LTS

Years ago I took a double handed slash that got me across both arms right above the glove. I remember the feeling. I also remember being able to play without problem but if I had tried to do a push up, or use my arms to push myself up from a table I would be in excruciating pain. That only lasted 9 months though..... ugh.

That's a bitch move by Subban. Ottawa has players it can afford to lose for the entire playoffs if need be. There was no need to slash at all there. He took a shot at one of the best players on the team. He deserves more. Oh well. The league likes retribution.

It's crap like this that will earn you that troll reputation. Could you imagine a press conference with him? Reporter: "Pierre, what are your thoughts on signing UFA X?" Pierre: "I'll tell you, UFA X has everything it takes, you know he's a product of the Saskatoon Ice Fishers back when he was 13-14. he was coached by Jimmy Twosticks who also coached Player X. They shared a room together on a trip to Edmonton one year. They really hit it off. But it he really took off when he spent time in the Kelowna Rockets hwere he played minutes with Player Y. Those two brought it like you wouldn't believe and their coach was Gord Hockey who had tremendous influence over him. You know Gord influenced a lot of players from his time coaching under Ian Faceoff at Moncton back in the 80's and playing for Coach Dale Icing in the 70's while they were in St. Brunswick."

Meh. he just paid a coach 3 years for 1 year of service. He can go drill a well. :) It's not about money here... Well, I'm not up on my wrestling.. so let's say I would consider it more like not wanting Brock Lesnar because I want John Cena or something like that. Ever since the Miller incident I've not felt as though Lucic has had an impact on any game against the Sabres. Certainly not as much as Marchand has...

Agreed. There were numerous points where he could have passed the puck. Tarasenko and Ennis should have been 1/2. Nyquist could have been #10 if we needed to reward him.

Not one bit.. but I wonder now.. What would be the season ticket sales volume for the Sabres if the season ticket holders couldn't sell off all those games after the fact? What if Buffalo instituted a policy that you could only sell off tickets to non-conference games? We might see a dramatic drop in sales.

PLF didn't need to. Sorry it might have been unclear. My post was regarding WHY PLF was brought in by Pegula.

I think the Sabres should sign him... and assign him to Rochester... who assigns him to the Jackals... who release him.

Doesn't this seem... kind of illegal? If it's not.. can we get this action on Sabres season ticket holders? Bye bye Leafs fans!

If it walks like a duck is usually used when there's a duck involved. If you say it walks like a duck but everyone else sees a lion then it doesn't really apply. If any hiring, draft pick, decision craps the bed it sets things back, that's pretty much how it works. Winning favor with the Sabres fans. Not that it ended well or was a particularly well thought out decision in the first place it seems.

Perhaps it was because he didn't want to keep Paille? Sorry.. Campbell. He mentions Campbell will not be back and then he gets fired. Hmm...

Yea, so he said he wanted to be treated like a first rounder. He thought he was. So what? His central scouting ranking was 28, on others he was between 26 and around 50. That's 1st to 2nd round. He went with the first pick in the second round. What does any of that have to do with a mistake being made? What are your claims of loyalty and integrity based upon? Offering Nolan a 3 year contract and firing him after 1? Let's finally put this to bed shall we? Everyone on the planet knew the Sabres were going to be basement dwellers this season. The GM needed a coach and Pat LaFontaine provided that option when he brought in Ted Nolan. Nolan was a washed up NHL coach who was relegated to making waves with the Latvian National Team. His name does not come up in coaching vacancy rumors. He's out of the league. Ted Nolan is an interim coach. He needs a deal. He wants a chance to show, through a season, that perhaps he can coach in the NHL. He knows that no other team is going to call him (they haven't for years) so he's got one option. The Buffalo Sabres who are going to finish in the bottom 3 in 2015. They agree on a 3 year deal. How did that happen? We don't know, Ted asked for 3 as a condition of putting up with this season? Perhaps Murray offered 3 as a way to say, hey, you are here for 1 but we'll hook you up. Pegula certainly was on board for paying a little extra to a coach whom fans loved. It lessened the pain of losing.. for awhile. If you thought Ted Nolan was going to be here longer, hell, if he thought he was going to be here longer, then why did his assistant coaches (other than Irbe) only get 1 year contracts? See, in the end, this was always a 1 year deal because no other real coach was going to sign on to the Buffalo Sabres for a year of losing. Now.. if this doesn't change your mind then I am not sure what will. Everyone knew it was a 1 year deal, so there's no breaking of loyalty when he was let go. You ignore that Murray did not throw Nolan under the bus in the press conference. You ignore that the Sabres organization, via Tim Murray, offered Nolan a 3 for 1 deal. How is that cold and heartless? As for integrity? I'm still trying to find a statement where Murray said something a did something different. I don't think it's there.

