Curt

I think this was posted somewhere. To me, this doesn’t make any difference. Firstly, anything Hamilton says about Reinhart, I can’t really trust. Second, what Sam wants is going to be very clear to management as soon as they start discussing contract. If he wants a 1 year deal, he wants to leave ASAP. If he is bought in to staying in Buffalo, he’ll be open to a longer deal.

That would probably be in the 5-10 draft range. If the team were to finish there, while playing a style that could scale up and the young guys are contributing & progressing, that’s not soul crushing for the younger guys. Probably for some of the old guard, it would be though. Kind of depends on who is on the team.

Ok I guess. I suspect that Eichel, Reinhart and Risto have their mind made up (even subconsciously) that this isn’t going to work in Buffalo. They don’t believe and have mentally moved on. For me, that’s a reason to move on from them. Although I’m willing to admit that I could be wrong and maybe any one of them can be salvaged (so to speak). So you think Risto and one of Jack/Sam will be back? I feel like losing a lot of games and drafting Wright/Lambert/Bedard/Michkov is not going to turn around the Sabres. Only finding the correct combination of players to be competitive n

What do you mean by “the culture would be in different if they stayed or go”? Sounds like you are say the culture will be the same whether they stay or go. Or are you meaning to say that the culture is bad with them, so maybe trading them will improve it? Easy-Peazy

I don’t know man. What you are saying looks a lot like continuing a cycle as opposed to breaking it. -Trade everyone draft Reinhart/Eichel -ROR sick of losing, trade him, draft Dahlin -Eichel/Reinhart sick of losing, trade them, draft #1 -rebuild with youth, stay pretty bad for a couple years???? -Dahlin sick of losing, trade him???? -Draft Wright/Bedard/Michkov???? Looks like a continued cycle, not a broken cycle.

Could you go into more detail on this? What was the culture like 5 years ago? What is the culture like now? What are you basing your evaluation of culture off of?

I know I kind of push back against this, but it’s entirely possible that you are right that Adams plans to acquire futures and “rebuild” young in that way. Im not so sure that “wants to be here” is code for “wants to go through a rebuild”. I feel like it’s more about having a true enthusiasm for and being emotionally invested in being a Buffalo Sabre. I’m definitely not getting that impression from some of these guys. Sam seems to be planning for his next team, Eichel seems ready for a divorce due to lack of trust and openly hinting that he might not be sticking around, Risto seems num

Can we schedule the carpal tunnel surgery, or do we need to wait until after 12 weeks of rest? @Thorny would you like a 2nd opinion?

I disagree with the premise. Asking/requiring buy in does not equal rebuilding in my mind. Botterill/Adams/Kruger talked a lot about buy in the past two years and they certainly weren’t rebuilding.

Eastern NY either apparently.

Thanks guys. I live in a bubble, confirmed. That sucks. Seems like it won’t last long.

Ok, I don’t feel that way though. There are teams every year who don’t have a captain. Naming a captain is a long term thing. Sometimes there just isn’t someone that you are ready to make that commitment to yet.

I agree that most everyone would ditch the mask if they thought it was no longer needed. I don’t think anyone actually likes them. That doesn’t mean that people are on the verge of freaking out. To me it seems that people on average are much less uneasy and much less panicked than they were a year ago. I just don’t see the overall mood of the country(s) as at max tension. Things seemed to have calmed down a lot. Where are there actual gas shortages? Have you seen any gas stations with sold out signs? I haven’t. Heard a couple people at work mention this today but that was

Why do you feel that way? Its not an unheard of thing. Let the team grow for a year and if a player shows himself worthy of being the long term captain, give it to him next offseason.

Not at all how I felt about Sam and Risto’s interviews. I felt like they don’t want to be in Buffalo anymore, because losing is no fun, but they didn’t want to create a media storm by saying something overtly negative. They know they only have one more year, they they are free to do as they please. I also strongly disagree with your overall premise that most players don’t know what their own contracts are. They are not naive or ignorant. They do know, they just rarely want to discuss it in the media. Consider this. You have a work event where you you need to speak with reporters