Mango

Here's a sad and crazy thought. What if saving money was actually number two or three on the priority list. When people talk about Adams pinching pennies for Pegula, if almost legitimizes Adams. As if he would be better at his job if not for Terry. The toughest part to swallow is that I think that Adams is really trying and believes in everything he does.

Probably should have locked up Tuch before you made your team worse.

I wouldn't be shocked if this is for the 4OA. The quote from his presser, "other teams say this is a 2 player draft but we see it as 5 or 6" is haunting me right now.

To be fair, we shouldn't take Adams word on anything either. But back to the possible trade. Unsure how I feel about it. During the presser yesterday whoever asked about the Peterka asking for a trade mentioned it was a get out of jail free card for these guys. I hate that that hits home. I hate that it signifies this whole thing failed. I hate that they guy who put it all in motion is still in charge of the whole forking thing. And lastly I think Peterka is going to be a very good player in the NHL.

The advisor thing is a no brainer. Of course it's remote. It's probably not even a full time role. I think the AGM is likely a bit of a rarity. Karmanos is probably not the only one, but I would be very comfortable in getting the under on 5 AGM's not living in their NHL or AHL city. That's a totally uneducated guess though But it is surprising that the most senior hockey guy on the payroll in any capacity is not coming in to be in the draft room in person.

Right, I get that. But also, it's a very weird public admission. One would think that there is some sort of biweekly touch base with scouts with a top line review and film. There can't be too much time in his day to review the top 3 guys each scout looked at that month. I don't expect the GM to be up until 3am in November watching film every night. But I do expect them to get familiar with them before January and start watching film on them before May. Let's just pretend the Sabres are a playoff team. Trying to cram for the draft during the playoffs would be a bear. But it's super manageable if you stay in touch with what your prospective draft pool is before, say January/May. Managing, directing, and sorting the information from your pro and amateur scouting staff should be like 80% of a GM's job.

Also his talk about the coaching staff was hilarious to me. At the front end he said that Lindy has a very firm idea of who or what he expects out of his coaching staff. He goes on to say that Lindy has had a lot of conversations with people ... Then goes on about how if Lindy or himself thought they could upgrade the staff they'd look into it. To me, it sounds like Lindy has a clear vision for the staff and has reached out to others to upgrade it.

Different sport entirely but when you hear Beane talk about prospects just down the road it's a "We scout 365 days per year", "we are looking at guys coming out of HS", "we are always reviewing film" But Adams goes "I don't get to know these guys until January and I don't start to take a deep dive until May." And then we talk about Jarmo who could probably rattle of stats from last week's u12 Tonawanda Lightening game.

Bellichick spoke in grunts and minimal words. Adams is a word salad. He falls all over himself. Unfortunately Forton is a much better public speaker than Adams. He also carries himself better. Again, all of this is unfortunate because I wouldn't be shocked if he becomes the GM post Adams. I would prefer he presents as terrible as possible so that it would be clear he's a bad hire. But unfortunately he sounds at least a bit professional.

I'm also super surprised at how not plugged into prospects Adams is. He doesn't start getting to know prospects until January? Then doesn't pour into film until May? And sometimes he doesn't know about all the work the scouting team put into a certain player until they're on the clock? That sounds crazy. He comes across like a bumbling idiot.

Adams saying he feels bad for the fans because of reporting is rich. Lolz. The Peterka conversation is cringeworthy. The hemming and hawing and executing the plan talk is gross. If you don't want to talk about player situations pre draft then just say that. It's one sentence. One thing I will say is that if the are looking to trade JJP and/or Sammy, saying they want our or there is a buyout option is a good way to tank value. But Adams is basically bad at everything and this conversation didn't protect any trade value.

I believe they all independent of each other now and PG is the COO of everything not the Bills.

PSE was disposed and Pegulas camp said "don't worry without out Kim, we just don't have the bandwidth to keep all this under one roof. We're not going anywhere" Then Pegula renegotiated the BCA lease agreement in Rochester and his camp said "Don't worry, this is standard business procedure. It's just a new deal because PSE is gone. We're not going anywhere" Later Pegula actually pulled out of the management portion of his BCA agreement and said "Don't worry. We just don't want to manage arenas anymore. But were totally staying put" Now he sold the Nighthawks, which was mentioned numerous times in all the above as being safe from being for sale.

I'm a big proponent of raising the draft age partially for this reason. Change the draft eligibolity to three years post HS like the NFL. A more pro ready drafted player is a much more compelling league. And let's face it, the OHL, KHL, or whatever junior league anybody follows isn't growing the league by any measurable margin. But a frozen 4 that continuously has some of the best players in the world might. Half the league drafts a kid in the first round who a fan of the NHL might not be able to see even at their AHL affiliate for 2-3 years, if it all.

Off-season gibberish-ish. But I was reading an article in The Athletic about the popularity of soccer in the US and how FIFA think relegation and promotion would work well here. It got me thinking about how the NHL is trying to keep adding more teams. But it sort of feels like the league is big enough. Could increasing the value of the AHL and having relegation/promotion be a viable path?

I think we could lose JJP, Tuch and Thompson in the next 365. (Not predicting. But I'm saying it's possible.) If that happens I think we should go the other way. Start leaving roadkill on Ter-Bear and Kev Kev's front door. Don't quit, declare war.

Remember when this franchise used to draft players that were good enough to go out and win Stanley Cups as soon as they left the team. Now this team is full of guys who are healthy scratches (Skinner) and players that can't even make it to the Finals (Mitts). Way to go Kev!

I think McDavid also had a better series. He was "fine". But "fine" isn't great for a guy nicknamed McJesus.

Just a fun reminder that even though Kane got his kid his defense to his second SA case was that the victim didn't take proper precautions to protect herself, his lawyer dropped him, and he settled out of court. Classy indeed.

I agree. Edmonton hasn't been nearly as consistent as Florida all series, but I think they've had enough opportunities that swapping goalies easily makes this 3-2 the other way I was just thinking that because of that there's a reasonable argument for the Conn Smyth to go to Bobs. If you swapped either Reinhart, Bennett, Barkov, or Marshand for McDavid/Draist I don't think anything changes. But Bob for Skinner?

Skinner got caught standing straight up. So weird. He thought that was a breakout. Lazy lazy goal. I still think if you switch goalies and this series is flipped, even with a rough outing or two from the rest of the Edmonton roster. I think I'd pull Skinner. Pickard has played well coming in cold

I haven't been thrilled with Edmonton for quite a bit of this series. But if you swap goalies I think at worst it's 3-2 Edmonton into tonight, if not closed out 4-1. Edit: word, goalies

That and the palm trees presser made me aggressively angry at this org. I've lost all trust in Terry Pegula ability to do anything other than age. I wish no ill will, but.... I do hope he ages comfortably yet expeditiously and stays home...for forever.

Right? Announcer is saying Ekholm, and he certainly botched it, but that was a tough goal from SR. And as I type this,Jeff Skinner has a strong shift in his own end. Crazy.

Great shift from Skinner. Wow. A couple of key moments keeping the puck in.