Why do you blame Murray for LaFontaine? LaFontaine hired Murray. I'd blame Pegula and a few others for LaFontaine. The guy hired a GM and then was upset he didn't get to make the hockey decisions (as far as we know). Murray is a decision maker and that's 100% better than someone who waffles and wants consensus. He's confident in what he is doing. Thus, ZFG. He's doing his job and part of that job requirement is not that you have to paint rainbows for people. His statements are extraordinarily calculated and they are natural. This means he thinks this way, all the time. Call him Vulcan-esque if you will. You hang onto this "mistake" on Lemieux. There's no evidence supporting the theory. He drafted someone and used that as an asset to obtain someone else. A cold calculated decision says my path goes left, your path goes right. I'm going to ship you off to somewhere along your path and not on mine. There's no mistake there. It's reality. If your hanging onto "he should have known". Perhaps he did and he didn't care? Perhaps he looked at Lemieux as an asset he could draft right at the beginning of the 2nd round and send off to another team. Perhaps he never wanted him here but just wanted to use that pick for that purpose. You don't know it, we don't know it. Your presumption does not make it fact. Benoit and Meszaros were perfect signings. Veteran defenseman with whom he had a prior relationship. They are offered 1 year deals to try and salvage their careers and perhaps earn another year in the NHL. At the same time they eat up slots allowing Murray to keep his D in the minors a little longer. Not a mistake.. calculated. Hell, even Bucky Gleason admitted how great of a talent evaluator Murray is.. think about it. He did just enough to keep it close without being ridiculous. He had just enough talent to fail. Stop looking for problems and enjoy life a little more.

The Jesus?

Where are you going with all of this? As I stated in the other thread.. as of last Thursday, a large contingent of Sabre fans were 100% convinced that Buffalo was not going to finish 30th. You want to hate. Hate away I suppose. I mean for what it's worth.. if you are trying to rebuild a team and you don't have the talent you need at the moment you pretty much have to care about draft position. It's as though everyone wanted the Sabres to trade away all the prospects and get some talent in here now to win.... for a year. I'm not sure how much more insanity I can stand.

Unless he decides to drill another well.

No worries.. thanks. I shall not use that story again. :)

Tanking... it's a nuanced term right? I mean they weren't intentionally losing. They made hockey moves that rebuilt for the future. If tanking is stripping your team down to rebuild it properly by making moves that other teams make every season then yes.. they tanked. But they didn't intentionally lose. They didn't bench players (as far as we know) because they were over performing. I mean.. the team was going to suck because there was no point in going out and trying get high-end talent to fill in the gaps until you had some talent drafted and developed for the roster and the next few years. This team will have finished last two straight seasons. Now we get to see if the team becomes Edmonton or if they become Colorado/NYI/Florida. You seriously love to paint everything so negative. It's amazing. I'm ignoring the football because it's irrelevant. But Murray? The guy was in line for a GM job and he got one. He's cold and calculated and now that's a bad thing. If he made decisions on emotion you'd slam him for that? What do you want from someone? Kane hasn't done ANYTHING wrong yet and you've posterized him as a problem. It's kind of unbelievable. Why bother hating so much all the time? It can't be good for your health. Sylvester is an idiot. There's no point in tearing down Nolan. Hell, Murray would have the most insight on that and he's not doing it. The situation is plainly obvious. Murray needed a coach for a team that would suck. He offered Nolan a 3 for 1 contract, get paid for 3, work only 1. Nolan took the job because it can't hurt him in any way. His alternative was the luxurious Latvian National Program. Nolan is not a bad guy as far as I know. He's just not a great hockey coach for this situation. End of story. Move on. There's no need to place blame all the time. Sometimes... things just are. (not saying you are placing blame, I'm talking about Sylvester...)

I missed that to be certain.

I think when you have respect for a coach and trust his ability you probably treat him differently. Just because Murray talk to Nolan doesn't mean he doesn't talk to anyone. If he doesn't value what Nolan has to say about player moves why bother talking to him then? If he's going out to hire the coach he's not going to pick someone he can't work with. Don't try and shoe horn everything into the existing scenario. I expect the list is two with and outside shot at 3. Babcock, Richardson, and Bylsma (outside shot). I also think it's in that order and it should be. Babcock is a proven winning coach in the NHL and Internationally. Every team will be vying for him (of those who are looking for a coach, and I suspect that those who have a coach might kick the tires).

I could have sworn last week most of the people on this board didn't expect the Sabres to finish 30th and now when Murray says it people want to slam him for lying? He didn't say they wouldn't suck. Last Thursday night people were calling for riots in Buffalo because the team was going to ruin the run to 30th. Also, Ted Nolan coached this team last season. He chose to sign a 3 year deal knowing what this season would bring. He signed up for this entire situation. There's no arguing that. Everyone in the NHL and this entire board knew full well who was going to be moved from the roster before the end of the season. It's not a surprise at all that it happened. What am I missing that warrants a defense of Ted Nolan and saying he was screwed by the GM? The GM offered him a contract, he signed it and the GM had an entire year to evaluate Nolan. Murray said he was partially to blame for the lack of communication. Murray didn't want Nolan but he wasn't going to get any coach to come in and fill that position so he took his best option. Nolan knew it too. How can anyone think otherwise? These guys know the business better than any of us. They know what is going on. Next up.. draft lottery.

I must have missed the other reasons then.

It can be a cold biz. Then you read stories where the CBJ GM trades Leopold to the Wild for a bag of pucks just so he can be close to home with his family. It ain't always so bad. Frankly I think Murray will be deemed one of the best GMs in the league. He is the cold biz. He's about as calculating as I have seen. The Church of ZFG. The real work of Murray is about to begin and I look at the Ducks as an example of what he can accomplish.

Haha. Nice. :beer:

I just bought 120 proof bourbon for tonight.