Pimlach

Worst and most entitled fans in North America. The fans gave up at 2-0, you could feel the air coming out of the arena. Once again the whole team and their fans show they deserve each other. Biz was railing on his team in the intermission prior to the 3rd period, he is a true Leave fan. And why does a national broadcast hockey analyst and color man have to declare a favorite team. Biz is a Bush League clown show. And shouldn't the fans in Toronto know better than to litter the ice during play, someone threw a Leafs sweater on the ice during play?

He is still good, he is no longer a difference maker top line player, but a great 3rd line guy. He knows how to win.

Leaves salut their crowd to a chorus of boos and jeers. Worst fans in any league. Biz made excuses for them, they paid $5000 a ticket in the lower bowl. Boo hoo. Edmonton Florida is my bet for the final.

The Rat scores an ENG

Cats answer. 47 seconds later Marchand again with an apple. 🍎

Tie Domi in the building. His kid gets the Leaves on the board.

Finding players like Tkachuk and Ekblad will be tough.

Marchand was excellent that period. He is a spare part third liner on Florida and has played just 1 minute less than Barkov and Reinhart. He kills the Leafs and his coach knows it.

Great 2nd period. Now shut up Bisonette.

Wow Florida winning every puck battle. They are all over Trono.

3 in a row. Go Cats.

Keep it up Cats.

Seth Jones quiets the Scotia Garden. Blow Leaves Blow.

I would be upset to see Tuch and/or Peterka leave. Byram being moved seems inevitable. Moving Quinn and Muel would not bother me. Moving UPL, that depends on what is coming in.

Kulich and Levi could eventually become a good haul for Reinhart but right now this trade is in Florida’s. favor. Reinhart’s SC winning game 7 goal is going to be hard to beat. Plus he is a steady two way 50 goal scorer. Im doubting they will ever regret the trade.

Some good players at forward. Very still young overall. A lot of similar style players and most of them lack a two-way game. They need another top 6 veteran, not sold on Norris due to health reasons but a good and healthy season from him would be a pleasant surprise. They need better play from the bottom 6 in the line up. Some true shut down players. Last off-seasons 4th line remake was not a success. Get a guy that will punch the lights out of people and can play 4th line minutes.

Some excellent ideas here. Pulock is a guy we need but not at 5 X $6.1M for a 30 year old. Muel was supposed to be like this guy, but he has not been as we all know. Which is why you don't give big contracts to guys with 57 NHL games under their belt. Braden Schneider is intriguing but will be an RFA after next season and then we have another decision. Again, Muel's salary will become an issue.

You have Helly on the road, and Scheifele dealing with his burden. Maybe The Peg can do it? Peg, it will come back to you.

I wouldn’t say bust but he was looking like 3rd line skill level player. Now he is in his prime years and on a team that can best utilize what he can bring. You can see he brings elements of strength, will, perseverance, grit, toughness, and skill. He shows up in big games and he defends his teammates against anyone. I want him on the Sabres someday. He is a throwback player IMO.

Ah yes, the man from Penn State. He was in the days of the bloated organization where it seemed everyone reported to Terry (President of Everything). There was Ted Black (President of something-something), Craig Patrick (Special Advisor to the President of something-something ), LaFontaine (POHO - but not if we tank), Murray (GM -but only if we tank), and Joe Battista (President of Hockey and Business Administration - of which there is really no such thing). After this we had Kim Pegula (President of the Presidents) and Russ Brandon (President anything else that Terry and Kim are not already President of). Maybe the simpler and scaled down one GM and a few AGMs isn't so bad? Maybe the answer is in between the first one and the current?

Murray was hired by LaFontaine and Murray was supposed to report to LaFontaine, but that is not what happened and that is what led to his abrupt resignation. Both were very bad choices IMO. Botterill was pushed by the Pittsburgh connection that Terry trusted, and Botterill is a bright guy. He was chosen over Bill Zito, who is now a Cup winner in Florida. Just because you interview a few people and you apparently pick the wrong guy doesn't mean that you completely change your processes and the very next time you go out and hire an inexperienced person for the most important job in the organization simply because you know him and like him. But that is what happened. As several here are alluding, there is an element of luck at play, and I agree there is no magic formula, but you still need sound logic and discipline in how decisions are made. So the logical move after Botterill was fired is to ask yourself what were the key factors that led me to pick this person over the other? Was my criteria wrong, or was the weighting used on my criteria wrong? What should change? You have to be brutally honest with yourself. But at that time Terry was not interested in finding the best GM. He was interested in preservation of the family wealth. PSE was scaled back, One Buffalo ended, the Bills were spared, the Sabres were not. So when Botterill left he simply hired the guy he knew, and liked, and was comfortable with. In this case Terry must have known it would be hard to find an outside "hockey guy" that would agree with EEE, or with trading Eichel (using the injury as a fulcrum) and driving another full scale rebuild. You say the Sabres haven't sucked for a long time due to any one thing. I say they have. They have sucked for a long time due to poor decisions made by the owners. Terry, Kim, and back to Terry. That is the constant that everybody sees. That is were the buck stops - and in the Sabres case the bucks have stopped for a long time. So the pandemic is over and 5 years of losing is the aftermath. Terry is now at a fork in the road - make a change now, or wait one more year since Adams and Ruff are on contract. He knows them and he likes them and he has very few reliable connections in the league. Ruff really deserves better than one year. Adams does not, but it is easy to see where this is going. I am bracing myself for another year of Adams and Ruff. Best case is that they do add a legit Senior Advisor.

Uh, Bennett won a Cup with Florida last season.

The Leaves are gonna stay alive.

Wow. The Captain leaks one past Bob. 1-0 Leaves.