Iron Crotch

I agree. As fans we only see these guys on the ice and assume winning the Cup and/or $$$ is all that matters. But, for many of these guys its about a nice place to raise a family as much as anything. Several years ago both Zach Parise and Ryan Suter chose Minnesota as free agents because of family reasons.

He could certainly be playing the game to drive the price up for the Isles ala Stamkos. Either that or he's already hashed out where he'd like to be ala Ryan Suter & Zach Parise a few years ago. The Isles are in a strange place because many of the players and their fans live out in Garden County or so, closer to the old arena, but they play in Brooklyn. Then the team will be moving again in a few years. It can't be ideal for players with young families.

Three youngish country musicians rent my house in Nashville. Here is one of them...

He claims Nashville (no cap space), Vegas, St. Louis, and San Jose. Seems like no one really knows (Tavares has been quiet throughout) and Dreger is just naming good Western teams that could use a boost.

This is how the do polling in North Korea. ;)

The talent in Nashville is the song writers... and they're almost always not the performers these days. The same songs are marketed and sold by the song writing community to both pop and country musicians. If country, they'll change the key, maybe slow it down, add some twang, and voila... "country"

Tavares to Buffalo. Book it. B-) My understanding is many of the Isles players don't like playing in Brooklyn as many of those with young families have houses further out on Long Island. And, the new Islanders arena won't be done until the 2021-2022 season. Tavares will be 31 by then. The Isles could have resigned Tavares any time after July 1, 2017... yet we're pushing June and it still hasn't happened. I think he's going to leave the Isles. If so, Buffalo isn't a bad spot for him at all.

I'd take Tavaras. Eichel and Tavaras as a 1-2 punch at center would be nasty. And, our power play would get much better. Of course, we have no goaltending and our defense corps is a mess... can maybe trade O'Reilly for some help back there. :) Edit: As Botterill seems to be using the Pens as a template, this would follow the Crosby - Malkin model of strength down the middle.

As a Dortmund fan (yes, I got into them because of CP), the team is a tire fire right now. No direction. I'm ready for Pulisic to move on. Everyone assumes LFC because of Klopp. I'd be okay with that. But, I still think he may end up at Bayern Munich. Kid speaks fluent German and he's had some of his best games against Bayern. And, guys like Ribery (35) and Robben (34) need to be replaced fairly soon.

(the youngsters might not get this reference)

Can I call him Pontius?

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I've done a lot of dumb things in my life, but this seems so fantastically stupid that I can't even rationalize it. :D (that first guy is nicknamed "Iron Crotch"... I borrowed it for my new screen name. Got sick of Potato)

I talked to my friend who works for the team this AM. He said he was unaware of any locker room issues, although PK dating Lindey Vonn was/is a bit of a distraction (is that not public news?). He thinks the $9 million contract is the bigger issue. Poile just doesn't like hugely unbalanced payrolls. We shall see...

I think most fans are okay with the transitional year in order to (hopefully) be better in the future. The O-line transition is a tough one to figure out. On the face of it, it'd appear that we lost some major pieces up front. But, Wood was pretty average and our best guy (Incognito) was getting old and needed to be replaced soon anyway. So??? Who knows.

Yeah, but we really didn't have an offense last year either. We had no passing game. So it's just kind of more of the same. ;)

Just another marginal talent who we picked up off the scrap heap. I think he played for 3 clubs last year. Since our GM feels the need to go get his former draftees (Pittsburgh), I think that's about the main reason he is on the club.

Exactly. The NFL is an always has been a regional sport due to a limited number of games that are almost always played on weekends. I know many fans of various organizations who don't even live in the city of the team they support... they just fly back into town for games (selling some tickets as necessary). There is nothing "genius" about recognizing that marketing efforts need to be regionalized. That's obvious to any marketing strategist with a pulse. Moving games to Toronto wasn't innovative... that's been done by many teams prior (e.g., Green Bay playing games in Milwaukee back in the day). Having your sales staff forge relationships with regional businesses? That's just common sense. Hockey is different since the draw must predominantly be from local fans due to weeknight games. In hockey you can guard against a teams on-ice up's and down's by building up the non-hockey arena experience. The latter is where I think Buffalo is light years behind other markets. Ideally, you should be trying to sell a fun entertainment experience that isn't entirely dependent on the team winning games... you want people to enjoy the experience even with a loss. Other teams have done a masterful job of this (e.g., Nashville)... Buffalo still has a long way to go IMHO.

Supposedly he and Pacioretty couldn't get along in Montreal, which was a big reason PK was moved. The same seems to have happened in Nashville with PK and someone (Arviddson? Johansen?) not able to coexist in the room.

PK is kind of an enigma. He made some costly errors in the playoffs that hurt the Preds... and a lot of guys don't like his antics... "dressing room conflict" is the rumor (and it appears to be why he was moved out of Montreal as well). ...but the Preds made the Cup final last year and won the President's Trophy this year. So I have to believe Poille will want a veteran top-4 defenseman in return. (If the Sens want to rid themselves of Erik Karlsson maybe PK and a prospect for Karlsson?)

I don't by any means think we have to keep Girgs. I just think of the trio of Girgs, Bogo, and Larry, I'd rate Girgs the most "keep-able" given he's got more size, speed, and strength than Larsson (and I kind of like that Latvians root for the Sabres because of Gus). But, it's like arguing about the slimmest fat kid or the tallest midget. All three of these guys can't shoot worth a ###### and have pretty much no chance of beating an NHL goaltender one-on-one. I do think we need much better production out of our bottom-two lines. The better NHL teams all can roll three or four lines and have scoring threats up-and-down the lineup.

Yeah, very few in the NBA and NHL. And, in soccer very few American coaches over in Europe.

Interesting read about San Antonio Spurs Assistant Coach Becky Hammond... https://www.theplayerstribune.com/en-us/articles/pau-gasol-becky-hammon

Got ya. I added to the post above... didn't realize Saros was an RFA. Maybe we could throw a contact offer at him?

It absolutely is. This all started with pi suggesting a Bogo for Rinne trade. Sure, I'd take Rinne for a year. But, the Preds have the best defense corp in hockey. And, all of them make less than Bogosian with the exception of Subban. A related argument is how we've been killed by bad deals / untradeable salaries over the past decade or so... but that is probably for another tread. BTW - Saros is an RFA. IMHO, a better play would be to throw a contract at him and see how the Preds respond