IKnowPhysics

It's so easy, it's almost as if, if it didn't eventually happen, there would have to be a good reason for it not to have occurred. I mean, it's such a slam dunk, there's no possible way he doesn't get added to the front office, unless there was a bulletproof reason why it doesn't happen. I mean, you'd have to be such a god damned moronic idiot that you drool and eat wings with ranch to NOT do it, that if you DIDN'T do it, there was probably a reasonable explanation for not doing it. I mean, you'd have to know that hiring him would likely bring about the 2nd coming of Jesus, Grand Unification Theory, and a cure for the Rona that also solves homelessness, wherein, if you DIDN'T hire him, you had good confidence that you knew what you were doing.

Apologies. The bulk of that question was really for the other poster, and wasn't intended to admonish your efforts. I tagged you to gather your opinion about how you might expect an official source to answer a question they don't want to answer, be it during the middle of an internal confidential personnel decision process or a potential "no truthful answer will make for good PR" situation. This isn't criticism of the the act of asking the question or the question itself; hard questions are paramount to journalism.

Ryan Smyth Joe Sakic Joe Pavelski Patrik Elias Martin St Louis All leaders. All hard working. All exceptional skill or exceptional ability to outwork. All outstanding members of the community. Honorable mentions: Chris Pronger dominated during his time, but he was an ***** on and off the ice. Mark Messier calling the series in '94 was legend. Patrick Kane's skills may be world best.

At the very least, it saves on JetA for XSR960. But grit and a mean streak are useful qualities in players, maybe even coaching staff or a player mentality/culture. Not sure you want a mean streak in the front office environment. Passion, hard work, dedication, and history are quite important, however. They'll find the right fit.

***** yes. Enough with the short-term money grubbing. Get the best players onto the best world stage for sport. Grow the game.

We're not in 100% agreement on the premise, but I agree 100% with the conclusions. Cozens is NHL ready and, based on NHL Equivalency, and has more NHL potential this season than Casey MIttelstadt.. Ideally, our roster needs to be improved so that Cozens will not have to be the 2C. He needs sheltered time -time against manageable quality of competition and good offensive zone starts- with quality veteran support on the wings. And because we have some options with him, he'll need to continue to work hard to demonstrate he's ready for the NHL.

When Ron Francis left after the ownership change in CAR, Don Waddell moved from team president to team team president and GM in 2018, and his first move was to hire longtime friend Rick Dudley as Sr VP of Hockey Operations. Duds' contract with CAR was up today. Dudley has done just about every job in hockey. He's also worked with just about every NHL team in the league at some point or another. He's a wealth of knowledge. His resume is borderline silly: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rick_Dudley; https://www.eliteprospects.com/staff/1265/rick-dudley He's also self-admitted to be a very intense personality. Knowing that Krueger, the Pegulas, and potentially Adams, highly value trust, honesty, communication skills, and interpersonal skills, they should definitely be talking with Dudley to see how the fit is. He has hockey knowledge that'd definitely be useful for Adams and Krueger, but everyone needs to be on the same page with regard to vision and communication in order for his hire to benefit the organization. Who else with that level of hockey knowledge is floating around out there that's not already retired? Jacque Demers, John Muckler, and Scotty Bowman are all retired. Craig Patrick has come and gone (he's a scout with PIT now). I sifted through the list of recent former GMs and pulled names. Of the those that are not currently NHL-employed, not many, if any, of them seem like good fits: Burke, Chiarelli, Howson, Nieuwendyk, Rowe, Gauthier, Pleau, Gillis. Dudley may be the best bet.

Public schools sometimes have large parking lots in ok condition if they have buses. Usually no cars on weekends or after hours, or, now being COVID/summer, maybe anytime.

Somewhere, the NHL has written -but not publicly revealed- a contingency plan with no postseason in 2020. And if they stray from the current announced plan, which requires a postseason be played, they will have to decide on a different plan that determines how the 1st overall is awarded. It's shady AF to make a mid-course change to the plan once Phase I of the lottery has been completed.. I wonder if the Winnipeg Jets are screaming behind closed doors, lobbying the NHL about what they think the contingency plan should be. Phase II of the draft lottery has them split the odds of winning 1st overall (12.5%). But they finished the regular season as "Team E," who won the Phase I lottery for 1st overall. I wonder if the teams in the qualifier round but outside regular season finishers Teams A through H are arguing for extended even odds (6.25%) to all 16 qualifying round teams upon postseason cancellation.

Gotta believe this has no impact on the cap. Escrow is only a mechanic on how players get paid and how much real salary they earn, not how much the cap salaries count against the cap. Giving players the option to defer is smart- they could pay in a lesser percentage of real salary into escrow next year, and, depending on how it's worded, the payout might be better next year because hockey related revenue will damn sure be higher than this year. It's good for owners/franchises as well, as it might delay a chunk of real payroll until next year with better team incomes. Depending on specifics, could be a win-win. On general labor peace: I think both the league and PA are aware of the consequences if a) the league revenue gets hurt by COVID long term, b) a lockout flubs the Seattle expansion and related revenue, and/or c) the lockout undercuts the TV contract negotiations and revenue. It's good to see them work together, even if it's dolla dolla bill y'all.

Yep. Britt and Jess are good friends of mine; high quality people. Not sure if I've ran into Tim yet (we have three teams and obv haven't played or gathered in a while).

Nice. I helped get Madison started in their first years, played with Chicago and Minneapolis here and there, and now play for LA. I've heard nothing but great things from teammates about NY and the Chelsea Challenge. We might have some mutual friends.

