Two or less

Wasn't a joke. lol Photo from a ski jumping event in Zakopane, Poland. Big crowds, massive tv ratings.

No problem. Czech the #1 national sport is hockey. Every city there has ice rinks. Kids grow up with the sport. And govt invests in hockey. In Poland soccer is king. On top of just hockey rinks, but lack of coaches and training facilities.

I was born and raised in Poland. Germany is wealthy, while Czech, Sweden or Finland weren't destroyed like Poland was in ww2. Slovakia and Latvia are interesting though, i also always wondered how such a small and poor country got into ice hockey as much as they did.

In late 1990's / early 2000s, a ski jumper emerged by the name of Adam Malysz, and he became one of the best ski jumpers ever in the sport and popularity in the sport went all the way up. Malysz out of his own pocket and many sponsors then invested in the sport and he was very active. Since he retired, Poland has been a ski jumping power house in the world with multiple very good ski jumpers, including Kamil Stoch, who is going to retire a legend in the sport too. Now everyone loves it, and every event is a huge tv ratings event in Poland.

Easy answer is just money. There is not many rinks in Poland to even have a place to begin to play. Poland got pretty crushed during the 2nd world war and then until early 1990's we were under Soviet rule, so rebuilding was a slow process until we got our independence. Even the soccer team, has had a resurgence in the last 12-14 years, but prior to that they were not good besides in the 1970s when they were a power before money ruled the sport. There was no modern soccer stadiums or facilities until around 2010. Even the first highway in Poland wasn't build until like 2010. Polish player like Wojtek Wolski who made the NHL recently, grew up in a wealthy family in Poland and moved to Toronto area at a young age where his hockey talents took off. Most popular sports in Poland: hockey, volleyball and ski jumping.

I am not on the fan council, but as a former season ticket holder, the Sabres did call me and we spoke for a solid 30 minutes over the phone. They seemed genuine in listening to my thoughts. I told them how i felt. For example, the pint glass giveaway, i have 2 season tickets on one account (share with a friend) and you only got one set. Thought that was a cheap move. Anyways, to butter me up and return, they are are giving me a private tour of the arena and also gave me 2 tickets to an upcoming game. Which i think is a pretty nice gesture.

No idea how reliable Bardown Buffalo is, but they seem confident.

In the summers, not sure who his agent is but he connected Ivan with the Academy of hockey.

Even with his 1 goal in 21 games in the Finnish Liiga?

Wonder if Ottawa will play with a bit more muscle tonight bc it's the first game against us since the dirty hit by Aaron Dell.

I like him a lot too but idk if he has Leon type potential. I also really like Miroschnichenko, who by the way, works out in Buffalo. Sabres have excellent Intel on him.

I like Peters but he lost me when Wright wasn't #1.

Thanks, i read that too fast and thought we were talking about Tsai. It's a juicy rumor for sure. Even for the people who would think that Kevyn Adams is most likely gone in a ownership change, that might not even be the case either. Tsai has kept Sean Marks as the GM after the bought the Nets. As long as he keeps the team in Buffalo, of course.

Just curious, how do you know that his daughters are/were Sabres fans?

I know we have a entire thread on the Scott Wheeler piece of Sabres prospects, but here's what he wrote about Rosen: Source- the athletic

Just to update- Rochester won 3-1, Peterka scored the third goal. Biro with an assist. 2pt game for both JJP & Biro. Speaking of Biro, he's this week's guest on the instigators overtime podcast.

His team is 8th in the league, in a 14 team league. Second best scoring team though. TOI won't really be that helpful either because majority of his time on ice has been on the PP. It's not like he's plugged on the 4th line like a Andrew Peters and plays limited minutes. They don't trust him on EV and use him on the PP and he still can't get points.

Yeah i get it. If you meant Jack, he still managed 7 goals and 14 assists in his first 60 NHL games. The best league in the world. Again, not saying we shouldve expected 7g,14a from Rosen, but i think more then 2 goals and 2 assists wasn't much of a ask imo. We'll see how he does in the lower division and again next season.

I liked the pick at the time, but it is rare for a player to be drafted in the first round and just be totally over matched in the SHL like Rosen has been. He has 2 goals and 3 assists in 50 SHL games. I'm not expecting Alexander Holtz or Elias Petterson type numbers, but i surely didn't think he'd return to the SHL after the draft and put up nothing.

I wonder if the Sabres will be after Strauss Mann after the Olympics? They must know him pretty well from being in Michigan so often last year for Portillo. Mann was an excellent goalie in college and has had a lot of success overseas in Sweden.

Agreed. The "team Europe" and young stars was such a corny gimmick.

Lance said teams will be looking to add depth to goalies more then usual to avoid some crazy covid issue, and Anderson has a house there and loves it there and Sabres could ship him there as a favor to him for being a good citizen teammate here.

Sabres go from literally having nobody to have a numbers game. Good problem to have. Seems all is good with Anderson and Tokarski after their starts, Houser and Dell will be in Rochester and Upi is expected to return after all-star break or soon there after. As mentioned by Lance of the Buffalo News, Anderson could be a candidate to be dealt to Florida.

Merry Christmas everyone. Wishing everyone a happy and healthy Christmas. Go Sabres!