PerreaultForever

Nah, I grew up there. It's all Leafs and Habs with a small smattering of Sabres fans and others. A few more Sabres fans in St. Catherines though as you move towards Buffalo and they will go to it as well. If they're smart though they'd make it Dave Anreychuk day.

Power's offensive skills are better than I expected after seeing him last year in the world championship. He's obviously worked on that and at this level he excels. Drives towards the net well and shoots accurately and quickly. He did, however, look like he was practicing to be a Sabre on the one Czech goal where he ended up turned around and watching the puck go into the net. This reminded me of Dahlin as a Sabre. Yes, the goal wasn't his fault in that he was hung out to dry, but he also didn't take away the pass and just looked a little lost there. He has tremendous potential but I just really really hope this time we bring him along slowly and work on his size and defensive game and then we can turn him into a proper D man. If we just throw him out there and say go score some goals it'll be deja vu all over again. The guy that really impressed me in that game was Mason McTavish. Damn Ducks have either been really lucky or they have one hell of a scouting team cause they seem to be getting a lot of picks right and have a bright future.

Pretty good I think because they marketed the team well. There's a circus, party, entertainment aspect attached to the whole thing, not unlike Vegas shows in general. They'd be like fat Elvis. Not as good as young Elvis, but still pretty damn popular.

Doesn't Toronto get a veto on anything moving closer to T-dot? I think they do, and they'd exercise it. Hamilton tried and failed because of that even when they were backed by Ron Joyce and his Tim Horton's money at the time. Doubt that's changed. Toronto would demand huge compensation which I would think would make any prospective buyers prefer staying in Buffalo. Detroit probably has a say in London too. Saskatoon is definitely too small, Regina would have a rabid fan base, but is also likely too small and definitely isolated. The NHL has very little interest in more Canadian teams. I think only Quebec city has a realistic (if long) shot. Hartford? KC? They already failed so idk. Houston I can't speak to. I know it's big enough, but it's not hockey country. The league wouldn't mind that location, but I'm not sure Houston wants hockey any more than Arizona does, which it clearly doesn't.

It fell apart when LaFontaine went out the door and it's never recovered since. Many veteran and respected EXPERIENCED hockey people have been available over the years (including Rick Dudley) and they have chosen not to put the team in the hands of any of them, choosing instead to hire newbies (to the GM role) who they could presumably control/influence. It's on them.

Okay but where would they move it to? There aren't a lot of cities crying out for hockey teams right now aside from Quebec, and the league doesn't really care about Quebec City as it's a small market. idk, I live in BC so personally, I'm not sure it matters to me if they moved as long as they retained an identity as "Sabres" . It would be weird, but not terrible. Rather they stayed in Buffalo, but I'd take a winning team somewhere else over a loser for another decade in Buffalo.

I saw part of the game. Power (at least at this level) was more offensively aggressive than I expected. If we develop his defensive game properly this time we will have a complete D man. I didn't really notice Novikov but I didn't see the whole game. Canada a lot better than Russia in this game from the parts I saw. Interesting aside, related to our whole too man left shot D not enough right, team Canada going with 6 left shot D.

This is the kind of statement that pretty much needs a source. I mean it makes sense, as he was the fan so he has more attachment to it and she'd make the cold detached business decision or maybe thinks he'd be happier at home without them and the stress of failure, but I've never seen this reported anywhere so I suspect it's just somebody's idea/speculation. merchandise sales certainly go way up, and that adds value.

but does it? You people that live in Buffalo would know better, but I think they are pretty unpopular as hockey owners and if as Peters mentioned it can just make them look like they are all in on football, it could help them, and maybe if it's a shared stadium thing they want the hockey team money to pump it into that building. As long as it's not a move out of Buffalo sale I don't think it'd be bad PR for them.

Everything seems to be indicating that Omicron is much more contagious but is also not very serious for people who are vaccinated (which all the players are). So I think they are just buying time until those preliminary findings are more definitive. Then they'll just use the Olympic time to reschedule.

bring back bubble hockey. Nobody was going to Sabres games anyway 🙂

Olympics I'd say almost definitely out. One issue is it's quite possible Canadian players wouldn't be allowed back into Canada if they test positive and would have to quarantine over there first, by current travel restrictions anyway. That's partly why they cancelled the cross border games here first.