Knowing we had a majority chance (53.6%) of moving down 1, 2, or 3 spots, I am also glad we only moved down 1. This play-in loser gets first overall is bad, and the NHL should feel bad. It incentivizes teams to bail out of the first round. The odds are now 12.5% for the 1st overall pick, which in a recent year, would be the 1st overall lottery odds for somewhere between the 2nd and 3rd last point finisher. To move from from 9th-16th overall (0.37-0.30) to 1st overall (1.00) is basically worth three picks from that range according to NHL pick values: https://www.sportsnet.ca/hockey/nhl/analyzing-value-nhl-draft-picks/ You can't convince me that of 16 middling teams, not a single one doesn't want a 12.5% chance to triple their pick value and grab Lafrennierrenene. And how many of the bottom eight teams will suddenly lobby to cancel the season? Will the NHL adjust to 16 teams? The NHL ***** the bed and now they have to sleep in it. Boo to the architects that created this mess and boo to the owners that approved this shoddy plan.

In 1835, when the United States was only 59 years old and states stretched only to somewhere in Missouri, a mentally ill man by the name of Richard Lawrence attempted to take the life of President Andrew Jackson. Lawrence, wielding two pistols, approached Jackson from behind and attempted to shoot Jackson in the back at point blank range. The first pistol misfired. The second pistol misfired. Jackson turned around and bludgeoned that man to within an inch of his life using his famous cane. When word got out to the young nation of Jackson's failed assassination, it was considered Divine Providence. It was believed that God was a guiding hand in the US and this was more evidence He wanted the nation to succeed. When laboratory tests were performed on the pistols, it was estimated that the chance of both pistols misfiring was 1 in 125,000. It doesn't matter what the odds are. We have Divine Providence. The Buffalo Sabres are on a mission from God.

Could be Johansson. Natural LW forced to C. Paul Hamilton mentioned it as an issue this past week, as a result of the coaches trying to fill in the hole at 2C when it was settled that Mittelstadt wasn't it. Said Johansson was a team player, and would do anything asked of him, but everyone knew he performed better at LW.

I agree with the premise that the team needs secondary scoring after the top line. NHL equivalency gives a little bit of data in which to root some obvious opinions. Casey Mittelstadt as a 2C: Casey put up 30 points in 34 games in his final season at Minnesota. This yields an NHLe of 24 points. Casey put up 25 points in 77 games (equivalent to 26pts in 82 games) in his first full season as a Sabre, so this was pretty spot on. This past year, his development stalled, as he put up 9 points in 31 games (equivalent to 24pts in 82 games) before being sent down and recording 25 points in 36 AHL games (NHLe of 28pts). The troubling part of all this is that, according to the player usage charts, he was by far the most sheltered player on the team for these two years. He has not met the production expected of a top six forward and he has not faced the quality of competition that a top six forward would. Dylan Cozens as a 2C: Dylan put up 85 points in 51 games in the WHL this year (up from 84pts in 68 games last year). This gives an NHLe of 41 points in 82 games. 41 points would have been good enough for fourth among Sabres forwards this year, if an 82 game season were played, behind EIchel, Reinhart, and Olofsson (and tied with Johansson). It's a reasonable assertion that the team's secondary scoring was insufficient, if not grossly insufficient. After Olofsson-Eichel--Reinhart's combined 78 goals, all other Sabre forwards combined for only 88 goals. While Cozens' NHLe of 41 points would be sufficient to match the production of Johansson, that level of production is insufficient. Cozens can step onto the team and make an impact next year, but if the Sabres want to improve secondary scoring, Cozens should not be the 2C without further development.

Adam Benigni: Paul Hamilton has been hired by WGRZ to provide on air and online NHL and Sabres analysis. https://twitter.com/AdamBenigni/status/1276206470862974981?s=20

FWIW, I searched the USPTO filings and haven't found anything new lately. This doesn't mean much, though, since the Slug debacle taught the patent lawyers to wait until the day of the unveiling to file the paperwork. Also, IMO, all they have to do is take the uniforms anywhere from 1980-1996 (I'm partial to 1983-1987 because the slightly wider stripes are more befitting of modern jerseys, but use the thinner stripe pants from 1980-1983), keep the six-stripe socks, and use the crest from 2010-present with an update blue. http://www.nhluniforms.com/Sabres/Sabres.html Jerseys and socks: Pants: Crest, but updated with matching blue: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buffalo_Sabres#/media/File:Buffalo_Sabres_Logo.svg

We'd get moved up the standings, have our draft position lowered, then the post season would get cancelled due to the 2nd wave, and we'd simply be left at the lower position. #BecauseItsTheCup

Math.

If no one else did the math.

Didn't mean to imply that Lowe was more worthy than Martin, just that some would say Lowe is also worthy (as a player, damn sure not as a GM).

Reasonable points. Reasonable counterpoints: Kevin Lowe was a seven-time All-Star, a King Clancy winner, and won six Stanley Cups. Oilers first-ever draft pick, scored their first goal, and leads in all-time Oilers games played.

Kim St Pierre, btw, is the first female goalie inducted to the HHOF. Three Olympic Golds with Canada ('02, '06, '10), five IIHF Golds, and three IIHF Silvers. First woman to win a Canadian Interuniversity Sports men's hockey game. Second woman in history to play alongside NHL players, when she filled in for Carey Price in a Montreal practice in '08.

https://www.cbc.ca/sports/hockey/nhl/hockey-hall-of-fame-2020-class-1.5625644 Jarome Iginla Marian Hossa Kim St-Pierre Ken Holland Kevin Lowe Doug Wilson