Porous Five Hole

I am in no way making any excuses for that pathetic perspective in 2020, but we are a long way from that. Terry’s wealth has continued to increase in spite of 2020 events. Also, I know I’m spending someone else’s money when I say this and I’m sure their perspective is different than mine…but given the health of Kim, does the importance of money matter as much as it did back then? Terry is in his 70’s and lot has changed in three years. I’m not saying cash flow isn’t a potential issue, but the guy is on the back nine of life and maybe he’s just gonna YOLO from here on out. It might not happen, but it’s possible.

Carolina haters unite 👊

Suggested by @RochesterExpat, you’re a free agent and 31 teams (Buffalo is the only one missing) have made you identical offers. Which 5 teams do you want your agent to negotiate with? For me: 1) Tampa (I used to live there and liked it. Ownership commitment is off the charts) 2) Vegas (I like warm temps and I love the city because I’m a degenerate) 3) Colorado (Denver is a cool town and they’re good) 4) Anaheim (California dreamin’ for young athletes seems fun) 5) Washington (committed ownership and DC region is decent winter climate) And you?

Why would St. Louis not work for you? Chicago due to the bad citizen they have been in the past as an organization?

Start a thread! 😀

Figure you’re a middle of the road player and it’s a long term deal. What franchises are on your no move list? For me: 1) Toronto (toxic fanbase and overwhelming media) 2) Dallas (I just don’t want to live in the state of Texas. Not my style) 3) Winnipeg (brutal winter and heading into a rebuild) 4) Arizona (ownership/arena challenges and perpetual loser) 5) Carolina (irrational dislike given my Sabres fandom) What about you?

https://www.tennis.com/news/articles/jessica-pegula-races-past-liudmila-samsonova-less-than-an-hour-to-win-montreal This one was a big deal because she beat world number one and previous nemesis Iga Swiatek in the semifinals. She also beat her doubles partner, Coco Gauff, in the quarterfinals. This might be thr biggest prep tourney for the US Open next month. Jessie is world number three and has earned almost four million in prize money in her career. She’s made the quarters in all four of the majors at least once in her career. I’ll be watching the US Open and hope she breaks through in a major. She’s also a lock for the US Olympic Team in Paris 2024. 🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸

Once he filed for arbitration, he wasn’t eligible for an offer sheet.

I agree with you. But even with hindsight, what was the move Adams should have made to solidify the position? I’m not jealous of a single goaltending transaction this offseason. In the previous off-season, I lobbied for Jack Campbell. My assessment of him was wrong based on his 22-23 results. Maybe there was an obvious move last off-season that he should have made and I don’t recall. But it isn’t like a bunch of teams fixed their goaltending with a trade or free agency signing where a goalie changed teams over the last two years. I previously suggested a Helle overpay for a one year rental, and you replied that my suggestion was bad asset management. You weren’t wrong. So the question remains…What was the big whiff on the GM’s part over the last 24 months that wouldn’t have us concerned with the crease going into this year?

Levi walked in and immediately was the best the Sabres had in the crease. He got every important game he could possibly play. And I think the players recognize that. I’m concerned about the position as well. But I’m not questioning the franchises “commitment to winning this season” because I’m not jealous of any off-season goaltending transaction across the league. No signing or trade was made where I thought, “the Sabres should have done that.”

Do you ever get tired of posting stuff like this? We get it. The goal is to win the Stanley Cup and the Sabres failed. Again. Burnt toast. But there’s a clear plan from the Sabres leadership and the building blocks are in place. Are we really going to shout down every poster with an eye toward the groundwork put in place right now?

I got lazy and didn’t read every post in this thread, but it’s time to accept that hockey is a regional sport and not one of the “big four.” The NFL & NBA have national appeal. MLB might still have national appeal, but baseball is dying a slow death (kids are on their iPads and not the Diamond…and the attention spans of today are not cut out for the limited action that baseball provides). The NHL provides a captive and passionate audience in limited numbers compared to NFL & NBA. But it is still captive and passionate. There’s value in advertising to our group of fans and it might be more valuable than the general consumption of a national audience. I could be wrong, but I would rather advertise with a less expensive and more passionate sport and locality. Long story short, the NHL will be fine without cable subscriptions…even if that’s their current revenue model. Not NFL or NBA revenue levels, but fine nonetheless.

I will plug all of the finger lakes towns as well. Geneva, Watkins Glen, Canandaigua, Ithaca, and Sylvan Beach on Oneida. All of the above are enhanced by the local wine and beer options. If that’s not your thing, you can still wake up to sunrises or enjoy sunsets to the sound of water. Very relaxing. All of these places you can accidentally go to bed with your shoes on because you’ve been over served…if you’re into that sort of thing (which I am).

Peters and Rivet had a pod interviewing Scottie Bowman yesterday. He pointed out that Buffalo is set up very well because of both Dahlin & Power. He said that offensive ability is more easily found at the top of a draft and teams lean toward offense (pointing out that Heiskanen & Makar were taken third and fourth respectively behind the likes of Nolan Patrick…oof). Teams would kill for Heiskanen & Makar today. He insinuated that defense is harder to find, so it was good fortune that Dahlin & Power were the consensus choices. I am not saying it’s easy to find 40 goal guys, but it’s easier to find 40 goal guys than it is to find guys like Heiskanen/Makar/Power/Dahlin. No comment to who will be better between our two, but I agree with Bowman that D is more of a unicorn and we are lucky to have both.

Toga party time!!!!!!

Came across this on Reddit. Sure looks like Torts straightened out Risto.

Measured. GMKA has been honest about his approach to draft and develop. And build from within. But that doesn’t account for goaltending in 2023. Specific to the crease, the verb for me is “gulp.” I’m not jealous of any goaltending transaction made across the league this off-season, and it is too early to predict the word irresponsible, so I guess I’ll say worried.

This is probably too radical for the NHL, but I love this idea. I would say that in OT, once you’ve gained the offensive zone, you cannot willfully exit the zone. If you do, dump the puck into the corner and give up possession. Again, just 3 on 3 in OT. It’ll never happen, but this is my favorite idea of the thread.

I like the players picking their own. Jeff Skinner’s have been beauts.

I support that point system.

Hate the shootout or a toenail challenge? Hate the goalie trapezoid or the cap circumvention? What would you change if you were Commish for a day? For me, it is that a penalty is only a penalty given the game situation (a regular season game is officiated differently than a playoff game, or late in the game is officiated differently than the first period). I don’t want to officials to call the game differently depending on the scenario. Since that is unlikely to change, I’ll identify a specific rule I don’t like…and that is the “intent to blow the whistle.” Arbitrary garbage. What would you change?

He filed for arbitration, so he’s not eligible to be signed.

I’m not inclined to agree. For the amount of times the Bills hand the ball off, I think investing more money into the position is a bad move. I get that the Bills need to get Josh out of running the ball, but this team is going to win by attacking defenses in the passing game. James Cook, Damien Harris, and Latavius Murray will be more than sufficient.

I guess this explains the cap circumvention inquiries we all had. If the player is put on LTIR prior to the start of the season, then the NHL looks the other way. It seems to fly in the face of how we all understood how this works, which is each team needs to be cap compliant BEFORE the LTIR status is applied, but the NHL is a garage league so I’m not surprised.

A “did you know” for locals…NYS requires a boater license for anyone to operate a motorized watercraft in NYS. This is new and there was a grace period to get licensed. By 2024, anyone operating on the water in NYS is required to have a boater’s license (waverunner and jet ski included). I doubt this happened in NY, but hopefully stuff like this is minimized in NYS going forward.