Marvin

My memory is that the weasel-words in the threat allowed one to infer that if the Sabres went all out and LTIR-ed Connolly, Afinogenov, and a couple of other guy to get a loaded team for round 1 in retaliation, then they would only be able to activate the 1 player per series who was not in the minors all season, even if there were legitimate injuries. I called Schopp, Bulldog, and Hamilton to ask if I was misreading things and the best they could do was, "the league would not do that." The primary reason I remember it so clearly and the reason it pissed me off was because the normal recovery times for everyone outside of Connolly was normally into round 1 and that any setback to Connolly would have shelved him for the playoffs -- and it took someone noticing on Satellite Hot Stove one week later before people got upset. So the league deliberately handicapped the Sabres even though the normal course for the injuries was coincidental. I will bet big money at big odds that after Chicago, Tampa Bay, and Las Vegas have done this that the first small market that tries this will get landed on with a tonne of bricks. Why do I assume bad faith from the league? Remember after the numerous back-diving deals from big market teams that the issue only became a problem with the NHL was when the Sabres signed Christian Ehrhoff.

I fully expect LV to make the Conference Finals unless their goaltending fails them. They are just starting to peak.

Thank you. Correction made.

The Sabres really need to add a LOT more talent to the system. Regardless of the injuries, we need Rochester to survive and thrive for Buffalo to be set up for long-term success. This season is not acceptable for the Buffalo Sabres system.

Our bottom pair needs to be better than Bryson-Fitzgerald. That's one place to start. In the games I have been at, the team as a whole plays hard along the boards and are improving their tenacity as checkers. They need to be much more structured and intelligent in the defencive zone. After that, they need more quality depth. That is going to be a problem with how thin Rochester is.

Is there a chance Power could convince Portillo to go to Rochester over the summer?

Welcome back!

I would not restrict that attitude towards Twitter to the NHL. One of my friends who passed away during the pandemic (kidney failure) was employee #75 at Twitter before he was recruited an employee #12 at Snowflake. I used to joke with him that I hope he feels better about how Snowflake affected society than the way Twitter has. He said that their vision about what Twitter would allow people to do was far, far more fun and benign. He felt that many there had no idea what narcissists, governments, or malevolent actors would do with it.

I went to that game too. I over-rate it as the 10th greatest Sabres game of all time because I found it so satisfying because Bobby Clarke was GM and Bill Barber was Head Coach.

I saw this on hfboards. These rumours have been floating around Ottawa for a while. The information revealed is very disturbing.

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That team debased hockey until we got the Dead Puck Era -- not the goonery, but the clutch-and-grab. Aside from 2005-7, the hook-and-hold has been the attitude of proper officiating and informs the "game managementt" of the current era. Any time we beat the Flyers is a good one. It is one of the reasons I was so thrilled when we ended our winless streak (using pre-2005 terminology) against them last season.

Welcome back!

Welcome back!

Old hockey cliche, albeit told with nuance: all other things being equal, a little extra will beats a little extra skill.

Emphasis on missing Samuelsson. Wow, was his absence obvious.

Welcome to the board!

We should have warned him about the portion size. That lasagna I three meals for me...

Those who believe the Sabres have nothing to worry about are obviously glad the Sabres have Cal Petersen and Linus Ullmark in net to tide us over and we don't have to worry about our goaltender pipeline. That means: there is something -- how much of your belief depends on your first-hand knowledge of the situation, how much you trust any second-hand reports, and other inferences you may draw. (For instance, I don't dwell nearly as much as I used to on Cal Petersen because of the revelations which have come out over the years about how XGMTM dealt with players. IMHO, that should have been part of his decision.) Also, until one or both are in the NHL, I see no reason to assume that Portillo is a non-entity while Levi is a sure thing. We can talk about that in 2045 after their careers are done.

Welcome to the board! Welcome to the board!

⁸ I have not seen much discussion on this: what do the Sabres do that stifles Toronto? They are a very good team, yet the Sabres have blown them out late three straight times IN CANADA. How could a playoff team replicate it? How could Toronto counter it?

This is where @pi2000 makes his point. I think this is complex. We need better defencemen. We need better defencive play from our forwards. We need a more structured system in the defencive zone. We also need better goaltending. Make no mistake: all the players we have seen flying out of the zone this year need to learn how to still push the pace while mastering the boring stuff from Asplund, Girgensons, and Okposo, among others.

Reinhart wanted out, so that wasn't an option.

My 14 month old kitten is more mature than that.

Quinn Hughes scores the OT winner for Vancouver over Las Vegas.