LTS

I'm not going to pretend I understand your response. But I'll play along.. Yes, I wanted the refs to wing it. They were already winging it, so why not wing it some more?

Dan Snyder isn't the worst owner in sports? I didn't think it was close.

Off topic, but if you are going to talk about Canadian Juniors can you not abbreviate question by using Q? It took me a few minutes to figure out you were not talking about QMJHL, the Q. ?

I also appreciate the updates.. just wanted to say that. I don't have time to keep up with the Sabres much at this point, let alone the Amerks. I pretty much stop in here and read.

Why? You quoted the rulebook to refute. Clearly the rulebook was not the single defining factor in the decision making of the referees, at least not as it pertained to that officiating crew on that day, as such, it stands to reason that they were interpreting the rules. But that said, the rule itself for blindside blocks is broken all the time as players do come back up the field to block. I'm not about to go look for video, but I think that rule can be clarified to avoid what Ford did being a penalty, because it most assuredly, using common sense, should not be. It should not be illegal to block a guy who is looking at you. Either way, the complexion of the game changes. You can allow for either a TD or safety, but nowhere should the result have been a touchback. Two points and possession would have been beneficial as well. I won't say they would have won, that's impossible to know, but they would have had at a minimum 2 points extra on their side in the game.

BPA = Best Player Available But how do you quantify that? Best player at that specific moment? Best player for the team? Best player in 3-4 years? Best player in 3-4 years if I can control his development? Best player not in the CHL? I think it's easier to say, you don't pick a one position over another position just because you need that position. After that, it's a crap shoot.

If an attack was imminent, how much more planning was necessary? Not only that, but I would think targeting a military leader in such a way would have an impact on morale, but in the way that strengthens it, not weakens it. It all depends on how much they really liked the guy I suppose. With regards to being condescending, you acknowledged your action in your own post when you said, "Condescending because you act like I’m changing the subject" after calling another poster a name. By the guidelines for the forum, we're aiming to avoid that level of interaction. So I quoted you because you did it. In reality, your post, in which you called another poster a superhero only referenced a single person - You were not responding to multiple people and even if you were, you were only calling one of them a superhero. As far as your commentary on being an expert on what is condescending I'll give you a two part rebuttal. First, you acknowledge you were being condescending, so I don't have to be an expert. And the second part is that because of that and the fact that I am the one who gets to help keep the air clean in this group, I have the right to call it out. As far as your reference to what I said about Trump supporters. We have discussed it. It doesn't qualify as being condescending, not even a little bit. I don't have to know a person to know that if they support someone who is a racist, they support racism. Regardless, it's not pertinent to this specific conversation and it doesn't qualify by the definition of the word.

If we go around quoting the rule book as it pertains to this game then the Bills also have a touchdown to start the 2nd half.

This sucks. Of course this is what was going to happen. The concept that you slap a tariff on something and that manufacturing in the US suddenly takes off is ludicrous. Economics are complex beasts not resolved by tariffs and certainly not tariffs aimed at a country that is largely responsible for the manufacture of so many crucial components throughout the world. We're on a world stage now... we need to act like it. We're not the sole economic power or military power. We just happen to be the society that keeps buying more than it should, so for not, countries are happy to sell to us.

Frankly not a single Middle Eastern policy has worked out... ever. At best there are lulls in violence while a new regime (often strengthened by US intervention) comes to power and then becomes yet another despised despot in the region. You may not agree, but at least state why. Responses like this don't further the conversation or add value. Do you think a General was going to be the only reason an attack was carried out? If the guy was SuperMan I might accept that. If he planned an attack I am sure there are others who would carry it out and can still carry it out. It's like shooting the offensive coordinator after the play was called in to the QB. That said, you were not condescended against, so let's keep things in better standing. It's a touchy subject and we'll all get heated.

All of the debate aside... Should this officiating crew get another game in the playoffs? The blind side block was weak and probably not even a blind side block. Not calling the delay of game penalty is insane. The NFL should have a shot clock like the NBA. Let a loud buzzer go off and if the ball is still sitting on the ground, it's a penalty. If they get another game in the playoffs one has to question just how much scrutiny the NFL put on that crew for some seriously bad calls.

I think what was stated is that this has become the new normal with current US policies and procedures. It was not so much so in years past.

