LTS

You can't start a guy who isn't on the roster. So every GM has some control over it. It does happen. But if it is, it means that the coach and GM are not on the same page and that's a bad thing.

13... period. Strangely enough, I wore it and my wife wore it in high school (we did not know each other). My son wears it, and didn't even know that either of his parents wore it until he picked it himself. My daughter wears it, but she knew both of us had worn it and saw her brother wearing it. 13... it's not as popular in hockey as it could be. But that's my number, and that's that. ?

Elite? No. There are not many Elite goaltenders. There are good goaltenders who have great seasons, there are many goaltenders who have good seasons and are starters but not necessarily the guy who steals the show night in and night out. Ullmark can be a very good goalie. Now that the Sabres have rid themselves of their old goalie coach I would expect to see a notable improvement in both goaltenders. Lots of people on here keep dismissing the impact the goalie coach has. They are ignoring that Hutton's game changed over the last year and began to look like Lehner and Johnson from the year before. They ignore that Lehner left and his game stopped looking like the prior year with the Sabres. There will be an improvement.

For what it's worth, the NHL.TV package is useless to me, because in Rochester I cannot watch the games live. Some perspective... There are many reasons why those company continue to raise their prices. First, it's those who create the content who demand a higher price. If the NHL demands top dollar for its product, then those who wish to license it have to find a way to recoup their money. They are not a public service. Once they figure that out, they also need to pay their employees, who, like you and many others, want a cost of living increase every year. So, if they don't raise their prices, how do they pay them? Greed is what causes this to happen, but in the absence of that greed the free-loading society would have no content to watch because it would not be worth anyone's time to put in the effort to create a broadcast. In addition, the league would not get its money, the players in turn would not get theirs. If they wanted it more money, the only revenue streams would be ticket prices. If the ticket prices were too high no one would attend games, then there'd be operating losses at the arena. If there is no arena, there is no place to play. This vacuum you seem to believe exists regarding economics does not exist. Now, perhaps you'll fall back to the next argument. It's the people at the top who make too much money that are the problem. They should take less money. Yes, well, they COULD take less money, but they are not required to take less money. But enough, I could go on. Software companies do fight piracy, just not through obnoxious DRM. They've turned to other measures of control. In addition, they project piracy costs into their budgets, so rather than hiring more staff, they are pay existing staff less, hire less staff, force them to crunch, etc. In addition, the growing rise of in-game currency, season passes, etc. are all methods by which companies fight the piracy issue. The music industry adapted to the streaming model in an attempt to fight piracy. Unfortunately the streaming model reduces income for artists overall. It certainly allows more artists to be discovered. Is it any surprise that concert ticket prices have steadily risen over the past 20 years as the mp3 piracy crazy and then streaming music services quickly came into existence? When companies change how they do business to deal with piracy, it usually happens at the expense of the consumer. It's not as simple as you want to make it out to be.

Just spent the weekend in Canada for a youth hockey tournament, 6 games in 3 days. I'm ready for more hockey.

I'm not going to quote. But threads like this will undoubtedly have a lot of interesting takes on what the problems are and where they lie. First, you never need a gig. Very few people do. It's marketing. Second, you are unlikely to have synchronous service, so you may get a Gig for things you download, but you probably don't have the same sending upstream. Third, all Internet service providers operate on contention ratios. This is why all their advertisements say "up to". If you don't operate on a contention ratio, you have dedicated service and it's extremely expensive. Fourth, the contention ratio varies by provider, by area, etc. Contention ratio is the number of subscribers who share an upstream port on the network path. If the ratio is 10:1 then 10 people connect into a single upstream port. Your traffic is aggregated at that port. The odds are extremely good that port is also 1Gbps. So, if the aggregated data usage of those 10 people is above 1Gbps, there will be network degradation. The number of devices you have connected to your network will impact your network performance, especially if they are all on at the same time and doing different things. In addition, if you use the router that your ISP provides it is usually not rated to handle that many devices. As such, the RAM/CPU on the device gets overrun and its ability to process network packets is hindered. If you are connecting to the device via the integrated WiFi, the problems get even more complex and yes, if you are using your ISP's integrated wireless you are also doing yourself a major disservice. So, Spectrum is not lying about their speeds. You are getting "up to" whatever you pay for. In addition, gaming and streaming traffic do not mix on networks. Gaming is comprised of a lot of small data packets. Streaming uses a lot more data in a single packet. Gaming data needs to be transferred rapid fire to a server and data needs to return just as fast. Latency naturally plays into that, but latency can be impacted by a great many factors, not the least of which are the other devices on your network. It's even worse if you use wireless as only WiFi 6 truly handles disparate network packet streams without significant WiFi impact. It's also worth noting that if you have an older wireless device, say one that only uses 802.11g. When it connects to your WiFi it will force the WiFi to automatically drop to 54mbps maximum throughput for all devices that are going through the WiFi network. Another reason to invest in newer devices and spend a few hundred on an upscale router. I can go on... ?

Very possible. Most of my statements were made in generality, not specifically for this instance.

