One question about that experience though: is that a tournament where defense tends to trail offense -- thus making it easier for offenses to flow and produce -- especially given the offensive talent on the rosters? i.e. is offensive production at the WJ level perhaps not correlative to NHL production, given the (putative) disproportionately large gap between WJ defensive talent/defensive scheme/goaltending and those factors on the NHL level?

I know there's more to it than just linemates, but putting Reino first with Eichel and then with ROR doesn't seem like it should handicap him. What do you have in mind for him?

I'm afraid it's gone for good unless we enlarge the nets or shrink the goalies.

I'm not done with Kane, but it's certainly possible that GMTM is. We'll see. Separately: that wasn't exactly a goaltending showdown last night. Budaj was well out of position on ROR's goal and Eichel's 1st goal was one of the weakest ones of the season. For his part, Lehner was pretty spotty on LA's 1st and 3rd goals, although he did show up during winning time.

Did anyone else notice that Kane exuded zero joy last night after scoring his goal, which was a huge goal? Rayzor mentioned that he had been dropped to the 4th line for most of the 3rd period before getting that shift with Eichel -- maybe he was PO'd.

It's not a straw man, that's for sure. (Now, if I had said "everyone who pushed for the tank said we'd win a cup this year, and we aren't going to, so the tank is a failure" -- that would've been a straw man, because it's an obviously ridiculous standard that no one actually said.) And I'm not gloating. I wish I had been wrong about the tank. And there is still quite a bit of time for that to end up being the case. But at some point (e.g. if the Sabres don't make the playoffs this year or next year), we need to stop kidding ourselves about the efficacy of the tank and recognize that it's chasing the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow.

Correct, although I might add that there are about a million better uses for the $250 Sunday Ticket price tag than the privilege of watching them 16 times.

This post isn't just a straw man. It's a straw army.

After a few years of not buying the NFL Sunday Ticket, I was seduced by Rex's bravado and bought it both last year and, after some hesitation, this year. If Brandon, Whaley and Rex are not gone after this season, I'm out again (still keeping my tickets though).

It shouldn't be seen as incomprehensible, or even odd. Tanking usually fails to produce a winning team, and instead leaves the team in the wilderness for a generation. That is the most likely outcome here as well.

Ugh. If that's true, it makes it very difficult to keep him. Hopefully there will be a new team president and GM in place to make the call.

I don't think it's realistic for the owner not to retain final say in hiring a new president/GM (what if, e.g., Jim Kelly was the new PLF and he started lobbying for his HS coach from East Brady, PA to take over?). The real question is: will the PLF/adviser's recommendations be followed? We can't know for sure, but it seemed like GMTM was PLF's choice -- and if that's true, we probably don't need to be that concerned about TP going off the reservation on the hire. My fear is that TP allows RB and DW to fire Rex without showing them the door as well. I think Tim Graham nails it here: http://buffalonews.com/2016/12/11/blame-runs-deep-bills-failings-fall-feet-rex-ryans/ As for this board running things: I lobbied a number of times for a supervisory board made up of posters here to take over from Darcy during his last misbegotten few years here. I am not done with TT. He looked lousy today but I would like to see him with a good coach, a quality group of receivers and a non-toxic situation. I also believe the Bills have a better chance at making the playoffs next year with TT than with Cardale Jones at QB. Also, and perhaps most importantly, I read today that if the Bills pick up the option on TT for next year, they are only committed to him for $3MM for the following year -- so it's effectively another 1-year option on him. If that is correct, then I don't think there are going to be many QB options for them for next year that are going to be better than TT. If they can get Philip Rivers? Sure, go ahead. But if it's another Fitz or Orton, I'd rather have TT. And what a brutal burn on PA. How can you live with yourself? He must be shattered.

Yes. They all should go, and Jimbo or someone else reputable should advise on hiring the new GM and coach.

Louis CK is great.

Oh, I agree that it's an important issue. I was just trying to drill down on whether uber is actually "illegal" in NYS other than NYC, and if so, why. As for other states -- I'm sure there are many with looser insurance regs -- but at the same time, any insurance company is going to be highly motivated to determine whether its customer is an uber driver -- i.e. I would bet that pretty much every insurance company in every state will ask the customer whether he/she is a driver for hire, and if that driver lied in answering that question, the insurance company would deny a claim.

Well, I got curious, so I looked into it a bit. We're sorta both right. Uber isn't in NYS other than NYC because there is indeed a state law problem with insurance for ride-sharing services. (NB that it's not clear whether insurance companies are prohibited from insuring ride-sharing services, or whether they simply don't want to until the NYS legislature passes minimum coverage requirements, or other -- the news articles I found are pretty imprecise.) The problem was addressed in NYC by requiring Uber drivers to obtain taxi licenses, which in turn enabled them to get insurance through the taxi system. Presumably, Buffalo, Rochester, Syracuse, etc. could do the same thing for their Uber drivers, but the local taxi unions have been influential enough to prevent this from happening. I've been in about a zillion uber cars and a zillion NYC cabs, and I think every one of the uber cars was nicer, newer and cleaner than the best NYC cab I've ever been in. The uber cars are almost always 1- to 3-year-old hybrid Camrys, Highlanders or similar cars (in NYC that is -- in California they're all Priuses), they always have leather seats that are firm and in good condition, and the cars are almost always quite clean. NYC cabs are always dingy, often smelly, and the seats always have permanent butt indentations, some quite large (and deep).

I think it's a city union/corrupt government issue, not a state one -- NYC is crawling with ubers (it's been a huge improvement over yellow cabs and crappy car services, btw).

Speaking of Fasching, do we know when he returns from injury?

Probably true, but that doesn't excuse the Bills' incompetence. And frankly, it's not like they've come close to the playoffs a bunch of times and would've gotten there with 1 more win -- I think the only season where that might be applicable is when they crapped the bed against Pittsburgh (which was resting its starters, having already clinched a playoff spot and with nothing to play for) in the win-and-get-in game.

What a great freaking movie that was.

I've been lobbying for Brandon and Whaley to get canned for a while now. While I would still like to see it happen, and feel that it would be richly justified, I'm not at all sure that this would, by itself, cure what ails the Bills. In particular: I think Rex may have lost his mojo as a defensive coach. It's just undeniable that that the D has stunk for 2 years in a row. TT could certainly have made more plays in the 2nd half vs the Raiders, but the D, with a 15-point 2nd-half lead, could've offered more than zero resistance instead of allowing TD-TD-TD-TD. And is it realistic to think that Rex is going to bring in a new defensive system and/or cede control of the defensive coaching to a new coordinator who isn't his twin brother?

So they will probably finish 9-7 or 8-8. I don't think Rex gets fired at that point. But someone probably will. Who will it be?