Marvin

Your explanation is why I think part of any Eichel trade will have conditional picks and a reclamation project. These mitigate both sides' risks in a trade.

You ought to know by now...

I think Eichel holds out of training camp and into the regular season. He has an injury which has not responded to treatment. He has no reason to risk anything, so why would he play anything but shinny? I think he WANTS the trade to be ROR on steroids.

Welcome to the board.

No, you are basically correct from the Sabres' viewpoint. And welcome back to the board.

Correct. He definitely got a lot of shifts at forward early on. I think by 1982-3, he was firmly on defence.

That was my point. After the big, rugged defence we had had for years, we were overly critical of Housley for his entire time in Buffalo -- no matter what he did right, his flaws represented what we lost and respected. More recently, Tim Connolly represented the Mike Peca trade in the same way.

Speaking of the 1970's Sabres, that defence is what we expect. Most were physical, most were puck moving, most were defencively sound. Housley was soft by comparison and not as defencively sound as, say, Schoenfeld, Hajt, Fogolin, etc. while his offencive prowess did not compensate for his comparative deficiencies. He was not helped by the idiots before the draft who compared him to Bobby Orr.

There was something incredible about how the Sabres became so beloved so quickly. Some of it is probably Buffalo and we, the fans, but something about the team, the era, and the management that bonded us.

Welcome back.

That does not mean the medical staff are incompetent.

And I'll sail if I want to, Fail if I try to, Bail if I need to. You would wail too if it happened to you.

(Raises hand)

Welcome to the board.

Welcome back to the board.

S.S. Gilligan Hockey Heaven Sent Tank Fruit

Good luck, @MODO Hockey

No surprise: Pegula believes in this too.

Dear God, I hope you are right.

Is the plan now for UPL and Tokarski with the Sabres?

Luckily, this is not down to the studs. There should be 4 lines and 3 pairs of NHL-quality players -- granted with no #1 line and probably a bottom-half defencive corps. Also, some NHL-AHL tweeners may help with depth. We do need goaltenders in the worst way, though. The coach is trying to win. The GM will not undermine him by trading away decent players when things are going well. That will be a huge improvement over XGMTM.

Correct. I believe that losing can become a habit. The Tank helped create that because success was undermined at every turn by trades. Then the attempted acceleration of the rebuild added to it because there was no foundation to build off of. Now, yet another full sell-off reset is acceptable after another full sell-off reset; what should have happened was a rebuild while keeping the players that worked and adding to them instead of trying to lose. Until someone gets time, goaltending, grit, and talent, the team is doomed to be in an endless cycle of losing.

That W-L record for *this* franchise over the past few years is remarkable verging on miraculous.

I missed your first post. Welcome to the board.

Welcome back to the board.