I understand, but I think your focus is on the coach and not the situation the coach goes to. Laviolette will get hired by a team in a better position to succeed than the Sabres are right now and they'll end up improving and it will appear as though he was worth it, but in reality, he was just another coach. Completely off the cuff? I could see him ending up in Minnesota or Columbus.

An interesting Opinion piece I came across today. https://www.latimes.com/opinion/story/2020-01-07/great-race-passing-trump Now, I don't find any huge surprises. Immigration policy has long favored European immigrants. That is, in fact, what our initial immigration policy was. But some of the references in there to Eugenics and the people who have served roles in that are pretty interesting. I have not done much reading into the articles linked. I started to read the article linked on Sanger regarding Planned Parenthood and the assertion that she started lobbying for birth control as a way to stem the "weeds of humanity" from procreating. That said, natural order states that those at the top of the food chain produce less off spring. I don't think that's much different with humans. Those in poor economic conditions tend to have more children. There's a point where you don't have enough resources so you end up having more children just to see how many can survive. It sounds twisted, but we're not that evolved as humans. Those who have many resources tend to cut back on their family size so as to preserve those resources. I do think some of the rebranding of the concepts that are mentioned in this article are driving what I referred to above. Stoking the fear of being replaced.

He took over as Flyers coach and barely had a better record than the coach he replaced. The coach they fired had a winning record at the time. The Predators? How much of that was coaching? Again, he's one of those guys who inherits good teams and then it seems like he's amazing because he wins. Peter Laviolette is not going to make the Sabres a better team. He can't make Girgensons score goals. He can't make Sheary bigger. You could hire him.. and then let's say Botterill adjusts the roster accordingly next season and they improve immensely. How much of that is coaching? How much credit do you give the current coach for the level of play Eichel has exhibited this year?

Peter Laviolette is that guy who everyone thinks is better than he really is. Do not want. He's never proven anything to me. His only Stanley Cup was the result of the Sabres losing 6 defensemen and then lucking into playing the haphazard Edmonton Oilers who somehow made it to the SCF. Newp.. newp newp.

In addition, those players drafted, who were flipped to another team in which a player came back to the Sabres and made it to the roster should also be counted. For example, if Nylander never pans out but Jokiharju does then the Nylander draft wasn't a bust per se. It resulted in an NHL player for the Sabres, just not the one they intended. If one were to narrowly focus on the success of the draft as those players who the Sabres picked who made it to the NHL, that wouldn't tell the whole story. You could also draft a player, flip them to another team who mismanages them and they never make it. We might not know if they would have made it to the NHL in the Sabres organization. It's tough to just look at those aspects, because ultimately it all goes to demonstrating their success at building a team. Which clearly has not been exceptional. But, it does play out the balance of building your team from the ground up as opposed to where Colorado is at the moment. Given how few players on their roster are their own draft picks.,

Being successful against your own age is one thing. Being successful against those older, bigger, and more experienced is another. You need to be able to be successful against the latter group to have NHL success. If you are only successful against the former group you'll find yourself relegated to the AHL or elsewhere until such a time you are too old to be of use anyway because someone who is younger is better than you are.

Almost immediately in your quotes the thing that jumps out at me is the reference to works with ambiguous legal status, aka, illegal immigrants. Those who are not subjected to minimum wages or taxes. While I see references in the article to dairy farmers saying that more H-2A visas would be a benefit even if they are paying the AEWR, if you look at the AEWRs being paid I find it hard to believe that more Americans are not looking for those jobs. The AEWR for NYS is $14.29. The minimum wage in NYS is $11.80 this year. Perhaps I am misreading the way the wages work. Those in the farming industry I've spoken to in the past commonly refer to the illegal immigrants and their ability to paid less than any government mandated wage. As to the value of immigrants on economic growth, I believe it, to a certain degree. That being that I have no doubt they are responsible for those numbers, but also at the same time wishing that our own society was not so broken so that there wouldn't be a concept that you need people from outside the United States to come in and start businesses to save the economy. Mostly because if they are coming in to start businesses and succeeding, then what do those who failed do. We aren't shipping them out of the country. We aren't helping them succeed. The issue, as I see it, is that the United States natural born citizen tends to fall into two camps these days. There are those who believe they should go massively in debt while going to college and expect to get paid well upon graduation or soon thereafter and there are those who aren't able to but feel like the government lets them down because so many foreign born workers are so successful. They gain a sense of entitlement. There are not enough people in the United States who think a trade profession is valuable or "noble". There are so many who think they are supposed to be given something so much more. This is a huge problem. This is a gross oversimplification, I acknowledge that. I think you could write 100 pages and not fully flesh out the concept. That said, foreign workers often come here with a very different mindset on what is success and what they need in life. They work together, they build strong family and cultural units to help each other succeed (Again, I accept the broad generalization here). This is not a bad thing. However, I do think that there is a tendency for natural citizens to feel threatened by that. I have no doubt it plays into the nationalistic platform somewhere. We've basically become fat and lazy and entitled. Not everyone, naturally, but I think its getting to critical mass. So, I get curious about what the natural born citizen does when they lose even more of their chances at success to immigrant workers and end up blaming the immigrants as opposed to looking more critically at their own ideals and work ethic. I think we see some of the early signs of what that looks like today, and not just in the United States. Perhaps there's a point where enough immigrants enter the country that the mindset of the United States finally changes. I just worry what it looks like until it gets to that point. I suppose that's not a reason to be against immigration, but things may get uglier before they get better.

