kas23

I really meant the constant bitching and moaning isn’t confined to the summer.

Summer?

Totally. Luck happens when preparation meets opportunity

Yep. The lengths players will go through to avoid playing for the Sabres. He should’ve played it cool like Power and stuck to the letter writing.

No mention of our marque $8M addition playing like an $800,000 scrub? What about our goalie situation? Or still not having a viable 2C. Minor roles? I don’t think a single player makes a team. Look no further than the “Eakins biggest blunder thread”. Every excuse under the sun is in there why we sucked.

I would say that neither of them were responsible for the spectacular success of East Resources. Neither of them were responsible for the development of hydraulic fracturing. I chalk this up to being in the right place at the right time.

Completely agree. If STHs haven’t been scared off by the last 10+ years, Eichel being traded isn’t going to do it. And this is the type of decision I really wouldn’t want made with the STHs in mind. That’s a Terry/Kim move there. This must be a pure hockey decision made by real hockey people with the goal to make our team better.

Can’t say for certain. Doubt any of us can. Too many moving parts. One thing is for sure though. The Sabres can be a highly entertaining team without Jack on the ice. Can they win in a sustained way? Not sure of that either. On the bright side, if we delay this decision to the first month of the season, maybe we demonstrate a winning culture and he has a change of heart and we keep him.

Season ticket holders must be living under a rock if they weren’t aware of the Jack drama going on right now. Plus, I think the team Granato was leading would’ve put more butts in the seats that the Eichel lead team during the beginning of the year.

I think it would be poor judgement for a GM to trade for Jack at this moment, unless this GM (or owner) is completely enamored with him and would take the risk. He’s right in the middle of a injury treatment argument. Wait to see how it plays out first. Worse comes to worse, you see how Eichel responds to training camp or the first few weeks of the season, then you pull the trigger. After all, the centerpiece coming back is not likely going to be a roster player.

I think it’s highly likely the new team will deny the surgery as well. It’s not the conservative approach (with rest/rehab being first, then a partial laminectomy being 2nd). They’re not going to want their player to become this surgeon’s “I was the first to implant an artificial disc in a professional athlete” trophy. So, the question becomes, will the receiving team *have* to be on board with this procedure prior to the trade? It’s widely know what Jack wants at this point. If I were the Sabres, I’d get him to medical arbitration ASAP to eliminate that overhang. I doubt they’ll side with Jack.

I really don’t see KO as this problematic. He may be a little pricey for the position he plays, but he is a vet and a good soldier. Plus, sending KO out produces a new hole, which we’ll have to spend money on. So, what really is the net savings? If we were to do this, I would want a 2nd/3rd rounded coming back too.

I’m pretty sure most GMs are going to have the same reservations about Eichel’s neck.

I like this idea. I wouldn’t move down 1 spot to get rid of KO. He’s really not that big of a problem and he’s temporary. I would absolutely move down 1 spot to get rid of Skinner. He is twice the problem KO is and he’s not that temporary. Another move I would consider is swapping places with Anaheim or LA to sweeten a deal to get Zegras or Byfield, in addition to other players. It’s a pie-in-the-sky idea that either would be involved in a trade for Eichel. I know, I know; we all hope they would be, but I just don’t realistically see it. If swapping firsts gets them in them in the conversation, then I’ll do it. Especially for Zegras. I would trade down any lower than LA though.

The Sabres physicians have already demonstrated that they have Jack’s long term health in mind. Standard of care for a herniated disc, unless impinging on a nerve, is conservative observation. Waiting to see if it will self-resolve is in no way counter to Jack’s long-term well-being. Waiting is causing no irreversible damage. Now, going to surgery, while may be indicated, is not a benign procedure. Everyone would like it to go well, but sometimes there are complications.

I don’t think it matters what Jack wants at this point. This is the dangerous game he’s playing. He can be traded to anyone.

I agree Eichel’s injuries played a major role. So, this may tell us something. Either our team was completely reliant on the health of a single player (a horrible position the team to be in) or they didn’t have the coach skillful enough to adapt to losing its star player. If we believe the signs of life we saw at the season’s end, then it was the coach that was holding us back. Granato was able to plug Rhino into the 1C role with some success. I think Hall was checked out by that point though. If you asked KA what he regretted more, signing Hall or waiting until mid-March to fire RK, my guess is that he wished he fired RK much sooner.

I agree with this view of Jack. He’s being a sore loser, who is actively making it look like he’s part of the problem, rather than part of the solution. That said, it’s really hard to compare him to Allen. Allen plays a position (QB) that pretty much controls the destiny of an NFL team. Football teams die or succeed based on who’s playing QB. In fact, if Allen was a bust (a huge credit to the Bills FO and coaches) or they drafted a different QB that draft, we would be begging Terry to sell that team too. Hockey is a bit different though, in that a single position doesn’t really have the power to control the success of a team (unless you are a goalie and your name is Hasek).

I don’t see the signing of Hall and getting a goalie as mutually exclusive. They could’ve done both. The signing of Hall was supposed to be a godsend. We were going to have a 1st line with Eichel and a former MVP. No one on here could’ve guessed how horrid this line would be. They completely imploded. I can’t blame KA for that. That was all RK.

The only blunder KA did was him ignoring the goalie situation. Every other move was done to maximize the potential success of RK. He gave him the tools to win and many on here thought we had a chance at the playoffs last off-season. We supposedly signed a 2C, a 3rd/4th line center with offensive upside, and an elite winger for Jack, one that knew RK well. I don’t care how much money they gave Hall. Wasn’t my money and it was just a 1 year deal. And I also don’t care that they gave him a NMC during a pandemic. We signed him to give us a chance of winning games, not to win a trade deadline deal. With the huge exception of not signing a decent goalie, KA gave RK the tools to win. Gave him one last decent chance. RK failed and that’s why he was fired. KA can’t say he didn’t try.

I really liked the interview as well. He spent a lot of time explaining how he approaches a young player. What I would’ve wanted to ask is “how do you approach the veteran player?” I also don’t think he has a very high opinion of analytics. And this is ok. Or, maybe he meant to say “no amount of analytics we’re gonna help this team. We needed to start at square one.”

If they are on the fence of being exposed or not, then they aren’t worth the trouble. It’ll be like WE’RE the expansion team.

Yep. We basically told the NYR Jack was untouchable as well. Untouchable players only need to be dealt for other untouchable players. If they say a player is “untouchable”, then you say Jack is as well and you politely end the phone call, which is what Adams did to them in the past.

The vast majority of NIH employees work in Bethesda, MD. For example, I believe there are about 750 employees in NC and 450 in Montana. In Bethesda, we have over 25,000 people just on our main campus. We also have multiple units within the surrounding community (Rockville, Gaithersburg, and Bethesda). Nevertheless, I’ve made it fairly clear that my numbers are accurate. This really isn’t a political debate. Our media has made it sound like one, but as long as we continue to believe it is, then we are not going to reach 95% vaccination rates (assuming 5% have a medical contraindication). A more important issue, and one that our leadership is dancing around, is that minorities are less likely to be vaccinated. That said, it’s not very surprising that the African American community distrusts the medical establishment. https://www.kff.org/coronavirus-covid-19/issue-brief/latest-data-on-covid-19-vaccinations-race-ethnicity/

PM’d you proof. I never said each site is at 65%. I don’t have that data.