apuszczalowski

So playing with Staal and Semin makes the height disadvantage go away? Now he can't be pushed off the puck because of his child like size?Maybe his lack of success (he wasn't unsuccessful here though, he was decent at times) was a lack of being able to play on lines with top talent caliber players in Buffalo? Is his height a disadvantage? Of course it is when your playing with guys who are almost a foot taller then you and weigh much more then you, but its not something that can't be overcome if the talent is there. It is much easier for a forward or defencemen to overcome a size disadvantage and be successful over say a goaltender. Someone like Enroth has to have much more skill to over come a size disadvantage because his position requires being able to cover up an area which having additional size can help.

Aside from the health department more then likely having a problem with it and there being rules against that sort of stuff, as the owner you have every right to have things done your way. Your employees then have the choice to follow your orders and do what you say, or they can advise you of what they know is the better way of doing things. Leaving things up to the trusted and knowledgable staff that you hire to run your business is the ideal way to run a sucessful business, assuming you hired the best staff possible that can achieve the goal you set out. But those goals and how to achieve them have to be set by someone, and usually thats the person all the way at the top signing the cheques. TP comes in, says the obvious goal is to win the Cup, ideally he would love to have a perfect staff in place that can just go out and achieve that goal without any further questioning, but thats never the case. Theres always other questions like how do you want it done? Whats the time frame to get it done? What kind of budget/funding do they have to get it done? Are they able to hire/fire as they please? etc. Again, if TP steps in during a meeting of the Front office and says go out and sign player 'X', I want him on my team after the front office just talked about how he is not what they need to be successful, that could be seen as meddling, even though as the owner he has every right to do this. If he sits in a meeting and says that he likes Player 'X' after what he has seen of him, but does not make his front office sign him if they don't feel he is the right fit, thats not meddling, its just discussing. the example PA is using about the car seems like TP is demanding that the Sabres go out and sign Derek Jeter to play in goal for them Sure, your assuming that there is only one way to rebuild and that only a knowledgable front office hockey expert knows this one way to do it. DRs comment is simple stating that the owner is going to let him know the direction he wants the team to go in. He could say I want you to mortgage the future of the franchise to win now at all costs, or he could say that he wants them to continue on how they were doing it already, or he could say I want you to remove any and all NHL caliber players from this roster and turn them into as many prospects and picks as you can so we can start over from the very begining and spend years building the team back up. Ultimately the decision is going to affect the owner because the decision being made can affect the well being of the franchises financial situation.

But do you just take your car to the shop every day/week/month and leave it there to let the mechanic look it over and fix anything they decide is wrong, while silently signing a check to cover any costs?I guess if you aren't a mechanic and you told one whats wrong with the car you would be meddling, the mechanic should just take your car, look it over, fix what he feels need fixing and you just pay the bill without question. I have no problem with any owner putting in his 2 cents worth when discussing the team that he owns. Its only a problem and meddling (I agree with the previous post that said that since he is the owner it really isn't meddling since it is his business) when he is the one making the decisions and goes against what his GM and other front office decision makers suggest or decide. If TP comes in and and tells TM he has to re-sign Leino to a 10 year $100 million dollar deal, after TM says he is going to put him on waivers, thats meddling.

I would expect my owner to have a plan or an idea of the kind of team he wants. So if TP told Darcy or anyone else in the front office that he wants a tougher team, I don't consider that meddling. If he said I want Miller playing 3rd line C, and Hodgson starting in goal, then thats a bit closer to meddling. Even looking at the Ehrhoff situation, if he called up Darcy and said "Hey, this Ehrhoff guy thats going to be a FA, I like him and think he should be someone we target", unless the GM disagrees saying he doesn't fit the team and the owner basically says that they go after him anyways, thats meddling.

Just because an owner talks to teh GM daily, it doesn't mean he is meddling A good owner (in almost any business) will want to know whats going on and how their money is being spent. Thats not meddling, meddling would be the owner calling to tell the GM who to sign and how to GM the team.

I read the comments and some of the responses and I think the problem he had with it and the point he was making was that in Hindsight, its easy now to say that was the best years they had and have gone down since for whatever reason, but at the time, they were not in decline, they had just had their best seasons. After leaving Buffalo, Drury didn't have a huge drop in stats until 2 years later, and it was injuries that took a toll on him forcing him into retirement. Brieres stats took a bit of a hit after leaving Buffalo, and were a bit of up and down and he also suffered from injuries too. Neither player at the time (2007) looked like their skills were in decline.

Wonder if some team makes an offer to him again if the Avs will just let him go this time and take the picks?

