Mango

3-4 very very dangerous shots in the last 45 seconds of game clock. This could get out of hand very quickly. Sheesh.

Jesus these shots on the PP/PK I’m shocked they didn’t rip two of those right by Levi.

Every bad challenge is preceded by Razor saying “We see Matty Ellis talking to…”.

When are the Sabres going to name a starting goaltender? I mean it is super likely to be Levi. But a little weird he hasn't been named yet.

For most fanbases nobody has much of any idea. Good teams get away with a lot. Bad teams get away with a little. Jordan bought a struggling Bobcats/Hornets franchise for like $300M. They were only like a 4 year old expansion team at that point. He sold the team for $3B like 15 years later. That is a huge increase in value, but the league also nearly tripled their revenues in that time as well. Jordan was largely considered a bad and meddling owner. But he is North Carolina's golden child and maybe the most marketable person in NBA history, if not the history of the big 4 sports in the US. Without knowing all the specifics in the background Michael Jordan was just about the only person on the planet to get NC to buy back into the NBA. Jordan is to NC Basketball what Gretzky is to Hockey in Canada. There are some parallels between some of the growth and criticisms between the Pegula lead Sabres and Jordan lead Hornets. Both have been known for meddling, surrounding themselves with 'yes men', and puzzling coaching/FO hires, but also have teams that have exponentially increased in value. So yes, the team is not failing fiscally, but difficult to pinpoint how much of that is from Jordan and the growth of the league as opposed to the COO. Having Michael Jordan own a team in his home state changes things drastically as well. Worth noting his racing team is also located outside of Charlotte and Charlotte is the Nascar hall of fame. I said it up thread I think that he is largely being brought in to manage and structure the PSL's for the new stadium and poke the Sabres marketing dept to see if they can get the fans to do stuff.

He already has Terry convinced. The Hornets have been terrible for the entirety of Jordans ownership. I wonder if Terry thinks that nobody else has google except for him? I think he is largely being brought in to manage the PSL's for the new stadium and then occasionally poke the Sabres to see if he can get it to do stuff.

I honestly don't know much about the guy. Or the role. I am just an idiot with a keyboard on a message board. But what we do know is that Michael Jordan is notorious for surrounding himself with "yes men". So much so he axed his long time friendship with Charles Barkley for pointing it out. He will fit right in with the Sabres.

It is strange to have one COO for both orgs AND have Terry sit a top both of them. In my non-billionaire brain it seems to make sense to have a hockey COO and a football COO role into the owner.

If we could get a Byram/Swift thing going that would be great. The age thing might be an issue though. Maybe Girgs or Skinner? Terry could hire her as POHO and finally get out of the way. It would be perfect. She could take up residency at the Key Bank Center. Which, by the way is a venue in huge demand since word got out that they upgraded the roof. Taylor could single handedly save the city of Buffalo.

I agree with you 100%. But I also think her numbers are so astronomically historical the whole thing has become a major talking point. For reference Elton John had the highest grossing tour of all time at $990M over 330 total shows. Taylor Swift's Era's Tour has grossed over $1B and has only played something like 80 shows to date. Her popularity and revenue is a standard deviation above almost every recording artist in history.

Bob Dylan has entered the chat

Good post. To the bolded I think she has certainly broken the code on the formula for how to be a successful pop artist. I struggle to sort of explain the whole thing, but you put it really succinctly. The part I cannot wrap my head around is that she is pushing the limits of music fandom. But at the same time she isn't changing things. She isn't the first to do much anything (that I am aware of). But she is developing this sort of following that rivals the Beatles or the Grateful Dead. And even in pop music we have seen remarkable song writing from the likes of Prince or Michael Jackson. She is doing a lot of what has been already done but doing it with a following that is as big or bigger than her contemporaries who maybe even did it better. I think it is a combination of her talent (she is talented), the mix of the above, her 5 year hiatus from new music/touring, openly writing songs about A LOT of famous people (ex's), and re-recording her albums. EDIT: This is peak Pegula-Era Sabres. Hijacking a gameday thread to discuss Taylor Swift. Congrats Terry, you are doing a great job!

Yeah, but I am gonna be a genius anyways.

I mean she isn't Lady Gaga, but she is also better singer than say Trey Anastasio (most people are). It is a spectrum.

Yes and no. I think you hear "we like this part of his game, but we need a bit more that part". It seems as though we have heard two different situations mention physicality, training, and/or hard work. You almost never hear a HC or player publicly say "We work harder here then they did over there".

I think part of the issue is that the Sabres baseline just isn’t good enough. It just takes waaaay too much effort for them to really compete and that’s why they are so Jekyll and Hyde sometimes. The last two period were the Sabres of old. Sloppy passing. Beating their heads against the wall vs. a strong forecheck.

Right. But who we lose to and when matters. This is something this current iteration of the Sabres needs to fix and fix quickly if they want to make a jump next year.

This was a Sabres game we knew well. Strong forecheck, defend the blue line, dare the Sabres to adjust. In the Sabres defense they couldn’t hold onto the puck all day. A lot of weird hops and bad passes. Curious if the talk in the first intermission was “take a minute to control and deliver a crisp accurate pass” and that’s why that period went the way it did.

Totally agreed. I will say that this team has looked closer to a real life, complete NHL team the last 3-5 games than at any stretch last year. Last year they looked like a team that would lose to Boston in 4 maybe 5. This version we’re seeing this week looks like a playoff team. But they have to do it first.

Bull shirt hooking call.

Tight game. About as close to playoff vibes as you can get without being in the post season. We need to bury one of these in short order.

Probably @ NJD last April.

I don't think Levi v UPL is an issue. I don't think Levi's personality is an issue. But at the same time I wouldn't be shocked if he does passive aggressively chirp a bit that he should be up at the big club. Even that would be directed at Comrie though.

I think Mr and Mrs are on the board lately and rumor has it that 1T 1E 2R 1Y might even have an account too. Maybe we will get an inside line sooner rather than later.

I don’t like the yo-yoing mid season. You have to let your backup practice and play. But with the season, 15-ish games left, and 13 years on the line, bringing up Levi for 2-3 games sporadically seems like a slam dunk