LTS

That was an entirely different comment.

Works for me.. and he's right. The only real skill I need from a center is the ability to win face-offs and understand D zone coverage.. after that it's pretty much turned into a free for all of play a spot on the ice that's designed for your skill set.

I understand the sentiment. The player movement aspect is just one point that I made. The rest was that players moving around all the time really lessens the attachment to a team, at least for me. I mean, why not just redraft the teams each year? The ultimate in player movement right? The drafting process is questionable, but it's also a one time event. With minor exceptions, players only get drafted once and almost never is the player playing professionally where they were playing prior, so there was going to be a move required. Trades come after a player is establishing a life and has far more impact. I don't hate trades, but leagues where players move from team to team to team every year and contracts can be nullified on a whim really lessen the value of the sport. It seems like you devolve into, buy your championship mode.

Yeah.. I get it. But it's not fleecing by any stretch in my opinion. It's all he's worth. Because he's a $9M defender who is not worth that salary.

People all about NJ fleecing Nashville. Again, you have to wonder why Nashville is willing to let him go for a perceived low amount and also why others aren't stepping up. Bottom line, and i think it was stated on here somewhere, PK just isn't as great as people think he is. He's a great person and a good defender. But not a $9M defender.

No. But that would be an easy way of dismissing my opinion.

The last pick the Sabres had at #31 is sitting on the Rangers now right? I'm not getting too upset about things here. I just would have thought forward. Again.. I'm not sure it matters.

Fun for you. To me it makes things less of about how you build a team and more about how you can just throw people around wherever you want. What is a team at that point? Uprooting people for the hell of it was never all that appealing to me. I also pay no attention to the NBA. So.. I'll take your word for it. But what's good for the NBA isn't necessarily what's good for the NHL.

Yep. And we all have our opinions, but as soon as someone has an alternate opinion, especially on something so subjective as a uniform design, then you shouldn't go around calling the organization fan deaf. Because there clearly are fans they are listening to, people are just upset it's not them.

Well, the question, as always, is... what, if anything, was offered for it and was that worth it? The "chatter" was that the Sabres were fine with trading it. But it doesn't mean they would give it away, right? We just don't know.

I suppose. I think they are all equally bad. The horror stories are everywhere. Soccer always intrigued me. It's not like US born soccer players ever achieve much of anything in the world, especially compared to basketball, baseball, football, and hockey. But parents go off on it just the same.

For what it's worth, when I told my 15 year old about an all white with gold trim uniform his response was "That would be sick!". This was echoed by his buddy who was on FaceTime at that moment. So, your world doesn't necessarily equal the actual world. I'm not picking on you here. You are certainly entitled to your opinion. However, to call the Sabres fan deaf when you only consider your opinion as the opinion of the fans is misguided. There clearly are fans who are interested in seeing this concept.

When I coached I always let parents know that their bad examples would be the burden of their children. In other words, shut up and enjoy the game. if you want to make a scene and be a problem you can explain to your child why your actions were keeping them from playing. Of course, I said many other things as well and generally never had a problem. I have disagreed with officials, but in the end I've never coached a game where scholarships or paychecks were on the line. Just not that important.

Fair enough. I don't pay enough attention to know better either. I suppose even Brink would have been someone to look at. Clearly they weren't the only ones who thought something was wrong since NBCSN was going on about Kaliyev and yet no one was grabbing him.

Because they don't make all kinds of goofy ass trades?

I would have preferred they go to Kaliyev with the pick. I guess they felt the need to balance. I dunno. I don't know enough about Johnson, but I figured getting some goal scoring talent into the pipeline would trump a slight reach for D.

