Robviously

Again, Regier won't make any trade with significant potential that he could look bad later.

Keep the shootouts but make the 4 on 4 overtime ten minutes. A sudden death goal is still the most exciting end to a game (unless it's f-ing Darius Kasparitis ending our GD playoff run in Game 7 of Round 2 in 2001 -- then it's bullcrap. Thanks, Eleven.)

Just to show how Sabres misery helps pass the time, I remember talking to you after the 2001 game and being apoplectic about Kasparitis' goal. That was 12 sorry-ass years ago, and Hasek's last game with us.

The part where they sent him down after 22 games played to make sure they didn't hit that 23 number, apparently not knowing that it was 23 games on the active roster and not 23 games played. If they did this knowingly, then WHY? Keep him on the active roster for 22 games and then send him back to Quebec a couple weeks earlier to make sure this year doesn't count (200 minutes of ice time sure as hell shouldn't). Doing this knowingly actually makes it worse.

We need to draft new posters. Better ones. (Also, now that I'm getting up there in age, please trade me to a message board where I'll at least have a chance at a championship.)

Somewhere on page 7 Weave said he didn't trust the current brain trust to manage the rebuild and I brought up the Grigorenko debacle as proof of why he's right to feel that way. And then it became a "It's not that bad; who cares?" argument. Says a lot about the state of the team when that's the best thing the defenders can say about it.

+1

If Grigorenko ends up sucking, it won't make any difference at all. But in the big picture, this is something they need to get right. The fact that there was apparently no attention to detail regarding probably the most important piece of their plans for the future is an incredibly bad sign. Again, the Sabres have basically no competitive advantage over any team in the NHL. We have money, but the best free agents can get that anywhere and so far they have all preferred to go to other teams. If we're ever going to contend, we have to be smarter than the competition. This is evidence that we're not. That's the point. Dude, you're an a-hole. Why would you bring up the 2001 Kasparitis game? I was at that disaster and had a perfect view of Kasparitis' weak 40-foot wrist shot squirting through Hasek's legs and into our net.

It's not acceptable for either team, but it's easier to forgive if you're a Devils fan thanks to that little detail about them winning multiple championships and contending pretty consistently. [seriously, how delusional do you have to be as a fan when you're saying "Who even cares about championships??"] Of course it's a major blunder. Having an extra year where he's an RFA gives the team a lot more flexibility if he does turn out to be the good player we're pretty much counting on him to be. And there was no upside to keeping him that long to play 10 minutes a game. And on a broader scale, where would you put Grigorenko on the list of things that need to go right if the Sabres are ever going to contend again? Probably right at no.1 since having a legit no.1 NHL center is an incredibly important part of being a contender. But despite his importance to the franchise, they still couldn't be bothered to understand his contract status. What does that tell you about this organization as a whole? If the best defense of this debacle is "yeah, but someone else made the same mistake" and "who cares anyway?" that says a lot. Literally the BEST thing the people defending the organization can say at this point is "yeah, but who cares?" when something goes wrong. [And, yes, I'm acting under the assumption that what Ken Campbell is reporting is accurate. He's about as legit as you're going to get regarding hockey journalists.]

The point is that our incompetent team screwed up again. Why were the writers from The Hockey News able to figure this out and the Sabres couldn't? Both groups are paid to get stuff like this right. Why didn't anyone spend the few minutes it would take to make sure? Or even pick up a phone and check with someone from the league if there was any confusion? The Sabres are a small market team that can't attract top free agents. They don't have any room for error if they're planning on ever being a contender. This is the type of thing they need to get right. As for who cares about the Devils championships, I'll go out on a limb and say EVERYONE. Three Stanley Cups and they were in the Finals again last year. The Sabres have been in the Finals twice and the last time was back in the 90s.

The fact that the Devils screwed up too doesn't make me feel any better. They have championships. They can get away with an occasional screw-up.

Not just the GM, but literally EVERYONE over there. They have an entire building full of people who get paid to do nothing but think about hockey and the NHL rules all day long, all year long and not one of these people ever found the 15 seconds necessary to double check the rules regarding their plan for developing their no.1 prospect. So they thought they were super clever about sending him down after he played 22 games except -- DERP -- that wasn't the rule. ###### this organization.

Except they DID do that. The 23 game mark isn't "games played", it's games on the active roster and Grigorenko had 27 of those. They burned a year towards his UFA. Nobody in this organization of incompetent morons ever bothered to double check the rules. http://sports.yahoo.com/news/did-sabres-devils-keep-grigorenko-202700651--nhl.html

This is the solution. Incredibly simple and intuitive, and could lead to a lot of new in-game strategies for teams that are both behind and ahead in the standings. Of course the NHL will never do it. They're still trying to figure out if head injuries are bad.

In my plan, we make two separate trades and acquire a young guy in the non-Miller trade who will be the eventual no.1. If that means Enroth spends a year as the no.1 while that guy develops, I won't mind.

It's the reason I've been drinking all night.

It could be a while before we get any new GM, let alone the "right" GM.

They've been in the Top 5 exactly three times since 1995....the last three seasons. And there's no reason to think those three players aren't going to be great. Really? They managed the Grigorenko situation pretty well. Burned a year of his contract and his first year that counts towards when he's UFA for about 200 minutes of ice time. That's gotta be worth another contract extension for Darcy.

Sabres trying to get older....?

I am far from believing they're going to make the moves that are necessary or that they're anywhere close to understanding the moves that are necessary. And that's without a late season run. I've thought all year long that they'd suck most of the season, and then escape the bottom of the league with a late run. That late run will probably end up with us putting up with the exact same crap this Fall.

They end every season with "hard-fought" wins. Hey, maybe they'll win enough that Regier gets another extension! Maybe enough to convince everyone that we should hang on to everyone for next season! Oh boy!

We'd better be trading Regehr but I have no idea what we're trying to get from LA.

How many years in a row have people been saying this? Late run and "See, we're not so bad! We just need some tweeks for next season!" Every season is the same as every season is the same as every season......

Enroth stole one.

"Faceoffs don't matter." - Jeremy White