Like most systems, when someone "adds to their cart" the system will take those items out of inventory for a set period of time. When you had to create an account and the information didn't carry over they were likely stuck in the old cart waiting to be bought. When that didn't happen after a set period of time they were returned to the inventory. Now imagine this happening with multiple people. This is a common problem in any system that sells "seats" or similar inventory. That said, overall, the prices will vary. If the system detects more views happening for a game it will raise the prices. This is your classic ML/AI. It's job is to run algorithmic tests to see if it can't maximize the selling price of every game. Increased views mean increased interest so raise the price. See if someone bites. It likely gets even more complicated if you are logged into the site or if it can read certain ad-tracking cookies, etc. The depth of this can go one for awhile. By the way, sometimes it works in reverse. I was once offered a "one-time"discount by a site on something i had visited a few times in the past few weeks. It decided to see if it could entice me to buy since i was clearly not buying at the posted price. It worked.

What i noticed about Cozens is that he uses his size when he gets into traffic. He'll expand his frame out and rather than striding will begin using his hips to swivel while keeping his skates on the ice. With his legs further apart and his arms opened up he uses his size to keep the puck away from defenders. Thompson does not use his size as well as Cozens. Thompson is big but he plays very vertical. He can shield people off but he's easy to knock around. Cozens ability to widen up and then pull up vertical was very noticeable in comparison. It's what a top level player should be doing.

Good lord, I would quit paying attention to the Sabres if they made that deal. Laine is worth Risto.. and that's it. Nothing more. And that's if you even want Laine. Too many question marks...

If no one wants to take over my team I will manage it. Just so slammed with work/life that I can't promise full attention.

The pint glasses would be cool. But I could probably buy them off FB Marketplace for less than the cost of season tickets. ?

My current Spectrum bill is $102 (all taxes and fees). It's the basic package of channels and 10/100 Internet. I get MSG and NBCSN.. so I am good.

You can find someone to take my team if you want. *****.. missed the draft. ?

It's about finding a provider who has a package that fits what you want. Of course, the goal of every company is to give you just enough of what you want so that you'll want to upgrade to that next tier. The other thing the ISPs do, specifically cable, is that they discount your Internet in the bundle. So, when you remove TV, the Internet cost goes back up and you're right back to paying the same or more for what you had before. Then start comparing the # of streams, versus paying for cable boxes, versus... A lot of people never stop to do the math. As D4rk said... an VPN exit in Buffalo is a tough find. If my Internet connection were fast enough I would consider setting up a private VPN network, but the upstream isn't enough to handle more than 2-3 streams and it would still kill my overall connection. Sorry ? Yup.

Not sure where you are going with all of this. Fubo is 100% legitimate. They may be subsidizing the expense, but they are not illegal.

Here's the thing. I don't, for a single moment, believe this. Trump is classic misdirection. His public persona can be whatever he wants it to be but the truth is where the money goes. Where's his money? What's his long term payout on this President gig he's got going on? Does he benefit from Russian and Chinese investments in the future? Does he benefit short term by tweeting and impacting the markets to gain favor with particular investors? He may be nothing more than a puppet for those behind the scenes, but he's a great puppet and he's doing great things for them. We're so preoccupied with Trump that we don't stop to think about what is really going on. And they are all complicit with it... including many from the other party. The American Public finally got its reality TV in the White House and they are eating it up.

The problem is not the technology, it's the legal broadcast/carriage agreements and the neanderthal thinking of the industry executives. The "sketchy" service is stealing. If we don't allow plagiarism, quoting full articles, and links to streams on here, we really shouldn't be discussing the "$20 for 500 channels" offers that are 100% illegal. We've had these discussions in other streaming threads. If you want to sideload an app onto a network device that is completely untested, unmonitored, and unproven that's your choice. But when you read about apps in the Google Play store having malware don't be surprised when you've invited the world into your network by willfully loading illegal applications. In any event, it's still stealing. If you want to watch the Sabres your options are move outside the Buffalo broadcast region and get NHL.tv and hope they don't play on NBCSN. Otherwise you need a streaming service that supports MSG Sabres. The Bills are going to be local market only or they need to be the regional/national broadcast of CBS/Fox. The only other option is NFL Sunday Ticket. All streaming is constrained to the market. All the streaming services that do nothing more than aggregate content from other sources (Fubo, PS Vue, etc.) are all going to go up in cost. For a long time they've been subsidizing the expense in an effort to legitimize streaming and gain subscribers. Unfortunately the bill comes due and they need to start earning money. There's no way around it. What's worse is that the owners of the broadcast rights are forcing the external carriage rates higher in an effort to force people to their own streaming service. Bottom line, until the industry execs change their models you will need to resort to a VPN service to change your geographic location on the Internet.

The Universe will balance itself. It doesn't need you to do it. ?

A little bit of heart and soul

Or maybe it's that living an absolute life is not the path to balance. Being all Light or Dark, Jedi or Sith does not create balance within oneself. So, you need a little bit of both to get you through. ?

Let me know when the Sabres trade a 1st rounder, Tage Thompson, Sobotka, and Larsson for him. Otherwise.. whatever. ?

Hallelujah. I can't believe the board is now nitpicking the number of cars..err people... err commuters errr.. whatever in Buffalo. Good lord. Use your sparetime for social good. ?

Yeah, the good news is that I can get beer anywhere, so I won't feel compelled to pay a fortune for it just because I am in Sweden. I'll spend money on the things I can't readily do in my own backyard though. ?