IKnowPhysics

Cost cutting pre-dated COVID, as the company didn't allow him to travel with the team starting this past year. Entercom is likely squeezing all of its holdings, including WGR, as its stock price has been bleeding out over the past three years, probably due to competition with the internet for advertising revenue. Similar to TBN cutting costs by clearing out its sports writers. Traditional journalism has been and continues to be in trouble as advertising revenues react to how people source their information. Sports coverage is an extension of this. I sincerely wish Paul the best. He worked hard for over 25 years for something we love. I look forward to seeing his next work.

Any time a demonstrably good player on a bad team speaks their mind, national-level media, local coverage from other teams, and bloggers rabidly froth at the mouth while pounding their keyboard hot takes of that team giving up that player in some sort of half-assed multiplayer package. This happens all the time. There's only one recent case I can remember when all of that nonsense actually came to fruition. And that GM doesn't work here anymore.

https://thehockeynews.com/news/article/carcillos-former-teammates-back-up-hazing-and-sexual-assault-allegations

The Pegulas financially secured the team's existence, secured the franchise in Buffalo, and made them economically competitive. Locked in the no-brainer regionalization with the Amerks purchase. They spend the cash, push the front office to compete, and hold them accountable when they don't. We likely wouldn't have the luxury of being mad at hockey decisions if they didn't do these things. They're not criminals, scum bags, or absentee. They care about the city and show it by being actively involved. They care about the sport and show it by being charitable and leading new initiatives. FWIW, they care about the league by being active in their initiatives as well. They put the team on a sound bedrock. The rest is year-to-year front office, team, and player performance, which, because it's highly visible and frustrating, overshadows the good they've done in some fans' and season ticket holders' minds. Friedman is right. Like it or not, we're now in an era where owners can't and don't make the astronomical level of investment required to own a professional team and then be completely hands off on their investment. And this will frustrate fans if they're in on hockey decisions, because the owners will never fire themselves. I don't know if Kevyn Adams will create a winning team. But I do know that Jason Botterill didn't and the owners are taking action. The Pegulas will be fine.

@john wawrow, thanks for looking into that dumb Harborcenter ice melt yarn today. It sounded like an excuse for some to go even more off the rails about ownership. Even the smallest kernels of truth help us all.

Especially when someone actually looked into the claims and found them to be false.

Pretend you "do this kind of work for a living" for the Sabres. Your hockey team is losing. You're aware the GM and hockey department are under scrutiny from the fans. You're aware that they are undergoing review by the ownership, but it is not yet complete. The Associated Press asks the ownership very directly if the GM is returning next year. Any response: positive, negative, and even a non-response will be published as a response. What do you tell the owner to say? @john wawrow : What would you expect an owner to say?

Friedman with more on Buffalo: https://www.sportsnet.ca/hockey/nhl/31-thoughts-breaking-major-nhl-awards-races/ Sounds a bit like the front office was blowing through cash without much to show for it, was asked to tighten its belt and get better, and resisted.

Dan Carcillo and Garrett Taylor have formed a class action lawsuit against the OHL and QMJHL for “hazing, bullying, physical and verbal harassment, physical assault, sexual harassment, and sexual assault.” The allegations are horrific and sexual in nature. Be advised. https://thehockeynews.com/news/article/more-explosive-and-shocking-allegations-against-junior-hockey-in-newly-filed-lawsuit If true and if pervasive to the junior leagues, I would believe this systemic psychological torture impacted many people over the years, including Sabres prospects. I hope those that were impacted have sought and received the help and support they needed.

It's the way of the Buffalo sports fan. We can investigate and argue and strategize and banter and keyboard mash all the live long day, but none of changes the single inevitable truth: We're going to ***** win it all.

List of Sabres employees terminated yesterday: https://mobile.twitter.com/frank_seravalli/status/1273383490365636610?s=21 22 in total. Scouting staff reduced from 21 to 7.

