HopefulFuture

I feel the same way. Ekblad does look awfully good with the 1st overall pick. I know we need forwards, but if he continues his play, it would be very difficult to turn away from him. And I also agree on Ehrhoff and Myers as well.

I realize this is the beer thread, but I just have to give a shout out to Jim Beam for making their most delicious Red Stagg, Hardcore Cidar. Nothing says good morning like a Coke and RS, HC. So, on that note, morning all.

Also true, I do not deny this fact. I question it's merit however, given the youth on the team, would management really want to bring in players that are here merely for a pay check? Is it just me, or do others believe that is a bad example to be giving the youth of the team, especially when they see this and their 3rd contract comes up, or 2nd, depending on the talent level? I see all kinds of bad things happening if the team went that route contract wise. See above.

This is true. However, how many of those players signed and how many came via trade? Yes, it's possible, I'm merely of the opinion it's improbable is all nfreeman. As for the UFA to RFA status, this is correct, but I'm hoping Moulson continues the chemistry with Hodge and Ennis and re-signs here as well. That should help off set the cap floor thoughts I had. I'm more concerned about 2 years out than next year. Especially considering the high draft pick were sure to get and the subsequent injection of more youth into the line up. I'm not opposed to it all, and I'm sure the cap floor is already being considered by DR, I'm just thinking out loud on just how he plans to do it is all.

Great, name me a few that would be willing to come to Buffalo at 4 mil or more a season. I doubt you'll find many, and in my opinion, any for that matter with Buffalo going into full rebuild mode. Hate to say it, but Stafford and Leino aren't going anywhere anytime soon IMHO. Your right, they don't, because of Stafford and Leino type contracts. Yet, once again, I think both of you are way off base. No player is coming to the Sabres at 4 mil or more a season and more productive than Stafford or Leino, if they are more productive, there are other destinations that aren't in full rebuild mode to go to. I think your both wrong, it will prove to be much more difficult than you think to replace those contracts to reach the cap floor if you move them.

Stafford isn't going anywhere until the end of his contract, the Sabres will need it to reach the Cap floor. I think many on here forget about the Cap floor.

I like you Potato. You say it the way it is. What impresses me about Moulson, even in this 1 outting so far, he appears to want to be a game changer just by viewing his desire to win. I never saw that in Vanek. I'd like them to keep Moulson, and keep that Hodgson, Moulson, Ennis line together. Then build another line with a couple of all star players. And do it in 2 to 3 seasons at the most. But my wants put aside for a moment, I really like Moulson on this team.

I don't think he trades for anything significant. I believe he's waiting for the 2015 UFA class to complete the rebuild. Patrick Kane. And they'll have the cap space to achieve it as well.

This is some funny ###### right here. :) On a side note, I'd go into stitches if he moves Moulson for another 1st or more, wouldn't that just put the icing on this trade......

On a brighter note, this may very well indeed, end up as the worst Sabres season in franchise history, stats wise. But it also could be the beginning of the building of a championship team and dynasty. It all depends on what the Sabres organization does with their newly found cellar dweller status. Only time will tell.

Exactly. Just how does this nation plan to move forward with roughly 8% of the population directly working for the federal government, yet another 13% are contracted by the federal government. That's 21% of the population and we haven't even entered into the state, county and municipal governments and their contracted scenario's. No in depth study on a staggering basis of that side of things has been completed as of yet. I'm sure when all is said and done, we'll be close to 50%. Maybe someone can shed some true light on this through exhaustive research.

