IKnowPhysics

Should mangement decisions be weighed on outcome? Absolutely yes. Should the information available at the time of the decision be considered? Also yes. Management is human and shouldn't be expected to be infallible or have a crystal ball. However, they should also be expected to perceive and correct their mistakes. One can take a "winning is all that matters" approach, and even most GMs might publicly agree with it, but if one doesn't take the time to at least understand why decisions were made, it becomes difficult to parse who is truly to blame and solve the problem, even if the GM "accepts all responsibility."

5-2, and WSH will have at least one EN goal with at least 2:00 left to play.

This is the experience I had, as we texted back and forth for bit about fan experience and the broadcast, which was why Eleven's experience was both curious and puzzling. People are different in their personal and professional lives, I suppose. As one of the few American children that grew up watching the Elephant Show, Fred Penner's Place, and Rue Sesame, I empathize.

Disheartening. Too bad. Holy ***** dude, I got old just from reading the explanation.

I never got the impression that Ted was a jerk. Why was this? I know bad decisions were made under him that he ultimately took responsibility for, but his concerns for the fan experience and my interactions with him personally never summed to any more jerkishness than say, Botterill or Murray, and certainly not Larry Quinn.

I question your foundational premise that Kevyn Adams doesn't have the power to fire Krueger simply because he hasn't done so yet, which undermines your position that Adams must be fired for... lying? Just say you don't like how KA manages the team and you'd like to see him fired. Why torture yourself with inventing needless and baseless mental gymnastics?

It's weird having players on here, but here we are. Ville Leino, hands down. The Sabres' financials were absolutely rejuvenated from the recent Pegula purchase. Sabres fans were simply erect at the thought that we could spend to the cap and never be hindered financially ever again, something that had plagued the team since ever. However, the salary cap era had tightened the UFA market to the tightest it had ever been, as a premium had been put on player asset management and a long period of sustained salary cap raises allowed teams to sign most useful players to big dollars and long terms without consequence. Every team in free agency that year was salivating at the only big-name center available: Brad Richards. Next on the list of centers after Richards was only a very washed up, broken down Jason Arnott; Richards was THE player to sign and was to be courted by just about every team, effectively guaranteeing Richards the choice of teams that would offer him a monster contract at huge term. The 2011 playoffs ended for Buffalo at the hands of the Flyers in seven games in the conference quarterfinals, with Ville Leino recording 3G 1A 4P in 7GP. Leino would finish the playoffs with 3G 2A 5P in 11GP, as the Flyers would be swept by the Bruins following round. The Sabres needed an ugrade at center. Connolly had lead Sabres' centers with 42P in 68GP, simply mediocre. Darcy Regier knew that, even armed with huge dollars, it was flat unlikely that the Sabres could compete with every other team and land Richards. Regier and the scouting staff instead scoured the UFAs for center experience and figured out the Ville Leino had a very successful career playing center for years in SM-Liiga. When free agency started, instead of courting Richards, the Buffalo Sabres figured all the other teams would be busy seeking Richards and they instead immediately went after VIlle Leino. The Sabres signed Ehrhoff and Leino and traded for Robyn Regher in a few short days, with Terry Pegula himself flying to rural Alberta to convince Regher of the Sabres' conviction to winning (FUEL UP THE JET!). Leino had signed for six years, $27M. The Sabres touted his ability to play center as the reason they signed him. Leino would only play a few games at center before being moved to wing by Ruff. Over the next three seasons, before being permanently benched by Ted Nolan then bought out at huge cost to the Sabres, he recorded 10G 36A46P in 137GP, including an infamous 0G in his last season of 58GP. He was injury prone. Leino would continue in the K and the SHL for a couple years. When he retired, he started fashion design. Here, he depicts his impression of his last year in Buffalo: I don't know if injuries derailed Ville Leino's goalless final year in Buffalo, but I know this: Ville Leino agreed to a large contract to play center for the Buffalo Sabres, and when he got here, it was immediately clear he did not want to play center. Leino would then outlast both Darcy Regier and Lindy Ruff. He should rethink who was truly put in jail.