Likely posted above, but Friedman's podcast on this is must-listen. https://podcast.sportsnet.ca/31-thoughts/buffaloed/ Takeaways: Ownership is fed up with relying on typical outside hockey people to help them find the right people and the right path for the franchise. They're going outside the box. They're not afraid of making changes by terminating contracts with term remaining. Kevyn is seen as a non-hockey hire that is trusted by the owners and is home-grown within the organization. It's thought that Botterill never wanted to give term to Eichel and Skinner, but ownership did and overruled him. (Side note, perhaps this is why Reinhart got a bridge deal) Botterill effectively had to pitch the future plan for the franchise recently in the interviews and ownership didn't agree with the plan. Kevyn traveled with the team late in the regular season, which was an unusual move that raised some eyebrows and potentially put at least some of the writing on the wall. Up until yesterday morning, several AHL and NHL coaching staff members, including Chris Taylor, were in contract/extension negotiations with Botterill. Botterill was acting as if he were continuing right up to the firing.

This. In the future, near the end of Kevyn Adams successful reign, some fans will claim that Adams didn't build the team and that it was handed to him by Botterill, just like John Muckler was responsible for Darcy Regier's success.

Holy. *****.

This has been a swinging pendulum over the years. Need more scouts to find more value in picks -> Don't actualize value from picks -> Reduce scouting staff/increase technology usage to increase time- and cost- efficiency of scouting -> Don't actualize value from picks Repeat. There are obviously other issues in addition to the scouting.

The bottom line is that the same toxic poster(s) have been slinging the same toxic garbage for years. They're enabled by a message board technology that doesn't have downvote functions that would allow upstanding members and lurkers to consistently blast terrible threads and comments into the shadow realm. I'm not claiming that a reddit style is the pinnacle of internet conversation, but it does a better than average job of quickly and naturally disposing of the worst of the worst- something that's not done here. Hell, I have several posters on ignore, but that doesn't prevent them from dragging everyone else down and establishing this forum's reputation. A career sports journalist visits the board, has to defend his work from truly garbage posts from a long time garbage poster instead of meaningfully engaging with thoughtful discussion, he points this out, and the forum moderator says he needs a sense of humor and that's he's disrespectful and obnoxious. It's madness. And it makes the board poison. Should a journalist be given special treatment? No. But as weave put it: Ideally, you'd want cooperation. Realistically, you have combativeness. A while back, in a personal internet quality-of-life move, I decided to proactively break Cunningham's Law by deciding to never respond to someone on the internet if the point of that response was to correct them or tell them they were wrong. The outcome? I haven't posted in months. Wawrow, while not eloquent, is fundamentally correct.

FWIW, I count blessings. We're blessed that the Kings are in deadass last place and we're not subjected to insufferable posts about we should have hired Todd McClellan.

NHL.tv, which is usually ok, was a real piece of ***** last night. Logged on successfully and casted to TV from phone ok, but then it started stuttering constantly. Logged off phone, switched to laptop on the same wifi, and got the multiple locations error. Logged off and shut off laptop and phone several times to no avail. Tried a 2nd phone, no worky. Tried a 2nd laptop, same issue. Then after a while, it randomly started working on the 2nd laptop. But a new issue started where the game video just stops, and the in-browser controls refuse to appear, so you have to refresh the page to regain control and then scroll to the part where you left off. Except this new issue occurred about every four minutes. It took me about two hours to watch the first period. So then I just watched the game recap video, which also took me about twenty minutes to watch five minutes of video because of the same issues on the NHL's piece of ***** website.

I can top that. Narrator: He could not top that.

Jonas Johansson has earned his keep, working his way up from Sweden to Cincinnati to Rochester, bettering his SV% and GAA along the way. Meanwhile, Hamburglar appears to have been playing like hot ass in Rochester. Likely Hamburglar will backup Johansson night to night, and UPL will get 5-8 callups to Rochester this season, like Johansson did over the past couple of years.

The Sabres at night are big and bright Deep in the heart of Buffalo