That Aud Smell

The return of my favourite Sabre. It's something to cheer for, anyway. Who says they're rushing him back? If he's healthy and good to go, he should play. And he'll want to play, for sure. The offseason will be here soon enough. He may as well get some run in now, so that he can be ready to compete in the IIHF men's worlds (?).

I agree that the league - assuming they weren't going to do away with them - needed to revamp their kickoff rules. That said, I guarantee you that my brain's gonna hurt trying to understand what's happening on kickoffs when I go to the stadium next season. There's something called a Landing Zone?

It seems like every few years, owners see fit to add a rule to prohibit a certain kind of tackling. Some of those rule changes have made sense (horse collaring), but I'm less clear about this one. It seems like there will be a gray area on whether a tackle was, in fact, a hip drop tackle. Is this something that will be reviewable? I guess it's up to the coaches to coach the proper technique so that defenders aren't apt to commit the foul.

The Shohei Ohtani story is bonkers. The weirdest part is how both Shohei and his interpreter initially copped to Shohei having wired millions of dollars to pay off "the interpreter's" gambling debts. Mmm hmm. Then a day later, Shohei does an about-face (maybe the interpreter does as well?) and says that the money was actually stolen from him. The simplest most scandalous explanation is that these are in fact Shohei's gambling debts and the interpreter is just a fall guy. If that truth were to come to light, this could end very badly. If dude was wagering on games that his team played in, he'd have to be banned for life. The guy's currently the greatest player in the world and could have a chance to contest for being the greatest of all time. Incredible.

Coachella Valley's head coach?

There's a cartoon collision sound that I hear when I see that play above.

I thought the same thing. The best hope for 4/8 is, I think, that it will be partly cloudy.

He's pretty mid as a play by play announcer, but I can't blame Dunleavy for this team's mediocrity.

The heroic shuffle to the 80 point threshold continues.

That isn’t even a forecast at this point. Truly. It’s a predictive placeholder based on historical data and some very generalized modeling (see below). Speaking of which: April in Buffalo? Clouds are a good bet. Currently, NWS has us predicted for slightly increased chances of above average temps and slightly increased chances of above average precipitation for the period of 4/1 - 4/7. YMMV.

Interesting. I wonder what their collateral is — or maybe this is just a scenario where they take a secured interest in the asset being sold.

Sure is. I don't imagine that the team is offering financing options?

Grief is a funny thing. I didn't feel much after Rick passed away. But I've been catching his calls here and there of late -- all post 2006-2007 season -- a couple that I've posted here. And they've been making me really emotional. Like take a walk around the floor plan and breathe emotional. Fair! Hilarious.

I've been thinking a lot about the 2010-2011 team of late. They were no great shakes. But they made the playoffs! This Sabres team could use a player with Nathan Gerbe's heart.

Nope.

Respectfully - it matters a lot. "A young woman dies from cancer. Does it really matter the underlying issues that led to her incurable cancer?" There are medical issues at play here, albeit tricky ones because they involve illness that is behavioral in nature. It matters very much to know and understand if there are common underlying issues that led to this former enforcer's death. That knowledge and understanding may help prevent other deaths from similar causes.

And many may recall that recent study done on NHL enforcers specifically. @JoeSchmoe has a point here. +++ A study of former NHLers published last year showed enforcers lived significantly shorter lives than their peers. Researchers at New York's Columbia University came to that conclusion after analyzing data from more than 6,000 players from 1967 through the spring of 2022. The study found enforcers died on average a decade younger than comparable peers drafted at the same rank, similar height and weight, and at the same position. The researchers did not find more deaths among the NHL enforcers than in the control group. "However, being an enforcer was associated with dying approximately 10 years earlier and more frequently of suicide and drug overdose than matched controls," the study read. ... The 2023 study found striking differences in causes of death between the enforcers and their fellow players. Two neurodegenerative disorder deaths, two drug overdoses, three suicides and four vehicular crashes were attributed to the 331 players identified as enforcers/fighters, compared to just one car crash death among the age-matched control group. https://www.tsn.ca/nhl/simon-s-family-says-ex-enforcer-died-by-suicide-strongly-believes-cte-played-role-1.2092785#:~:text=Two neurodegenerative disorder deaths%2C two,the age-matched control group.

I was surprised by this report regarding a 2016 study performed by the CDC: Researchers from the CDC's National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) analyzed suicide death rate data on 3,439 retired NFL players. All the men played football for the NFL for at least five seasons between 1959 and 1988. The scientists compared the findings with the suicide death rate for men matched for race and age in the general population. They found that the rate of suicide among the former NFL players was actually lower than the suicide rate in the general population. Between 1979 to 2013, there were 12 suicide deaths in the NFL group compared with 25 suicide deaths in the group of other men, according to the study published in the American Journal of Sports Medicine. https://www.cbsnews.com/news/new-findings-on-former-nfl-players-and-suicide-risk/

Rest in peace. I also think that the point being made above - really the question being asked - is a potentially interesting one. Is the rate of suicide higher among old school NHL enforcers than among other professional athletes, especially NFL players and even more especially NFL players from bygone eras who played in the most CTE-inducing positions? The adjacent point made above about how stressful it was to be an old school NHL enforcer seems like a compelling one.

Thanks. So you’re talking about Labatt USA?

Interesting. Does Labatt not sell much in Canada? Or is your comment above directed only to Labatt USA? It's funny. Labatt Blue Light is arguably the beer of the online Bills fan community. Brother Bill has made sure of that.

They dissolved Pegula Sports and Entertainment and were clear that, as a result, the Bills and Sabres were being spun off from one another. I'm unaware of there being another parent/holding company in Pegula Land.

At least this guy's got a legitimate CV for the position of COO.

Yeah - this new COO's role could be more strategic than operational. That said, I remain curious: Who's actually employing him? Like, where's his W-2 (or where are his W-2s) coming from at tax time?

There are people with both organizations who were serving as interim COOs before this guy was hired. He can rely on them and their staffs to do quite a bit.