Yup, I believe he is also a FA at the end of the season IIRC (possibly a RFA), I highly doubt he re-signs with any team in the NHL without being guaranteed a spot on their NHL roster. If he doesn't get it, he goes back home to Sweeden to play I wonder though if they told him this move was just for the Olympic break and that if he cleared waivers they would be bringing him back once the breaks over and he has had time to play over the break

Maybe it was Gerbe that was strutting around from the shower.....................

His issue seems to be that he has the skill, he knows it, and he doesn't think he needs to work hard because he can coast on that skill to get by like he has up to this point. It happens alot, while growing up, these kids get by and are at the top because of their tremendous talent and skill, it carries them through, but once they hit the upper levels where they aren't the big fish in the small pond anymore they don't seem to be able to grasp the idea that they will now need to work to stay where they are and get better, they feel they should be able to just do what they have been doing and get by on that. Plus with the foreign players, theres usually a league (like the KHL) that would gladly take them if they wanted to play there where they can fall back on if the NHL doesn't work out.

Did anyone see the classy Gleason during the final few minutes of the Leafs/Lightning fight last night?Brown of the lighting was coming in on bernier, the leafs defender had a hold on him and they went straight into Bernier and the net. This caused a bit of a group fight against the boards behind the net, the Lightning goalie to take his mask and gloves off and skate down the ice (which he took a 2 minute penalty for) and a nice Clip of Gleason jumping in to defend his goal and throw some punches at a guy who was being held by another Leafs player. Say what you will about Scott, atleast he will fight anyone on his own and doesn't need his opponent held to throw some punches. Seems like a common team approach of the Leafs though, showing good team work by having one guy hold the opponent why another jumps in to throw some hits :rolleyes:

Because apparently the coach is a Miller apologist only making that comment because he is trying to not hurt Millers trade value or so I hear...........

For an area so against homosexuality, its surprising to see shared toilet stalls............

Meh, It would be funny if he did, but I don't think I could get mad at Regier for it now. I would question Vanek and the Oilers front offices sanity/reasoning. Last thing the Oilers need is another forward

He said before that he was enjoying himself playing for the Islanders and would not rule out re-signing, but I believe that in order for him to re-sign without testing FA, the Islanders would ahve had to make a really good offer to him which it sounds like they didn't by just offering him a similar contract to what he has now.

Again, I'm not saying they should just stick with him and keep him hoping that he turns it around, my point was that IF he turned it around, why would you not keep him if he became the player you expected to get in the first place.

I like how Miller and Ennis have the scared "Oh Crap" looks in their eyes, why Tallinder has more of a "hmmm, what should I be doing?" kind of look in that photo

If their are worried about the risk of injury, he should have been moved at the first offer being brought up to them. You can't wrap him up in bubble wrap and hope he doesn't get injured while waiting for someone to make a deal for him. If anything, sitting him til someone makes you an offer for him isn't going to help his trade value at all and will probably have the opposite effect and lower the offers you will get for him.

He really doesn't deserve it, just like many of the whipping boys here (and on the Bills) that don't deserve alot of what they get from the fans. Vanek didn't ask to be dealt to the Islanders, and didn't ask them to give up what they did to get him. He came over and has done his job and played well for them. He said he would be open to re-signing with them in the offseason, he just didn't like the offer they made to him (which is rumored to basically be basically what his current deal is). If they want to give someone a piece of their mind, it should be directed squarely at Snow for paying what he did AND not making a move to shore up their biggest weakness which is in net.

We don't have to be drunk to eat poutine

They can buy him out at anytime, the compliance buyout is only to get away from cap hits and spread it out. Again, if he turns things around and plays up to his contract, whats so wrong with keeping him around? You just assume that if he does anything, he will just go back to playing how he is playing now next season.

How do you know they haven't? how do you know Ruff and the Stars wouldn't love to have him but aren't able to give the Sabres what they want for him?

yeah, because if Leino turned things around and played up to his contract that would be such a horrible thing.Seriously, I would love it if Leino and Stafford and other whipping boys here played better, it would make this team much better and not require years of rebuilding

we have no idea how the deal went down and what happened during negotiations between the Sabres and Leino.All we know was that the Sabres signed him with the intention of making him a Centre instead of a winger. Leino agreed and signed the deal, then after doing it for a while and not succeeding he came out and said he feels more comfortable on the wing. For all we know, the Sabres asked when negotiating if he would be in favour of making the switch, he said he would give it a try if thats what they wanted so the deal was completed. After trying it out for a bit he found he felt out of position and more comfortable on the wing. The Sabres front office and coaching staff have never made it knwon that they were disapointed or felt lied to by Leino (and you would think that if they would have felt lied to, he would not be on the team anymore and would have been released or bought out)

There was a very similar man crush on Ott too before he became a Sabre......