IKnowPhysics

By definition, PMB was in less demand than Corey Tropp or Matt D'Agostino. Weird.

Fo shizzle. I was hoping we would pick him up for our broadcast, but the rest of the continent shouldn't be denied to watch his greatness.

Neal should get 5, Thornton should get 15-20. Neal will get 2, Thornton will get 7.

If NBC owned a third of the Red Wings, yes. There'd be little incentive to show other games, talk about other teams, and report critically about the team.

Not sure yet. But I was doing some more reading. I'm not sure I'm down with the Rogers deal. Can you imagine having to receive all of your sports coverage from an entity that is a substantial owner of a different team from the one you root for? How could you possibly get unbiased sports coverage? It'd be like watching Sabres games on the non-Buffalo MSG (remember doing that for NYR, NYI, and NJD away games for years?), except all of the time.

According to NHL point equivalency methods, Connor McDavid, who already has 45 points in 27 games for Erie, could be a 40 point player in the NHL. At age 16. I think we should be prepared to do anything to select this kid.

Green Berets for breakfast, and right now I'm very hungry.

Baptiste would have something like 16G, 16A on 82 games. Possler, because he's playing in the much stronger SEL, would have something like 28G, 17A, but his sample size is way small; I don't trust that at all. McCabe's equivalency is at about 33 points so far this season. Armia has taken a step back a little bit adjusting to Rochester in the nine games he has so far, down from 44 NHLe points to 15 NHLe points in this young AHL season. But he's got time to work it out. And I think he's been injured. JGL slipped from 28 NHLe points in the QMJHL to 5 NHLe points last year in Rochester, but he's improved his way back up to 12 NHLe points so far this season. Kevin Sundher's slowly improving his offensive game, up to 15 NHLe points from 12 NHLe points last year. Eric Locke's putting up big number again for Saginaw, looking at 35 NHLe points again. ==== So for example, if Armia scores 100pts in 149 games in SM-Liiga, you might expect he should score 0.54 times as much in the NHL, or 0.54*100/149*82 = 29.7 points. I thought it was interesting to see the different "strengths" of the leagues compared.

Loved it. Hated it.

Using point-equivalancy methods, which I've explained elsewhere, Compher would be around 8 goals and 25 assists in the NHL. Pretty damned good for a freshman.

For the Vonnegut fans, here's a classic. I'll let you use your own imagination to fill in the hopeful part of the great story line we're embarking on. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oP3c1h8v2ZQ

Buffalo: bad is the new good. And the Leafs still suck.

Came for the charts, stayed for the thread, posted for the fun:

TSN losing Canadian national TV rights (1998-2002) only bolstered TSN's efforts to be THE source of NHL news, says Bob McKenzie on twitter. I don't know if they can (read: will determine it's business-prudent to) keep it going. TSN's been great, I'd hate for them to drop the ball or concede that the ball has been stripped from them. New deal goes for the next 12+ years.

There's some ###### over here: http://forums.sabrespace.com/topic/22017-ot-2014-sochi-olympics-pre-tournament-talk/page__hl__%2Bsochi+%2Bolympics

Heh, Seth Jones with the fro and the five-necked guitar.

This is all truthful. It'll be fun to watch him.

It's annoying that we have to rehash this, but let's get it right, and then let it go under the bridge. The rumors have never been substantiated. And there's two sides to them: 1) Rumor: Nolan was a philanderer and a drunk that messed around with Hasek's wife and would show up to practice drunk. Refute: Nolan said that these were racist stereotypes. 2) Rumor: Hasek expected "star" treatment but was angry at Nolan for treating him equally with other players. Refute: Hasek said that he didn't respect Nolan as a coach. Disregarding whatever might have been true or false about those rumors, there was a real, documented feud between Nolan and Hasek. Sabres GM John Muckler sided with Hasek (either because he valued him more than Nolan or because some element of the rumors were justified, who knows). Sabres ownership sided with Nolan (Jean Knox later attended a rally in support of Nolan during the contract dispute). The whole front office and locker room was a complete shitshow the entire '96-'97 playoffs and 1997 off season. Ownership fired Muckler (after he had just won Executive of the Year), which branded Nolan as GM killer. Ownership then hired former Islanders interim GM Darcy Regier, and threw him into the shitshow. Regier had to solve the dispute or he (and the franchise) would eat itself alive. He decided to offer Nolan a one year deal to see if things would settle down. Nolan (after he had just won the Jack Adams) took this as an insult and rejected the offer. Both players and fans were livid that Nolan wasn't resigned and many blamed Hasek. Matthew Barnaby publicly stated he'd run Hasek on the first day of training camp for his role in getting Nolan "fired." Darcy hired Florida Panthers Assistant Coach and longtime-Sabre Lindy Ruff as Head Coach. For many weeks into that next season, fans booed so loudly at Hasek, that the arena staff had to play tapes of the crowd cheering over the PA to drown them out. Hasek would eventually win them back with stellar play (he earned six of his thirteen shutouts that season in December, an all-time record in one month) and went on to win his second consecutive trifecta of the Vezina, Pearson, and Hart trophies. Lindy Ruff and Dominik Hasek would immediately lead the Sabres to the ECF, and a year later, game six of the SCF. I don't know if anyone knows what really started the Nolan-Hasek feud. But as horrible of a decision as it was to make at the time for new-GM Darcy to let go of his universally-celebrated Jack Adams winner, he ended up being right. Hasek played all-world and all-time, and Ruff would mostly succeed for the next 16 years. It was a truly ###### situation, and Regier not only stopped the Sabres ship from sinking, he probably sailed it better than any GM in franchise history.

Zemgus has been playing his zemguses off lately. I've enjoyed it. The kid battles in the corners like a bull and works hard to backcheck. Whenever he loses possession of the puck, he never gives up on the play. There's a reason he wasn't sent down with his peers: he's earned his spot.

[i'm back from work-related hiatus] Nolan hates staged fights, discourages Sabres from doing so: Old school.

Emery's a puss. He didn't wait for Holtby to lose his gloves, which made Holtby defenseless, and Emery just started firing away. Keep in mind that if you fight with goalie gloves on, there's a bunch more penalties, and possibly suspensions, that rack up. Every goalie knows that.

That's a terrible way for Miller's trade value to skyrocket.

Then we'll have to root for the Isles to lose next year too.

Apologies, brain fart in my end. I incorrectly assumed for some reason the max was about $8.5-9.0M. That's the number I was thinking. Yes, there's a max, the individual salary cap is 20% of the team salary cap (20% of $64.3M is $12.86M). I knew that percentage too, I just didn't think to doublecheck my thinking above. Interesting concept that I hadn't seen discussed, one that I overlooked. If Vanek doesn't resign on the Island before the deadline, the Islanders will likely try to move him (just as we would with Matt Moulson), and I'm guessing that they could* recoup their picks. *Large presumption that Snow is at least of Feaster-grade intelligence.