JoeSchmoe

When Lindy started with the team in the 90s, they played a tight checking, low scoring game. After the lockout, he saw the roster he had and turned the offence dial to 11. When asked about the stark contrast between the two styles of play, he publicly stated that you need to coach to your team's strengths. If you have a high flying offence, you don't constrain them in a defense first system. So theoretically, our coaching staff can adapt to the type of roster we're able to assemble. It's hard to get good players... let alone players that only play a particular style, so largely you need to play with the cards as they're dealt.

Rumours are dumb. Go back and look at the last 100 rumours affecting this team. How many came true?

Byram can walk for whatever we can get for him. His defensive metrics have been bad his entire career, including being a sub 50% expected goals against on COL which is almost impossible to do on a team that good. In his entire career, he's only had good numbers while playing with Dahlin... but everybody has good numbers with Dahlin. Addition by subtraction. We can pay Peterka. No reason not to. Even a bridge deal. Last year we were a defenseman and a goalie away from being playoff worthy. If we can trade Byram for a less flashy guy that's good at defense AND we somehow get a goalie, I think we're good. If I believe that (and I was one of the few that voted Sabres aren't making the playoffs on last year's preseason poll), then Tuch can too.

This doesn't look real.

Levi and the 9th for Woll.

What would we need to package with Levi to get Woll from the Leafs? Does Levi and the 9th OA get it done?

I know a bunch that won't go to Sabres game until Trump is out. Some out of fear, some out of "principle". For the ones that won't go out of principle, I remind them that Carney- when he was basically the PM in waiting, and after Trump's tariff threats, still voted to move Brookfield Asset Management headquarters from Toronto to New York. If the future PM can do that, it should be okay to enjoy a Sabres game. Unfortunately, tensions here are pretty high and it doesn't seem to matter.

Everyone thinks he has potential... I for sure do and hope I'm right in saying this is a bunch of agent tricks. What I'm saying is he's a 2nd liner and a PP2 guy on a good team which will drive down his UFA value. Mittelstadt was PP1 here and was our top point producer a couple years ago (before he was traded). Once he got on better teams and was subsequently moved down the depth chart, his production plummeted. His UFA contract will take a hit as a result. If I'm JJP and don't want to stay here, I'm riding things out here until UFA. If an offer sheet were to come along, then all the better

That's one way of looking at it. A better way would be to look at all the good teams he might be clamouring to get on. How many are going to bump their established veterans off the 1st line for a young kid that doesn't play 200ft and sucked on the PP? Not many. Sure, they'll all take him in a heartbeat, but they won't give him the same opportunity... Just ask McLeod and Zucker how much opportunity can boost you on the scoring sheet.

He's not playing on a 1st line, or with anyone as good as Thompson on most any other team in the league. He's also not playing on a PP1. As such, he'd be an idiot to walk away from the Sabres before he's a UFA. He'd be an even bigger idiot if he sat out. For that reason, I question this report and think it's just the usual BS behind the scenes posturing by the agent.

Florida heat is the worst. Players are fortunate enough to get out before the worst of it, but I'd take a winter in any NHL city (except maybe Winnipeg) over a summer in Florida. Anywhere south of the Mason-Dixon line is too much to be honest. If I could live anywhere in North America, give me the Adirondacks. A real winter with snowboarding and ice fishing, all the lakes in the summer, and endless hiking in the fall. I just wouldn't leave the house during the Mother's Day to late-June bug season.

I've long maintained that the Sabres should have amenities that cater to wives and families so that they build the sort of culture that once they're here, it'll make them more inclined to stay, preferably at a discount. Buy a ski house in Ellicottville, a nice big boat and/or boat house on Lake Erie... This is for all the players and their families to share, and to get to know each other. Hopefully bonds are built to the point where they feel better about putting down roots in the area and potentially signing at a home town discount.

Congrats to the Bandits and all their fans in here! I've only been to a few games over the years, but it's a blast. Full respect to all the players, many of whom have day jobs and families, but keep doing it for the love of the game.

I just checked the scoreboard and it looks like the Amerks are getting it DUNNE!

Even though he's unlikely to be available, I'd hope the Sabres pass on Martone if he is. The video confirms what little I saw at the U20's in that he's passive and doesn't use his size enough to be a power forward. We don't need another soft player in the locker room. One thing is he mentioned is that he still may develop the physicality. I'm curious... Has there been many cases of a big but passive player learning to be aggressive? Dahlin maybe comes to mind, but he wasn't exactly big when he came into the league.

