Jorcus

I don't think there are very many sports owners like you describe. Winning sports ownership is part judgement, part experience, and part luck. Golisano was close to what you describe but he kind of lucked into a good team but being bottom line oriented he was not going to support an expensive habit for very long. Turn the question around. If anyone in this group suddenly found themselves to be very rich and bought the team what kind of owner would they be? Would they know who to hire for a GM? A coach? Would they write a blank check with no input on major decisions? The answer to pretty much all of that is no. We would all be crappy owners unless somehow things fell the right way and we found a GM we felt comfortable with coach who was not going to fight with a GM and star 20 year old kids who somehow can stay focused long enough to win games. You want to know what sports ownership is like? Go buy a racehorse. I don't follow that sport as much as I used to but for decades I watched many rich owners make some very bad decisions due to lack of experience or very bad luck. They might have hired the best buyers, trainers and used the best jockeys and still never got to win the biggest races. Once in awhile a lucky owner would come along and stumble into a great horse and not manage to screw things up by telling the trainer when to race him or who should ride him. Having said that a good trainer often gives the owners options and possible outcomes. Most owners want to feel like they have a hand in the game. Why not they are writing the checks, the best owners understand the sports ups and downs. Being unlucky does not make you a bad owner, Being involved to a point does not make you a bad owner, I would rather a fan of the team be an owner than some corporation. At least I would like to think the owner is suffering just as much as I am when things are not going well.

I guess Mike Bundt does not read the Aud club. 🙂 There have been some legit excuses for his plus minus ratio. Half his points have been on the power play and a number of goals against have been defending an empty net. Saying that he has gone pretty cold lately. I think they are going to take him off the PP now that some of the other players are back. I love Byram with Dahlin. They really seem to dominate the play. If Dahlin can only cut down his mistakes. It's like having Batman and Robin, especially in the O zone.

Byram has been the best tape to tape passer coming out of the D Zone. He can pass it out our skate it out fast. Power does not have his speed but passes well and is crafty with the puck on his stick. Dahlin is very good at skating out of the D zone but sometimes his long passes are too reckless. How many icings did he take last night because he was going heavy on a stretch pass that missed the mark? He is much better in the O zone where his quick passes are shorter in length.

Did hear Hamilton state we were the only team to put a claim on Reimer so after 3 days with us he can go down to the Amerks without clearing waivers if that's what they want to do.

Novikov is the more logical replacement for Sammi. He is a big banging D man who was plus 20 as a rookie and is plus 6 this year. The question is he fast enough?

The fact that both teams wanted to make sure they had the loser point played into that. If anything St Louis should have attacked for possession if they wanted to gamble at the end of the game.

I just don't know how much longer they can wait on Quinn. He is the obvious one to get replaced in he top 6 and my guess is any trade target is pointed to replace him. I don't think they are married to the idea of keeping him and being a low priced RFA bundled with a D man like Clifton or Joki just might get you a decent top 6 forward. Peterka has improved on something each off season. The first year he could dig out pucks but when pucks got to him he was not in position or ready to shoot. Last year he fixed that by keeping his stick on the ice and soon as it got to him he would let go. It was not always a good shot but the volume of shots added up and he could catch his own rebounds from time to time. This year he shot is better than it was last year. Many are on target and fooling the goalie. Amazing job by him to work on his game. It seems when he plays well the team does well. I would not say last night was one of his better games overall but he helped when it counted.

No I did not have that problem but every once in awhile I have to back out of the hulu app to fix a sound or freeze up issue. I am using ROKU and my internet is decent most of the time but not always.

And on the Jeff Skinner front. The Oilers are wondering what to do with him. Good luck trying to trade him. https://www.yardbarker.com/nhl/articles/oilers_forward_jeff_skinner_gets_harsh_demotion_amid_trade_rumors/s1_17450_41223872

Bring earplugs. The music level is pain inducing but the scoreboard is nice.

I have been one of Byram's supporters but am certainly willing to listen to opposing points of view. I would not be so presumptive to tell other people what to do with threads they started or ask them to shut it down. My list in this forum would be very long if I started doing that.

The title was changed. I would like to see how he progressed from time to time.

It seems like he was being used on the PK more than in the past.

Found a story in Yardbarker. More or less just talk to fill slow times but interesting to see that Vancouver would like another mobile D man. https://www.yardbarker.com/nhl/articles/should_the_canucks_trade_for_sabres_defenceman_bowen_byram/s1_15359_41188764

Finally got some info from Marty and Duff show today that he has an upper body injury and is out week to week.

