thesportsbuff

Man, the Leafs are miles ahead of us. What the hell went wrong with the rebuild?

i don't buy any of it. if the benching was for anything more than performance reasons then we would have heard about it. the sabres had no problem letting the world know when evander kane was late for practice or whatever happened last season. to treat an eichel situation any differently sends the wrong message to everyone in the organization. personally, i think ya'll are trying to make it into a bigger deal than it is, but maybe Dan was too

decided to stop by to complain about how ###### the NHL network is. people wonder why some consider hockey a niche sport in the US, well there's an example. we have huge international tournaments like the WJC going on and we can't even watch all of the games here. sweden is probably the favorite to win it all and three of their four group play games won't be shown live here. meanwhile the NHL network twitter account is promoting some garbage "Top shelf - wjc edition" show that's on INSTEAD of the game people actually want to watch... and they use a pic of team sweden as the teaser. lol

At what point did Murray promise a fast turnaround? I recall hearing the exact opposite -- that rebuilds take time and it won't happen overnight.

Did you guys see the officials get (at least) their 2nd assist of the season last night in the CBJ/DAL game? Late in the second period of a 0-0 game and the Stars have a potential 2-on-1 developing... two officials essentially collide at the same spot that the Dallas player would have received the pass. The puck hits one of the refs, bounces the other way and springs Columbus on a 4 on 2 that they execute beautifully. It was easy to draw parallels to the other night when Foligno's pass was blocked by an official and led directly to a goal against.

I don't think anybody is really too worked up about the game that was played.

Not at all haha, but there was a bit of disappointment as expected when things get hyped up out of proportion.

It has to be Vesey for me, because there just wasn't that much else to be disappointed about. I honestly have barely followed the Kane incident outside of the first day or two. I suppose it's disappointing that he's "in trouble" again, but I haven't let it ruin my summer. If nothing comes of any of it, cool. If he is suspended forever and banished from the NHL, cool.

. I never got the sense that Vesey cares about the "night life" and I'm not going to start leaning that way based off a probably-untrue report of him buying a condo in Manhattan. A guy who puts off millions of dollars for 4 years to stay in school doesn't strike me as a guy who's going to base a life-altering decision on a city's night life. Even if he the "report" is true, and he does end up signing with the Rangers and living with Hayes, it still doesn't mean the night life factored into any of it. It makes sense for him to live with a good friend/team mate in the city where he plays hockey.

Lol "Is it true?" "Yes. I hope it's wrong."

I'm betting the whole "being guaranteed a top 6 spot with ample power play time" thing came directly from WGR. In fact, I can hear Andrew Peters saying those exact words in my head. I'm pretty certain Vesey never did and never will "demand" a Top 6 spot as a requirement for him to sign somewhere -- it doesn't even make sense. What's he going to do if 2 weeks into the season the coach moves him to the third line, not play? But I do think he will be looking for teams where he has a good chance to play in the Top 6. Chances of that happening here got a little slimmer with the signing of Okposo (barring a trade), while Boston and Toronto seemingly have a spot waiting for him. It will take a pretty strong sales pitch to get him to sign, I think.

At first I wanted Stamkos pretty badly. Then I wavered and decided it was just too costly, especially if he was asking 10+ mil. Then as the rumors heated up, and after TM confirmed they would "chase the big fish", I allowed myself to get sucked into the excitement again. "F the salary cap, Tim will make it work!" So now that it's over, I'm not necessarily that disappointed that we didn't get Stamkos... it's more of the fact that the next best option is Kyle Okposo, who I'm just not that interested in to begin with, let alone as the standout UFA forward who is going to get overpaid. I think any trade bait we have would more likely be used for a defenseman, which I am fine with. But it kind of tempers my expectations of bringing in any true impact forward, unless Vesey signs. Wouldn't mind bringing back Jamie McGinn if the price is right.

I honestly forgot all about this kid. He was SO impressive at the end of the season, I'm not quite sure how I managed to let him slip my mind. Happy to have him back and in retrospect it makes the Pysyk trade look a little better if they think he has a legitimate shot at making the team out of camp. Won't let myself get too excited over 7 games -- I was a big supporter of Nathan Paetsch and Chad Ruhwedel in the past, and they didn't exactly pan out as I hoped -- but I think everyone liked what they saw from him last season.

Good lord, Lol. That commercial :beer: :beer:

Great move for a great under rated player

Awesome move by Murray (for now). I have faith that GMTM wouldn't make the trade unless he had a pretty good idea that he will sign, and I think there are a lot of positive signs pointing to that being the case. So this is super exciting. That said, I'm a little surprised at how many people are willing to say, "well even if he doesn't sign, it's a good aggressive move!" In my opinion, if he doesn't end up signing with us, the move is a little reckless and certainly a misstep. Vesey made his intention to become a free agent pretty clear, so if we waste a third round pick by just going out on a prayer that he will sign here after talking to us, and he sticks to his original plan of hitting free agency... it seems a little silly. Not that I'd be calling for his head or anything. We're in a great position that we can afford to do something like this. But let's call it what it is -- it would be a mistake and a waste of a pick if he doesn't sign.

It seems pretty much standard procedure for teams to do this with college prospects, so I'm not surprised at all. I saw a few people (on twitter, mostly) worried about burning a year of his ELC in a meaningless season, and it got me thinking... couldn't that actually be a good thing in terms of negotiating for his next contract? Like, barring a dominant performance, won't he have less on his resume when it comes time to negotiate his next contract? He'll get his feet wet this year, but next year will still be a learning/adjustment period as his rookie season. You can't expect the world from a rookie (although we've been spoiled this season). Maybe the final year of his ELC is a "breakout" type of season. So his "resume" might look something like... 15-16: 8 games, 2 points 16-17: ~70 games, 20 points 17-18: 82 games, 35 points as opposed to 16-17: ~70 games, 20 points 17-18: 82 games, 35 points 18-19: 82 games, 45 points Don't nitpick on the numbers too much please, I don't know what to expect from Fasching so these are really just for the example. Basically I'm saying this year will be too small of a sample size to really use it as leverage during negotiations, so could this end up being the difference between a 3-4 mil bridge deal as opposed to a 6 mil long term deal? Might be something to think about.

unbelievable what happened to bonaventure yesterday.

well that was exciting

Typical

Right, and I get it. But you, and I, and a thousand others have been complaining about this for months. But have no fear! Jeremy White is now on the case! And he believes his "crusade" will bring change, just like he literally thinks his "crusade" for tanking is the reason the Sabres have Eichel right now. FWIW I like listening to him and Matt and more often than not I agree with their thinking. I just get a sense of "I'm better/smarter than you because I'm on the radio" when things like this come up.

Lol, Jeremy White is officially mad about Eichel playing on the right side of PP. He's starting another "crusade," as he calls it. So I guess when Eichel eventually ends up in the "Ovi" spot in a few weeks, he can take all the credit. Just like he was the poster boy of the tank even though people on this board were literally years ahead of him lol

Of course not. But let's talk about what HAS been coached out of his game --- THE SPIN MOVE!!! Where is the spin move we saw twice a game for the first 5 games and haven't seen since?!?!?!

:cry: :cry: :cry: :cry: :cry:

I would love to see him back.