mjd1001

Ads online. They are getting even worse. I'll go to websites that I am visiting to GIVE THEM MONEY (buy stuff) or go to web sites that I pay to subcribe to and am getting blased with more ads than ever. I love how they load every part of the website except for a strategically placed ad. The kind where once I think the full site has loaded, I go to the top of the page and click on one of the options in their 'menu bar', only to have an ad pop up at the last minute a fraction of a second before I click, so instead of clicking on what I wanted, my click registers on their pop up ad and my whole screen take me there. The biggest offenders seem to be companies trying to sell me medical equipment or drugs for ailments I do not have, Political groups on both sides of the aisle but a bit more leaning from the right, and Tesla. Not the company directly but organizations, forums, newsletters telling me how great Tesla is, telling me how great Elon Musk is, telling me I need to go to their site and sign a petition going after people who criticize Tesla or Elon Musk. I just want it to stop. Youtube is getting much worse also. Many videos I'll load, you have 2 ads to watch before you watch the video. In the past most of they you could skip after 5 seconds, now I'm coming up with more of the unskippable ones. And what makes it worse is that I'll load a video that I KNOW what I want to see is farther into the video...so I watch the ad at the beginning, sometimes 2 ads. Then when I click to foward the video 1/3 of the way through, (without watching an of the video yet), I get another un-skippable video. After that, I finally see the video I want but realize I have to go forward just 20-30 seconds to get to the part I want. So I move the status bar just a tiny bit, and when I do that, BAM, not only another 30 second ad, but the EXACT same one I just saw 10 seconds ago.

I won't say fraud....but he had a nearly perfect situation in Tampa when he was hired there...and got credit for more the situation and less what he did.... I posted this about him earlier in the year..but....I still think the same way... When he took over in tampa, he already had 2 young #1 overall picks on the roster in Stamkos and Hedman. He had 5 first round picks in the next 4 years coming, including 2 top 10 overall. He had Veteran stars on the roster to bring the young guys along (St. Louis, Lacavalier). And most importantly, he had 2 BIG things that Detroit doesn't......Low taxes and Palm trees. For the last few seasons, a lot of talk was Ottawa, Buffalo, and Detroit...3 teams in the east with a lot of high picks who were going to get better eventually. My opionion always was it was between Ottawa and Buffalo...I didn't thik what Detroit did (and the young talent they had) was enough to sustain long term success. I was always a bit 'down' on Yzermans play there.

I think my first choice isn't listed. As Archie Lee said above, "they continue to lose and stick to the plan". Well my personal opinion isn't losing at the same rate, more 'treading water' around .500......but yeah, that would be my opinion....close to .500 hockey and minimal changes.

I'm very hesitant about them trading Bryam. I really like his game and would love to see him here long term. I do question his re-sign-ability though and it may be an issue. They traded Mitts last year and I think the contract he ended up getting is going to be a lot less than what Byram is going to want. Cozens, I am OPEN to him turning things around but I just can't share the higher level of optimism. The reason I feel better is not that he has scored a few goals in the past couple weeks, but that I haven't seen him make as many dumb/selfish plays without the puck. Maybe Lindy is trying to get something through to him and its starting to take hold. I still see him as only a 10% shooter long term. Can he have another 30 goal season? sure, but I see him as guy that is not going to score 150+ over I think the next 5, overall he will average in the 20's at best. So he NEEDS to become better without the puck, and he NEEDS to make his linemates better (he doesn't distribute well at all in the offensive zone. I have seen him become a bit better without the puck, that is encouraging, but I haven't seen anything yet about him getting other players on the ice involved. He's like a black hole with the puck, once it comes into him, it doesn't come out most of the time. I do think Cozens and Byram is too much for Pettersson (with his contract.) if that deal was made, I'd need another usable piece coming back to Buffalo with it.

