LTS

That's the spirit! Keep the faith!

Beautiful. Nice puck movement.

Yeah. When they finally get there the team will be in Quebec City.

There were more Boston fans in Buffalo than there are Florida fans in Florida.

I think it's just favorable conditions more than anything. I don't think other teams are playing down to Buffalo and that's why Buffalo is winning. I can look at GDTs on here and see a lot of people posting "who is this team?". That's the eye test in action. We're seeing an improved game style out of this team. They still have their moments. Boston had Buffalo players on the ice for as long as 4 minutes in one stretch and no goals OR penalties were taken. That's unusual but it happened. My opposition was to your theory that there is this "garbage time" and that teams just lose to the Sabres because they aren't trying as hard. I don't buy into garbage time. The Lightning and Bruins and others are all battling for playoff spots and home ice, etc. It's not insignificant by any means. Losing points to Buffalo can't sit well with them. Especially Boston who lost 2 points to the Sabres. The Lightning only lost 1 in the last game.

A few other things to keep in mind. First, unless you are moving into a neighborhood where no one ever has kids, make sure your property is kid friendly. It may not matter for you, but it may matter to the people you want to buy your house when it comes time to sell. This is really true across the board. Unless you know you are never leaving the house you want to consider that the house will sell again. Also consider your payment, not only today, but next year when they reassess your property value. Find out when assessments were last done and the trend they've shown. You won't enjoy it when you're 1.5 years into your house and your taxes take a big jump because they've jumped the value of your house. Also consider the rising costs of the neighborhood. If it's well established you will be pretty insulated, especially in Rochester/Buffalo. However, if your area is going to undergo a radical change and become popular you're going to see a rise in home values and along with that a rise in assessments and taxes and because in NYS our taxes are awesome that will be the biggest part of your house payment. Of course the good news with a house that rises in value is that you can sell it. So, as long as you are willing to depart your abode when opportunity knocks it might make sense to find that location and hope for the best. When I bought my first home we bought into a 1960's built subdivision. However, the areas around us were all being developed with homes that were $50-$80k more in starting price than our home value. In 5 years my home value jumped $30k just for proximity. We rode that wave for a bit too long and I ended up only selling the house for $20k more than we paid for it.... but it was a payday that we rolled into our current house. I think the safest thing to say is that this house is not going to be your house forever. So plan for it that way.

It's not because the the 3rd and 4th liners are worse. It's because the overall talent levels have gone up. Given the larger pool of talent to choose from there are bound to be more who fit in the same general area. I believe the top tier has grown, but every tier below that has grown even more. As far as what is on the Sabres. There are two points to address. I didn't say the talent had permeated the league as a whole. I said it is growing and it will. Also, the Sabres are purposefully keeping younger players in Rochester and have iced UFAs so they can develop. How good are they? Don't know. We'll find out. Just because the overall talent levels have improved doesn't mean there aren't lesser talents and it doesn't mean they aren't on the Sabres.

So the hypothesis is that every team is taking the Sabres too lightly and that's why they are winning? How do we account for that from every team they are playing? Do we also account for other teams who have performed significantly worse since Jan 1. (a purely arbitrary date certainly).? If you are the Bruins or Lightning and recently were beaten by the Sabres and then had to play them again... are you still taking them as a joke? I think it's possible to look past a game certainly, but if you were just recently beaten by a team you'd be foolish to continue looking past them. Curious, when does garbage time begin? I mean, out of the gate they were bad and teams would have not taken them seriously right? So why did they suddenly improve? Is there a time when the other teams finally believed they were awful and started playing worse against the Sabres? Fair points on the points earned in 20 game blocks. That's why I also added the scoring... they've been steadily climbing in both charts. Not great, but it's improvement.. and that's with a team we know is incomplete. If they're able to be as competitive as they've been with players out of the lineup, how much better will they be with those players back in the lineup and some other talent added? There's the eye test as well. They just look better.

More hockey. I can't wait. It's entirely possible that they lay an egg tonight. Florida has been an improved team over the past 2 months.

That was my point. I don't believe the game will be improved that dramatically especially in the coming years. The growth of hockey has occurred over the past 10-12 years not only in the US but in other countries. What we are seeing is the talent pool expanding because more kids are playing it. The more opportunities given to develop the greater the game at the highest level becomes. I think you can make an argument to contract something into a small group of "all-star" teams but that's also not realistic for business. I don't believe today's 3rd liner is the equivalent of the 3rd liner ability from even 10 years ago. I think it's improved. Statistically it might not look much different but skill wise I think it's there. I think it's going to only get better as this up and coming talent pushes out players from even the worst teams.

