mjd1001

To me the Arena being renovated/replaced is more important than a football stadium. I know, there are issues with the Stadium in Orchard Park not lasting much longer. However, when I go to an outdoor event/football game, the 'bells and whistles' of the stadium aren't that big of a deal to me. For some reason, an indoor game (hockey or NBA), I notice how much nicer/better the new places are than the older ones.

IMO, the best way to judge a contract is what percentage of the cap will that player be taking up at the mid-point of the deal. We don't know what the cap will be going forward, but a few estimates are out there, and it looks like (based on those estimates, some by Servalli), that the mid point of this deal he will be taking up 7.8%-8.2% of the cap. That not really all that much (Eichel is a different pedigree of course but he is taking up a bit over 12% of the cap at the mid-point of his deal). If he is a consistent 25 goal scorer, not going under 20 for any season, it is worth it. Anything more than that and it is a bargain for the Sabres. Its only a bad deal if he regresses and becomes a 15-20 goal per year max guy.

Not sure if this is posted yet, but a negative point of view from the Maple leafs on this signing. Sabres Continue to Make Toronto Maple Leafs Look Smart https://editorinleaf.com/2022/09/01/sabres-continue-toronto-maple-leafs/

Working for a company that is hiring people at a higher rate of pay than those who have been in the same job with them for 5 or 6 years. Bringing it up to the supervisor and have the response be "there isn't any room in the budget for wage increases for existing employees". (But there IS room in the budget to hire people at a higher rate?) Taking that to Human resources and having a woman who seems to be no more than 25 years old as a 'senior human resources' manager talk to you over the phone, have a major attitude, interrupt you when you are talking, and basically tell you 'too bad', because it is up to the managers. For me, this is only a second job "part time", but none-the-less I'll be looking for something else. Not because it is a bad job or I can find a better job, I just don't want to work for a company anymore that has management and HR people who act like this.

By the midpoint of his contact, the NHL cap should be/probably will be about $90+ million per team. (Seravalli had an article about this a little while ago). If we assume that will be true, the 'midpoint' of his contract he would be making about 7.9%-8% of the cap. Unless he totally flames out and last year was a total mirage, that is actually a pretty good number for him. If he continues to perform as a consistent 30+ goal scorer, this will be a great deal for the Sabres. If he regresses in terms of production slightly and becomes a consistent 20-25 goal scorer, it will be an "ok" or "fair' contract going forward with regard to percentage of the cap. If he regresses so badly that he is consistently under 20 goals, that is where Adams job may be on the line for a deal like this (providing he makes a few other mistakes going forward also).

Close to 50% of people in the United States are likely to think the same thing of the USA.

When you do most of the shopping, and ask your wife if she needs anything from the supermarket, and she says no. So you go and you buy yourself some snacks for the weekend of the upcoming games. 2 days later you go to get your snacks and they are ALL gone. So you bring this up to her and remind her she ate all your snacks and ask her what snacks SHE wants because you are going to the store again. She says nothing...so you go out the following week and buy your snacks and a couple days later when you want them, they are ALL gone again.

I don't think they will. As others have said I can't rule it out though. To me making the playoffs this year does not make-or-break the season. I know others have said they are tired of the losing, they want the playoffs at all cost, anyone who doesn't has a 'losers' mentality, etc, etc. But to me I just want to see progress. Seeing a few more players 'break out' and take big steps with this team missing the playoffs by 5-10 points would be a more enjoyable season for me than to see the team 'squeak in' to the playoffs because of other teams around them dealing with injuries, and get swept out in the first round. Accepting what the plan by management is (which I am doing now), I'm going to try to enjoy a developmental year where this team is fun to watch when then win, and even in losses can be entertaining. Playoffs are expected from me in 2023-2024, and REQUIRED for the few seasons after.

I'm confident in them for now. Not a fan of the title of the thread. "Drinking the kool-aid" implies to me that anyone who is happy with Adams and the front office is blindly following or believing anything they do, and that isn't the case with many of us. That expression is used too much in ways its not originally intended to.

Id probably have done it, but I'm not upset he did it. 2 years left on his deal, should be no problem as far as the cap. Sabres won't be close to needing that room until his deal is done. But then the other side of it is, does he fit in with this team? and whos spot does he take away. I don't think he improves the team on the ice and maybe takes a spot away from someone else. Right now, he is a 10-15 goal, 35-40 point guy. I'm not quite sure how he has fallen from what he was, but I wouldn't count on him getting back to his old level.

