X. Benedict

You know how bad girls get.

No doubt for Lolita alone.

I don't doubt that, and probably skating instruction. (boy he looks strange) But don't playoffs in the Q start in about 2 or 3 weeks? I've heard it said that he's learned all he can in juniors, but I don't see how you can put the kid above the experience of playoffs and of winning a Memorial Cup. That's a challenge for any 18 year old.

Suzie Q...Apocalypse Now http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7L8QpHqh4YI

That's a win-win. Feaster remains competent, and Darcy maintains his post lockout waiver claim virginity. (has Darcy ever made a waiver claim....I can't remember one). Wait Ellis...Ellis was a waiver claim I think. sorry, Darcy. You did bust your waiver claim cherry. My bad.

Hard to say. I can't see how playing in the Q 25 min. a night. is worse for his development than 12 minutes of ice time a week in the NHL. If anything going back to the Q would give the kid a chance to consolidate and teach teammates what he's learned IMO.

Feaster does look like a head of cauliflower. I think he also could have been cast as Uncle Fester. I always wanted to stick a light bulb in his mouth to see if it would glow.

Bizarre. Thanks for that one.

are we talking about the Sweet Home sophomore class of 2007?

Oh how our hearts will soar when with some grit and determination and with some lockdown hockey we finish in 10th in the East, right ahead of the seasonally and regularly tanking 11th place Leafs. Dare to dream I say. Dare to dream. :D

I can't disagree with any of that. The pendulum has completely swung on 2005 post-lockout hockey though. Climbing to what may eventually become 10th place in the East using the trap just feels deflating. I'd rather see them roll 4 lines of prospects. Hopefully it is what you suggest - just a starting point to carve out some W's.

Honestly, I'm slightly depressed after this win. Trapping for 2.5 periods on a 1 goal lead feels like the clock went back 10 years.

no kidding. So they pay O"Reilly twice as much as they wanted and they miss 40% of the season with him. that certainly isn't the result Colorado wanted.

Sabres are sitting back. That's by design. I guess we will get used to watching traps with a lead. At least in the short term.

I think they could have done better on the trade market. They could have gotten players right away.

The goals are always fun, but that was some ugly looking hockey out there.

It's a #8 and #98 pick if the season ended today. I don't think Colorado matches. Nice move by Jay Feaster.

On Lindy - I haven't read the papers, listened to radio, and I haven't watched TV since this broke. As many of you here know, I was always one that admired Lindy as a coach. I still do. I've always believed a coach could form a team that was better than the sum of its parts. I liked that the players were not in charge, that the coach was more tenured than the players. I liked attention to detail. Frankly, I liked the system. I'll miss many of the styles that Lindy adopted. The emphasis on two way play from the forwards, the green-light for the defense to press and attack. The little wrinkles he'd throw in to mess with other coaches' defensive assignments. Ultimately I think Lindy had a team that was designed for puck possession, but one that couldn't gain possession. Having a bunch of shooters on D is great....but sadly, the puck rarely got cycled back for that shot to come. There were two camps of thinking. One was that it was Lindy holding back a talented team and that he had lost the room - grown stale - etc. I always believed he made the team better. The problems for years have been up the middle...yes, since Briere and Drury left. I had hoped Lindy could pull this off this year. But the inexperience at center this year was just too much to overcome. Hodgson was the right move, but inexperienced. Ennis at center I never liked. I shared some optimism that Grigorenko could play, but if he's on the third line, who is checking? Especially with no training camp, and very little practice time with the short season, the odds that Lindy or any other coach could have got this done were a long shot. This is going to get worse before it gets better. I have very little hope that Ron Rolston can turn this around. Lindy is going to find a team. It will be weird when the day comes when he's coaching here on the visitor side. There is more than one way to get this thing done, however. I'm ready for a new looks, new eyes, new methods. The Sabres won't win it this year. They aren't going to win it next year either. It is time to blow it up and go young. I don't blame Lindy one bit. I don't think Scotty Bowman, Toe Blake and Herb Brooks together could have gotten this one done. Best of luck, Lindy. Thanks for the memories. No matter what - the guy bled blue and gold. Eventually this day was going to come, I had always hoped it would have been under a Stanley Cup banner. No doubt the man wanted that for Buffalo, and that's no sports cliche. He was the real deal.

It's an open question what O'Reilly is worth. He really played the shutdown center role last year and led the team in points. He was behind Stastny and Duchene as far as I could tell. $5 million for a center that can play any line would immediately make the Sabres better. Then the question is where to play him. I think 2nd line and units. He could fill that role. Besides, he'd get a ton of ice time just taking draws in the 3rd period. The similarities to Drury's situation in Colorado are somewhat striking. Wasn't Drury locked behind Forsberg and Sakik in Colorado? There is a lot of hustle in this kid. He's a solid NHL player. I'd roll the dice on him. I think the Avs gave him a qualifying offer to retain his rights (10% raise under the old - not sure if the new CBA applies now). So Avs retained his rights, but O'Reilly didn't sign.

Ennis and Pysyk for O'Reilly and 5th rounder coming back. Not to beat up on Ennis....but I'm not trading Foligno, and Stafford is out of Colorado's price structure. And there is no way Vanek, Hodgson, Pominville are leaving for O'Reilly. There, a top 6 player and a prospect. Get er done, Darcy.

There have been some gaffs. But I don't see him as a disaster in his own end. I really like what I've seen on the PK from him. The trouble he's been having has been the D coughing up the puck starting the breakouts. Hodgson needs to be open for the D transitions to offense....when the D coughs up the puck he's racing to get back into the play, but overall he's looked sound defensively to me on normal back-checks and PK. Of course the Sabres have given up the most goals...and he's the center with the most ice time. So I'm not as worried about him as I am about the suddenly yippy D corps.

Ennis is fun to watch. He's got some great skills. But he has a few problems as a top 6 center. 1. He doesn't create space for his wings to get to the scoring areas. 2. He gets pushed to the outside. 3. Almost never makes entries through the middle. 4. Not much of a face-off guy. (who is these days?) Simply put, defending his line just isn't that hard. Teams give him the outside and then force play to the wall. They will take their chances letting Foligno and Stafford dig pucks out of the corners with little fear that Ennis can get the play to the front of the net in traffic. If Ennis isn't centering line 1 or 2 in your top 6 - then where to put him? He can play wing.....or he can center the 3rd line. But do you really want Ennis centering a shutdown line? It is the old JF Sauve problem. Tons of skill, but he doesn't really make his line-mates better. The hard fact, IMO, is that I don't think he's a top 2 center on a winning team. I think there was a bit of window where he was working well with Stafford and Foligno last year - but I really believe that the division has that line solved in terms of how to defend it, and unfortunately, it isn't that hard.

Seth Jones or Nate Mackinnon.

Oooh la la Sasoon?

I'mway oodgay.