I have a lot of trouble with accents at times. A bit off topic.... I don't know what it is, but for me its the English/Irish/Scottish accent. I can understand people with southern accents, even really really deep ones. I get the NY accent, the Boston accent gives me zero issue. Even some people who had Spanish or French as their first language and then learn English and its a bit broken (like Biron), I can understand. But for some reason, some NATIVE English speakers from England/Ireland/Scotland, I can't even follow them in a regular conversation. If you watch F1 races, I can normally understand the guys, but some words I have to stop and think about for a moment. However, there is a female (I think named Bernie Collins?), Sometimes I can figure out what she said with context, other times, I literally have no idea what she said even though she is speaking English. She might as well be speaking a different language. My wife was watching a show just last night streaming when I was watching the Sabres game, it was some Briritish spy show, the actors were all British and since it took place in Great Britain were using their natural accent. When I checked in on here during intermissions, I guess I COULD understand what they were saying, but at times I had to stop and slow down my brain to think about it. My wife, she had zero problem at all though. I do notice the same thing with music. Put on Rock or Alternative music (that I grew up listening to), it could be an obscure song by Motley Crue, Foo Fighters, pretty much every metal or alternative band I can hear every word crystal clear and my wife is like "what did he say?". But she grew up listening to pop and rap....she'll listen to a rap/hip hop song and knows every single word and I seriously can't even make out a full sentence of what they are saying. In short regarding Biron, I notice his accent but it doesn't bother me too much. Maybe after all these years I'm just used to it with him.

Younger players, lack of veteran players. 1st time coaches and GM's.....one thing they all have in common is they don't cost as much $ as the alternatives. Pegula used to be all about spending whatever it took, but something changed about 10 years ago, now he seems to want to save every dollar with this team (with a very few excpetions)

Interesting on the stat sheet, Quinn has 5 shifts so far but only 1:48 of total ice time. He's averaging about 21 seconds per shift. Most other forwards also have 5 shifts, but Peterka is the only other one with less than 3 minutes and even he almost 40 seconds more than Quinn. I mean, small sample size, but he is taking VERY short shifts and his line-mates are not. Sorry, Cozens also with 5 shifts and only 2:16. Maybe its just by chance, but that line has gotten off the ice really quick when they get their shift.

He's not overly physical, I'll give that to you. But in a way he is similar to Cozens in that he will go to the front of the net, he'll skate through the slot area, between the circles. The way I think he's better than Cozens is when he lets go of a shot from there, hes a bit of a better shooter. More importantly, once Cozens gets the puck in tight, its almost always a shot. With Pettersson, he can be in tight but still sees/knows where his teamates are and is able to move the puck out of tight area in close if a line-mate has a better shot. Thats at least what I noticed...

I'm not sure how you say he is a perimter guy? He's not. In the few games I have watched him, he spend a lot of time in the offensive zone in front of or on the side or immediately behind the net, its noticable. And as far as measurables, he takes slightly MORE shots from the 'high danger' areas (right in front of the net, 0-5 feet out) than Cozens does. Those numbers hold true this year, and last year, and the year before (basically ever year the numbers are available on NHL edge)

Not only is Dudley a Buffalo Alumni, didn't he, or doesn't he still live in Niagara County? But don't other league sources say he hasn't been return phone calls at all? So who to believe? He's open minded in coversations with other teams? or not even returning calls?

I think that when a president of hockey operations was brought up in the past, Pegula came out and said it wasn't needed. There were comments that not only were on this board, but came form some in the media at the time, that the reason is Pegula did not want another layer between him and the on-ice product. I do not remember if it was Hamilton on WGR or one of the national guys out of Toronto, but I do rememeber hearing that discussion at the time.

I just turned on the game and more than 2 minutes are gone and they aren't losing yet. Things are looking up!

Makes me wonder how much Lindy just was hired and took the money, or was promised more influence than he actually has. -Lindy has always talked about the value of an enforcer. In an interview with Rob Ray he said he appreciated his role on the teams of the past, he said it really opened things up for other players with him on the bench. This was further reinforced when he said it in another intervier (not about Ray) in the offseason. And he had one just last year in New Jersey (MacDermid). -Also, he really didn't get to bring in his choice of coaches. It seems like if were up to Lindy, the roster might have more of those tougher to play against guys, but instead he might have been hired with "here is the deck of cards, play your best hand with what you have."

Some I'm sure unpopular opinions on the Pitt-Balt game right now: -I think Pittsburgh is usually one of the more boring teams in the league, and I hate low scoring games. This one is currently 17-10. Not super low scoring but not a track meet....but I am actually enjoying this game. -Tom Brady. I dislike him so much as a player, and some of his 'smugness' both as a player and in interviews just reinforces it. I'm going to die on the hill that Peyton Manning was better than him (too many opposing players said Brady was great, but Manning gave them nighmares the night before playing him a lot worse). And the cheating. But, I do not mind him as an announcer. He's a bit clumsy, he says some things that aren't always fluid, but I like him doing games.

