Punch

Your edited post seems to understand what I'm saying so I don't know what it is that you don't understand--- if that makes sense. I'm not saying Selke winners cause goals, per se, but defensively sound forwards that are aggressive and physical certainly do. If they can also score 20-25 goals then they are much more valuable than a slick shooter like Miro that scores 40 but does little else--- obviously, you want to have roster comprised of both. Pavel Datsyuk is an example of a Selke winner that isn't particularly physical, but team physicality has been balanced out in other areas of the roster over the years. Balance aside, would you prefer to roll 4 lines of Michael Pecas or Miro Satans (roughly 1999ish)? I bet in a 7 game series the Miros are worn down by game 4 at the latest and the Pecas will have scored more.

It's the other way around. Miro's 40 goals are in part made possible by guys like Peca. Peca himself scored 20-25 in a "dead puck" era and he was the team's Captain, who led by example with a blood and guts style, he wasn't just a defensive specialist but an all-around talented hockey player. Slick goal scorers are a crucial peice to a Stanley Cup contender but you need guys like Peca and Dustin Brown to open up the ice and control the corners and boards--- in other words, balance. 40ish goal scorers alone don't do much else for a team except create trade deadline buzz, a la Miro himself in 2004 or Rick Nash. Why is this difficult? The sport of hockey has forever been this way, even (or perhaps especially) in the high flying 1980s.

I'm not sure what you mean by physicality. Aren't Drew Doughty and Dustin Brown, to name two, the prototypical tough & gritty hockey players that fans desire for the Sabres roster? The Kings were a well balanced and properly constructed roster that struggled for much of the year to find consistency, but once they got in, they also stayed remarkably healthy--- in part because they were the more aggressive and physical team. Not unlike the Bruins. We're not talking about John Scott, here. To reference earlier points, Hasek was made all the better by having a Selke winner in Peca Captaining that young tough Sabres squad. Peca was more indispensible than Miro's 40 goals, IMHO, and his absence perhaps cost another Finals run in 2001.

I didn't say it's a good thing, which is why I referred to the later years of the contract as an albatross--- but that's how those strategies can be used. The Sabres will theoretically have a number of roster players on either entry level or 2nd contracts in that 3rd and 4th year, so I'm not sure the cap space will be as much of an issue. Trading/burying players like Leino, for instance, won't bother me in 2016 if it means the Sabres are all in in 2012-14.

Obviously this is true in Doan's case, but the Sabres could bury other contracts in the minors or trade players to accomodate Doan's over 35 contract when cap space is needed in the future--- those are still options even if/when his contract becomes an albatross.

Guh... drool....

FWIW, ESPN's John Buccigross confirmed Roenick's comments: @Buccigross Was told tongiht that Buffalo''s four year, 30 million dollar offer to Shane Doan is legit. Coyotes only want to go two years for now. 10:00pm - 21 Aug 12

He was lining up exclusively at DE with his hand on the ground all through training camp and in each of the 2 preseason games so far. You're right about his body which is pretty much why he doesn't fit in with Wanny's 4-3. He was also mostly invisible against both Washington and Minnesota, FWIW.

Waiting for Godot by Samuel Beckett--- for some reason, this offseason it seemed appropriate.

Why not move Leo for Gagner and then Gagner to Anaheim for Ryan? If the Ducks are interested in Ennis as their 2nd line center then why not Gagner, eh?

It's not uncommon for rookie centers to start their NHL careers on a wing, particularly at ages 18-20. Sidney Crosby, for instance.

Now that the Lucic-Miller discussion has been moved to its own thread perhaps those that tire of it can stop dictating to others what is or isn't an acceptable topic of conversation. Maybe I'm in the minority, but I understand that a franchise altering moment is difficult to move on from for some, and particularly easy to fall back headlong into the muck of it all during the dregs of late summer with little else in the way of hockey news to occupy our minds. I agree with TrueBluePhd--- I certainly don't regularly dwell on Lucic, Black Sunday, No Goal, etc--- but when old wounds are opened they are still as difficult as ever to close back up.

That's true enough--- "it is believed" that Larry Brooks is full of ###### roughly 98% of the time. His "report" is being regurgitated throughout the hockey media as fact, even though he left out Phoenix altogether. On the other hand, I assume chz has a reason to post what she did.

