LTS

So far Dallas has really upped their team for this coming season. The Blues/Stars battle is going to be nice. Lots of entertaining signings. SportsNet tried really hard to get jgorges to slam Buffalo. So much so that they slammed Buffalo. It was pathetic.. And LeBrun just announced Gionta to BUFFALO!

The biggest problem I see with the Spezza trade is that he's a UFA next season. It's not much for him to accept the trade and hit play in that lineup and then hit the market next year. So, the Stars might only have him for 1 season. If they can lock him up then I think they'll be okay.

The KHL has some impressive training room space judging by those pictures. In all seriousness.. he's working hard. It can't be a bad thing. In even more seriousness I wish I could spend my days doing that.

Not many people can fit in his locker.

Dang.. not being much of a football fan I never really heard him give an interview. However, I do picture it being like Brett Favre smacking the ass of the defensive player who just crushed him into the turf. I always like that about Favre. Kind of an on the field, in the moment, display of appreciation on how the game should be played.

Meh. Just passing through... :) Enjoy!

Just make it a Sabres sweater with a "C" on it. Those are changed constantly.

The Stars know that it's not the right Karlsson right? I wouldn't give up that much for Spezza. Of course what do I know.

This is like my comment in the FA Frenzy thread. Most of the time you can't play into what any of them say. It's all hedged comments that can be spun any way they would like depending on what happens. What I would like to see is someone who isn't polished and just appreciates the game like a fan would. I'd love to see an athlete show real enthusiasm. I know it's bred out of them, but just once wouldn't it be cool to see someone say. "Man, this game was intense tonight. We had people slamming each other all over the place. Did you see the hit that Johnny X (opponent) laid on our guy? That is what the game is all about. Of course Joey Y (teammate) was all over the place tonight as well. That shot, in the third, was insane!" I mean.. it would be cool, right?

It's fairly safe to say that a solid portion of "news" that is "reported" is all hedged language. Our society has become so addicted to "breaking" news that people who run news operations feel like they have to put out anything just to seem relevant. This is why I don't get caught up in any of it. it's either some guy throwing stuff at the wall to see if he can salvage his career or it's another guy reporting the obvious. Throw in the guy who is the tool of an organization's brass (as in, hey, float unnamed sources saying this so we can see who responds) and you have it covered. There are only a few guys worth following at this point. Even they join the mass speculation ranks and play the games but at least they also get some real material once in awhile.

White's article is pretty poorly done in my opinion. It seems like he just wants to whine (which he does well) about Murray not wanting to be handcuffed by the specter of the recapture penalty. He then cites no credible evidence. He points to the likelihood the cap will be higher (duh) in the future. He neglects to think about the Sabres needing every last dollar to hang onto their budding young talent. So, the $10M hit will be huge at that point. A one year $10M hit is a Jonathan Toews salary you can't offer. He also uses Luongo as supporting evidence of a team willing to accept the recapture hit. Of course there are a few problems there. First, Vancouver is on the decline. The Sabres are not. Second, Luongo was traded by the FORMER GM. He might want to ask Benning how he feels having that potential $8.5M cap hit hanging over his head right now. White also mentions that Murray might not be GM in 7 years. That's true.. but he just made a decision with the presumption that he's planning on being here to deal with that scenario. This is far better than having your GM believe he needs to make wholesale changes to his team now to save his job. Short term decisions that lack long-term vision almost always are the path to failure. Bottom line, a trade would have helped Buffalo but the risk of not signing a top star player later would be huge. Sure he didn't want to be here. Murray let him go. It's not full of malice like people want. Murray is to the point. I doubt he cares that Ehrhoff didn't want to be here other than the fact that it was a skilled player that he now doesn't have going forward.

JJFIVEOH - I am quoting you here because it underscores my biggest problem with this forum. You are not the only guilty person of course. That said, it's the escalating snark of this board that really starts to turn me off. The same people seem to pop up in thread after thread battling each other over petty crap. It gets tiring. The name calling, the lame responses, THOSE add no value to the conversation. In fact, when a response is directed at only one person and doesn't really deal with anything I think it's safe to say you probably should either PM it or just let it go. The self-acclaimed thread police are a bit over the top (as are the grammar police). A thread like this goes a long way to promoting healthy discussion (mostly) about how people feel about the topic. Posting in each thread that it's duplicitous and unnecessary is ridiculous. Same with the grammar. People generally type fast on here (or on a mobile device) and while you may not like it, mistakes will happen. Let it go. I'd love to see people try to take an approach to further conversation rather than shut it down. If a group is engaging a conversation on a topic or a variation of the topic and you've clearly stated elsewhere your opinions on that topic there is very little need to jump in and attempt to stifle the conversation. Let the people who disagree with you continue to discuss. If you are interested in what they have to say you might learn something new. If you completely disagree with them and you couldn't change their mind before why bother doing it again? Overall this is a great forum but far too often I feel as though people think there are some kind of faux achievements to be had by taking certain actions. The "Fixed that for you" achievement does not exist. I assume the purpose of everyone here is to discuss hockey and specifically the Sabres. I assume that everyone here wants to have their opinions considered. I would think that everyone would realize that taking approaches that work against those goals would be counterproductive. We are all guilty of going over the top at times. Some of the people on this board get there faster than others. Finally, be aware of how you are perceived. If you are perceived as commonly being a snark-fu master then you should realize that your actual harmless joke might not be taken the way it was intended.