So, All Buffalo has to do is lose to Boston tonight and the Islanders next week (they seem to always play bad vs the Isles, don't they) to set up the big game vs Chicago next week. Next week Friday. Buffalo vs Chicago. For none of the marbles. Not for the whole kit and kaboodle. The game for only the kitchen sink and nothing else. For none of the Enchilada. Who canwe crown the legends of last place? If things fall into place....it might be one of the more interesting games of the season.

A version of what you said seems to be the opinion of many on this board. Hire the best people you can to run your team. They may not all be perfect or the very best guys, but if you trust them, and understand they will make mistakes, trust that they won't make as many mistakes as YOU would, and let them do their jobs and get out of their way. That doesn't mean you can't tell them to run trades and signings by you, just don't do more than that, let them make the trades, negotiate the best deals and just get your approval. And on occasion, they are goingto want to do things that you do not want to do. You have to let them do those things, odds are they know more about the particulars of hockey players and building a roster than you do.

I agree there foundation is there. Tage and Dahlin are star-level players when not hurt. Tuch and Zucker this year are good complimentary pieces. Most of the 3rd and 4th line are adequate as 3rd and 4th liners to me. On D....Dahlin is not a problem. Byram isn't always a complete player, but I'm happy with his play. The 3rd pair are not good D-men but very few players have good 3rd liners. Most of the fault of this team to me is really only a few areas, but they have been BIG problems and impact the rest of the team. Quinn and Cozens playing SO bad for most of the year...and the fact that is YOUR 2ND LINE. If Quinn and Cozens were struggling, but you weren't relying on them to be a 2nd line, with 2nd line minutes and first team PP usage it would be different...but it isn't. Also Power. He's really talented and has really good games, but as mentioned above, he would be best suited to have a veteran reliable guy as his partner. I don't mean an old, well past his prime vet who is just hanging onto his career signing 1 year deals. I mean a legit good D-man, 27-30 years old who is legit top 4. Oh, and UPL not playing as well as last year, that doesn't help. Dahlin and Tage are good enough to be your top D-man and to be a dangerous first line Scorer...they just AREN'T good enough to carry your team to victories when you have nothing behind them supporting them with an entire missing 2nd line.

I disagree with you on him, but this is what a message board is for, for discussion. If the team wouldn't be this bad for so long, a lot of the 'conflict' on this forum wouldn't be here.....much of it is out of frustration with the on-ice product.

Many of us don't think of him as an 'absentee' owner. In many cases its the opposite....Instead of not listening to the people they hire, Some think Terry will just get rid of anyone below him who he disagrees with. That is the reason for, under Pegula, A couple of President of the team changes, 4 GM's, 8 different coaching staffs (couning Ruff twice), all in less than 15 years. It may be he THINKS he knows more about hockey than football so he is too involved, to the detriment of the team, in a way he is not with the Bills. Below are some points that some will agree with, others will disagree with, but they are just the tip of the iceburg to the argument about him. If you search enough on this forum, you will find some quotes and articles linked in threads to support some of them (and many others I am not mentioning). -First point is that Adams constructed this roster, this rebuild, so its on him, but Pegula is the one who hired Adams. Pegula 'brought Adams' through the organization. And Pegula fired Botts for not being a 'yes man', and replaced him with Adams, someone who many think was unqualifed for the position, but got it due to Pegula being 'comfortable' with him, not because he was the best, or even a good hire. -He has personally picked players to sign in the past (Ville Leino, Christian Erhoff). There is speculation by some (not everyone) that he has an ovesized opinion still in roster direction, whether to sign someone to a big deal or not. -Lots of smoke in the Eichel situation that he personally soured on Eichel, leading to the situation between him and the team getting worse. Again, lots of discussion back and forth on this as well as some articles in those threads to support that view. Reinhart trade? It was leading up to and during Covid, when there was a chance a longer term deal at a decent rate of pay might have kept him in Buffalo. That may not have happened because Pegula controls the purse strings and that is at the time he wanted to cut costs with the Sabres. -When Covid hit, despite him being a billionaire, he demanded cuts be made to the Sabres staff. Some other teams made cuts also, but some not as deep, and Pegula seems to have been slow to put money back into the team. -Some subtley here, but Pegula has a history of making hasty hires with the hockey team and then quickly reversing course. Many of those were due to disagreements, whether on money or the roster. See the terms of Botteril being fired, the quotes directly from the Pegulas were "we felt we weren't being heard". -He physically sits in at the draft war room, he frequnetly is in the building during the trade deadline. Some think he's just there to 'observe', others are sure he gives his input, sometime to the detriment of the process. -There are several beat writers, several former players who are now in the media,that share those opinions. There is more, a lot more. As is currently being discussed in another thread....see the older thread on here "the trial of Terry Pegula" its older, and there is a lot of arguments back and forth, it occasionally gets off topic.... but people have posted some pretty good points of view in it (at least of his earlier years with the team), and there are articles and links to some quotes that support this. Also, it might take some time, but sift through some of the threads in the past 2 months. Many of us have posted info on this, some with quotes directly from him, and some with links to articles written about the topic.

