TheAud

Thanks for sharing that! If I could buy stock in The Regrettes, I would do so. Love the name too. But they need a chick drummer too. Just to complete the overall effect.

I don't know what JBOT is going to do but I thought Ex-GMTM's strategy might have been to make Falk expansion draft eligible so he could protect him, and thereby leave Bogosian unprotected, and make a deal with McPhee to either draft or take in a trade Bogosian and his 3 years of no-hockey-sense-over-paid-contract off Buffalo's hands. There are probably holes with that theory... Anyway, Falk is a nice affordable 6/7 sort of guy, superior to Josh Gorges in every way.

Michael Lewis wrote the book. Beane agreed to give access. The thing about the competitive advantages the A's were exploiting at the time was they were largely all open to the public to see. The type of players they signed, the way they ran the team, etc. Those competitive advantages were going away regardless and new market inefficiencies would need to be identified and exploited. Anyway, it's not clear to me if Beane made money off the book or the movie Moneyball (I really have no idea, but it seems unlikely) but he actually did turn down a massive pay increase to go to Boston as GM, so it wouldn't appear as if money was his primary driver.

http://buffalonews.com/2017/05/12/sabres-increase-season-ticket-prices/

The NHL's Fred Flintstone is already on TV: https://twitter.com/fakejonesy

Four women who can really sing. I don't always appreciate the song choices (esp. Reba) but with the right songs, good lord they are good. I'll throw Martina McBride in there too.

Buck Owens was a serious talent. One of his musical off-spring, Dwight Yoakam, is a direct reflection of that. Very little 'modern' country music works for me due to the intentional dumbing down and red-necking of it (aside from lack of talent). There are some gems out there but at this point they may fit more in the 'roots' music category than country, I think. Agree on the point about talent within the mainstream. It's possible, just unlikely. For example the uber popular mainstream pop singer Adele, does in fact sing like a goddess/genius. In my car and on my iPhone these days I am pretty much cycling endlessly through Howlin' Wolf. Sort of came to Chicago Blues in a big way only recently so I'm working through major artists, depending who catches my attention. The raw intensity of emotion and musical craftsmanship of those Howlin' Wolf records is stunning. Hubert Sumlin has to be one of the most underrated guitar players of the last century. Interesting tidbit: http://www.billboard.com/articles/news/464802/rolling-stones-jagger-richards-pay-for-hubert-sumlins-funeral

Johnny Cash and Waylon Jennings are among my favorite music performers of any genre. Classic.

Then I read Scott Cullen who tags Ullmark as the guy! http://www.tsn.ca/off-season-game-plan-vegas-golden-knights-1.749346

Love Duane Allman. In the historical context of his greatness we can only wonder where he would have gone had he lived longer. It's possible drugs would have gotten him sooner rather than later but I still think he had some development as an artist coming. He was only 24 when he died. Asia! Saw the original line-up in Buffalo in 1984, then again in Tokyo in 2013. Just enough of the Howe & Palmer musicianship, great John Wetton (RIP) singing, and catchy song writing.

I see what you did there.

http://www.thehockeynews.com/news/article/15-goalies-who-could-start-for-vegas-next-season I'm not saying this guy knows jack-squat but he does list 15 goalies (plus another 6, actually) that he thinks could end up on Las Vegas. Ullmark is not among them.

Largely agree except I do enjoy the earlier Aerosmith as one of the finer Rolling Stone derivations to have come down the line. I was in HS and college during the Metallica and Nirvana salad days and never understood it.

To me, the eyeball test and the analytics align well on Gorges. He is at best a 7th D, maybe good in the locker room, at worst he is a 2nd pairing AHL guy. I tend towards the latter opinion. If he is on the team next year, something is wrong. Better to buy him out or bury in the AHL and replace with a Fedun/Falk type (maybe Nelson).

Yes, technically a home game. But I get the feeling the Sabres will be lucky to keep their last line change rights in the game itself, let alone the NHL giving a rat's ass about Sabres season ticket holders. But maybe I'm overly pessimistic on this. I mean, they did win the spinning wheel for Perreault back in 1970.

