X. Benedict

I don't think they have anyone close to NHL ready. Tanordi maybe?

I'm not a fan of Bergevins moves thus far. I was expecting a bigger shakeup with the forwards in Montreal.

No no. Please don't mistake me for caring about this. I don't remember or care. I really don't.

I actually don't remember who said it. It was the thread that never ended. Anyway ....glad to move on.

Didn't someone say he'd have 200 goals and would skate for team Canada. Anyway, disagree that it makes the Habs tougher. Prust was sandpaper, Kassian is mostly perimeter.

I want Oduya.

:lol: I'm twitter stupid. Maybe one of these days.

that's great!

Interesting move for Rutherford.

nice news.

Wow. I think the only reason he is getting time with LA is because of the cap situation. He's cheap. He has an edge. He's okay. He'll never be a 25 min. guy.

Great point shot. Great career. I just don't think he was ever close to being one of the best defense-men of all-time. (Or the best defense-man on his own team) Which is what putting him in the hall says about him. I don't think the Sabres should retire his number before Mike Ramsey. Choice between Housley and Ramsey I take Ramsey every time.

Does he have to call and ask Cory Conacher?

Like Eich, I want to be like Eich, like Eich, I want to be like Eich........

HE'S THROWING AWAY HIS EDUCATION!!!!!! Yay!

:lol:

I rarely say a player isn't trying, but there were games in Buffalo that Erhoff just simply wasn't trying. He's a talent, but fool me once.....

No. I don't. Nolan is out of the mix now. Simply I think the risk of keeping Hogson was greater than the buyout. Ceiling for Hodgson was 2nd line and he's been placed out now. I do think Nolan helped kill his value as an asset however.

Samuels-Thomas was a free agent. So I'm not sure if reach is the right word. He didn't really cost a thing.

Sorry, Routsalainen. Spelling Finn defenders isn't my strong-point. :)

I never meant to suggest it Nolan was to blame for his knee...but more along the lines of this... Earl Campbell is what I was going for. Great analogy. The human body, like a car, only has so much mileage. Gorges played hard/hard minutes. He took much more of a beating in a half of a season this year, than he did all of last year in Montreal. The guy was laying it out there for up to 25 minutes some nights with no apparent scheme at all to take pressure off the defensive zone. Those were tough minutes.

I dont think he was uncoachable as much as Nolan was unable to find a role for him inside whatever Nolan was trying to do. Still. Buyout is the right call. No sense spending any time salvaging whatever it was Hodgson was. Let another club make the investment and do the lifting. We finally have centers.

Stoll and Richards. Sounds like a team with a drug problem.

Credit Scotty bowman for picking up on one of Herb Brooks innovations. Brooks started using Reijo Roustalainen as a hybrid type of player, a great skating but tiny offensive quarterback. Both those guys could skate circles around the type of third line players that the league was using to cover point at the time. The Sabres also used Hanu Virta in this roll, but more than one guy like that on the roster was a liability. Keep in mind that every team in the league was scoring 300+ goals at the time. The thing about Housley was that depending who was on the ice he was the biggest asset or the biggest liability. He really couldn't cover the back end so often he would cover point on the penalty kill. Ray Borque would literally straight arm Housley in the head pushing him back for 20 ft. like Butch vs Spanky and simply draging the puck behind him into the slot. I enjoyed watching Housley much more after he left Buffalo. But those first two years in the league were electric because he was playing an almost invented position for his skill set.

Scotty once told me the two best skaters he'd ever coached were Housley and Paul Coffey while in Pittsburgh.