Marvin

I can't recall any ever. For a long time, so many teams made it in that there was always a race somewhere.

What we learned is that the Sabres' treasure are other teams' trash. If a good locker room guy like Cody Eakin is traded for a conditional 7th (my maximum value for him), how does the rest of the team react? I know I would take it pretty hard -- I look up to him, but everyone else in hockey looks down on him, so what does that say about me? That kind of thinking has to be in their subconscious.

I never have.

As I reflect what GMKA might have been thinking about when assembling this roster, I think he went out of his way to not get some bigger fish because of what happened with Taylor Hall and Eric Staal last year and that a lot of them might have come off like mercenaries. Indeed, Hall in particular came off as a mercenary to me, which can't have been good for an already dysfunctional locker room. That is probably where "wants to be here" originated -- no mercenaries allowed. That is not to downplay the financials. After spending almost to the cap for The Failure, erm, Tank, I imagine when GMKA said the word "rebuild the culture and the roster" to the Pegulas, they said something like, "could you not overspend then?" After all, they took a financial bath on the team last season. The fans' antipathy towards last year's team and the lack of season tickets sales probably warned them that there would be a lot less money coming in this season, so a lower payroll would have been welcome. I also think the Pegulas know the terrible reputation the franchise has in hockey circles, so rebuilding the culture would have been high on their "to do" list.

Let us see. Assuming just internal promotions, the roster next year (warts and all) looks like: Skinner-Thompson-Tuch / Peterka-Krebs-Quinn / Cozens-Mittlestadt-Olofsson / Asplund-Hinostroza-Girgensons-Okposo-Ruotsalainen Dahlin-Bryson / Power-Pysyk / Samuelsson-Jokiharu / Johnson-Fitzgerald Pekka-Lukkonnen / Levi / Portillo / Subban / Tokarski Glaring weaknesses: 1 RD, 2 RD, 1 G, 2G Problems: forward depth, defencive defencemen, proven NHL goaltending. Overloads: LD We might need to move a pair of LHDs for RHDs. Ideally, Pysyk would slide to #7 for me, although maybe he's the short-term partner for Dahlin or Power. I feel very funky about having Tokarski on the big club. UPL is still iffy for me. Levi and Portillo are a few years away. I don't know where or if Subban fits anywhere. Let's have at it...

I scoured the reputable rumour mongers over the weekend and only found one mention of Colin Miller (Spector's Hockey). I imagine his long-term injury damaged whatever value he had.

I personally would have moved Miller for a D for Rochester. JMO.

Whoever said that we might get a whole lot of nothing because of the "quality" of our depth (I think it was you) looks like a winner.

It could help Rochester. I don't know how that figures into things.

Adams may want to sit tight if teams are lowballing him because the locker room might lose a bit of chemistry if they are traded for far less than what how the players value them.

It proves they have no idea what significant figures are.

That was done in the 1970's with the EPA after the Cuyahoga river caught fire.

Agreed. But with the Sabres, there are a lot of things to fix: the arena, the facilities, and the trainers.

Like GMTM. Although it is less fun to have tight-lipped guys at the top like Darcy Regier and Kevin Adams, I find I prefer the quietude versus the chaos.

DeBrusk allegedly has attitude problems. I don't want that around the guys,

Not me. Just too inconsistent. Also, he apparently has some attitude issues. I don't want near our 4 young netminders.

Spector's Hockey reports that Larry Brroks said that the Rangers are looking at Colin Miller.

Interesting ideas which I had not thought about. What is your reasoning?

Then blame your boy Botterill for getting him.

Maybe they go nuts in their Sabres swansong.

Maybe we should hope for some AHL defencemen coming back this TDL.

Gotta keep winning.

Maybe the cap goes up to $100M next season and they are fine. Otherwise, this suddenly becomes a legitimate question.

Going on a "Bender" there?

Everyone's comments about the wider ice favouring the defence and leading to more passive play and more play on the perimetre are correct. There was a nice analysis of this and how coaches use it in _The Death of Hockey_ by native Buffalonians Jeff Z. Klein and Karl-Eric Reif.