It's been many years since I've watched an episode of Cheers but this line was the one that always stuck with me. This and Sam Malone rapping on the newscast.

Another important point. Peak Leaf fan obnoxiousness came in the 90s and early 00s in those few years they made the conference finals. It was so unbelievably bad. It's only by the grace of Matthews' and Marner's ineptitude that we don't have to go through that again. All that far pre-dates Pegula's ownership.

FWIW- From coverage of his farming days, it appears the Martin family was doing quite well. But farming took priority over hockey.

If you don't live amongst Leafs fans and their media, I can respect how you think we observers are just being petty. But when you're like me- a Sabres fan in Southern Ontario going back to the days when the Islanders were winning cups, you've seen and heard enough that this day is special. It's day when Sabres fans, Habs fans, Bruins fans, and anyone else from the area can come together as one... To celebrate another year of that oft talked about Yonge St parade not happening for another year. 🍻🥂

Maybe you gotta live in Southern Ontario or regularly been in the stands during a Leaf takeover to fully appreciate this holiday. If you don't observe, that is ok.

It's my annual tradition around here to post this well worn newspaper article circa 2017. If you live anywhere close to Leafland like I do, it's a lifetime of listening to Leafs fans and Leafs media that makes this holiday extra special. Enjoy! https://torontosun.com/2017/09/11/simmons-vaulted-by-big-3-this-maple-leafs-team-is-a-champion-in-waiting ----------------------------- You can see a Stanley Cup from here. Maybe for the first time since the Stanley Cup season of 1967, you can see it. You can envision it. You can believe in it. You can close your eyes and actually picture Gary Bettman calling Auston Matthews — assuming he will eventually be granted the captaincy — to come up and grab the Cup. The Toronto Maple Leafs: Future Stanley Cup champion. This isn’t a dream or a joke, it’s a path. It’s a destination. The seemingly impossible eventually becoming possible. For most of our lives, we haven’t known anything like this at all. You could hope, but it was never realistic. You could predict, but it wasn’t logical. There hasn’t been a Maple Leafs team in 50 years that looked to be anywhere near the part of champion in September. Even that old 1967 team — and it was old — didn’t begin the season as any kind of favourite. But as the Maple Leafs open training camp on Thursday, you can honestly say that for the first time since the 1960s, the one most of you never saw or lived through, you can look at this group, especially the kids, the coach and the management team, and you can see a finish line. A finish line ending with a parade. And a future that isn’t necessarily all that far away. And, believe me, there has been no reason to pen anything like this in my first 30 years writing about the Leafs. This season may be too soon. Teams don’t go from last to playoffs to title in three seasons. But in four seasons? That’s happened. Jonathan Toews and Patrick Kane carried the Chicago Blackhawks to their first of three Stanley Cups in just their third NHL season, 2009-10. Toews was 22 when he was handed the Cup. Kane was just 21. The template of sorts was set for new champions then. You can win a Stanley Cup with a great centreman (Toews), a great scorer (Kane), an A-defenceman (Duncan Keith) a front-line coach (Joel Quenneville) and solid goaltending with Corey Crawford, and before that, somehow, Antti Niemi. Sidney Crosby was in his third NHL season when he and Evgeni Malkin took Pittsburgh to the Stanley Cup final. The Penguins won a year later: Malkin was 22, Crosby turned 22 two months later. The template was there. Strength down the middle with Crosby and Malkin; a burgeoning A-defenceman in Kris Letang; Dan Bylsma as coach; Marc-Andre Fleury in goal. After that, Drew Doughty led the Los Angeles Kings to their first of two Cups under coach Darryl Sutter. That was Doughty’s fourth NHL season, the fourth season for goalie Jonathan Quick. The complete Anze Kopitar played the part of Toews; Jeff Carter played the Malkin role as the second-line centre. The template changed more than slightly this June, with Pittsburgh winning its second straight Cup. The Pens had the goalie in Matt Murray, the coach in Mike Sullivan, the centres in Crosby and Malkin, but not a Doughty, a Keith or a Letang to be found on defence. They just had guys. And they won with them. With Ron Hainsey and Brian Dumoulin. With Justin Schultz and Ian Cole. Trevor Daley and Olli Maatta. Somehow they won with them. This is Year 2 for Matthews and Mitch Marner, and Year 2.5 for William Nylander. The Leafs have never been in this position before, with young players with such immense and diverse talents. They are each exceptional and varied in their games. This is a year to grow and learn to contend. No one in the