DarthEbriate

Tic tac toe on the Panther PP. Reinhart with the no-look backhand for the primary assist. Rodrigues winning PP o-zone draws. The Sabres had the basis of a team.

Also dig the replay. Skates collide and McDavid going for a repair but Ekblad did one that no one does vs. McDavid. F(orget) the puck, take the body. They also score in bunches like no one else.

I think we can all agree to one thing though, the should have dressed Skinner. They don’t have enough Sabres.

Ummm. So. Bennett. How much money do you want this offseason?

Samuelson has trade value. But only if you retain. Some GMs would like his size at $2M. But for the Sabres it’d be better for the cap to buyout than retain. That said, he’s still only 24 and could round into a serviceable D-man if he could reach his rookie level of play again.

And the other half, Adams has been lollygagging his way through an internal cap and a pleased-as-punch owner. EDM has been resilient and unkillable all…. Reinhart makes it 2 again.

Verhaege has been very good for a long time now. Long time. If you’re gonna run the goalie, do it proper like an Ekblad elbow.

From Fairburn in his Sabres' combine summary article, McQueen and his camp said that the secondary injury last season that took him out of the lineup after he'd returned from the back fracture was a muscle strain related to said fracture. There shouldn't be long-term effects from it, and he completed a full testing at the combine. He could be fine. His potential is among the highest of the forwards and he probably doesn't make it to 9. I'm not sure it's wise to let him get past 9 (even if Martin were still on the board). He's almost as big as Thompson but is a legit center, not a winger, and although he's not flying out of position to go hit people, he's plenty physical.

In 2010-11, Crosby played 41 of 82 games. In 2011-12, Crosby played 22 of 82 games. In 2012-13, Crosby played 36 of 48 games. HC DDB was able to get that Penguins team to finish 1st, 2nd, and 1st in their division because the roster wasn't just Crosby. The GM was doing a good job, too.

Ninety-four.

I'd argue McCabe and Zadorov reached their potential. They're both top-4 guys, and can be especially effective with the correct partner. In a best-case scenario, Zadorov could be a top pair guy, but the offense was never touted as amazing, so top-4 is solid. Girgensons has been a 4th liner for over a dozen years in the NHL. He was miscast by the Sabres because they drafted him when they found themselves with no center spine, but for a mid-1st he has panned out. Grigorenko was a bust. He was also rushed, and maybe could have been more with a longer development curve and a bunch of time in Rochester. They need him to be much more and he was not that. Ristolainen is a disappointment. Another rushed prospect because he was blocked by the likes of Benoit and Meszaros. With proper coaching and a slower timeline, maybe he could have been the top-pair guy. He looked like Ivan Drago, but a boxer also needs to be a technician when they're facing well-schooled boxes of similar athletic prowess. He's always been overpaid since his second contract because he was gifted PP1 time... but he's not a bust: he's still in the league all these years later.

Buffalo is active right now because it is hosting the Combine. Show me, Darth Pegulas. Show me.

The important thing to remember, from one of the Sabres promo season videos or interviews, I think…. Is that Ruff initially declined the job. But he got convinced by Pegula. Adams was all set to promote Appert, also sans interviews, apparently. If the owner, allegedly your buddy off the ice, says he’s got a 2-year gig for you so you can evaluate the team, it’s pretty easy for you to take the assistant coaches under contract and evaluate them as well. Because you got hired and told what to do directly by the owner. Ruff is 100% complicit in last year’s opening roster, staff, and the resultant garbage. He could have put his foot down upon hiring and brought in a real staff. He did not.

And it should be noted that the self-proclaimed largest walleye in the world is in Rush, MN. It’s supposedly 2,000 pounds and was caught by Paul Bunyan. And is made of fiberglass. For some… delicious… reason, walleye got stocked in the Columbia River, so you can get tasty walleye in Eastern Washington, west of the Rockies. It doesn’t make it to the Seattle restaurants, but it’s there, just a few hours east. Was Leino the original plan? Or the locker room and HarborCenter?

We’ve been paying for our lack of vision for at least 8 of the last 14 years.

Directly into the lineup for game 3. Three assists in the win, feeding Draisaitl, Kane, and Skinner for the game-winner. That’s how it’s done.

If into the security press conference recordings you go, only pain will you find.

5-19.5 is... what... 6'8"... he skates really well for his height. Yes, I already read the end of the thread and he's a lock for top 8 because anyone will just list him at 5-11 on their roster anyway.

It looks like right now he's signed with Kärpät for Liiga next season, but he could probably opt over to the AHL if Bakersfield has an opening. He's grown his game as a distributor with TPS (probably too much as he plummeted to only 8 goals). I hope he gets to the AHL to show what he can do on the NA ice.

The Sabres could've attempted to hire Montgomery when the Bruins let him go. Nah. They aren't going to hire DeBoer. If GMKA is still in power next year, it's the Appert show. Only Pegula could overrule him, and the only coaches Pegula knows are ex-Sabres coaches.

I’m constantly amazed Biron hasn’t signed a full-time gig with TSN or gotten snapped up by a larger market. He’s a good analyst. Sharp and light-hearted. He’s too good for this franchise (at the moment). I’m glad he’s they have him, but he can do better and make more money.

No surprise there. You don’t throw your goalie under the bus when he’s still entering his prime and has several years left on his contract just because he’s had poor games against McDavid and Draisaitl.

True, 71-65-15 is over NHL .500. But his wins/loss record is 71-80, below in DeLuca .500.

Is he a good defensive guy? Meaning, would he ultimately be an Anton Lundell? I think of Lundell as a 3, but he probably becomes Florida's 2C this summer if Bennett's contract demands outstretch their means. Like a Charlie Coyle. And if we're talking Lundell/Coyle, then it's a good pick but not a top-10 pick.

Just please not Merzlikins or Korpisalo via the Jarmo connection. For the record, I don't think GMKA moves on from UPL this offseason. One more year of UPL/Levi/cheap vet is the way they'll roll.