Which, building off my first post on the subject, is what I said. Originally, he brought in advisers and those of us who were around then can recall the discussion of whose agenda was being followed. They are all gone now and I do agree that Botterill is 100% a Pegula hire. And, if Botterill turns the team around it will demonstrate that the early years were rough, he listened to the wrong people, and eventually learned enough along the way to get the right guy. Or, it could still be the wrong guy. I don't care what Terry says or how he says it to be honest. If he wants to talk about his 3 gold medals, then so be it. I care about Botterill hmself. He had all the qualifications and had spent a long time in a successful program helping to build it. I don't Botterill is inexperienced. He might not have been THE GM, but he was part of the general management team. He has a team now as well to help support him. I don't think the Sabres have given him long enough to build things out. This year is critically important to how much more rope he'll be given.

Damn.. give the man a minute. He's been away for awhile. His skills need time to recover.

I won't go deeper into this because it would be politics.. but it feels the same to me. Well, you'd be happier to not get upset about things outside of your control. But, to each their own. If I were as upset as some people around here appear to be I would just stop paying attention to the Sabres. There's enough grief in life.

Parents... parents... the ungodly stupid parents. They are the problem. Coaches can at least be penalized. Parents are untouchable. It's getting sad. Did you know USA Hockey has now also made it illegal for players to bang their sticks on the boards? So.. you know. USA Hockey! WOOOO I video all my kid's hockey games, but it's not to question officials. It's because sometimes some really stupid stuff happens and if there's evidence it will be helpful.

Have you seen the country change much? That said, running the US and running a hockey team are in no way related whatsoever.

How long do you let someone build a team? I feel that when he came in he was surrounded by too many people with differing and bad agendas. Over the past few years we've seen an indication that he's now comfortable moving some of those people out. They are starting to assert their values on the front offices of the teams. Things don't change overnight, especially if one of the guys in charge really screwed things up. More importantly, you can't fire the owner, so what does it matter? He's the owner and will continue to be the owner. If he continues to screw it up then fans need to start leaving. If they do that then the team will lose money and he'll probably look to sell the team. It's far too early to judge where Botterill is going with this team. It's plausible that Housley was never intended to be the coach and that Krueger was who he wanted all along. The problem was Krueger was tied up in his soccer project and not ready to leave that. If Housley had panned out that would have been excellent. He didn't. It sucks for the fans, to be certain, but each new management structure can't make decisions based on the length of time the fans have suffered. That's how the cupboard was emptied with Murray. I'm just more patient. And frankly, I have no control over it. So I can choose to get bent over it or choose to hope it will get better. If I feel like Botterill can't get the job done then I'll stop paying attention to the team until they make a change.

I do think the fear of a penalty will make coaches think about challenging. Losing a timeout, usually, doesn't matter all that much. The double-minor will really hurt. If they ruled that the double minor was served as simultaneous minors it would be a 5-3 and I think that would be great. Let the opposite team choose. 5-4 for 4 or 5-3 for two. The sad truth is that they have to do this. They can't choose to ignore the video evidence because the vast majority of fans won't ignore it. Fans don't let the refs off the hook for making a mistake. If the NHL were to do so, the fans would hate on the NHL and they'd lose business. I was reading an article on ESPN yesterday talking about how everyone with cell phones are recording youth sports games and now using their video to get in the fact of officials in youth sports. They feel even more emboldened than they did before. If they'll do it in youth sports they will sure as heckfire go ballistic on professional officials.

Yes, judging by your name and your take, a few too many. ?

So, with your billion dollars you are going to go find a guy who claims to be good at drilling for gas. How are you going to find him? Interviews? You don't know what makes a successful executive for that role since you know nothing about it. You'll bring in some consultants and they'll have ties to other people and opinions on who you should hire. So you hire a guy based on your consultants. Do you just scurry off the Caribbean and not check in on what he's going with your money? What if your consultants steered you wrong. They steered you to a guy who worked really well in the Southern US but dealing with Northerners isn't a different beast. They don't like your Southern boy. So, you gotta fire him and start over. Now who do you listen to? The smart owner is going to eventually get the right guy. The entire time they are going to stay involved so they can learn more and more about the business they didn't know much about before. Eventually, they'll start to get it. Arrogance would be buying the team and not having hockey advisors help you on hiring and operating the team and going out and doing it all yourself. That hasn't happened.