Eastern Conference has young forwards of this pedigree or talent level to compare with. And who knows? In a game getting younger, as professional sports appears to be trending that way all over, what could that mean for a team that has yet to win a playoff round? After this season, though, with Matthews and Marner in Year 3, before their big salaries kick in and the salary cap tapdance begins for the Maple Leafs, the running of the Cup marathon does not look like a mountain that cannot be climbed. Pat Quinn coached some very good Leafs teams in his years in Toronto. Good, yes. Great, no. They looked like they might one day get to a Cup final if everything went their way. Twice they got to the Conference final and tapped out. They never had the look of a future champion. Pat Burns coached some surprisingly good Leafs teams in his first two years in Toronto. Overachieving, yes. Great, no. In the inspiring and miraculous first season in Toronto, Burns’ teams came within a Kerry Fraser hair of playing for the Stanley Cup. They were good and lucky and, when Doug Gilmour played, they were great. No Leafs team has been close since. Even the Roger Neilson teams of the late ’70s, with Darryl Sittler, Lanny McDonald, Borje Salming and Mike Palmateer looked like they were a player addition or two away from being serious. But as top-heavy as those teams were — they had the template parts — the Montreal Canadiens were stacked with eight Hall of Fame players and a Hall of Fame coach. The playing field was hardly level. Those Leafs made a semifinal once. Now, look at the Eastern Conference today, before this season begins, and project what might come soon. Pittsburgh has already won three Cups. History will tell you there may not be a lot more for the Penguins. Ottawa has Erik Karlsson, but what else? Henrik Lundqvist is nearing the end in New York and their top three skaters are nowhere near the level of Matthews, Marner and Nylander. Montreal has Carey Price and an aging Shea Weber on defence and not a single proven centre up front. Washington, which finished 23 points ahead of the Leafs and 73 goals ahead in goal differential, doesn’t seem built for playoff runs and needed overtime to take the Leafs rookies out last April. Which leaves what in the future? The Lightning seems to have all kinds of depth and strength and the Cup template of the Blackhawks and Kings fits it, with Steven Stamkos and Tyler Johnson at centre, Nikita Kucherov on the wing, Victor Hedman as a top-three NHL defenceman, the coach Jon Cooper and young goaltender Andrei Vasilevskiy. It looks like it can contend for a number of years. Florida has the requisite centre and defenceman in Sasha Barkov and Aaron Ekblad, but do they have enough aside from them? Jack Eichel will be carrying Buffalo to a better place. But who has Matthews, Marner and Nylander? And depth alongside them up front. The defence isn’t where it needs to be yet, but it can improve internally. Frederik Andersen can be a Cup-winning goalie. Babcock has already been a Cup-winning coach. Now it should be a matter of when. The view to the top of the mountain, forever cloudy, forever illogical, forever impeded by barriers of incompetence, ownership woes or lack of talent, seems rather clear for the first time in my life — and probably yours. The Leafs will win the Stanley Cup. I’ve never written that before. This team is a champion in waiting.

Trade value!

I put a tiny rink in the backyard when my son was 2. No way he was ready to skate then, but he did like playing hockey in his boots then. Same story for my daughter. I suppose I could have pushed them, but as you said, it's got to be fun for them. When they were 3 they started skating lessons ran by the local figure skating club and by then they had the dexterity to actually enjoy it. I still remember they put toys on the ice that the kids could skate to as motivators. My son would always chase the hockey stick and puck. He'd get to take a shot before they'd move it to another location.

These kids are well down that path before the age of 9. I recall watching a Toronto based team starring a certain kid in this draft that was executing regroups and zone entries when they were 7 and 8 years old. These kids were probably all identified since they were 4 or 5 and pushed into the meat grinder from there. To have the time to work on those systems, plus get them skating and playing with the skill they had was mind blowing.

In my case, it's because I've seen the kid play since he was younger. In minor hockey you get a lot of silver spoon kids who get in with all the best teams and coaches, with private development sessions plus a team practice almost every night of the week. These are kids that even if they get a full scholarship, the family won't even break even for the time and money they spent... And they don't even care. There are several in this draft that I know of. Martin was not that kid, and I think his ceiling might be a bit higher as a result.