No, I agree with this also Eleven. A controllable deficit and debt scenario has been around for a long, long time. FDR created a great deal of it with "The New Deal". And much of that was in direct response to the binging in the 20's that led to the crash of 29. The single most important piece of legislation created in response to that crises was not social security, farm subsidies or government backed jobs programs. It was the US Banking Act of 1933. 4 provisions specifically known as The Glass–Steagall Act. It wasn't until the 60's that regulators began to allow different interpretations of the Act, once again opening up deposits to high risk ventures. Glass-Steagall was repealed altogether in 99, but it had been truly dead, not since citibanks - Salomon Smith Barney's affiliation, but more importantly, the one key aspect of decentralized banking had been successfully subverted by 2 banking idiots in the 80's, Hugh Mcoll Jr. (North Carolina National Bank now known as Bank of America via mergers) and Ed Crutchfield (First Union Bank now known as Wachovia Bank). Interstate banking was the issue, once they got around the law, it all began to build up to a mega failure. Lessons from the 29 crash, and subsequently, guidelines put in place to prevent it again, were completely ignored or shredded by rich ***holes with nothing but greed in their eyes. The McFadden-Pepper Act of 1927 and the Douglas Amendment to the Bank Holding Company Act of 1956 were designed to prevent the "to big to fail" scenario. The goal, as Sen. Paul Douglas explained at the time, was "to prevent an undue concentration of banking and financial power, and instead keep the private control of credit diffused as much as possible. First, in 1985, Mcoll used a loophole in the law to purchase a bank out of state. Evading the federal ban on out-of-state owners. A supreme court decision in 85 stripping away most of the rest of the barriers to catasprophe (not to be a dick here, but a conservative court at the time, take note of that). The Federal Reserve was a more than willing supporter of every single one of these moves, even though the Fed had volumes of information from the 29 crash to show it was all a bad idea. In the end, commercial and investment banking once again mixed and from 99 to 08 the march to the edge of the cliff went on without a care in the world to what was coming. I can remember guys like Cavuto saying to Ron Paul, "everything is fine, the economy is humming along" and Paul responding, my finances would be great to if I could borrow a million dollars a minute, the problem is, the bill will come due". Multiple administrations and Congress's knew the threat was very real, and yet, did nothing, regardless of party affilation. 08 occured, and to this day, Dodd-Frank nor any other legislation has truly proven the ability to prevent it from happening again.

Inflation, why of course. The tracking of the price of food (agro), durable goods (industrial) and raw materials sold domestically are good indicators on this. I would include automotive as well, unfortunately Ford is the only 1 out of the big 3 that you can look at with any seriousness due to the government handouts to the industry at large, and even then, due to the massive bailout/subsidies to stave off failure in that industry, you can't get a true indicator. Agro and durable goods are the big ones though, considering both can be considered needs in today's suburbia America setting. Raw Materials are a half indicator given the export of so many of them now. This is deceptive at best as an explanation goes when it comes to the Federal Reserve QE programs. What it fails to tell you is that they print the money and put it into supply. The problem with that is the Federal Reserve has absolutely nothing backing what they are printing. It's fiat currency. When you flood a currency supply like this, the inevitable out come is inflation, which is tied directly to how much flooding has been done. The only thing staving off inflation right now is the artificially created low interest rates. Who sets the interest rates? Oh, that's right, the Federal Reserve. As Global Commercial and Investment banks stabilize, they won't be looking for equity markets, they'll be looking for liquidity, and indeed, that is already being played out here in North America and the slow down of real growth in China. In short, when you have to sell Government Notes to your own monetary printing press company in order to receive the currency in exchange, it's nothing short of cannibalizing yourself.

Very correct indeed. QE's are merely an attempt to keep the status quo going. When, not if, but when the global markets and governments begin to seriously turn away from the purchase of USGB's, the house of cards will come down then. It's merely a matter of time, and time is getting shorter and shorter.

Ultimately, after reading some of the posts, TrueBluePhd has a good grasp on the media outlets, nicely put on them. But it's wjag that summed it up nicely, and more so than his post even said. He stated: "Nah.. 36 hours to kick the can down the road to default on Feb 7th.. " wjag, you are so very close to what is going to happen if this continues....... The general public at large fail to realize one significant point of fact, or just choose to ignore it for the free ride, and that is default. And default doesn't have to be done by a self appointed 2 party system fight where a singular vote in a given cross roads between election cycles trips up the whole house of cards, bringing it down. No..... The largest threat is the debt itself, for it has created a multi-headed monster with a singular purporse, and ultimately, a singular goal, the destruction of the US Dollar and bankruptcy of the US itself. Put aside the partisan politics for a moment, because truthfully, both of the major political parties in this country have been busy stuffing their faces at the proverbial credit trough over the course of decades. Putting the fiscal house in order including but not limited to revenue streams both incoming and outgoing would actually allow the nation to handle a national single payer health care system, a retirement program such as social security and defense of the nation. Unfortunately, this does not serve the true owners of this nation, the corporations. George Carlin truly summed it up best: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=acLW1vFO-2Q

Wouldn't that be the Sabres luck to :) Come in dead last lose the lottery, pick 4th over all Come in dead last next season, lose the lottery pick 7th overall Come in dead last the following season, lose the lottery pick 3rd overall (hey, were getting closer) :w00t:

The money is irrelevant, since it's TP's, not ours. As I said in the Islanders GDT, Cheer up all, this to shall pass.