Since Jan 1.... The Sabres are 23rd in points in the league with 23 points. The 16th best team in the league in points is Florida with 27. Would you feel better if overall this team was only 4 points out of a playoff spot right now? The Sabres are 18th in GF. The Sabres are 24th in GA. From beginning of the season to Dec. 31 The Sabres were 30th in points and the 16th best team in the league was Minnesota with 43 points. The Sabres were 31st in GF. The Sabres were 29th in GA. There has been improvement on this team whether you want to admit to it or not. The team still needs more goal scoring, needs better defense and goaltending. We're allowed be happy that Antipin and Nelson look solid. Guhle looked good. Ullmark looked good. If they can get a bit more scoring out of the forward base then there's no reason to believe they will be miserable next season. Hell Chad Johnson has improved his game significantly since the start of the season as well. So, keep him in the mix.

Sitting down causes your pants to have to stretch and compresses the fibers against your skin causing you to lose air insulation which results in being colder. You are supposed to stand and feel warmer. So tell everyone to stand... or I guess give them a reason to do so? In seriousness though. I was there for the last game against the Bruins. We were sitting 1 row from the wall and it was chilly, but not cold. I am fine if they up the temperature a bit but as d4rk said.. you show up wrapped up for winter and there's no place to put your coat so you might as well wear it. Whatever they do they need to make sure the ice is in the best shape possible before they worry about the people watching the game. Crappy ice will make no one want to watch the game.

I don't see contraction as a way the NHL improves its bottom line. I understand the concept of concentrating talent onto fewer teams with the perception that it will improve the game. At the same time, there are more people playing hockey than ever before and that's likely to boost the overall talent pool making it less necessary. We're just now beginning to see this expansion of talent across the league. In the past it was far less often so many young players rocketed to the top of the leagues each year. Look at the rookie class this year and it's impressive. I hope they cap at the number of teams they will have after Seattle and then just let a few franchises move around as needed. 32 teams is a good number and makes it even all around.

Of course. One of the other things is that Murray was technically hired by LaFontaine and that entire situation went stupid fast. It might have been that Murray was tasked by his owner to try and win NOW and in which case he made the moves to try and make that happen. It's really hard to say how much he enjoyed the entire ownership situation with the Sabres as the whole environment changed around him as soon as he was hired. That said, he had a GM job so it's not like he wanted to just up and walk away from that either right? In some way I think we can pin two years of crap on the entire mishandling of the LaFontaine situation. It was clear Pegula was (and still is) learning how to operate a professional franchise (in multiple sports). It does appear that he might be starting to get it with both organizations but one year with each is hardly enough to say for certain.

I get that you have to try and justify losing to Buffalo. But that’s not even remotely close to goaltender interference. I’ll take it. How can you not? They are playing hard and as a team,

They mentioned that Housley said he earned it after the game in Boston.

I’m totally fine with things right now. Mostly it’s far too soon to expect more. He came in and said Murray did no favors for the team. The Kane situation aside, I think if the right draft picks were there he might have moved some of the RFA/UFA players. But if you weigh keeping them versus pulling up all the Rochester players that would be required it’s probably preferable to keep them in Rochester and keep the UFAs. I would have liked more winning this year, but the team has improved even if it doesn’t show in the scoring and win column. Lately they’ve shown that even with clearly inferior talent they can play a competitive game against some of the best teams in the NHL. I look forward to the improved talent slotting in.

No thanks. More importantly... where to go after? Coles? Bobs? Somewhere else?

Excellent. More hockey. Should be back from shopping for a new stick for my son in time to watch it. He broke his last night and then proceeded to carry it around like it was a badge of honor. I congratulated on him finally hitting a puck hard enough. I'm such a loving parent. :)

That's a brave response. Either you knew better or you were foolish and survived. :) My wife was absolutely fantastic... she really didn't beat me up too bad. I did have to try and reason with her at one point and she did tell me she was going to kill one of the residents if he walked if he entered the room again. The nurse helped me take care of that situation... and with a smile. :) Zoso Okposo is pretty good. As long as it's not Yoko I'm good. And if it is Yoko.. well I'm good anyway because it's not my business.

