eanyills

These coaches. I like the call to go for 2 from Vrabel there but I absolutely hate the playcall. Don’t bring in the jumbo package. Spread out the Cincy D, they have the receivers to make it believable, and then run Henry with a box that doesn’t have EVERYONE in it.

These announcers are killing me acting like it’s some historically cold day out. It’s a normal January day in Buffalo. Actually, it’s pretty nice out all things considered.

I try to ignore everything I see about AB. I’m just going to continue assuming he has CTE that’s progressing and he’s going to be dead within ten years. Guy also almost certainly has an unregulated social-emotional disorder that his ego is in the way of actually seeking out real help for…

Was the Wirtz family a good owner when they ran the Blackhawks into the ground for over a decade before finally drafting an all star starting lineup? Has Craig Leipold been a good owner with repeated GM hirings that focused on free agency as a means of building a team stuck in mediocrity? Darryl Katz walking into McDavid after a decade of first overall picks? NYR, Flyers… relatively similar scenarios of longtime mediocrity or outright failure. The Pegulas have made several poor hirings at the GM and coach level, many of which were a consensus right choice in “hockey circles” at the time. Murray, Blysma, Housley, etc. I’m not going to harshly judge those choices because they weren’t irrationally bad choices at the time. They could have been criticized but nothing about them was absurd. Stating otherwise would be revisionist. Krueger? Sure, that was a bad hire that shouldn’t have happened but they wanted to go outside the box after the “right” choices failed. They tried to build a contender via free agency. That’s on them. That’s a poor vision and hiring GM candidates to carry out that vision or directing them to do so is absolutely on the Pegulas. They aren’t the first ownership group to do that. My biggest and only real fault with the Pegulas is the Eichel tenure, which should have been better than the results, and they have some fault in that, but again, the wrong hockey people were in place who failed to put a winning team together. I’m not going to get into the tabloid-type reports about the financials allocated to the team, and while I wouldn’t like it, I would understand them. We’re a small market team that really has to be a love of labor because the Sabres operating budget is almost definitely in the red without deep playoff runs. With the team restarting on a youth movement, there’s not a need to be burning cash right now. For the first time since that initial lockout team, I actually like the direction of the team. I like the players, the coach, and the style of play. I haven’t been able to personally say that in awhile. It remains to be seen if this group can be competitive over the long term and be a contender and we’re missing some important pieces but I feel like the team is moving in the right direction. The Pegulas aren’t perfect and I’m not happy with the last decade of product they’ve presided over but I’m not ready to storm KBC with the pitchforks just yet.

Are the odds 50/50? My memory is a little fuzzy but I don’t remember there being many/any serious suitors with long term intent to keep the team in Buffalo. Unless Terry is handpicking someone with a commitment to Buffalo who also has a LOVE of hockey to own a team in a break even at best market, just putting the team up for sale tomorrow seems like worse odds than 50/50… I think the Pegulas are fine. They just need to get out of their own way, which I feel like they’ve finally started to do so with management, coaching, and a roster that’s trending in a direction that I like for the first time in a long time…

You’re telling me that Dougie Hamilton benefitted from playing on a Carolina team that dominated in possession stats with Slavin as his partner? Dougie is good but he isn’t the all-around game changer he’s being paid to be. He never has been.

The Canes, who are essentially fielding a second line with an AHL roster filling in the rest of their lineup are taking it to The Kings. The decision not to postpone games because they didn’t want to overload their schedule down the stretch is looking like a smart one for them.

I’m sorry but this is a horrible take. If any person, player or not, had knowledge of a sexual assault, which reports are not only they did but that several players even taunted Beach about it, they needed to speak up. A game and the Stanley Cup aren’t above being a decent human being and reporting a sexual assault and if they are to somebody, simply, they’re a horrible human being.

Yes, I understand. Nowhere did I say it wasn’t a PSE show. Have you ever listened to OBL? Petey and Rivet were nowhere near the level of towing the company line like Murph, Brown, Tasker, etc., were/are. I can see Duff and Marty being much closer to the OBL model.

So the Sabres have their own version of One Bills Drive now? No thank you on listening to company yes men pushing the company narratives. To me, the reduction to one hour is about dollars. The NFL is king and drives advertising and listeners. Even in good times, the NHL isn’t close. While being a parody of an NHL franchise, the gap between the Sabres and Bills has probably never been wider than it is right now.

A contract extension can begin being negotiated in January. That contract is not going to be for 6.1 million. KK isn’t anywhere near that player and he isn’t going to become one that quickly on Carolina’s third line where he’s likely to be slotted initially. Again, I have to imagine there’s a handshake deal between Carolina and KK’s agent for a fair market deal otherwise this is essentially a trade deadline rental for the whole season and then KK will become a free agent where he will won’t receive another contract for 6.1 million.

Things are never as easy as a simple black and white, though. Reports are that KK wanted out. That makes Montreal matching and bringing back an already disgruntled player a little more challenging. Secondly, the 6.1 and 1 year is the offer sheet. The underlying point is what was KK looking for from Montreal? The future ramifications of his demands would weigh heavily on Montreal’s decision. KK isn’t going to get 6.1 on his next contract. What was his actual contract demands with Montreal? If it was 6.1/1, obviously that’s a sign of a player that doesn’t want to be there and you don’t match. That’s the info we don’t have.

I don’t think anyone can answer this without some insider info. Was KK willing to sign in Montreal? What kind of money? What kind of term? For 6 million long term? KK was always more of a raw “project” type player that hadn’t really shown any flashes equivalent to his draft status in Montreal. Carolina has done a great job developing their own players recently, so while it looks questionable on paper for Carolina, I think it’s a win for them if they have an agreement in place for a more reasonable contract extension moving forward.

I can’t believe I’m jumping into a COVID discussion but I feel like I’m on both sides of this argument. I started to develop (what’s currently diagnosed as in lieu of more testing) peripheral neuropathy approximately four hours after getting my first COVID shot. It’s gotten progressively more severe since then to the point of being almost completely physically debilitating at times. Now, there are reported cases of an extremely rare side effect that’s resulted in Guillain-Barre, which coincidentally, has similar symptoms as Peripheral Neuropathy. Maybe it’s just a coincidence, maybe it is unrelated, but you know, unless it can be proven to me that the COVID vaccine was not the cause of my current neurological condition, I went from never thinking twice about getting any vaccination to extremely anti-vaxxx in the blink of an eye. And when my three kids grow up, none of whom will be getting a COVID vaccine any time soon, they’ll think of my experience and I think that’s a legitimate pause for concern when it comes to this particular vaccine. You shouldn’t discount people’s personal experiences.

More than anything, Buffalo/Erie County will cave because the Bills are one of the few things that make the area retain that “big city” status, even if it’s a total facade, that the area is barely holding onto. It would be an ugly PR black eye for the region and state if the Bills left. I’d expect both sides will cave toward the middle on an agreement.