Robviously

Gaustad is one of the most frustrating players on the team because even when he's not scoring (like now), he could make a big impact for our team by just picking fights and dropping the gloves every now and then. He used to fight and he was good at it. Now he doesn't even bother. If he's not going to score goals, he should do something else out there. The best we get now is that he'll maybe shove someone after the whistle with a blank look on his face. We're really getting nothing out of him at this point.

Pick your poison. The locker room isn't going to be thrilled if the team never gives out any big contracts either. Pominville had a great season and was rewarded for it with a big contract. That's probably good for the locker room mentally. I don't think there would be a good vibe playing for a team that doesn't give out big contracts to keep its own players. And I don't think free agents would be more likely to sign here if that was the case either. There will always be anomalies in every sport where the guy having the best season on a team is not the guy being paid the most money that year. That's just the way it is. Myers was probably our MVP last year on an entry-level contract.

Niedermayer looks like he should have retired. We're almost a quarter through the season and he has zero goals and 5 assists, on his way to a -2. Morrisonn is a -8 with 1 assist. We definitely didn't get better through free agency last summer and I honestly can't remember the last time the Sabres signed an impact free agent. (I don't count Spacek.) The most likely scenario for a better Sabres roster next season comes from adding Luke Adam and Zack Kassian up front and then hoping Weber, Shiestel, and/or Brennan is ready to be a full-time NHL defenseman.

Koivu and Cullen didn't want to come here. The only player we signed who might have had offers elsewhere was Leopold. We also got Morrison and Niedermeyer after no one else was all that interested (and the results have been depressing). Which three overpaid players are gone after this year? Connolly and --?? (Not being a smartass. I don't know who else you're talking about.) I wouldn't be shocked if they did just reduce payroll by $9M. I don't know who will be available or who will want to come here. Even if a good player is available, are we going to want to offer anyone a 10 year contract? It's not just money/season, I don't know if the Sabres are willing to commit to a free agent for as long as some other teams would. Also, the Sabres know they're going to have to spend a lot of money to keep Myers here long term. Hopefully Ennis also ends up good enough that we give him a long deal too. Right or wrong, Regier's philosophy is to build the team from the draft. If we give out big contracts, I expect them to mainly be to guys who are already on the team. Given that I don't remember anything about Pominville in the playoffs last year, you're probably right here. But like I said, he's "good", but not a star. I could see him getting shut down for six games. I don't think he's hopeless though. I think he can (and will) do better than that.

I'd file that under "rounding into a good team." Though it's sad when injuries to veterans actually makes the team better. We have a lot of dead weight.

Translation: This game will be a great gut check opportunity for the Sabres. Are they actually rounding into a decent team or did they accidentally just play good hockey for a week? I'm looking forward to this.

It "can" affect spending elsewhere, but has it? The Sabres couldn't sign free agents last summer because they couldn't convince anyone to come here. I don't think money was the issue. I think we're still about $5M under the cap. I don't think the Sabres have had to make a decision based on being up against the salary cap since Summer 2006. Any time you sign a player to a long term contract, either as a free agent or to keep him from getting to free agency, you're going to pay more than you want. Because the players know that if you don't, one of the other 29 teams will. Pominville is a "good" player. He's not really a star player. His stats this year are going to be terrible mostly due to his injury to start the year (I still can't believe he's already back and worry that he rushed back). If he goes back to scored 25+ goals every 82 games with a good +/-, he's definitely a contract we can live with. He'd benefit from having better players on his line, but our three best forwards are all on one line and after that it's Pominville and a grab bag of disappointment.

Ruff mentioned this in the post-game interview.

Time for Ruff to admit that we do indeed have a legit no.1 line and to start giving Vanek-Roy-Ennis as much ice time as possible. It's not like our other lines are doing anything.

Another nice game for Vanek -- 2 assists and a +3. He was a barbarian in overtime and was critical leading up to the GWG. I know I'm a crazy person for saying this, but maybe we should be happy we have him on our team.

The only thing holding back the Connolly-Pominville-Hecht line is Connolly, Pominville, and Hecht.

Say, this Vanek fellow might be sort of a good player.....

I'm sorry that pointing our your terrible logic and reading comprehension bothers you, sport.

We were also dominating the Bruins in last year's playoff series before they took out Vanek in game 2. Not a coincidence. He's a very good player. And I hate to say it, but there are probably about 20 NHL teams where he'd probably put up better numbers. The Sabres are a mess and have been for a while.

