Claude_Verret

My parents are in town on their way back to Buffalo from Florida, so I'm going to leave work early today to pick up some fresh haddock from the local seafood market and cook up a classic WNY fish fry for the family. We did one at the start of lent and I've still got it all these years after retiring from my fry cook career at one of WNY's top fish fry establishments.

Let us commence to 2015 Islanders tank watch... Because tanking isn't always on purpose.

He got hermetic late.

My wife worked at the Elmwood when she was at U of R way back when. Highly recommended.

My wife fell in the garage last night and hurt her foot. I took her to the doc this morning and x-rays revealed a broken metatarsal and crutches for 6-8 weeks. My Mr. Mom duties just went from a 2 to about an 8.

There's plenty of room for improvement and development and still be the worst team in the league. Call it whatever the hell you want, but you can be sure that we will be among a handful of teams in the McDavid / Eichel conversation at this time next year.

Thanks for laying this all out.....again. It's amazing that this has been repeated over and over and over since late last season when tanking became a hot topic around here and yet still people misrepresent the pro tank argument.

I might be on board with the curse theory if we had a 75% chance of winning and then didn't.

i never got any specifics on these things, other than confirmation on the Parise / Suter offers. I think the consensus was after sniffing around some FA's and hearing off the record buzz around the league that with all else being equal, and that's certainly not even close to the case now with the Sabres, most FA's are going to have Buffalo far down their list of potential landing spots.

So who had under 5 seconds? PTR got you the win there.

Anyone in utter disbelief would lack a basic understanding of elementary mathematics. Both the 2014 and 2015 drafts aren't about one single player, I don't know how many times it needs to be said.

Unbelievable.

2.2 seconds!!!!

One thing I was told many times from my conduit to the DR regime was that the Sabres FA recruiting problem is as real as it gets. Therefore...tank on!

http://sports.espn.g...tory?id=2114426 Any CP sightings in NYC recently?

I think the league would rightfully take issue with a planned and executed tank on the coach and player level. but I don't think something like this could be carried out even if teams tried it, players and coaches have too much competitive fire and pride. But I don't see "manipulating the roster for draft position" as much different than teams in contention that manipulate their roster for playoff position, it's just taking a longer view on the ultimate goal. If only DR had manipulated the roster for draft position sooner, we may not have had to resort to this total rebuild.

My brother/accountant just paid mine. Still know they're ALL crooks. #allofitboy

I read that as even if they did try they won't make it in anyway. Which is absolutely true. Nothing can be done to make the Sabres a playoff team next year.

I wanted him gone because I knew he was a good coach and it was past his time here.

I think you're correct. Plus it will make another season of craptastic Sabres hockey just a bit more interesting with two very probable tanks to monitor next year.

If the league ever decided to start punishing teams for tanking, it would make sense that they'd begin when the Sabres are doing it. Other teams have done it and it's paved their path to ultimate success. The lottery system is really as far as they can go with an anti tanking policy. The league should have zero issue with it.

Islanders won it the first two times I ran it.

What if "the elite FA who never becomes available and wouldn't sign with Sabres anyway if he did" gets hurt in his first game with his new team?

I'm not sure what they'll do, but if they defer until next year and that pick manages to land us McDavid then while Isles fans are preparing to lynch Snow I'll be the first to absolve DR of all his past sins and help with building the statue in his honor.

I agree that it would be silly as the tanking concept and it's potential rewards have been discussed ad nauseam around here since October. But you just know those posts will be coming anyway.