A few thoughts on this.. 1. It's totally accurate that having him is not going to improve the team. They are going to be brutal and everyone knows it. The hope is that the youth plays better than expected. 2. Ehrhoff had a bad contract. It's a factor, no matter what. 3. He didn't want to be here. He's a veteran. The Sabres win points by releasing a player to pursue his dream. Everyone knows Ehrhoff was brought in to be one of the pieces to put the old core (remember them?) over the top. It didn't happen. Let him go. 4. He's one less contract on the books. 5. The Sabres could be looking to help out a few teams near the cap limit who need space to sign two superstar players to $11MM contracts. What's the play here? Think about Stafford and a couple of second round picks for Sharp, Oduya, and Chicago's 1st in 2015? Perhaps we toss in another defense to make it work? The Hawks remove $3.3MM next year and go from $5.8MM to $4MM on Stafford who is then off the books the following year freeing up space for the Hawks to sign their top players? I love speculating of course.

:clapping: He's in the Islanders system. I'm surprised they didn't trade him for a stapler yet.

The first day of signing UFA's is usually about teams overpaying. I'm not even certain how often it actually helps the team. The Wild broke the bank for Suter and Parise and they're still not all that much more improved. I don't see the Sabres going there necessarily. Murray has stated numerous times that he does not think about the salary floor. Players become free agents generally because they are overvaluing themselves or their existing team doesn't want them anymore. Most guys who are integral to their existing team's success are locked up. Granted I'm not thinking about every UFA signed in the past 5-8 years but nothing is jumping out at me as a player who put the team over the top. (I know someone will point someone out, I look forward to it.)

Actually his name has been pronounced that way by others. Google it.. you might be amazed at the history on it. Although in videos I've seen of him pronouncing his own name he says Cuba. That said, he's named after the country and if you pronounce it in Spanish it is Kooba. So.. there you go.

Does your 5%-9% calculation exclude road games in other states? Does Florida provide credits for income earned while working in another state? What I am getting at is that athletes are required to file taxes for every state they earn income. So, they may not pay for income earned playing home games or other teams in Florida but they owe NYS for the games they play against the Sabres, Rangers, and Islanders.

Meh.. if you can use predictive analysis for ticket prices you can do it for players. :) It's a foot in the door... show them how ticket prices and customer loyalty are improved by drafting certain players and you'll be doing both jobs.

What are the odds that the Sabres try and outbid any moves by the Islanders in order to keep them on the path to suckitude? "Oh, they offered you $4MM? We can give you $5MM." The Sabres do have more cap space.

Saying a player would want an "A" as part of his negotiation would pretty much mean he is out for himself. You can want to be a leader all you want, but that won't make you a leader. Saying that a having a strong "C" and a strong "A" on the ice would alleviate the problem does a good job of insinuating that the chemistry issue brought up by granting an "A" to someone based solely because he demanded it is no longer relevant. Thus my comments about chemistry. There are actually reasons as to why I say what I say. Your comment about throwing stuff at walls was interesting. I'm not sure how you want me to respond to that. Should I just ignore it as some completely ridiculous and superfluous comment or did you want me to be offended by your claims and respond with some additionally ridiculous and superfluous comment?

Fixed. I like turtles.

Not that the Rangers make it to the Finals with him... but anyone else think Callahan wishes he signed that offer now?

I posted links to his convictions for discriminatory housing actions. Are you choosing to ignore those items? Those are words of others.. the words of the court system saying, "Hey Donald, you're discriminating against people. You are GUILTY." The NBA had ZERO choice. So taking action when forced to take action does not deserve any credit. It's like congratulating someone afraid of water for jumping in the pool when they were pushed in.

In a vacuum you might be right. However, there are other guys on the team and they aren't going to be interested in playing with a guy who is all out for himself. They might have regular season success but in the playoffs they will fall apart. You wonder why players don't come to the defense of another player when it's time to put up or shut up and there's your answer. It's because they don't feel he is there for the team. So you get a player who waltz's in and says I need an "A" to play and I'd turn him around and say "Good Day, Eh?" I won't even begin to buy into the argument that locker room chemistry doesn't matter let alone the chemistry on the ice.

It will be interesting to see how complicit the NBA has been in the past regarding this guy. We keep acting like this just happened. This ONE incident just happened but long before anyone even mentioned Alzheimers he was already a proven racist. There will be dirty laundry galore and the PR teams are going earn some extra billable hours. Sterling is already screwed so his best bet is to slam the NBA. Everyone knows he's a racist.. so they will likely show that the NBA, for a long time, knew as well but just let it go. If that's the case then the entirety of the NBA will be on trial and it the message will be that the NBA doesn't care about racial equality so long as it can make money.