Kruppstahl

One tiny thing they could do for sure which would make things a lot better would be to eliminate the "goal song" and never play it again. Then replace all the snippets of songs they play during the game with the organ, every game.

The Kane v. Reaves scrap for those who missed it:

I love ROR; he is everything you want in a hockey player. He wasn't a "problem child" in Buffalo...he was surrounded by a totally broken franchise and did what he had to get the F off a sinking ship, and it worked just fine for him. Lehner is a different issue entirely--he's a mediocre goalie with substance abuse issues and some mental issues beyond the normal "he's a goalie, of course he's crazy!" stuff. LOL. Goaltending is like that if you look around the league though. It's very unreliable and inconsistent. Guys get hot, then they get cold. Lehner will return to normal at some point in the relatively near future. His fundamental mechanics are not nearly good enough to generate high save percentages on a consistent basis. Our current goaltending is similar, unfortunately.

Episode 1 was a little off IMO but somewhat necessary to get everything lined up. The dragon riding stuff was lame and totally out of keeping with the books. Also thought Jon Snow learned of his correct lineage way too quickly and hurriedly. That should have been more powerfully delivered/set up. I think Episode 2 will be better.

Hustle, discipline, and grit will always overcome unmotivated raw talent. Always. If a hustling/gritty team runs into a straight up more talented team that is playing just as hungry, they're toast. But for some reason TB and to a slightly lesser extent Pittsburgh have both been strangely out of it in these playoffs. They are not playing anywhere close to their best hockey. It's always a joy watching a President's Trophy team go down in flames.

Funny, I mentioned that the playoffs would be a war several weeks ago in the "fighting" thread and some people didn't seem to get it. Regular season hockey has nothing whatsoever to do with playoff hockey; it's a different sport. I was laughing on Saturday night watching a couple of games as I saw 4 players go off the ice with bloody faces in the span of an hour. And not because they unluckily caught a high stick! I'm talking getting crunched into the boards face first and stuff like that, and the blood was flowing. I've been greatly enjoying this first round and each night continue to ask myself why I bother watching in the regular season. Watching Pitt and TB collapse has been fantastic. The Vegas/SJ series in particular is a real gem as well. He likes his soft, Pittsburgh style hockey, so we're pretty much screwed until he is fired himself. That comes next year I think.

So wait, you are here exclusively to create false realities and then believe in those because they make you feel better? All combined with an inability to distinguish between that which is and that which is what you wish it to be? I don't see any value to that sort of approach to a given topic at all. Would it be possible for the Mods to create a "Booster Club" sub forum for posters like this? You can all congregate there and exchange visions for how we are going to win the Cup next year. Meanwhile, outside the cave, the rest of us can focus on getting it right and engaging in reasoned discussion grounded in reality.

I don't know about that; our core (insofar as we have one) and where we are in our lifecycle as a team is favorable compared to many organizations. A good example is LA, since they keep coming up in the McLellan talk. That franchise is in a much worse state of affairs right now than Buffalo. They are likely to get worse before they get better.

That's getting a little ahead of things, but by all means, a huge TB shake-up would be really interesting if it happens and Buffalo finds a way to get involved with that.

Why doesn't Buffalo have a MLB team? Money, or lack thereof. WNY is in no way large enough to support a MLB team, especially in the 21st century. Buffalo wouldn't have any major league sports teams if they had to acquire them in the modern era.

Who's watching TB and Columbus? Columbus is playing great and TB looks all freaked out. One more solid period and Columbus can take this baby back home up 2-0. I love it. LOL! Zach Werenski with the first "Gordie Howe hat trick" in Columbus franchise history.

I wonder if something didn't happen to make Botterill realize he was being played for a better offer in LA, and when he caught wind of that, he formally cut off the interviewing process with McLellan. The specifics of how that would have worked could have played out in many different ways. Just a guess though. I did not feel strongly about McLellan one way or the other, so this is no big deal to me. I just hope we land an experienced NHL head coach as I think that is what is needed at this time with this group.

On one hand, you can argue McLellan's manager leaked the Sabres interest to the Press to help up the ante. He's pulling a Babcock. He's using Buffalo to get a sweeter deal from LA, where he wanted to go all along. Maybe! But on the other hand, I actually think we have a much more attractive roster situation right now than LA. LA is pretty much at the worst possible spot on the franchise cycle, and it should be a while before they are good again. But LA is not Buffalo and if raw location plays into it, LA wins. McLellan has spent most his NHL career out west anyway. Not sure how to judge this one.

Same with the Conference championship trophies; the players would never touch those for superstitious fear it would somehow hurt their ability to touch the real prize, the Cup. Although in the last few years I have seen players celebrate a little with the POW Trophy or the Campbell Bowl more than in the past.

He's the least informed/nuanced sports fan you will ever know. I genuinely believe his recent comments on Phil Housley at the NFL meetings in Arizona were honest observations from the heart. He was asked about Phil and a coaching change, and he said he thinks he's capable of becoming a great coach, and he references the fact that he was a great player (meaningless!). Then we hear from Botterill saying the decision was his alone, no input from Terry, and Botterill phoned Pegula Sunday morning to tell him (and to get his blessing on) firing the HC later that same day. From the evidence at hand, Pegula did not realize he had a coaching problem, nor would he, as he doesn't know jack about hockey. When a professional sports franchise is consistently bad for long periods of time, there is only one place to look: ownership. We should all be familiar with this as we lived through it with Wilson and the Bills for decades. Ultimately, the Pegula debate comes down to how you inherently feel about having a team in Buffalo. Either you are just happy to have one and will bend over backwards to retain one, or you aren't that way at all. I'm in the latter category. Buffalo, NY has ZERO business having pro sports teams in the 21st century. It's a quirk of fate and history that we do. If the forces of the universe have decided Buffalo really can't field competent major league sports programs, then let them go. I'll move on. Simply saying "Thank God we have a team" or "Thank God our owner isn't a horrific cheap skate" is nowhere close to good enough.

The SJ vs. Vegas game was a real treat to watch. This series is going to be a gem, even if Vegas may struggle to hang with the Sharks.

Most defenders of Pegula do so only because he kept the teams in Buffalo. So if we can wave a magic wand and replace him with an equally wealthy owner equally dead-set on keeping the teams in Buffalo, yes, I'd replace him tomorrow. He's terrible.

He's re-sheathing his sword. Seemed straight forward to me.

Someone buy Jack a suit that fits. It's hilarious how poorly fitting that thing is.

Love the look on Jack's face. "Looks like I gotta go play in Jersey."

That is pretty much a certainty.

Glad to see Chicago picks Top 3 after all they've been through in the last decade.

OH FFS!

They're getting to it earlier than I would have guessed. Can't complain.

They just showed all the GMs sitting there in the studio. There were 15 of them. 16 if you count Botterill's giant head.