Interesting being that they have Quinn Hughes. Any specific reasons why he is a target for Vancouver? What are they missing that points to Byram?

I went to the game last night, here are a few random thoughts. When JJP is on his game this team plays a whole lot better. He seemed a little off in the last few games but the speedy, tricky winger was back last night. There is no way he should be removed from the top line to help anyone else. With Thompson and Tuch it is a top line that is very difficult to stop. UPL had his best game. He was tight against the posts and stopped some good chances from the wing sides. Not to mention on the 2 on 0. The goal against was a strange sequence Dahlin was fighting his way out of the zone and was scrumming in the neutral zone for 20 or more seconds with a linesman trying to get the players to stop roughing each other. It really should have been whistled with both guys going to the box but play goes on which seemed good for the Sabres at first but then the play goes the other way. Byram was out of gas chasing the play but you would have hoped for a little more effort to stop the rebound attempt. The second Byram goal was cool in the sense he got the shot off while not looking like he was going to shoot. It did not look like that on TV but his snapper was so quick it handcuffed Ulmark and ended up going in all the way from the blue line. Once they got the 4 to 1 lead in the 3rd the shut down game was not quite as good as against Dallas but Sabres are getting better about dumping pucks in the corners and chasing into it to slow the game down. Gilbert had some good hits and certainly will play against the Rangers because they may need someone to go up against Rempe. Quinn plays with no determination to do something. A lot of players on the Sabres are determined to do something and sometimes it's the wrong thing but it's something. Not that Quinn was ever fast end to end, (his metrics are pretty low) but he used to at least skate well in the O zone and get open for shots. That is not happening so I just don't know what they are going to do but he is holding the ream back. Good game over all, hope it continues.

Thank you for your interpretation of this.

For being an older team they are still pretty fast right now. Watching them bum rush the Rangers the other night was pretty impressive. On the other side of the coin you have Nashville who went all in on good old guys. They are trying to sort it out but it did not start well. I thought they were one of the most interesting teams in the off season. Stamkos is still great on the power play but can he get up and down against the quick teams? Some of the other guys seem to be on the slower side now too.

I was fooling around with money puck and found it interesting that The relative expected goal percentage 5 on 5 was used to disparage Bowen Byram. If so are Casey Mittelstadt's numbers any better? not looking good at 5 on 5, I guess the guy that replaced him is in the same boat. This was sorted by all NHL forwards and they end up near the bottom of the pile. For what it's worth I can't see how this relative expected goal number is useful as there good players scattered all over the list. I think Casey is pretty much the same guy he was when he left, A mediocre player who is hooked up with 2 hall of famers helping his numbers. If he was still here I doubt the Sabres would be any different than they are right now given McLeod took is place and our guys don't resemble Makar and MacKinnon or Rantanen. The Avalanche are in a world of hurt. The goaltending sucks, They have lots of injuries, no defensive depth, so the trio of supermen are having a hard time beating even the bad teams. The end of November schedule looks like a nightmare. I don't hate on Casey, He has a certain skill set but lacks on other areas. I like Byram's skills and see way more upside to his game. Most see his redundant skill as a problem but if you structure your team right waves of offensive D men can break other teams down. I am still hopeful this trade was a win.

I don't know how long it will last but I am happy for the guy. A lot of injuries while with the Sabres but he seemed like a really good person though the whole time he was here. The jets are on a roll.

Even last year they were able to score in bunches. On the D side not as good but Elvis is on a roll and covering up the mistakes so they can go winging down the ice. They are a lot like the Sabres team 2 years ago but with better goaltending at the moment.

I think they are stashing Benson on the IR. If he was that hurt that bad why was he not on IR a week before? My guess is unless there is an injury Benson stays on IR as long as there are no injuries or terrible play by one of the established wingers. If that does not happen then at some point he will come off IR and do a 2 week conditioning stint in Rochester. If all is the same when he comes back he trades places with Juri who goes back down be it on the bench or in the lineup. Odds are there will be an injury and that will open a spot for the return to the bench at least. As far as where he goes it would depend on what you need the most. He does seem more suited to a 3rd line defensive type who you can use on the PK rather than the hope he is going to be top 2 line point producer at the moment.

The only reason we have not seen more of Levi is the early season schedule has allowed us to play our number one goal tender more. Starting this weekend we are going to see a lot more of Levi because there are plenty of back to backs, 3 in 5, and even a 5 games in 9 days to start December. This is the stretch that will determine what we are.

Man what are the sharks doing? It sounds to me like Lilegren was headed for the waiver wire. They had to give picks with the player?