LTS

Well, as for the Bills, the current administration went all-in on Sammy Watkins and blew any chance of having a QB in the near future. It was a desperation move but one that I could see made by a GM who was nervous about new ownership. That said, he should have seen what that new owner had accepted with the Sabres and thought differently. So.. they are screwed. As for the Sabres. I still think they can avoid getting Eichel or McDavid and be pretty damn good. Sure they will be better with one of the two, at least hopefully, but they do have 3 first round picks this year.. the scale is weighed so heavily in their favor that it would take pretty damn good odds to completely miss at this point.

Can we stick to the snow in this thread? Please? If you want to debate what person was involved in child abuse or hanging around with children when he shouldn't, etc. can you do that somewhere else?

Didn't Bourque clear waivers? Were the Ducks sleeping then or did they not need him at the time?

A few things quick. 1. The storm, in and of itself, is awesome. It's impressive. Mother Nature does some really cool stuff. Let me put it this way. If you could have a storm drop 6' of snow but only suffer the problems that come with 6" of snow how would you feel about it? 2. The impacts on life are significant. This is the awful part of this event. 3. People can be insulted by anything. Truth is, if you live in Buffalo you've always been prone to having this kind of snow event. I'll grant that this storm is setting new records for a concentrated snowfall and it may lead to people reclassifying how these are viewed. But think about it.. a Category 5 Hurricane is significant, but something like Katrina, Andrew, etc. are the rarities. Someday we may see a Category 6 Hurricane or something. People who live in areas that are prone to abnormal weather events have to take certain precautions. That said, at some point you end up with this kind of storm, and then you can only do your best. I think the good part of this so far is that unlike a hurricane, people still have their houses to protect them. 4. Imagine if they have overreacted and shutdown the Thruway on Monday night at 9pm. Think about all the times they shut things down and then nothing materializes. I think this justifies those actions. They probably should have been even more cautious by the initial closings. All the pictures are absolutely amazing. I think the people of the area will have a new found respect for others who are trapped in major events that thoroughly disrupt life. Even being this close I know I have a new appreciation for it. There is bound to be more damage and more problems, just hoping for the best for everyone there.

Curious. What team doesn't sell hope? It's either hope they will win it all this year or hope they will improve this year, but hope nonetheless right? Are you saying that this team continually sells that the next year will be better than the current year? I'm trying to figure out what is being sold.

Yea, I don't get it. I thought the scrape was there to prep the ice surface and to eliminate the delay going into the shootout if necessary because they no longer resurfaced the center of the ice. I actually accepted the delay to start OT because it's like the end of any normal period and it happens in the playoffs anyway. So, now they will use a shovel crew. Will they bring out the zambonis for the shoot out? Ahh whatever..

Today is one of those days when I wish I was there for the experience. But also glad I am not. Grew up there. I can remember '77 and every other big snowfall since then. I guess if there's good news for cleanup it's that it was contained to a corridor and not widespread over the entire area. That said... this amount of snow in a short time is crazy. My sister is in Cheektowaga and a little less than a mile away from the snow line. So she was okay. My parents who are in the Southern Tier are fine too, for once they were too far South. Thing is this... you've got pretty much the most experienced snow removal people in the United States there. With a little extra help I'll bet they clear it up like no one else can. All the best to those who are buried in the snow.

Now, that said. I have been attacked by a woman's male teammates when I accidentally knocked the woman over while turning up ice. So, you know.. I didn't care who it was but they did! :)

Nice. Next week my team plays a full team of girls (RIT Club). So I guess we'll have to expect them to play hockey. (Actually they'll be a good challenge, they have some good players from what I've seen). Apparently in order for them to form at RIT they have to prove they can form and keep a team in another league somewhere. That's what one of the coaches of the RIT Club Men's team told me anyway. We play against women all the time. I don't ever pay attention to whether it's a woman or a man during the play. No time for that. They are an opponent and that's all I care about.

Remember Leino had hip problems...

I was am at a loss for words. I'm just going to smile for awhile.

Dunno, tonight I used the smoked chicken I made earlier in the week to make enchiladas. Paired that with a Gran Centenario Anejo and then some of my Casa Nobles Single Reserve Anejo. No bad choices there. Now it's beer time.. because, beer. I watched Kessel just wait inside his blue line and then start up the ice and sigh.. I saw it coming. The Sabres doing their standard ignore everything but the puck routine and Kessel dropped in behind them perfectly.

I think this needs to be approached from a different perspective. There's a huge difference between a losing culture and not having a winning culture. The players want to win, but they apparently don't want to win enough. There's no way I accept that any of them WANT to lose. The difference between wanting to win and winning are the little things that teams do to be in the position to succeed. They know where each of their teammates are on the ice. They execute good passes because of this. They score because they have covered the ice and outworked the other team. We only see the games. We see the output of a practice. The hard work ethic, the attitude to not accept anything BUT perfection and the winning that comes with it all starts in practice. I'll grant that a lot of players on this team don't have the talent to be successful unless they can give 100% all the time. Even then, they might not have the talent to truly succeed in the NHL. But a player who has the talent (and Hodgson has talent) but who shuts down and accepts a level of play as horrible as Hodgson has displayed is going to be a problem. Perhaps he needs some success to pull him along and perhaps he'll be tolerated enough to actually stay with the team but he'll always be waiting for someone else to kick him in the ass and that's a problem.