This is a great story! Thank you for sharing. Good call on not rooting for the Bills, btw. No reason to suffer that way. I wish I was psychologically capable of changing my NFL allegiances, but so far, I'm not able to break free.

Does it really work that way? I.e. the league determines where MSG can broadcast Rangers (or Islanders) vs. Sabres games, or what MSG channels DirectTV or the cable company chooses to carry for each package offered to consumers? I live 3 hours from Buffalo and 4 from NYC and get all the Rangers and the Sabres games without any special sports packages. If I switch providers that may no longer be true. If you mean the definition of "in market" vs. "out of market" for NHL game packages (on DirectTV or online) then maybe that is by fiat of the NHL. BuI I have to believe they are drawing the lines to maximize revenue there as well, as opposed to 'fairness'. My experience (granted it was a long time ago) was that once you hit Albany the Sabres/Rangers mix starts to tilt towards the Rangers, but Syracuse/Binghamton is still more Sabres area. I'm sure this is all known in some great detail by somebody at Google or FaceBook.

So Sabres get 40 home games next year, Rangers get 42. In terms of not playing the game at New Era when there just happens to be an ice surface set up... I understand the arguments about the logistics around hosting two events on the same ice in a short period of time, but at the end of the day it's about the NHL's lack willingness to focus resources on it. We already know the NHL will prioritize the Rangers over the Sabres for any number of reasons. The logistical challenges associated with the WJC are great excuse to not bother investing the resources in activities that result in being "fair" to the Sabres. The NHL isn't particularly interested in being 'fair' to it's franchises, it's interested in maximizing revenue and ticket prices and ratings will be higher with a game held in NYC. Disappointing as a Sabres fan, but not at all surprising.

I don't think he's a dark horse per se. I fully expect him to play a key role on the Amerks blue line this coming season. ;)

That was out of control.

I agree with this assessment. McCabe's usage on the Sabres is a potential indicator of how far along the defense corp is over the next couple of seasons. On a team with a great blue-line (say, Nashville and Anaheim) I'd say McCabe is a #5. On a typical decent to solid blueline McCabe is in the 3-4 range. On a team with a weak blue line, McCabe is #2 defenseman...i.e. the 2016-2017 Buffalo Sabres.

Hah! I have noticed guys losing their edge and falling down a lot this past season. I agree, can his ass. (Wait a second....that was Ennis when someone breathed on him. Forget it).

I graduated HS with a guy who literally "sharpens skates" for the team. He has been a loyal and hard working (and I presume, competent) employee for more than 20 years. I don't know how much he makes, maybe $40k per year? Gets some health benefits I presume. So a bunch of millionaire coaches and management types, and millionaire players suck at winning hockey games for 5+ years and the way to fix that is to fire a bunch of people eking out their living? I can't believe folks are seriously suggesting to fire laundry washers and ticket sellers to have a "fresh start" on the ice? Frankly, that's appalling. We really need a new GM and Coach to start talking about how to upgrade the defense and play a more modern system and who should be the goalie, etc as opposed to firing the Earl of Bud to upgrade the team's Corsi.

Interestingly, they haven't made an announcement to lower prices either. It appears prices are, thus far, unchanged. I predict that the current trend will continue. Or, prices will change. And when they change, they will go up or down. Or perhaps both simultaneously in a complex dynamic pricing scheme depending on opponent, day of the week, weather conditions, and what has recently been released on Netflix.

My early year concert slate has been completed: Clapton at MSG Blind Boys of Alabama - Corning Museum of Glass Bela Fleck & Abigail Washburn - Corning Buddy Guy at UB Summer schedule thus far: Tedeschi Trucks Band in Rochester Boston in Syracuse Taking my 13 year old to see Boston after taking the older two when Boston came to Big Flats, NY (Tags) two years ago. She will love it. Saw TTB last year at UB and they have a fantastic new live album out. I highly recommend. Edit: Just bought tickets to Tommy Emmanuel and David Grisman in Ithaca in November, and I forgot about Arturo Sandoval in Corning in September. Shaping up as a great year for shows!