Doohickie

Vin Scully's final signoff 😨😥😭 So lyrical.

Yep. Played all 7 games in the NLCS, and 1 game in the WS that year.

Kirk Gibson actually has an interesting story. He was an All-American wide receiver for the Michigan State Spartans football team. His football coach suggested he try baseball. After one season of college ball he was drafted in the first round by the Detroit Tigers. He won a World Series with them in 1984. Then in 1988 he won a World Series with Los Angeles. The video was from Game One. He'd been playing injured for some time; he finally couldn't play because he'd pulled his left hamstring and had cartilage damage in his right knee. He could barely walk and spent most of the game in the club house while trainers treated him in hopes he could play. He finally said he could play and Manager Tommy Lasorda played hunch and put him in with two outs in the bottom of the 9th inning and ..... you saw what happened. One of my favorite sports moments.

We lived in L.A. in the mid-80s. I fell in love with the Dodgers because of Scully.

Ew. Slimy.

Maybe. Maybe not. What if the program is sanctioned and they are not eligible for college playoffs this season? It could affect his decision.

That's nice. But if he didn't want to be a mentor for UPL, Levi and/or Portillo, there's nothing that could have made him stay here. It was his choice. The failure of KA is not that he didn't sign him, the failure was that he was sure he would.

or swallow?

He will make us forget the name Ryan Miller by the end of the season 😉

Yes. Better than Ryan Miller.

Your best post ever, @Andrew Amerk

I'm going to add to the predictions: Comrie will turn out to be the best goalie the Sabres have had since Hasek. Deep run in '23, Cup in '24.

Ullmark's salary wasn't the issue. It was the TERM. And lecturing me is just as insulting.

I don't see why both can't be true. Kevyn clearly screwed up that situation. I think it became a learning opportunity for him. He should have recognized the real possibility that Ullmark might leave he should have had a better backup plan. If Ullmark wasn't signed by the deadline he should have been traded for assets. He could have still been a "good guy" by informing Ullmark that he would be traded if he wasn't signed by the deadline. Kevyn likely would have gotten a significant return from a playoff team seeking to acquire goalie depth for their playoff run. Did Ullmark want to stay in Buffalo? I think it was a decision he weighed, and was informed by his agent. I think the major factor from his point of view was that the Sabres hadn't been to the playoffs for a long time and he wanted a playoff team. If it's true that he wanted the Sabres to pay a premium in money or term, that was probably the leverage. I think Adams was right in not biting at that.

Yes, the point of obtaining Bishop's contract was to have relatively cheap insurance (I believe it's about $750k to get $5 million in cap dollars) to make sure the Sabres don't dip below the cap floor as they make roster moves during the season... assuming Bishop's contract is on LTIR and insurance pays 75%. But because he will be on LTIR it doesn't prevent Bishop's salary to affect the Sabres if they approach the salary cap. It's basically a non-move player-wise; just a financial transaction. Bishop is this year's Johnny Boychuk. And the reason Kevyn is doing these kinds of deals is to ensure he doesn't have long term salary liabilities that will affect cap compliance when he has to start paying players coming off ELCs. RE Ullmark: If Kevyn had signed him, he'd still be paying him $5M for 3 more years... and rumor was that to stay in Buffalo he was demanding more $ or term. And Ullmark is about the same (marginally better) than Swayman who's only making $1M per year. If Comrie comes close to matching his SV% he had with WPG he'll be a steal compared to Ullmark. The way I see that situation is that yes, Kevyn f'ed up by trusting a deal would get done. The mistake he made was not trading him at the end of the season at the deadline prior to Ullmark reaching UFA. And yes, in the absence of a contract with Ullmark he should have gone through the off-season with the assumption that he would have to be replaced. Instead he waited, believing Ullmark would sign with the Sabres, and had no backup plan. Yes he messed up. But given that, it's also hard to blame him for the injuries that affected Sabres goaltending the last two seasons. We'll see how Comrie works out but I wouldn't be surprised if this forum will be looking back at the acquisition a year from now and calling it a home run, as good a move as the Eichel trade.

Ya, so why overpay Ullmark when you can buy up Bishop's contract and dump some of your money on him instead. Sure, makes perfect sense. You are either being obtuse or you are incredibly ignorant of what Kevyn is doing to prevent cap trouble down the road.

I don't see how that is any more relevant that wishing that the Sabres had won the lottery and picked McJesus. It's all coulda-woulda-shoulda.

I think this is a case of following the analytics. The whole point of having a strong analytics department is to bring in players that conventional scouting misses. You're right in that the proof is in the pudding but when we applauded the staffing of key analytics positions, this is what we were signing up for.

Oh crap, of course. We already got our UM Dman when Power signed last year. Brain fart.

I don't care if a Sabres staffer is a previous Sabre or not. I want the right person for the job out of those available. A preference toward ex-Sabres is sentimental hogwash.

I think in the Pegulas' case, it's not paranoia. They went with leadership choices that were league darlings. They failed. Wanting to pick their own GM under those circumstances isn't paranoia, it's the voice of experience.

With the turmoil at UM, we might see Portillo and Johnson after all, and sooner rather than later. If we had Portillo in the org (i.e., signed) the picture would be considerably different.