Weave

Wonder how Risto would have come along under Granato?

Good luck. The kids smoking in the bath room are bound and determined to make it difficult for him in here.

If ever there was an opportunity to poach an RFA from a team, this is it. This is also why I expect one of our favored young players to be traded. We have a rare opportunity to use a combination of weaponized cap space and plethora of under 23 players/prospects to land a really big ***** fish.

This has become a rite of Spring.

I guess my primary emotion is empathy. Rick’s been at it a long time. It is clearly physically challenging for him to continue to do it. It’s got to be hard to come to the realization that it’s time to move on. You’ve earned the rest, Rick. It is selfish of us to want you to hang on.

He damned near died. It was a couple of seasons, and a couple more concussions before his game started to match the effort he was putting into it.

Not this trade specifically, but my opinion is, yeah someone we value alot is moving in a hockey trade. This would certainly fit that bill.

Thats why I assume he’ll be a better game manager.

I can see the similarities to the Nolan situation. Donnie might be a 2020 version of Nolan. Players coach? Check Tasked with rebuilding a broken team? Check Puts personal development ahead of game situations? Check Touch-y feel-y methodology? Check Develops considerable loyalty among the team? Check Lets see if he stays away from the goalie’s wife. 😈 My gut tells me Donnie will be a better game manager, but that is TBD for now.

Yeah I don’t know how you couldn’t want him back right now.

I think that is a big part of it. Maybe the majority of it. But I don’t think we should overlook the fact that there was a clique in the locker room that needed to go. We know that Jack was likely the engine that drove the clique, but you can’t have a clique of just one. I think it was telling that in Zemgus’ interview he didn’t say maybe Jack needed a change of scenery. He said “they” needed a change of scenery. And the team needed some new blood. Not saying Sam was a cancer. I am saying that there was risk that the clique doesn’t fully go without Sam and Risto going too. Add to that Sam not wanting to be part of a rebuild and you’ve got all the incentive you need to move Sam too. He probably would have done well on this year’s team. But you have to want to be here, and you have to want to be with the guys that remain. I don’t think either halves of that statement were true for Sam.

Is it too aggressive and unnecessary to say this to all those fans and posters that called Okposo dead cap weight, a burden and a drag on the team?

KO makes me proud. I become a little more a fan boi of his every time he speaks publicly. Just seems like a genuine good guy and easy to root for. Hes the best PR that team has.

Given the outcome so far of all the moves to date, I am 100% comfortable with the idea that Sam had to go as well to make this conversion.

In my mind its also become pretty clear that when the argument of enough talent vs right culture was being made, culture was the bigger roadblock. Sans Jack, Sam and Risto we are arguably less talented, but a better team with better results.

Lots of references to players able to just be themselves. And not afraid to speak up. Good God was the locker room a mess before. KA made the right player movements out, and the right player movements in.

Every October someone posts some sort of “is this what the Sabres are” thread, and every year I answer with “ask me again around Thanksgiving (murican). Teams always start the season a bit loose. But by Thanksgiving changes to systems and players have been tested and tweaked and the cream starts rising to the top. Will be really interesting to see what they look like in mid to late November. IMO that will be an important time for evaluation.

And you guys doubt PA’s theory about garbage time.

The only reason I don’t expect him to pay a visit (or 7) to the booth after retirement is because I expect that a good reason he’s shutting it down now is because of the difficulty in getting around and up and down now. And that isn’t going to get better when he stops doing it regularly.

I’m guessing it is no more than putting the strongest insurance policy in Rochester for the most important game of the season

He painted a picture like no other. I could envision the play in my head during the years he was at his peak.