LTS

In Buffalo everything is different.

The question of where a player belongs is no decided based upon his playing skill alone. In the world of no contracts, no minor league limitations, etc. the best players make the team. That is not always the case when it comes to professional sports and especially the NHL. In the NHL a player may not be put where he belongs based on skill but based on where it benefits the team over the long haul. So, a player who is eligible to stay in the AHL can provide flexibility to your team should injury occur. The decision for Zadarov is based largely on his ability but also into the long term plans of the Sabres. Just because he can learn in the NHL doesn't mean the team benefits by having him there. He'll learn next year as well and he won't be burning a year of his contract. His development this year in the NHL, while important, will have marginal impact for the Sabres if there is nothing else capitalizing on it. The question is.. does his development this year warrant expending a year of his contract? The answer is probably no. Assuming you are going to aim for top draft honors in 2015, the development of Zadarov can be stemmed until then because that's when the Sabres really want their new young players to play together. I'm not saying any of this will happen this way but it's absolutely a factor in the decision making process. GM's cannot afford to handcuff their roster flexibility for one player.

Any well played hockey series should always go 7 games and be decided in no less than 3 OT periods. But hey.. I'm not greedy.

I'll freely admit that I'm completely just throwing this out there.... but is Armia capable of playing a role like Patrick Sharp? Because if so.. I'm good with that. :)

Is it really fair to blame him? He only created the analytic framework.

I thought Team USA was going to announce their new jerseys were designed by the same people who did the Sabres turd jerseys this year. Oh well.. the announcement is way better than that.

This suspension should be longer than Prust's for no other reason than to send the message that retribution should be in the form of goals scored and not head shots. The Kreider/Price incident was nothing like this in my opinion. If they want to say it precipitated things then so be it but it's not even in the same area code from my perspective.

USA Hockey has traded the rights of Ryan Miller to the KHL.

Well said. Just like every other person who makes bold claims. If you are right you'll point it out and if you are wrong no one else will point it out because no one cares. We live off hyperbole. We live to make outlandish claims. It's our pathetic way of trying to be noticed and be more than we really are. I love our society. On another note.. what if the NHL stopped performing the role of disciplinarian and turned that over to the NHLPA instead?

Too many chihuahuas in this thread.

I think it was game three where he took a shot to the hand and left the ice for the remainder of the first period. It never ceases to amaze me how teams stick to injured athletes. You can't tell me that Chara with a broken hand is better than your next D. I get what Chara is, but your hands are pretty critical. Who was it a few years ago who played with a broken hand on D? He couldn't shoot.. everyone knew it so no one defended him. It was almost pointless to put him out there. I remember the puck would go back to him on the point.. he'd fake a shot and no one would even move and then he would pass the puck.

Did the NHL suspend him? Did the NHL suspend him?

Nah. I don't think there is anything that Bylsma would give that wouldn't be publicly known. There is no way, if knows something personally about Crosby, he would share it. Furthermore, Crosby has been ineffective in the playoffs and against more than just the Rangers series.

There are a few players I am there on. I said it about Mike Richards and people said I would change my mind. No way I would want any of those putzes on the Sabres. Beautiful. What a slime. That should be suspendable. In fact, they should do it just so he has prior history for the next time. No way. Lucic clearly made a fool of himself in the line and the media brought it up. Done. Asked what was said, they said the type of thing but not what was said. If Lucic acts with class none of this happens. It's squarely on Lucic. If Lucic was a Sabre and did something like that I would take up funding for a billboard to ask the Sabres to buy him out.

Toews and Kane > Malkin and Crosby Toews and Kane > Getzlaf and Perry It's that simple. You can't help but be amazed by what those two do. Toews from a pure put the team on my back and do whatever it takes to win, leadership, position. Kane from a pure, watch me now because we need something to happen, reason. Neither of them seem to be nullified for long.

Star players take a beating all the time. Players like Toews find a away around it. Malkin was far more productive for the Pens. Crosby withered away. Did they say he has 1 goal in this last 17 playoff games? Even then, it's their shaky goal-tending that hurt them. And I have to think that missing Orpik didn't help. Still.. Rangers played a solid game. Pens are gone. I think I'd be looking to offload Neal either through CBO or a trade. He only seems to hurt the Pens with his dumb penalties.

I thought I asked a question too.. but hey. I'll take it.

Saturday night we were with a group and watching the end of the Habs-Bruins game. I watched so many uncalled penalties it was disgusting (no news I know). Then the Ducks/Kings came on and immediately I saw the same actions but this time with penalties. Then, last night, I watched more garbage occur in the Rags/Pens game. The NHL does itself a major disservice by allowing some of the crap they do. Perhaps they think they are doing okay if the fans get ticked off as they'll show more passion. At some point, fans just give up, especially if your team gets screwed by a non-call, etc. Just call the flippin' game and move on. Right before 2004 I was getting to the point where I was going to stop watching the NHL because of all the garbage going on in the playoffs. The strike came and I decided I would watch some more because things changed. It's getting back to that point again for me.

That's an interesting point. Because I can't use season tickets, don't want season tickets, etc. I don't pay attention to how it works. I understood the concept that basically they raised prices 4% then offered a 4% back in monetary spending at the rink as a way to wash out the increase. But, if only the season ticket holder can benefit from this then the practice of selling to opposing fans might be shunted (or require a higher payment) so the season ticket holder still obtains benefit. Imagine a system where the season ticket holder qualifies for actual money back (as opposed to "store credit") just by showing up at the same. So raise the prices even higher and then give them money back for each game they show up to attend. Hmmmm....

Got me. Was it in the original vacation movie? I know Rusty said it to Chevy Chase in Christmas Vacation just before he takes the chainsaw to the tree to replace the one that was burned down.

I have a lot of beers that I think are geared towards summer drinking, but if you are referring to "summer" beers as in beers that routinely are light in color and have some kind of lemon accents.. not really.

The team is still in Buffalo. If you don't want to like him that's your prerogative but you can't sit there and claim that he has not done anything for the team. It's a complete falsehood. But while their potential to score additional NHL goals remains, your potential goal total will remain 0. :)

I agree that it is dangerous to follow that paradigm. I completely agree with what you are saying. At the same time most of our society works in that realm with everything we do. We love to relate one thing to another. Listen to sports analysis guys, "He's skates like such and such, hits like so and so." We can't help but relate one item to another and then begin projecting those traits onto them. Then we get upset when they aren't the same and we think they are inferior. It's sad really. But humanity doesn't work on individualism. It's all fun and games to say we are all different, each of us is an individual, but by and large it is lip service. We are all different, but those groups of people are the same and we don't like them because they are too sporty, too dorky, too nerdy, too trashy, too beautiful, too fat, too ugly, too ignorant, too whatever. You are free to be who you want, but someone else is going to come along and bully the crap out of you for being non-conformist. You are different, so you must be a threat, right? Total garbage but we can't help ourselves. Most people abhor change and things that are different. It brings uncertainty and they can't have that. I'm not sitting here claiming I'm innocent of it either. I just try to be conscientious of the fact that it happens then attempt to run my thoughts through that filter. And I'm glad I had the opportunity to clarify things without being skewered. For some of the childish threads that exist on this board at times it's good to note that this thread never approached that level.

NICE! That said, I received a delivery of Russian River Damnation over this past weekend. Boy, do I love that beer.