I beg to differ, not with texas though. I lived about half my life in WNY, spending quite a few years in the Roch, and I lived 2 times in Florida (for a total of 6 years). My experience is that it is bad in both places, but much, MUCH worse in Florida. As I stated in a previous thread, just a few weeks ago when visiting my relatives in Florida a racism related incident happened in the grocery aisles in Walmart right next to me. Of course, it depends on what part of Florida you are talking about. Jacksonville is much Different than Miami. Daytona is much different than the Keys, Tampa is much different than Tallahassee. Rural areas are much different than the more 'integrated' cities...etc.

I'm not intentionally going against the spirit of this thread, but my answer is really 'nothing'. Sure, the Cup for the Sabres is the ultimate goal, but it is the journey that is the best part for me. Living in Boston in the late 1990's and early 2000's, I saw the angst Red Sox fans went through every year, saying they would do ANYTHING for the World Series, then when they finally won for the first time in nearly a Century, it was one week of partying, a month of jubilation, and then after that, not much else. Meaning acting the same way ANY fan base acts after they win a championship, whether it was the Royals, Rays, anyone. So I don't mean to say it doesn't mean much as a fan, sure I would love it, just not enough where I would 'give up' much else to guarantee it.

Yep, its still a lot bigger deal than most realize. This month I was in a Walmart in Florida when visiting relatives, and an African American woman and a white woman were going at it in an aisle (I think about the African American woman taking too long to look at something and blocking the Aisle), and within 5 seconds the racial slur came out. Kinda startling to me people would so easily go to that. I probably witness a couple examples each month, but sometimes I don't remember them because I don't really take notice of them because some of us are almost numb to it. I'm sure many of us have similar stories.

Lehner I think is under-rated as a goalie when he is on the ice. I think the bigger issues with him is he can be a pain for Coaches/GMs, and he seems to be prone to injuries. But when he is on the ice, I think he is a top 10 goalie. His loss will hurt Vegas. If they can recover his salary and replace him with someone making what he was, I doubt they will get someone short term as good as he was/is.

I still stand by the fact that I think to be a great team, you need to have guys, when they hit their prime, playing 'over' their contract. The only way you do that is to sign them when they are younger and still 'unproven' to long term deals, where the cap number 'overpays' them in the early years to they are out playing that number in the later years. So, I want the sabres to pick some guys and sign those long term deals now. So is that Cozens? I don't know. Who else would that be? Again I personally do not know. BUT Adams, Granato, the scouting staff know many, many more times the info about these players than we do, so I have to trust them to take all that information they know about them, pinpoint the guys who they feel are going to be 'great' in 3-4 years from now and lock them up now. Its a risk to sign a guy before he produces that much, and its a Risk to let a management team make those decisions and take that chance. But again, I don't want to wait around out of 'fear' of making a mistake.

Fight game vs Ottawa. Not sure WHERE I'd put it, but it goes in the top 5 for me (my Sabres viewing history/memory starts about 1980) As some on here may know based on arguments with me. I dislike fighting in hockey...going forward I would be OK with zero fights. I do not need any future memories like the fights in that Ottawa game. However, that doesn't mean that I still don't put that at or near the top.

I'm all for long term contracts if done BEFORE you have to pay the guys top dollar. I said in a previous post, the way you get really good is betting on players with long term deals when they are younger, so when they are in the prime of their career you can have the back end of that deal where you have them playing for 'under market'. You 'overpay' them early (when you have cap room) so that when you have a few of them at the top of their game, you can 'underpay' them on that same deal. Is that easy to do? No, but you want to be a dominant team, that is what you do. If you 'wait' for guys to prove themself first, you are going to make less mistakes, but you will never have that team with guys on great deals at the back end. Don't take chances and you might almost assure yourself of having a 'good' team, but never a 'great team.' With that said, I have NO idea just how good Cozens can/will be. Hopefully Adams/Granato have a much better idea and will make the appropriate move.

I like the Black and Reds alot. I grew up with the Blue and Gold, as a very little kid starting watching years and years of games with the tail end of the French connection, and being in elementary and middle school never missing a game that was on Tv for most of the early to mid 1980s. I just liked the Black and Red goathead jerseys when they came out. I don't understand all the disdain for them sometimes.

