IKnowPhysics

I've noticed this apprehension to get emotionally invested in the team for fear of being let down. In my travels, it's a pretty unique condition. I think it's an evolution from the underdog complex we used to have- except that, other than a few cases, we haven't won much and have kicked down by losing often. Now it's "you're the underdog and you as a team have to prove to me as a fan that you're not going to break my heart." Down 1-0 early in the game? That won't get me out of my seat. Up 5-2 with 2 minutes left? Now you have my attention. When do you really cheer for the Bills when they are down by only seven points and honestly believe that they are going to win the game? It's not the best way to be a spectator, and it's not the mindset I subscribe to, but I see this a lot.

The Kohl Center (15,300 for hockey) has no problem getting rowdy on a nightly basis. Throw in a rival or a Halloween game, and it goes over the top. To me, it has do with three factors: percentage of stadium filled multiplied by percentage of rowdy fans multiplied by the on-ice motivation to get rowdy. Consider: -College hockey usually has a student section that likes to get rowdy, and the motivating factors can vary, but usually the kids are SO willing to get loud, it's easy to do so throughout the arena. Larger WCHA schools (Wisc, ND, Minn, Mich, etc) and the more popular HE schools (BC, BU, NH, Maine, etc) fill their stadiums well and have a high percentage of rowdy students, so all you need is at least a smidgen of good hockey for those venues to get loud. -A regular season Monday night for the Blue Jackets won't be loud at all for any reason. Not enough fans would get crazy and there isn't any motivation to do so, if any fans showed up that is. -Tonight's Carolina game may get rowdy because the percentage of Buffalo fans is high and just having the Sabres in town is enough of a reason for them to get rowdy. -A playoff NHL game is usually loudest, because tickets are harder to come by, so more die-hard fans attend AND the on-ice motivation is very strong. Playoff games are almost always sold out, which amplifies the rowdy. -On an average night at the Staples Center, the arena's fills pretty well and the Kings are generally a good team to watch, but the percentage of rowdy fans is very very low. There's no spirit of alcoholism and I'm of the opinion that in Los Angeles, there's about a small market team's quantity of true fans diluted in a sea of 16 million fairweather fans or folks that think of the Kings as a side show. Makes it tough for Staples to get loud unless there's some really good hockey.

I think what a few folks are worried about here is Pegula turning into some sort of Charles Wang- an owner that wants to play GM and have a strong hand in drafting and on-ice personnel decisions- to the point where the GM is handcuffed. That's not a good situation. But I think to say that Terry is currently walking down that road is reading too much into the situation. If we take PA's paraphrasing at face value: He could entirely be talking about off ice decisions here that happen to fall into Darcy's realm. ###### like how Terry's pocketbook can make the gym better, or the players seemed antsy about management after the lockout so let's have more team dinners at our house, or we don't have any scouts in Botswana- should we beef that effort up a little. Little extras to big ideas that maybe Darcy hasn't thought of or didn't think were feasible with previous ownership. I would hope that any player personnel conversations go like this: "Darcy, we're 15th in powerplay scoring, what's up?" "Well Terry, I've been thinking about that. We've had some injuries to key guys. Here's a few ideas I think would work to fix that and this one is the best option. Lindy agrees. It'll take $10M over the next two years." "I trust you to make the right decision. Do it." I haven't seen any evidence that those conversations don't go exactly like that. Outside of that realm, I encourage Terry to get actively involved just about as much as possible and help the hockey folks as much as possible to imrpove the organization from bottom to top.

Welp, it's $67,500 of salary to play for Bridgeport, or it's $900,000 of salary and up to $1,925,000 in additional performance bonuses to play on the island. The ridiculous amount of bonus money was tacked on because it adds to the cap and NYI had to do it to reach the cap floor. So it's no surprise that, when they signed Neiderreiter to that contract and then basically said that he'll never see a cent of it, he asks for a trade.

Carolina Hurricanes Post Game from last season:

He wasn't great, but he was better last night than many, many of his previous broadcasts. I'll give him the reluctant thumbs up base on the fact it was game 1 and the impression I got that he's trying to improve. He didn't unleash Encyclopedia Sylvestera during any of his calls and he kept the calls concise and accurate. He rid himself of some of his monotonous speech. He didn't once say "and it is!" Seems like the Sabres-connected may have been reading the forum again. (from the old thread...)

Love it. The guy lives to compete hard and make it hard to compete.

Petey and Marty as analysts, hosted by Duffer for future broadcasts?

Good. ###### 'em.

