LTS

If Kane didn't want to sign here then Botterill has ruled out nothing. He's accepted what a player is willing (or NOT willing) to do. And since Kane has not been playing in the top 6 for a good part of the season and the Sabres were more successful when he wasn't there says that it's not taking a step backward so much as you might believe. In addition, there's been little to no movement of players in the league this season. If there's no ability to move players then there's no potential to improve. Finally, it's been noted that Botterill plays a quiet camp.

The advantage for Botterill is that he holds the asset. So, while he's playing a game of don't flinch with every possible suitor, they are all playing the same game against each other. The media will be used to play this out. Just like the Friedman quote above... if 5 (total guess) GM's were in on Kane (and they probably know who each other are) then 4 know that 1 of them is lowering his projection or attempting to make them think that's what is happening. I would love to be a fly on the wall in these calls and conversations that go on to see the "game" being played out. It's absolutely fascinating. Of course all of this is fascinating if you love game theory... which I do.

If you watch Debrusk is not tripped. He may inadvertently connect his skate with Pietrangelo but his skate would be going into Pietrangelo and not the other way around. He stumbles and falls. He is never touched by Edmundson.

I understand. Clearly being risk averse plays into things. I don't think he can back too far off his initial high asking price or every GM will try and low ball him. It's tough to be patient. I think next week's the week there are some moves.

Honestly... how would Pacioretty NOT want to be out of there at this point. I'd tell Renaud that a trade was imminent just to get anyone who might be on the fence to jump in on getting him.

I heard Pierre was the odds on favorite to replace Ray should he ever stop doing the analyst role. Just keep that thought in your head when you are lamenting Ray.

Are you assuming that he could move Kane now for something less? If so, how much less before he's basically giving away an asset? This is the game inside the game.

I'd be very surprised if the Islanders consider any trade that asked for Bellows. Bailey is unrestricted this year and with what they need to give up to get Tavares they are unlikely to let one of their most promising young stars go. They can't move Bailey this season either which means they need to let him walk or hope like hell they can sign him. If we're trading with the Islanders it will be for a defensive prospect or potentially one of their young D on the roster. Unfortunately, De Haan and Hickey are both UFA as well. This makes the Islanders job of trading away younger D difficult as well. While I think Lehner is what the Islanders desperately need to make them a serious contender in the playoffs, I'm not sure what they are willing to give up. It would probably involve picks and clearly Halak so the Sabres don't have to pull up Ullmark.

Well, non-playoff teams are going to be likely to deal. What do you think Arizona would give for ROR right now? Would they give up OEL? Would they give up more? With his "girlfriend" right? Not his wife? He's not married? Lots of other sports figures have kids with lots of girlfriends too. I don't see ROR is that kind of guy, but the truth is that having a kid does not kill the partying lifestyle for some... (for some of us others it certainly puts and end to things.) :)

Sure.. I liked what I said.. because it made no sense. Yours makes sense and sounds all scientificky. :) You walk into a coffee shop and two people are talking. I will let you apply any characteristics you'd like to the two people. You overhear a part of their conversation but during the blanked out part someone sneezed and you missed that word. What word was used? Does the word you missed change if you happen to picture a certain set of characteristics? It might not in this case because it's really a harmless conversation. In other scenarios it might invoke a stronger response. The phrase "You f _ _ _ e d me pretty good the other night at the party." will be construed different by different people. By the way, the missing word above is f o o l e d. Shame on you if you thought something else. :) Also.. hockey is happening.

I can't even begin to care about the line combinations at this point. You could speculate Housley is an idiot. You could speculate it's for trade showing purposes. You could speculate a lot of things. Until we ship out the players via trade I'm not worried about it. Even after that happens I am not too concerned because this is not the roster it needs to be. Next year? I'll be more concerned.... until the point where I shouldn't be again.

Pure hypothesis.. what if the problem is ROR vs. Kane? What if they can re-sign Kane if ROR ships out?

Everything is available for a price. Gotta do something to make the stats geeks freak... :) Despite people not wanting to accept it, stereotypes by and large are created out of a preponderance of factual information that apply to a particular grouping of things. I am leaving it generic because it really can apply to all kinds of things and not just people. There has to be an exception to it at some point and then at some point the preponderance of exceptions make it no longer a stereotype... (even if uneducated people continue to use it). In fact, if you want to insinuate that stereotypes are bad aren't you now creating a stereotype about stereotypes? Meh.. the Lightning just had a weekend party. I'd expect them to be a little off. :)

Hope to be back from some other commitments in time to watch the 3rd period. Grr.

It really seems like the bidding war for Kane will be with Nashville and St. Louis. The Islanders don't need him. They have no problem scoring right now. It seems likely that Nashville is the primary choice as Housley knows the players that could be offered. They have a problem keeping pucks out of their net. They need a goaltender and they need one for more than this year. Greiss is signed longer term and they can't feel confident with him. They could use Lehner. The question is what can the Islanders give up for him? Certainly send Halak back in a trade. The Sabres are fine with that as they just need a goaltender for the rest of the season, but who else do the Islanders provide?

A little pre-Olympic prep? Curious.. once the Olympics are over can those players sign contracts in the NHL? I'd have to believe they could. Might be interesting to see if Gionta finds any takers for the last month of the season and the playoffs?

Will it shoot Himalayan Pink Salt? Table salt isn't good for you. ;)

There have been no less than 60 stink bugs who have met their demise in my house in the past year via this method. Chuckling... just quietly chuckling. Seriously, my house is my house. The only bugs I don't kill are the spiders and that's because they kill other bugs. Anything else gets deported via the flush tube to the septic system where they can help fertilize the great outdoors. Except flies... those hold a special place in my heart. I use the rubber bands from celery to shoot the flies. They are very strong bands, they are very wide, and the very much squash the guts right out of the fly.

Nice. I was aware of their brewery but I didn't have the desire to seek it out. I can probably alter my drive from Rochester to Franklinville to put that at least close enough to the route to stop in and check it out.

I think the players know at that point what they need to do.

The objective is to win. Killing a minute off the clock and THEN getting a man advantage provides them the best chance to win at that point. Heck, they could have skated the puck back out of the zone on the ensuing face-off and killed another 2 minutes. That would have been 3 minutes of the remaining time that Vancouver would not touch the puck. Your opponent can't win if they don't have the puck. Just because your foot is on the gas doesn't mean you are only going in a straight line.

I am using CyberLink Screen Recorder. I have the full Director Suite. I need to update my computer to be able to do better editing but I was able to knock that one out today with only a little hassle.

PA started here.. I'll post it here and it's in his keep away thread. For those who want a quick review of the delayed penalty keep away.

Screw it.. it seemed too awesome not to do. Just for you PA.