Robviously

I let it go months ago. I can't even remember the last time I argued with anyone about tanking or not tanking. This is why the temper tantrum stuff was so confusing. I didn't even realize anyone still had an axe to grind over last year's threads. Let it go or don't. This ended for me a long time ago.

This isn't the first time. You randomly threw out some line about me having "temper tantrums" at the end of some GDT that I wasn't even posting in last month. I avoid you in general. Seems better for us and better for the board. Let me know if you want to keep going.

Says the guy following me around the message board trying to pick a fight. Irony indeed.

Jeremy White spazzing out on Twitter is nothing new. He's a lot like Mike Schoop in that he can't handle people disagreeing with him.

Totally fine by me. When you wrote "get that number one pick" I thought you meant stockpile picks next year and then trade up. We have plenty of 2014 picks now. If we focus on 2015 picks when we move guys this year, no problem. And if the Sabres feel strongly that next year's class is a lot better, they should definitely do it.

I doubt there's any chance anyone is trading either of the top 2 picks in 2015 for any number of later picks in the draft. I'm fine with them collecting more picks both this year and next. 2015 first rounders are especially nice as lotto tickets for McDavid.

Quick, name any other city where the fans would want to watch a press conference on the jumbotron. Every now and then I'm really proud of the goofy fans in our city.

Wow, let's see if anyone gets this reference.

The way things are going, I wouldn't mind Armia and Grigorenko spending all of next year together in Rochester. Maybe Ristolainen too, in the event he ever shows up again.

Calm down.

I like the choice but I wonder how he's going to get along with Nolan if he's really a grumpy, borderline-crazy person. Sounds like two very strong personalities.

We should be trading for specific prospects or young players at this point. We should have been already. Darcy was asleep at the wheel last year when the Caps were shopping Forsberg, for example. We'll see what the new GM does with Ott, Moulson, and Miller.

They are the way to get there, especially when you're a small market team that doesn't attract free agents. You need to hit some home runs in the draft to get there. Trying to tank for 2 straight years to draft one specific player is not the way to get there. (shhhhhhh.... We shouldn't argue. Tonight is the night I just want to hug it out with you, man.)

Even if he is only good for 70 points/season, how many guys like that do we have in our entire organization? Hodgson can put up the points but can't play defense. Ennis' best year was 49 points in 82 games. Armia and Grigorenko are giant "maybes." Zemgus is probably our top forward prospect right now but he looks more like a 60-70 point two-way player. 70 points/season is disappointing for a no.1 overall pick, but he'd be a huge addition to us if he could do that as part of a two-way game. You also don't *need* a generational player like Crosby to win. The Bruins didn't have one when they won. The 2006 Sabres were the best team in the NHL and their leading scorer was Afinogenov with 73 points (no one else broke 70). The only guy on the 2010 Blackhawks with more than 70 points was Patrick Kane. Roll four lines and get balanced scoring and you can win. Praying to draft first or second overall in 18 months is not the answer.

The entire show takes place in the imagination of an autistic boy.

I think he'd change our franchise a lot and we'd be extremely lucky to get him. Don't let perfect be the enemy of good.

Tallinder is past his prime. Anyone griping about Enroth is probably just looking at his record. He's actually been good this year, and a victim of getting no goal support.

Vanek finished with a couple assists. Tavares was a barbarian: 3 goals, 2 assists.

Ullmark is signed to play in Sweden next season. All the 'raw' stuff I saw was from when we drafted him. This is his second season since then and he's doing really well in the top league there. Maybe the rawness is already going away. Cal Peterson is the other goalie that Kris Baker is excited about. He's doing great in the USHL thus year and starts at Notre Dame (with Connor Hurley) this fall. Hackett has been a huge disappointment and I want more from Larsson. Larsson did look terrific in the Phoenix game last month though so there's at least some cause for optimism with him.

Jake McCabe with two goals and an assist tonight for Wisconsin.

I agree with your main point (in bold) but I don't think Strome is the right guy to make it with. You can't compare their stats from Juniors. The OHL and QMJHL are completely different. The Q is the defense-free league; there is long list of prospects from the Q who put up insane numbers there but were never able to anything at any higher level. Recent Sabres prospects like this include Zagrapan (former 1st round pick whose Q numbers look a lot like Grigorenko's) and Gauthier-Leduc. The reason I'm not super excited about Grigorenko right now is because I only ever hear two things about his effort/compete. It's either (a) not good or (b) "improved, but still not where it needs to be." Now maybe this is all a massive struggle because he's not used to playing at levels where he isn't significantly more talented than his competition. Maybe a light will come on and he'll "get it" one day. But in the meantime, I'm not ready to pencil him in as a guy I want to count on for the future. He's a "maybe."

Strome has a much better resume. So far the only place Grigorenko has done well is the Q. Strome has averaged more than 1 PPG in the OHL and AHL.

Teams 1-8 include the Texans, Jaguars, Rams, Browns, Raiders, and Vikings -- all of whom need QBs. Just about every mock draft I've seen has Bridgewater, Carr, Bortles, and Manziel going before the Bills draft.

If we wait until the trade deadline (March 5th) to trade him, that's PLENTY of time for him to help dig us out of the basement in the standings. The team is still incredibly awful, but right now he's good enough to cancel that out completely. The Sabres could easily be a bad team with a winning record in their last 43 games. 2014 is going to be 2011 all over again. We're going to finish strong, and we'll probably draft 6th - 10th. And then we'll probalby be terrible again to start 2014-2015, and fans will be surprised. Fun.

They're going to give EJ another year. The only way I see them drafting another QB in this class is if the LSU QB (Mettenberger) falls all the way to them in the 3rd round because of his torn ACL. And even then I doubt they'd pull the trigger that early. [Mettenberger seems like the best of both worlds for the Bills. He's a great insurance plan if Manuel doesn't improve next year but they won't have any controversy next year since he'll still be on the mend.] I'm not super high on EJ long term but it's looking like at least four QBs will be gone by the time the Bills draft 9th. So even if they wanted a new guy, their options will be limited.