Yah, right-o. So I'm tendin' bar down there at Ecklund and Swedlin's last Tuesday and this little guy's drinkin' and he says, 'So where can a guy find some action? I'm goin' crazy out there at the lake.' And I says, 'What kinda action?' And he says, 'Woman action, what do I look like?' And I says, 'Well, what do I look like, I don't arrange that kinda thing,' and he says, 'But I'm goin' crazy out there at the lake,' and I says, 'Yah, but this ain't that kinda place.' He says, 'Oh, so I get it, so you think I'm some kinda jerk for askin',' only he don't use the word jerk. Then he calls me a jerk and says the last guy who thought he was a jerk is dead now. So I don't say nothin'. He says, 'What do ya think about that?' And I says, 'Well, that don't sound like too good a deal for him, then.' Yah. He says, 'Yah, that guy's dead and I don't mean of old age.' And then he says, 'Geez, I'm goin' crazy out there at the lake.' Yah, well, at Ecklund and Swedlin, that's closer to Moose Lake, so I made that assumption. Anyway, he was drinkin' at the bar, so I don't think a whole great deal of it, but then Mrs. Mohra, she heard about the homicides down here and thought I should call it in, so I called it in. End of story. ----- Edit: He's been smoother fo sho, but in his defense, it was game 1 and they gave him A LOT of time to fill. He wasn't short on the insight, just big with the run on sentences.

The LA show right now is Drew Doughty and a bunch of youngsters. And I thought Leo rebounded tonight from yesterday. He made a lot of strong plays and his skating and positioning were phenomenal. That doesn't un-trade-bait him though, being a UFA at season's end.

This may not increase the chances that we see Stoll, but with Greene now out for the season, I think the Kings are very likely to make a move to bolster their back end. http://www.tsn.ca/nhl/story/?id=414161

Note that there is no Gragnani tracker. He's buried in Charlotte, after being released by Vacouver and waived/sent down by Carolina before the lockout.

I watched the Montreal-Toronto game and both teams looked slow as molasses compared to the NYR-BOS game. Our game pace was higher Sunday. We can take 'em. Ride high.

DirecTV carries the Sabres home HD feed on MSG, on a channel it calls NYa3 ("MSG/MSG+ HD Alternate") in the guide. This is channel 638-1 in my neighborhood (Los Angeles).

Despoil's good. I also like "rook" and "cozen."

I can confirm this. Almost all of DTV's CI is in HD, with this exception. One slight downside is that you need to pay for the highest package in order to receive NBCSN (versus) games because CI is blacked out for those games. NHLN is available in the mid-low packages and higher,so no biggy.

Love it.

Yup, but one has to be fair- fans like Kevin, just not in the PbP chair. He's a great TV host, which is why he might have success on the radio as a host.

Relevant thread of old: http://forums.sabrespace.com/topic/20946-msg-b-team-broadcast/ TL;DR Ownership cares greatly about the broadcast quality and listens to fans. I trust their judgement, with continued input, going forward.

Thank you Vancouver. Thank you Dallas. Thank you Calgary.

Hartnell drops the bombs but goes down first and takes a decent shot right before he does. Tie game.

Regehr stays, and not only because of his no move clause. Leopold, meh. We could use a guy that's better than Ellis up front.

I guess one downside of Drew fighting Hartnell, is that Ruff didn't have a good reason to send out Scott to murder him.

That game ###### rocked. Notes: Vanek's now on pace for 96 goals and 240 points in 48 games. I think he might have been to blame for the ###### change that left him out there too long and cost us that goal. Then either he was given a break because of the double shift or he was benched, because Hecht played the next shift with Hodgon and Pominville. That gave him time to mentally un###### himself and rebound very strongly. Hodgson and Vanek were dangerous for the rest of the game- they finished with 16 shots on net between the two of them. Hodgson led all forwards in ice time. Leo skated well, but didn't make a lot of plays he needed to. Needs improvement or he's trade bait and it'll be Brennan's turn. Ennis skated well in all areas of the ice, but looked fatigued through the 3rd. He also happened to kill it in the faceoff circle, going 11-6. Ott might be my new favorite Sabre. He played with urgency and physicality in all areas of the ice, and really brought a lot of energy. He busted ass and sacrificed to make not only a couple of great plays, but every play that was necessary. Good to see Drew step up. He put his pretty boy face on the line against an angry mongoloid in the name of all that is holy. I knew he had it in him (see Neil/Drury brawl and Umberger years ago), but we haven't seen it in a long damn time. Pominville quietly gathered three assists. He's doing it right. Ellis and Scott both saw less than 4 minutes. I get why that was the case: the other lines were going gangbusters. But in a compressed season, we'll need all four lines.