I agree with a lot of what you said, but to me there is a bigger issue with him. Just how good is he? This year he had a great year, 8th in the league in points and 9th in goals. But that was his CAREER year, the question is, is this year repeatable? Maybe it is..and if it is, then he is worth the contract from a production point of view. But the other side of it is...too many times players have that 'career year', and they are paid on it because management and the fanbase take that career year and project it as the baseline, and that often doesn't happen. What has the rest of his career looked like? Before this past season in goals he was: Tied for 81st, tied for 48th, tied for 25th, and tied for 68th (didn't look up his rookie year but it wasn't any better than those). Since he has been in the league he is tied for 32nd in goals. Take out his first few years (just look at his last 3 seasons including this past one where he was great) and he is still only tied for 19th in goals. So don't get me wrong, those numbers are really good, but I'm not sure if they are $9.5 million dollars good, for a winger, If, IF the issues you brought up in your above post might be true (about him being a 'me' guy before a 'team guy). He better bring the offense too because from what I have read he is average at best in terms of defensive responsibility, and he gives you basically Zero penalty killing (basically hasn't been used at all in the past few years on the PK)

Does this keep Calgary competitive for the next 2 years? I think they are thinking/hoping so. If they think they can be a top-5 team in the West, then this might work out. Will you be able to beat Colorado or even Edmonton? One injury to a McDavid or a McKinnon near playoff time is all you need, and it can get you a cup appearance. Plus, they have a chance to rebuild/retool in 2 seasons anyway. Look at their contracts. After the next 2 seasons are over, they have a total of THREE guys under contract up front (Huberdeau, Mangiapane, and Blake Coleman), and ONE guy on the back end (Andersson). Even if Huberdeau is overpriced, they are going to have a lot of flexibility and a lot of options over the next 2-3 years. It will not be the contract Huberdeau just signed that will make or break this team over the next 5 years...it will be the moves of the front office.

Its bad, but I don't think it is the worst thing ever. Hes a better player than Skinner, and, at least at 29, he had his best year ever so he is still SLIGHTLY getting better or remaining at his peak. 10.5 is a big cap hit, but if the cap goes up in the later years, instead of being 12.5%+ of the teams cap, it might be closer to 10 by the time you get to the middel/end of the deal, which won't be awful. Can he still give you 25 goals and 70 points when he is 35 years old and play well in his own end? With him its pretty likely, and if you get that it won't be awful for someone making 10% of the cap. Of course, the final thing is, what is the no move/no trade clauses? Maybe by those middle to late years, if/when the team isn't good, he might be able to be moved to a desperate contender. Again, I don't like the length and the money for the deal and I DO think it is a bad contract, but we are not talking about a 'top 50' player in the league, we are talking about who is likely a top-5 or at worst a top-10 player who is still in his prime.

The complaint Thursday thread is still closed after noon on Thursday. I often look forward to reading it, or posting on it weekly.

I was at the Earth Wind and Fire concert last night in Artpark in Lewiston. I'm not a huge fan of the bad but some family members wanted to go. The worst run concert I have ever been to in Artpark. Living in that area, I went to a bunch of concerts years ago when they were free on Tuesdays, and recently I'd say we have been to 10-15 in the past 10 years. I have no idea who was running this but it was an awful experience. -They sold way too many tickets. Once you got inside, there was zero space to sit even on the lawn. People started putting down seats on the path making it hard to walk around, and if you were one of the last thousand or so people to come in, the only seating let was on the path/lawn behind the concessions and the porta-bathrooms. Yes, people had to sit facing the back of the bathroom and concessions stand with no view of the stage. -We live 15 minutes away, we figured we'd leave the house an hour before the start time? Bad idea. Parking lot was full. All street parking was full. We ended up finding a spot down by the waterfront and had a 15 minute walk just to get to the entrace to Artpark. -Once you got there, the line started outside the main gait, all the way up the hill (maybe 1/4 mile long) The wait just to get into Artpark was over 30 minutes. I haven't been to a concert there in a few years, but they really have to get things together. Biggest issue was they sold too many tickets. You can't sell so many general admission tickets so that even when people jam onto the lawn area, there were hundreds of people left over with no where to sit other than on the side or the side/behind the stage area right across from restrooms.

Coming off of last year, I'd say the Skinner contract should not be that high on the list. It STILL IS a bad contract, but with the year he had last year and how much cap room the sabres have the next year or two, it doesn't justify 3rd. Get back to me in December of this year though....

I have had zero issues on this site ever with slow loading pages. The odd thing is I am wondering what is happening in general with my phone. Its a newer phone, and just in the last week whether I'm out of the house or in the house on Wifi, my phone has been loading various (not all but many) apps and sites much slower than usual. No problems on this site on the computer though.