Yep....l have him the title of one older thread to start with. WAAAAAAYYY to much in there to baby-spoon feed it to him.......I gave him that...that is what he asked for. He wants a "fully sourced account" LOL. That is laughable. Is he Terry's lawyer and does he think this is a court of law? This is a freakin message board. We can have discussions and give our opinions without having to prove it, not only prove it..but prove it to HIS standards? He's laughable.

Do your own damn work. I told you one of the threads. The others have been posted by me in the last few months, and others people added to them. I'm not going to take my own time and list them, there is a search window up top...look to the top of your page and to the right, see it? Its there. The proof you need is here. It has been posted. The articles and quotes are fleshed out over and over on this page. If you missed them, or chose not to read them, or want someone to spoon feed it to you I'm not doing it.

Terry, is that you? Or are you a close friend or family member of the Pegula's? What are you talking about, there is PLENTY of evidence. Or do you only read or acknowledge what you want? Apparently that MUST be it. Go look at the thread "the trial of Terry Pegula" for a TON of that stuff. Myself and others have posted articles and links to quotes made by him and Kim in just the past few weeks.. There are plenty of articles, quotes, more articles from people speculating articles from people who are in the industry. There is the actions of him saying who he waned to sign and then going out and doing it. The quotes directly from the Pegulas about why Botts was fired? If that goes against your narrative, I'm sorry. Its all out there. Some of it is 'smoke' and there are also some sources that are actual flames of a 'fire'. See the above post. A bunch of articles, quotes directly from him. Most of which were mentioned or directly linked on these very forums.

Yeah. So this isn't going to happen, but move some major pieces. If Pettersson was available and you could make a move with Cozens as the centerpiece, do it. But not just that. Now move another regular for another player from another team. I'm only really tied to Dahlin and Tage, I'll move anyone else (yes, including Peterka, Benson, Power, anyone) So get a guy like Pettersson, get another 'talented' youngster. Remove Cozens and someone else at the same time. Now add to that your idea...Bring in 2-3 guys for the bottom line, the type of guys you said. The team may or may not be better. The team still won't make the playoffs this year. But it would be something both DIFFERENT and possibly EXCITING for the fans to watch for the rest of the year. And maybe, just maybe, help some young guys develop a bit to be better next year.

Yes, I do think it describes him. The ego I think is not the same type of Ego as jones..it manifests in different ways. Jerry Jones will go public...when there is something he wants to say he will look for a microphone and camera, he's going to say out loud for everyone to see. Pegula shows that ego in the opposite way. When things go bad, he won't go public like Jones, he disappears even more than usual. But that doesn't mean he doesn't 'dig his heels' in anymore to do things HIS way. Its an opinion piece, but the reason I quoted that is, my OPINION, is that line above is exactly how I feel about him. My impression, my opinion. It has nothing to do with 'beathing his chest' and I never implied that. His "ego" is less of a 'beating his chest' and more of a 'standing there with a smug smile' when things go his way. And he'll let things go bad for a LONG time for the chance to have things go right..but they have to go right HIS way.

I agree. Plus, you want GOOD veterans. Not the guys who are suited for the 4th line or barely good enough for the 3rd line. The problem is, THOSE guys who are better than that are mostly on teams that are still in the playoff hunt. Who is going to want to give you a good, veteran piece that is playing well now.... for a younger guy with potentially more upside but who isn't a guarantee and is likely a step back for you this year? No team that is still in the playoff hunt. "Hey, I know you have a no movement, but would you do us a solid and waive that? We are likely making the playoffs, but I really want to trade you. So can you waive that no trade clause, pack up your family and move to Buffalo and play for a team that is going no where this year?" How do you think that will go over? And the 2nd issue is, if it is a GOOD player who is a veteran you are targeting, some (not all but some) of those guys have no trade or no movement clauses. I think there are very few guys who will waive those to come to Buffalo, to a team that is certainly worse than the one they are on. There might literally be no market for ANYTHING other than more youth/reclamation projects for the Sabres.