matter2003

Simple...they are only 4 and 6 points back of those teams not 12 points back like they are of the Metropolitan teams. Simple math.

Far be it from me to predict this will happen, but both Florida and Toronto have been pretty bad lately, and the Sabres have closed to within 6 points of the Leafs for the final playoff spot with a game in hand, that could make it 4 points if they win that. Part of the issue people had was looking at last month in regards to their playoff chances were all the teams they would have to leapfrog for the wildcard spots, but that is a pipe dream right now as there is no way they are catching any of those teams or leapfrogging that many in the Metropolitan division. However, with Toronto and Florida struggling and the Sabres finally surging a little bit, it has brought them to within realistic striking distance of the 3rd divisional playoff spot in the Atlantic, something nobody could have predicted when the season started, and not that hard to imagine them leapfrogging 2 teams instead of 5 or 6. I don't think anyone thought the Sabres would have a better shot at making the playoffs by finishing 3rd in the division versus getting in as a wildcard. That being said, do you think the Sabres make this last month and a half of hockey interesting down to the wire or do they fade away into the abyss at some point again?

Sheary reminded me of a much less productive Afinigenov. Like Maxim, he would often skate really fast with the puck but end up doing absolutely nothing and you would scratch your head many times wondering what he was thinking...at least Afinigenov had 3 20 goal seasons and a couple of years with 60-70+ points... Also, just saw Afinigenov is STILL playing in the KHL...has scored 8 goals with the Moscow Dynamo this year in 37 games at age 40...

Basically this guy is another Kyle Okposo that can hit... He has 8 goals and 24 points in 61 games...kind of the same stat production per game Okposo has put up in 45 games...

Who cares about a 5th...

Don't look now but the Sabres are 6 points behind Toronto with a game in hand for the 3rd playoff spot in the division.

Stage is set for a 3rd period collapse. Pens score an early one to make it 3-2 within a minute of the 3rd period starting and then the Sabres collapse to give up 4 straight losing 5-3. Book it.

Kind of reminds me of opening night where the Sabres slapped the Pens and won easily.

2-0. Perfect. Time for the collapse to begin.

I think Olofsson might be the first good forward the Sabres have taken outside of the 1st round in 10 years...this is what has hurt them most...not having the role players from later rounds able to fill in adequately in the bottom 6 to help chip in with secondary scoring. Pretty much every team has found 4 or 5 players at least during this time frame in the later rounds, the Sabres just found 1, but he is turning out to be a pretty damn good one...he actually is producing at a higher rate than Reinhart, nearing .9 points per game played to Samson's .8

Skinner will be fine. He has been playing with hot garbage for most of the time this year...wouldn't you be frustrated too?

Also did not realize that Dahlin is 3rd in scoring for all players in his draft class with 80 points...pretty impressive as a defenseman. Only Svechnikov from Carolina with 93 and Brady Tkachuk from the Sens with 83 have more and both are forwards...this kid is going to be a superstar

For a 2nd overall pick, I agree he is...especially when Draisatl's comparables are all HOF players pretty much while Reinhart's are Darren Turcotte and Kris Versteeg. Pastrnak was also out there and didn't get selected until the 25th pick. Those are the only 2 players with signifcantly more points than Reinhart in their careers. Draisatl has 407, Pastrnak has 368 and then Larkin and Point have 255 then Reinhart with 253...although Point has over 100 games less played in the NHL than Reinhart. Reinhart has settled in the past 2 seasons to about a .8 point per game player so that isn't terrible and he should produce 20-25 goals and 65-70 points a season as long as he is playing with Jack, but I am wondering who else could be producing like that with Jack? If Reinhart was on his own line away from Jack, what would he be producing? I fear it would probably be maybe 2/3 of what he is now...

About time...that place should have closed 20 years ago

I mean in the NHL teams draft players in the mid 1st round hoping they will become 3rd line players. No other sports league does that. Could you imagine an NFL team drafting someone at pick 15 hoping he will someday be a 3rd string player on their team or a great Special Teams player? It's absurdity.

Why trade these guys for next to nothing? Whats the point? What is a 6th or 7th round pick getting us?

Always seems he gets good results short term but fails long term as a coach... https://www.espn.com/nhl/story/_/id/28701145/wild-fire-coach-bruce-boudreau-playoff-surge

I have always read that they should be given sugar or something with easily absorbed sugar that can be turned into glucose quickly as well

Crazy to think people on the ship who are not infected are now basically being forced to stay in an environment against their will where there is a high chance of them ultimately getting infected. I would be livid if I was one of those people. The government is in effect potentially giving these people a death sentence for no reason.

Very scary, especially since they said it was a cardiac event. Might be a situation he can either take medication for and/or have a surgical procedure to fix but might also be an issue that doctor's may not clear him to play anymore.

This is just simply not true. If you have the same people who have done nothing but lost, they develop bad attitudes, bad habits and lack of caring because they think no matter what they do the result will be the same and it saps their will and energy. When things go wrong, they expect to lose. When they are up 2 goals and the other team scores, they expect the other other team to tie it. On and on... that's culture...the mindset of the team...the competitive nature of the team...the mental toughness of the team. All of that is severely hurt when a team loses for a long time and players just shut down and stop caring because it hurts less. It's almost like a protective mechanism for their psyche. So saying there is no such thing as bad culture is just plain wrong. If players are brought into a winning environment they either get with the program or they get gone. There is no such pressure for players joining a losing environment because the players already there aren't holding themselves or anyone else accountable. Peer pressure is a mother and if its not there the team is in trouble. If a player knows he can just take shifts off and nobody is going to say anything because nobody cares, that matters. Just like if you know you can do things at work and your boss doesn't care you take advantage of it, but if he came by your desk 5 times a day looking to make sure you were doing these things, you would be on top of it. It's the same thing. Yes, good players help, but good players alone cannot fix a bad culture---how is that working for the Oilers who have the top 2 players in terms of points in the NHL? it takes a lot more than that, it takes getting the wrong people off the team before bringing the right people on the team so the players who don't care or don't want to change won't poison anyone else on the team. Look at what the Bills did...they got rid of a lot of good players initially to make sure the players that were there fit with what they wanted to do. And it worked!

I mean look at the hirings of Chris Drury and Steve Yzerman...were they experienced front office hockey people or were they just good players who people thought would likely be qualified to transition into it?

Wawrow never accuses. His info ALWAYS comes from good sources or multiple good sources so if he is saying something its probably as close to the real truth as we are going to get. He is probably the best connected reporter to the "real story" we have in this area both Bills and Sabres.

I thought LTIR doesn't count towards the cap tho?

Sometimes these moves are in name only to lessen the salary cap ramifications and the player actually never leaves the team, which I would assume is the case with Pilut? I like Pilut and think he will be a good NHL defenseman once he is here full time and they clear this log jam