Is there any design with anyone in mind? I don't know if the Sabres roster was ever "designed." They accidentally caught lightning in the bottle the year after the lockout and had the best team in the league. The next year we won the Presidents' Trophy but weren't as good because Regier accidentally subtracted a ton of toughness from the team. After that, the Sabres were caught with their pants down and lost their two captains because they had no idea how free agency would go. After that PR nightmare, they decided to just re-sign EVERYONE they could (Hecht, Connolly, Pominville, Miller, Vanek) to prove to the fans that they could keep their own players. And since then the only roster moves involve trading second round picks for terrible rental players. I think there's a better than 50-50 chance that Regier has never had a master plan for creating a team capable of winning the Stanley Cup.

Actually, it's not emotional. I'm the one bringing up his career stats. You're the one whining about the draft picks we didn't trade him for. You go on thinking that, Bob. How is bringing up his career stats "splitting hairs"? THIS would be an example of someone splitting hairs. Moron, I'm the one who said that we don't know if any of Edmonton's picks will turn out to be as good as Vanek. That was me. I said that above. You must have serious reading comprehension issues (or a wild imagination) if you think I have already written off every player Edmonton has drafted in the first round over the last four years. So EVERYTHING wrong with the Sabres is Vanek's fault because he's their highest paid player? And would you admit that you might *maybe* be exaggerating things a bit when you say he's not doing "anything"? Our last two wins were shootout wins and he scored in both shootouts. Now I know from this thread that you have trouble reading and understanding what other people write, so I'm guessing you might also have trouble remembering everything that happens in a hockey game that you just watched. That said, at least try to pay attention to the games before calling one of our only decent players the worst bust in team history.

No, stupid, what I wrote was: Meaning if Vanek was the worst mistake this team ever made, and every decision was better than drafting Thomas Vanek, then we'd be on of the most successful teams of all time. Not really. I'm saying a first round pick who never played an NHL game is a bigger bust than a first round pick with 176 career goals in 400 games and two 40-goal seasons. You seem confused by this. Actually we didn't "give up" ANY draft picks to keep him. We didn't trade draft picks to keep him; we were offered draft picks from someone else to let him go and didn't bite. Is Vanek overpaid? Yes. Does it matter? Not really. We're still $5M under the cap. And we still tried to sign Koivu and Cullen last summer but neither player wanted to be here. Has that contract prevented us from signing or re-signing anyone yet? So basically we're supposed to call Vanek our worst ever bust because we didn't effectively trade him for a bunch of draft picks who may or may not turn out to be as good as he is. That's your rationale?

He has 176 career goals in just over 400 games, including two 40-goal seasons. If he was our worst-ever bust, the rafters at HSBC Arena would be full of Stanley Cup Champion banners. If you want a terrible bust, try Artem Kruikov from the 2000 draft. We passed on Brooks Orpik to take him in the first round. He had concussion problems when we took him and never even played an NHL game. Now THAT is a candidate for all-time bust.

How do you know it won't fix anything? Are you 100% certain that Ruff is the best hockey coach we could ever have? There's 0% chance anyone could ever do a better job?

I'm pretty sure it's already against the rules to kick a goalie, or anyone, in the head when they're on the ice.

Am I the only one who thinks the players should be allowed to kick the puck in the net? 1. It's not going to become the new go-to tactic in the NHL. Kicking it in will still be harder than just scoring the old-fashioned way. 2. We won't have to worry about stupid reviews when the puck goes in off someone's skate. ("His skate was moving but was that really a kicking motion? Blah, blah, blah...") 3. We'd have higher scoring games. The NHL is seriously the only sports league that hasn't figured out that more scoring makes the game more exciting. Crazy concept.

Tim Connolly is legendary for his rare combination of incredible talent and a complete lack of effectiveness during games.

It was a one-timer. Most of our offensive talent would have preferred to attempt about half a dozen fancy tricks before trying to put the puck on net. Montador just fired it as soon as it got to him. Nice. Bonus: An assist for Connolly. If he racks up enough garbage points, maybe we can trade him for someone useful. [Darcy would need to grow a pair though.]

According to WGR, Neidermeyer is not with the team and the Sabres have called up Luke Adam to take his spot. http://www.wgr550.com/Gameday-Update--Niedermayer-not-with-team/8436139

How on earth is getting treated like a rock star by fans and groupies a "hockey distraction"? That's going to help their game? If anything, I think we have too many guys on the team who like to live like rich, famous hockey players and don't care so much about actually winning a Stanley Cup. They're in it for the lifestyle. The only player on the team who appears 100% dedicated to winning the Cup is Miller. How dedicated is everyone else? Who knows?