DarthEbriate

So… what I’m choosing to hear is that he became a Lions fan as a young Darth Pegulas and they never won a championship again. That tracks.

No. The simple reason is play stoppage. Orchestrating or encouraging celebrations would result in slower play and delays and it would spillover to celebrations for non-goals like the NFL. One inane part of the NFL is the celebration of a hard tackle after a four yard gain on first down. What, exactly, are you celebrating? But you can because you've got 20 seconds of downtime. In hockey the puck is still in play. Bonus reason: the Sabres give up too many goals and I wouldn’t look forward to it. Give me the occasional glass hop, or he random Satan skeet shooting his glove for silliness. But unless it’s a game winner or series-winner in OT, just huddle up and then fly by the bench. It works. Hockey is beautiful because of its speed. Next face off. Let’s go.

Heck, even Armia (he of 1 GP in Buffalo before becoming Kane/Bogo) is still kicking around the league. He settled in as a solid 3/4 PKer (15 career shorties). There are some NHL players selected in the 15 first round picks after him, but no one phenomenal. At the end of the first is Rickard Rakell and another 10 picks later is Boone Jenner. But Armia compared to his available peers is.... fine.

The 1st round picks have not been a problem since 2005-06 when they had back-to-back NHL no-shows. But since then, only Nylander projects to play fewer than 500 NHL games (and even he is back in the NHL again), with Rosen, Savoie, Östlund, Kulich, Benson, and Helenius way too soon to make a determination on. Sure, you might go back in time and take Tomas Hertl and Tom Wilson instead of Grigs and Girgs, but put those two players on a team designed to tank and they'd have likely had their potential go unrealized as well.

What do they talk about in their daily conversations? How they've finally succeeded? It only took 14 years, but they finally destroyed a good hockey fan base?

If their early season were to be believed, it'd be WWLWLLLLW. If their recent stretch is any indication, LLWLLLLLL.

That has to be an online joke, right? They can't ban plastic, can they? What are they going to do? Pat people down for uninflated palms? They should ban fans' wallets, purses, and cell phone holders of credit cards. That'll vastly improve the experience, get fans really focused on just the game.

He has a no move clause; then it becomes a 13-team NTC in 2026-27. He's not waiving his rights to join this fantastic franchise.

This team still needs a collective line brawl like nobody's business. They'd all get destroyed (except Greenway and Benson and UPL), but this team still needs a galvanizing event that reminds them that it's just hockey and they're actually among the best at it on the planet.

My goodness. Olofsson still has goals and the same number of points as Quinn this year. Olofsson has only been dressed for 8 games. How is this even possible? No. I don't want Olofsson back. He should've been let go or traded with retention prior to last season so the team could slightly overpay a 1/2 season Quinn replacement: Zucker, Nyqvist, Tarasenko.

To be fair, that's probably fewer years than having Adams as the GM sets them back.

Just as long as they're engaged in the fun.

Precisely. He needs time to sort it out. Put him on the 3rd line as a winger for 10-20 games. Let him simplify and recalibrate. Move him from PP1 to PP2, or off the powerplay entirely. Just like any other organization would do. McLeod becomes the 2C for a bit. (If only they'd had a mid-cost 2C on the team... or at least picked one up in the offseason with all that extra Skinner-cash.) The issue remains that Quinn and JJP need the exact same treatment at the moment.

That's an interesting twist. For tonight, my Sabres fan half wants to hear the palms from the very beginning. Make it heard. Make it known nationally. Enough is enough. Sabres fans, you're as mad as hell and you're not going to take it anymore. (Wrong movie!) The other half of me wants the Sabres to win going away, continuing to crush the Rangers season into oblivion. Edit: I hope it's a packed house of constant "Fire Kevyn!" chants, mixed with counting and "We want 9!"

Certainly, and would be a natural follow-up question. The cadence would be the introduction and least interesting part. More interesting would be Beane's proper GM-redirect response. "This is clearly a hockey-related question and you're in the wrong press conference...." and then what would he carefully add from there, if anything, in talking about Pegula.

Speculation only, not a rumor. The Predators are in full collapse and are going to need to punt on their season soon, so I did a quick perusal of their roster to see if there was anyone without trade protections/movement clauses that fits a Sabres need. Luke Schenn - RHD. Sadly, it looks like he's cooked based on TOI. He wouldn't be able to be Power's partner any longer and would just be Erik Johnson 2.0 and be a 7th d-man. Speaking of --- you know who is still playing and is a 6/7th in Philly? That same washed-up Erik Johnson. Ahh, but look at that. ROR. A 2-way center to allow McLeod to move up the lineup and push Cozens to wing. The hilarity of a ROReturn would be amazing. Two years remaining after this one at 4.5M, and while he'd be slower, as a d-zone 3C, and potential late-game offensive zone faceoff guy with a top line, I think it'd be a fair fit. Ruff would like him, methinks.

Since the palm presser, has any Buffalo beat writer had the chance to ask Beane whether he talks to Pegula every day?

If any local Sabres fans were going to make their voices heard, Wednesday night on a national broadcast would be the time to do it. Cheap, midweek game. Use palm trees like thundersticks and chant away. The Toronto game next week won't be half-empty. Although it would be pretty funny to hear "Fire Sheevyn!" and the Toronto fans chime in "Don't!" each time.

Dang. Pegula and I share same favorite Pink Floyd album. Not the best, mind you, just favorite.

Maybe in 5 years, when they're good because they've got two #1 overall d-men pushing 30 years old, it'll become a rallying point. They'll be like Seattle, but instead of throwing stuffed animal salmon over the glass for the 3 stars of the game, they'll throw inflatable palm trees. Before every playoff game, instead of throwing an octopus on the ice, it'll be a palm tree. When Tom Brady comes to town as an announcer, they'll toss a can of heart of palm and not a *****.

I don't care what universe you're from, that's gotta hurt!

Zucker = Sweet!

I don’t want to jinx him, but I once said this about Quinn when he was a rookie. Benson always knows where the puck is and is quick to recover it.

A rebound! Was it aided by Mal?

Yes. But I’d have taken Wallstedt.