Then you don't know Gary Bettman. UNLIMITED DRAFT LOTTERY CHANGES

I didn't have an opinion on this, but now I do. You're absolutely right. Players are getting trashed by fans and news outlets alike for diminished performance because it's unknown that players are playing all sorts of ***** up. Meanwhile the NHL gets the benefit of not having to publicly disclose how many injuries and concussions occur. When it comes to picking a stance to negotiate, the NHLPA is in a tight spot too: protect the players' medical privacy or protect the players from the fans by leveraging public disclosure? From a fan perspective, the right move is full public disclosure, but this is a right that the player would have to collectively waive.

Not making excuses for KA, and there's plenty of reasons to be critical of him, BUT... These quotes are from back when Ullmark had JUST gotten injured and the question asked was regarding the goalie impact on the team record. KA including Ullmark's play was absutely appropriate at the time. And he was right. The goalies, even with Hutton playing poorly, were not the reason the record was so so bad back then- it had more to do with 5v5 scoring simply not happening. Since then, with no Ullmark of course, goaltending has been absolute *****. And that is definitely on KA. But he wasn't disingenuous at the time he was asked these questions.

This is a good thing. Open the trade deadline floodgates early.

For reference, Sabres Taxi Squad currently: Rasmus Asplund, CJ Smith, Brandon Davidson, Dustin Tokarski. No word on what happens if the Amerks are quarantined and we run out of players due to injury. Maybe emergency contracts a la Ryan Vinz? Maybe contact tracing and testing will free up some Amerks players...? Or maybe they'll be rushed into action and the Sabres will simply catch COVID again, because NHL. At this point, why not think of the ever-worsening worst case scenario? Time is a flat circle.

Yep. Also assumes no correlation of performance between seasons for any teams (ie a team that's good one season will likely be somewhat good the next season).

FTFY Original point stands, however.

Leafs radio driving clicks by exploiting Buffalo's misery? Say it ain't so. John says nay, likely.

My neck My back My GM and my coach

On average, if all teams are treated the same (they're not, especially Canadian teams) the 25 games on ABC/ESPN is about 1.5 games per season for any team. The 75 games is about 4.7 games per team per season. I'd ballpark Buffalo, due to our high relative ratings and American market, around 1 ABC game, 2 ESPN games, and 5 ESPN+/Hulu games. We'd likely be flexed a bit on the ABC games based on team performance. Compare the 100 total regular season games for this deal to NBC's expiring deal for 109 regular season games last season, in which the Sabres had five games last year on NBCSN.

Matt Irwin: top pair defenseman.

https://www.sportico.com/business/media/2021/espn-nhl-on-verge-of-new-media-rights-deal-1234624492/ NBC currently pays ~$200M/year for the whole shebangabang, but the ESPN contract equate to roughly $285M-$321M/year for only whatever ESPN is getting rights to (NBCUniversal/Comcast is also expected to sign a new contract and retain significant content for big dollars). That's a shitload of cash. The increased expenditure makes me hopeful that television production budgets will be first rate, visibility will be high, and the game will experience growth. However, two contracts makes me weary that we may need to subscribe to Peacock and ESPN+ to get 100% Sabres coverage. We'll see.

FYI, ESPN+ is currently $5.99 per month or $59.99 annually. Unknown if NHL out-of-market games will be tiered into a separate subscription/price. It'd be nice if it only cost $60/year, as NHL.tv/NHL Center Ice was about ~$160 for the regular 82 game season (and didn't include games broadcast on NBCSN or NBC). I'm hoping that whoever else gets the remaining unnegotiated national TV rights doesn't also force games onto a streaming-only cable+ subscription.

Theses current TV negotiations are for US markets/providers only, I believe. Canada still has their remaining exclusivity deals.