Hope Tuch is truly ready. Looking forward to this .

Ya I don't get this one either. I've liked Hayden lately and thought his last game was his best as a Sabre. I saw some potential continuity in the lines and this blows all that up so idk if I agree with it. Skinner seems to be slowly sliding back out of favour.

Ya, I'm not saying goalie early. I'm saying every year (or most years at least) you draft a long shot goalie somewhere later because goalies are the biggest key to success and they develop late and in strange ways and you get those 7th round surprises (and if you have too many of them you can always flip one for a veteran right winger :)) Geekie. Ya, idk. I'm going to wait to see where we are drafting before narrowing in on the potential first rounder.

I don't think we need to worry about 1C any more than any other position. We need a defensive C to replace Eakin, but we likely find that in a veteran FA or trade, not really a top pick type guy you look for. Cozens, Mitts, Thompson, Krebs, that's 4 guys for 3 spots as is. If we draft 1 it's Wright, 2 it's Savoie, after that idk yet. Just go BPA, preferably add some size and grit, draft another goalie somewhere lower and carry on.

I'm confused by this. Can you explain what you mean?

Well he bled, but okay, I can agree on the draw. It definitely wasn't one sided. He stepped up, and that was good to see.

This is true. Cozens and Thompson both have to get a lot better at draws. (not that face offs matter of course :0)

Late here as I recorded this one, and it doesn't matter to me that we lost. Would have been nice to win of course but what really matters to me here is that once again we looked like a real hockey team. This may seem like a meaningless sentence, but it's not. We haven't resembled one in years. We actually pushed back and answered the bell. Amazing! Fitzgerald? Wow. Didn't see that coming. Guy is already better than Hagg and Butcher and deserves a longer look. Pity he couldn't win the game with a storybook Gordie Howe hat trick but heck of a debut. Sure he lost the fight, but he stepped up. WE PLAYED LIKE A TEAM. I am very surprised and very encouraged. Lots left to fix, but the lines look more balanced as a team and there's continuity, and players are developing and using their skills, so many positives. Hayden's best game as a Sabre, probably not noticed by many, but he was effective in his role. Dahlin showing confidence and seems calmer. Have to see if it holds up to the tight checking physical teams but still, big positives for the moment. Two things I hated in this game. The refs, who I think are Crosby fans, and listening to the Pittsburgh announcers rave about E-Rod. Dude has 10 goals wtf? I guess you can put anybody on Crosby's wing and they will have career years. (probably not Taylor Hall, but anybody else )

Leafs. Followed by Habs. Surprised there isn't more Hab hatred above. Guess the 70s are ancient history or before most people's time. Unlike a lot of people I also dislike teams with worshipped superstars. So Edmonton now. Just get tired of the McDavid this McDavid that and before that it was Crosby, any of the hero worship stuff. Prefer hard working teams with team first.

Subban should play tomorrow. UPL made some big saves but the goals he let in were not that great. Let's not elevate him to messiah status just yet and give the kid a rest to regroup and come back solid rather than burning him out.

Well that was a pretty darn good effort. We looked like a real hockey team. Quite a few players had good games, but it was pretty much a solid team effort. We do well in these skating/speed games.

Miller for sure. Somebody said a 2nd, that would be optimistic and just fine with me. MAYBE Eakin or Pysyk for whatever he can get. Can't imagine it'll be a huge return, but move them if you can. Hinostroza is a long shot, maybe for "future considerations" lol If he can move any of the other UFAs for anything, good job, well done. Doubt it'll happen. Doubt very much any of those vets or RFAs move. maybe Okposo will get a little interest, but probably only if we retain salary on the final year which I doubt we do. Bjork can go back to Iceland.

Watched the Ducks tonight. They are legitimately good. So contrast the rebuilds..................... They kept good goalies They kept some veteran leadership They kept hard core toughness during their rebuild and into now They drafted well. Let's hope we can at least match the 4th point, because we decided the other 3 were irrelevant.