I trust chz 100%, even though it's a sad notion--- and I certainly hope there is legitimate interest in Arnott. I've accepted that this is the hope for 2012-13.

Ick.

That may be--- I do remember seeing an angle where Gaustad was skating back but I thought it was seconds after the run and his head was down as he was backchecking pretty intently being so far behind the play. It's been quite awhile since I've seen the play because I don't have the heart (pun intended) or the stomach to sit through it.

FYI: Brian Duff will be hosting Sabres Hockey Hotline in place of Kevin Sylvester this morning at 10am on WGR. He says they'll be talking a bit about offer sheets and Colorado's RFA Ryan O'Reilly who remains unsigned. Gaustad was actually behind Thomas at the other end of the ice with his back to the play when Miller was run. I'm not sure that he saw what happened, but that shouldn't have precluded him from responding on a later shift. Myers was there and basically engaged Lucic in patty cake.

physicality[ fiz-i-kal-i-tee ] noun pl. phys·i·cal·i·ties. 1. the degree to which a professional sports team out-physicals an opponent. 2. resultant condition of numerous opportunity laps. --- taken from the Gregg Williams' Coaching Lexicon & Jargon Guidebook, 5th edition

3 possibilities: 1) Carey Price is his cousin--- I don't know if I would give a courtesy visit to a team as a favor to my cousin but I suppose it's a possibility. 2) It's also not crazy to think that he grew up a Habs fan. 3) Perhaps Montreal is the Eastern Conference team that offered him the $30mil contract--- or if not then maybe something close to it. They don't have much cap space at the moment but that can be worked out.

It's likely we are a longshot, but this type of info is never leaked from the Sabres side. It wasn't until a week or so after the Parise/Suter signings that Elliotte Freidman revealed the Sabres had offered (or told Parise and Suter's agents they were willing to offer) twin $100mil contracts--- and also that Buffalo was on a short list of 9 teams that Parise was considering. For that matter, Minnesota wasn't mentioned in any of the early media coverage for either player. That's significant enough that the Sabres not being mentioned much in regards to Doan doesn't mean a great deal. The agent has confirmed contact and so has Darcy and there appears to be mutual interest--- that's enough for now. We may be a longshot but at least the visits are beginning. It wouldn't be shocking if he were in Detroit or Montreal tomorrow and Buffalo by Friday.

Tweeted moments ago: John Gambadoro ‏@Gambo620Sports Radio Talk Show host on Sports 620 KTAR Phoenix, Arizona Coyotes Captain Shane Doan is in Vancouver meeting with the Canucks Vancouver is Doan's third free agent visit following trips to New York and Philadelphia.

That would be brutal, especially for 82 games. Throw in Sulzer as a changeup and we'd be approaching the Mike Rathje/Derian Hatcher/Eric Desjardins level of fleetlessness. They'd be better off without the skates!

One of my primary concerns with this roster going into the season is team speed, which was already lacking last year, and swapping out Roy for Ott further exacerbates the issue. I really hesitate with the idea of moving Sekera for this reason, but I do like the idea of adding Filppula. I guess in the event Doan is not a Sabre, the logical move would be to move Leopold for Malone, although he doesn't do us any favors in terms of team speed. I love that lineup, True--- it corrects a lot of problems with the forward group (Filppula's speed will somewhat offset the otherwise downward trend) and ultimately keeps the D more or less intact--- although it requires Grigorenko to return to Quebec. Aaahh, the dog days of a slow NHL summer.

For the sake of argument, let's say Leopold for Malone and Sekera for Filppula are both doable (I assume other ancillary pieces would be included but we'll keep it simple)--- would you make both trades or only one of the two? If only one, which one makes the Sabres better?

For every Joffrey Lupul/Brad Marchand/Ray Whitney that bashes the City from their cloistered hotel rooms there are dozens of ex-Sabres, like Andreychuk, Dudley, Scotty Bowman and Rico, et al that have never left--- and then a surprising amount of other former NHLers and broadcasters that have no association in Buffalo yet have chosen to live here at different times: Marcel Dionne (a distant cousin of my wife, I'll add), Darryl Sittler, Ron MacLean, Harry Neale (well before joining the Sabres broadcast team), etc.