Porous Five Hole

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.

Let’s be fanboys. I’m hoping you’ll tell your story of when you met a Buffalo Sabres player. Fun experiences preferred. Here are mine: My college radio station (Brockport) had media credentials to many Sabres games. I was covering a regular season game for the station in 2000. While walking through the locker room post-game, Dominik Hasek said hello to me as he walked by and I said hello back. He was my hero. My world literally faded to black that moment. That was it, but I’ll never forget it. In 2001 or 2002, I was covering a game and I patiently waited for Martin Biron to ask my questions. It was just him and I and he was gracious with his time even though the scrum had already left. My last question embarrassed me to no end. After some good dialogue, my final question was what his next car would be (the Buffalo News recently reported his Hummer was stolen). I was trying to get some personality from him, but he did not take my question well. And I was too young to know why that question was problematic given he had never seen me before. He loudly said, “that’s not hockey” and tersely walked away. It felt like the entire locker room, players and reporters included, stared at me like I killed someone. I slinked away and still shudder at the thought. Did you have a nice experience meeting someone? Any fun stories?

What does this mean for snow in WNY this winter?

It is very early in the off-season, but I’m starting to wonder about Auston Matthews potential contract extension with the Leafs. While there’s no rush, isn’t there a rush? The Leafs cannot walk Matthews to UFA, and I’m slightly surprised we have not seen an extension. Is trouble brewing? (the trouble brewing is just message board fodder, but we are on a message board, soooooo where is the extension???)

VO has been a good soldier, is well liked, and deserved his current contract at the time. With that said, I expect him to be traded to the Coyotes or waived. I think he is the 13th forward and the only reason he is with the Sabres is due to injury. I know he fits in the NHL, but not on this team. He’s been passed by the kids and his style of play isn’t tenacious enough to warrant the roster spot. If more injuries come, then he will stick around as a PP specialist and be last of the forward group in ice time.

I 100% agree with you. I shared that song because it might have been their most commercially successful. They played Naveed last night and that made my evening. Starseed was the closing song of the encore. Their debut album is still my fav!

To add to your point, it wasn’t just Mitts. Listening to Sabres Live this week, they more or less shared why VO is untradeable. Every single player he shared the ice with in 22-23 had their Corsi figure tank while playing with VO. And each player’s Corsi shot right back up as soon as VO went to another line/the press box. I’m beginning to wonder if VO will have a roster spot.

90’s Canadian rockers Our Lady Peace The video doesn’t visually speak to the quality of their work, but the song is a popular one.

OLP at Outer Harbor in Buff tomorrow night. Pumped!

While I might be inclined to agree Meatballs was a cheap and easy hire, I am wondering who you would have preferred over the 21-22 off-season that would have also selected Buffalo? It wasn’t an attractive job back then. https://www.ranker.com/list/nhl-coaches-fired-2021/pedro-cerrano From this list, only Maurice is interesting to me and he was clearly taking a year off. The Sabres made strides last year. To me, Donny should get some credit for that and some runway to do it again. I am sure you’ll hate the concept of a runway and I agree “let’s see” in 2023.

You’ll pay for everything but a sports bet, am I right? 😬☠️😬

“I’m freezing at pee wee hockeyyyyyy”

The Stu Barnes trade bummed me out. He was a good soldier for a perennial playoff team and scored some big goals. And he had a huge smile that flashed after he scored. But by the deadline of the 02-03 season, the Sabres were on their way to a 72 point season and Stu was moved to help retool.

https://www.espn.com/nhl/story/_/id/37990565/echl-approves-tim-tebow-owned-minor-league-team-lake-tahoe “Tahoe Blue Event Center, a 4,200-plus seat arena in Stateline, Nevada, is expected to begin operations later this month.”

Remember when Vanek signed over his paycheck to settle up a debt from this? Wild.

Probably leaves us hemming these slow fourth liners in their own zone for Sabres scoring chances. But I bet they push people really hard after the whistle.