When it comes to the topic of immigration, I tend to shoot a bit higher. Do we need more people coming into this country? It has nothing to do with who they are or where they come from for me. It simply is a matter of sustainability. If we already have so many below the poverty line. If we have so much homelessness and starvation. What is the point of letting MORE people in? Why should people be allowed to come to the United States to work? The romanticism of United States immigration needs to die. It served a purpose when the country was growing. At some point, there is a limit to what an economy and a geography can sustain. I think United States is well past that point, especially given that we've eliminated so many jobs that solidify an economic base. I realize that comes across as highly nationalistic. I don't intend it to mean it that way. Even if I were not a US citizen I would question the concept. Why should anyone be allowed to go anywhere they please to live and work? To me it's like saying I want to work at Company X and I should have the right to do so. Just stand in line and get a job. But it's not how it works, if I don't add value to that company they aren't going to want me. I suppose you could argue that it should be easy for anyone to apply for a spot in the United States, but that doesn't mean you ever make it past the automatic screener. My mind is hardly set in these ways... but my first thought is that before we go making it easier for people to come into the country that maybe we should put more effort into fixing what is wrong with us first.

Whatever it is... having any political leader, let alone one who continually has his sanity questioned, going off on social media in fits of vaguebooking is not the way to settle the concerns of the world. His comments rank in the same tone and vein as those made by the kinds of leaders the United States usually opposes. Being one of the despots is not going to help the situation. As far as the rest of this, nudging in the MIddle East has long been a tactic used... Middle Eastern reform has yet to ever stand a chance because even when someone rises to power that wants reform it seems that their version of reform comes along with killing all those who oppose them.

Montreal is highly regarded as a top place to play hockey. I'm still trying to put together a trip just to see a hockey game there. That said, Kovalchuk is NOT a player I'd want in Buffalo. I think he'd be a bad locker room fit and questionable to what he'd bring on the ice.

Could be, it seems he just returned from his long injury, came back on the 27th and then missed the 28th.. claimed illness? Perhaps he's not quite ready to go. It would be Thompson, but he's still out too.

The concept of "there isn't anything that could be done" has to go along with the concept "at what price?". That's always the problem. Hell, look at the debate about what they paid Skinner, just to keep him. Acquiring JT Miller would have been a good move, if the price were right. People definitely disagree on what that price should be. Which is perfect for Buffalo frankly. If he comes in here and lights it up and the Sabres flip him in February to a team that offers back a younger prospect or a 2nd round pick then in reality Botterill flipped Scandella for a 2nd pick or another player.

The "need" argument is based on the Tampa Bay Lightning current roster. That roster has 8 players who will have a NMC/NTC in effect in 2021 when the expansion draft occurs. Kucherov, is NOT one of those players. Of those 8 players you have 7 who will be 30 or older at the time of that draft. More young players, coming into their prime in 2021 isn't going to help them as much as a player who might come into his prime in 2022/2023. The Lightning will be forced to protect ALL 8 of those players unless they choose to waive their NMC/NTC. So, how does a team like Tampa protect itself? They go out and get a pick that might slide to the 2021 draft year so they have an extra asset to use in trying to steer Seattle away from Kucherov. It's not difficult saying its a trade that should have been made. If the deal was right, it should have been made. I'm just allowing for the possibilities of why it might not have been made.