Uhhh sure.

The thing playing heavily in Bailey's favor is having been raised around a work ethic that leads to winning. There's no doubt he learned valuable lessons from accomplished professional athletes while he was growing up. I think that plays to his advantage for succeeding. Oh well, all we can do is wait and hope.

There is only one appropriate crowd reaction tonight before the game starts. The arena should muster up the loudest RJ, RJ, RJ cheer possible. I would imagine that even all the Leafs fans in attendance would chime in with their respect for the man. Besides, it might be the most enjoyable moment of the game. I'll be watching.. it's what I do.

Just checked because I hadn't looked at +/- recently. Yea, -11. Technically Stewart and Benoit are the worst at -12. Short-handed goals will kill you there. :) Fluke or not, when you are on the ice for all 3 of your teams goals you have to be helping somewhere.

Girgensons full potential has not been realized yet and that excites me. I'm not going to go all poetic or hyperbolic on the guy but he just flat out has the right stuff. He avoids big hits, the puck sticks to him, he makes strong plays, beats up other players physically with his relentlessness, and can score goals. He seems to even be improving in that category. I think when it all plays out he's going to be a perennial Selke trophy candidate. Think about this, he went a LONG time last year before he received his first penalty. This year he has 4 PIM which I find incredible given how often he is hacking at other players and hanging all over them. He finds a way to do this without a hooking, slashing, or tripping call. The scary thing for me is that he looks this good on a team this bad. It's not that he looks that much better by comparison, it's that he could be that much better if he wasn't picking up slack elsewhere. Imagine what kind of player he is if you drop him onto the Blackhawks right now. I think I can sum up my feeling on Girgensons simply with "He's got it. He gets it. He's THAT kind of player."

Yea, no chance I wish cancer on anyone. It's awful news to hear.

Right now I have to say that Ristolainen and Zadarov are playing the best. They are turning the puck up the ice from behind the net. They are pushing the puck themselves to break out the zone. They are making smart passes when needed. Zadarov has been out of position, lost a few battles, etc. I would expect it. But right now the kid is not a liability on this team. He clearly stands above Benoit, Meszaros, and Weber. He may regress. Players may figure him out a bit more but he certainly seems to have the heart required to stay competitive. As he continues to hit forwards they will start to shy away from him, even if a little. He certainly likes to punish players.

Hey.. thanks for that update. I don't always get to hear him comment on what is going on. I definitely think that some of the players are clueless. I'm still confused as to how they keep backing off on zone entries and also how they continually fail to cover the third man high. Oh well.. Good to know that Nolan is telling them what to do. Someday then... :)

The sound will be turned up to 11 for this event.

Some observations from last night. Ted Nolan has given up on Benoit, Meszaros, and Weber. He's not as dumb as we think. In the first period he started Benoit with Myers. Almost immediately (after Benoit made some dumb plays) he moved Strachan with Myers. From then on the top two pairings were hitting the ice the majority of the time. As the game went on, in the limited time that Benoit and Weber were allowed on the ice (Except PK/PP) it seemed he had them paired with either Myers or Ristolainen. There's little doubt that right now Zadarov is going to stay with the Sabres. He was +3 last night. He and Ristolainen are solid out there. Having a Myers/Gorges pairing when he's back will help. While it would be awesome if the Sabres called up Pysyk to play with Strachan they won't do it yet because they did sign Benoit and Meszaros. They'll still play, as frustrating as it will be. Nolan also seemed to be doing something truly different and strange. So, he might be as dumb as we think (yea, I AM contradicting myself here). I noticed that he would have his 1 pseudo-forechecker make a swing through the offensive zone and then that guy would bee line back into the Sabres zone (going even deeper than the D). Dunleavy commented on it in the third when Kaleta did it. He mentioned that it looked like he had the guy doing that in anticipation of a shoot in. So that guy is back there to get the puck quickly before the opposition can establish the forecheck? Didn't seem to work but I'm not sure I've ever seen anything like that. He basically has said, we can't stop them coming up the ice so let's let try and stand them up at the blue line with 4 players and have the forward back to quickly take the puck and turn it back up ice. Pairing this with their constant attempts to stretch the ice with long passes out of the zone it makes for an intriguing strategy. I'm not saying it will work, I don't think it will, but it is intriguing. And the Sabres still have no clue how to cover their own zone. They continually are covering the same ice as a teammate. That's all about coaching and not clearly establishing where guys should be on the ice. They are still confused at times.

He fought in the first game last year I thought and that's when he made the comment. I think it was first game last year. Might have been the year before.

One fighting major. He also went after another player earlier in the season who delivered a hit on a teammate. Sorry, I don't recall which one. He was penalized for it. Not a fighting major but I think roughing was called. He did it in the preseason as well. I think classifying him in the not going anything category is incorrect. Hodgson on the other hand? He defines it.