Marvin

I just wanted to emphasise this. Being the one everyone craps on takes its toll. I was bullied incessantly as a child and it still affects me 50 years later. I need to ask if the team's loss of positional discipline is more than merely correlated with Anderson going down.

Defence isn't a cheer for the Sabres; it's a question.

Given that the team's current lack of defencive awareness and his lack of practise time, I am unsurprised by Subban's outing. I was hoping for a greater commitment to defencive positioning from the skaters to help him out. I am also wondering if the recent insertions into the line-up mean that many need to adjust to their new linemates, which will make the defencemen's and goaltenders' task that much harder.

Good luck, Malcolm. You are going to need it behind this group.

I agree with this. The Florida game showed how talent can overwhelm who are mostly JAGs in their defencive zone. And yes, besides Dahlin and Jokiharu, I am counting Thompson, Mittlestadt, and Olofsson as JAGs in their own zone. They can't get caught running around, chasing the puck, colliding with each other, and leaving guys wide open in their own zone. Do I wish we had Ullmark? Of course -- our record would be considerably better with him on the team. But on Thursday, Dell actually played well enough to win; the team in front of him looked like it had learnt positional defence online.

THAT is the best description. Welcome to the board.

Agreed. Moreover, they would be competing with the Rockets in Houston like they are competing with the Suns in Phoenix. But then would they move east and unbalance the conferences again? If they stay in the west, where out west? Is San Antonio big enough to support both the Spurs and the Coyotes in the same season? Kansas City would not have competition between early January and early April, but can it support 3 teams?

Given how much this team CAN score, I would put the steadying of the defence with boring, capable veterans and adding good goaltending could turn this around as soon as next year.

Your forgot 20022

I was told many years ago that "future considerations" can be something like throwing in an extra late pick in a later trade or giving an extra round in a draft pick being exchanged. Punch Imlach was apparently a master of calling in chits like this.

Anyone else remember the time the Bills traded Steve Freeman for "past considerations"?

I hate slew-foots. In Marchand's case, I will make an exception.

Necro thread alert! On this team, this discussion is relevant. If you had your druthers, what would you do when Tuch comes back?

Nice user name. Welcome to the board.

Welcome back. It is at the point where we are seeing lacrosse scores with this team.

Just looking up the numbers on Holtby. It looks like Dallas has to free up more than his salary to take on Bishop. What would be reasonable addition to ask from Dallas as part of a salary exchange and what should we send in return? So if they need to lose about $4.5M in salary and Holtby makes $2M, how do you make it work for them with the Salary and us as a team? Frankly, they are in a pickle.

The way this works is you put a defence-first but skilled player between them. Jochen Hecht with Danny Briere and J.P. DuMont. Tim Connolly between Ales Kotalik and Maxim Afinogenov. In an extreme case, you put Gil Perreault with Wayne Gretzky and Guy LaFleur.

I think Schoeny was 23. Very young, but HNIC announcers marvelled at his leadership. Gare took over at 24. I personally think the players should vote for Captain.

Probably someone subconsciously picking up on David Tennant's era of Doctor Who. It's one thing if you are out there saving the universe and need to run through mud in a leisure suit; it's another to wear it in any official capacity.

That was a classy thing to do. It wasn't necessary, but it was gracious. We need more of that in today's culture.

"So you die, Captain, and we all move up in rank. No one with question the assassination of a Captain who has disobeyed prime orders of The Empire." --- Ensign Pavel Chekov in the alternate universe, Star Trek -- "Mirror, Mirror".

Welcome back to the board.

Kyle Okposo, Zemgus Girgensons, and Alex Tuch give me the vibe of "natural leader" -- people whom others in the dressing room will follow. I felt Eichel and Reinhart had some of it, but their process was sabotaged in Buffalo. I point to Pominville telling Eichel, "you're the new captain, you lead the drills." This was very disturbing -- if even I knew this, why didn't Eichel? How did he fail to learn this lesson from Gionta, Gorges, Moulson, and O'Reilly? They all clearly knew and did this part -- you could see it in the warm-ups that they were trying to lead by example.

If, as @Flashsabre says, Anderson is out long term, who is out there? If we include what @thewookie1 said, then Matt Murray is not an option. Devan Dubnyk was Hutton quality last year. Boston is apparently regretting the Ullmark signing, so there is that. Dallas has to make a move at some point. Other options?

For me, that salary, even at 50%, is way too high.