That would be a hell of a name. Congrats to them. Some of the greatest moments in life is watching your children being born. Some of the most painful too if you get too close to your wife at the wrong time. :)

It's not setting a rule, no one has to follow it. You can make a proclamation and be on your happy way. I could refute your proclamation and be on my way. If that happened we would truly have 5 posts per day on here. Instead, if we want to forge into a deeper conversation I don't think it's out of the realm of reason to ask if there is more information that is helping to shape the aforementioned proclamation. In theory we can then dive deeper on that information and, assuming we are capable of it, have an actual discussion on the topic where both sides present information, discuss its merits and potentially arrive at a mutually agreeable position. Otherwise what's the point? I think we all realize that we're mostly uninformed peons in the overall information game. Every once in awhile there is tangible information that gets released to the public but most of the time its a lot of "media speak" and innuendo. It's so bad that the local sports radio has to deliver information with "I hear reports of" rather than actual information. Of course knowing all that we probably should all stop proclaiming absolutes about the business of hockey. It's more realistic to debate the game because that is played out in front of our eyes. But when it comes to the business aspects, we're all just fish in the pet store aquarium chasing every shadow that walks by the tank with the hope that food might be thrown in.

You know he only evaluates the moves based on statistics right? I'm not sure any of his articles actually ever include an assessment of the business itself. Statistically, yes, the Sabres don't win on this deal. Reality, however, says that the Sabres were unlikely to win on this deal. Moreover, statistics also don't take into account the specifics of a situation but rather apply a broad set of rules to a situation. I think the problem here is that you (and others) continue to consider Kane a prime asset when it has become painfully clear that he was not as much of a prime asset as many of us (and many hockey insiders at times) believed he would be. The bottom line was, and remains, the value of an asset is only as much as someone else is willing to pay for it and in this case the only deal we are aware of for Kane was this one. Until there is evidence that there was a greater value on the table there is nothing to judge the deal against except the value of NOT moving Kane. There's speculation by We've that we should have moved him in the past off-season. There's no evidence that he could have been moved or moved for more than they received today. The option of keeping him to see how he played under a new coach and GM probably also has some merit as well. I think we will understand the value of Evander Kane when he signs his next contract. Until then I will treat the whole deal as one big fluid situation that has yet to be finalized and therefore can't have a final judgment made. There are still significant IFs to be played out on this.

You love to ignore the differences... You've made your point and despite people bringing up additional items to consider you're completely unwilling to listen or consider them. What's the point of continuing to comment? Given no evidence that a better option EVER existed you are willing to hang onto this mantra. Find evidence there was a better trade out there and bring it to the thread. I'll talk about it. Provide some evidence to support your assertions. You have none. You are just trying to stir up controversy even if none exists. If you want to bring up a serious subject then at least come to the table with some evidence that would indicate that Evander Kane is being targeted because of his race. You mention ROR. ROR does not have the legal trouble Evander Kane has nor does he have the same locker room issues. ROR has a potential locker room issue with some players and had one incident at a Tim Hortons. He has not tried to create the same persona that Evander Kane certainly has by posting pictures of himself on social media with stacks of cash. He has not been accused of assault, choking a woman, etc. Has he? Patrick Kane wasn't on the open market so we have no idea if it would compare. If Evander Kane gets his FA signing of $8M are you going to claim he should have received $10M like Patrick Kane did and it's racism if he does not? Evander Kane and Patrick Kane are not equals on the ice, not even close. Kane was listed as a party boy at one point but I haven't heard his name in a few years now. We'll see if Evander can keep his name out of the press. He did a great job of it this year and maybe he's turned a corner as well. Either way, you need to find a true comparable before you can really compare. Patrick Kane isn't it and neither is ROR. But to claim pariah status because of race? Chris Stewart was claimed off waivers as was Johnny Oduya. How does that fit your narrative? Or because they haven't had the kind of past that Kane was it doesn't quite work? I'm not here to say racism doesn't exist or that it's not relevant. However, just because Evander Kane is black does not make this a race issue. Injecting the discussion of racial discrimination into a conversation without any evidence of it not only undermines the conversation but also undermines the integrity of actual, serious, racial discrimination discussion.

Perspective I suppose. I feel more confident about this team and it's more immediate prospects than most. I could get all Eeyore over the whole thing but why should I?