5 years is about right I figure as well.

well, at least we both didn't need the Jim Beam to get us through tonights game :) Yes, I do. It's a matter of percentages and probabilities. 99.9% of me sees Darcy Regier at the helm as the GM next season. Probability of finishing last again due to the above statement, 100%

Agree with papazoid and ink. Oh, and Fire Darcy! ;)

He's exactly right too. It's not his game. He wasn't drafted 1st over all to play 3rd line RW, running the opponents and pk'ing. He was drafted 1st over all because of his offensive prowess. His nose for the net. His ability to finish. And he showed that in spades last season. He should play his game, he's more than dam good at it, and hey, look at that, he loves playing with the puck, a sign of a player who loves the puck in the clutch? Maybe.......

Correct, several people, including team mates inferred he was speaking on playing on the 3rd line where his natural skill sets weren't utilized. Mac T was attempting to instill 2 way play in him, not that it's wrong to do so but obviously Yak was stating he didn't train himself to be a grinding, 2 way player, but a sniping winger with play making skills.

Nail Yakupov was last to leave the ice after the morning skate. Players who got scratched for the upcoming game usually tend to stay longer, but the coaches kept russian forward going till exhaustion. Sam Gagner who is still nursing his broken jaw left 15 minutes earlier, shaking his head upon the fierce drills Yakupov was being given. Nail was looking gassed but rather calm after the skate. Can you comment on the coach's decision to scratch you second time in a row? It's the first time in my life that i've been scratched, but if the coach says that's the way to go, so be it. I dunno. He told that I have to be easier, asked me to use my linemates better. I though always liked to go for something head-turning after a long stint on the bench. I love to be creative. Dumping and chasing, not so much. Well, you are a player of Soviet/Russian hockey pedigree, it's not quite your game. Yep, i'm a different style. At times you try to take on three on your own, sometimes you go through, then you don't. That's when you have to try dumping it in, i gather. In a word, I try doing what I can, it's just that I fail at times. See, i'm taking extra time after the skate. Vladimir Krikunov, the Neftekhimik coach, commented on your case... *giggles* ...I see you already know about it. He said that after a talk with your father he had an impression that you might go back to Nizhnekamsk. Actually I was pretty amazed to find out about it. Scratch it, i was outright shocked. Firsh thought was "May it be Dad scheming something?" But then i realized that it couldn't be the case. I know my father well, he'd never do such thing behind the scenes. I was never involved in any talks, I have no idea where it all came from. Rail Yakupov made it clear that his son has no plans to leave the NHL for KHL. Russian U18 NT head coach and Olympic scout Ugor Kravchuk tweeted that Nail hasn't been playing up to hopes so far, according to Oilers GM Craig MacTavish. Have you heard about it? People may tweet whatever floats their boat. It's funny to read such things. Nail is alright. Wel, he hasn't scored so far, coashes decided to sit him vs. Toronto to get a grasp of other players. Maybe he'll play next time. It's all OK, teams do this all the time, especially where things are going south. My son is in good mood, he isn't having any tensions with anybody. I watched two Oilers' games, he was playing okay, rang the pipes couple times. I think he'll get going once he scores a goal. What about Nail's possible return to Neftekhimik, is there any ground for that? I have no idea what may be the source of such gossip. I know one thing for a fact: Nail has a two-way deal with the Edmonton Oilers, he may be sent down at any point, and that is perfectly ok, it's how the things are done in the NHL. We never considered a return, we were getting ready for his sophomore season, keeping in mind that it may be much tougher than the rookie one. I'm sure that we are going to have a long and fruitful time together with the Oilers. There are two more years on his deal. I keep saying: everything's gonna be alright, don't trust the nonsense coming from the Internet. Remember that Nail was getting limited icetime at the start of previous season as well, but he improved over time, up to 20 minutes per night. He'is adamant in his determination to get better.

Me to nfreeman, me too. I'd like to see an actual step up on the rebuild besides depending on a couple of seasons in the 1 to 3 pick ranges. I would hope Regier is aggressive enough to recognize an opportunity (should it actually exist, I.E. Edmonton even willing to trade him) and at the very least pursue it. There are now and will be in the next season or 2, other deals that can be discussed to get the blood flowing. Right now, I'm actually a bit excited over the possibility of wheeling and dealing with Edmonton. Bring on the rebuild I say, dam the torpedoes, full speed ahead as the analogy goes..........

Yak is hardly a somewhat struggling 1st overall. He was the Oilers leading goal scorer last season. After merely 5 or 6 games and being shifted away from Hall as his center I would call him adjusting. He's playing with lesser talent and doesn't have the chemistry with them he had with Hall. And I don't believe Myers is what Edmonton is looking for in blue line talent, Pysyk would more fit their bill I'd fathom. Hence why his name was brought up as opposed to Myers.