SabresFanInRochester

I watched this twice and believe I laughed harder the second time. Loved it!

I believe Travis Yost and whoever blogs for the Penguins have Risto as highly overrated. They look purely at analytics and if you were to look at the numbers, I agree that he would be overrated. But I watch him play and he is probably the reason why I do not give credence to purely analytical assessments. It sounds like he passes SS posters' eye test, and I read many comments about 'if the team was better his numbers would be better'-- I have always felt that way. The bad news -- I have a #55 jersey. Add that to my collection of 57, 26, and 30, and with my track record, his arse should be shipped out as first item of business for Botterill.

I don't think I want Ruff back. I loved him while he was here and when he left, I was bummed, but I turned the page. I liked that Ruff was adaptive -- let's not forget after the lockout he switched to a system that would work without all the clutching and grabbing. Ultimately, the playoffs started and consistent reffing went out the window. But, why I don't like him for a recycled coach -- I never liked some of his choices. He seemed to be infatuated with Derek Roy, and I never saw it. I wasn't happy with the way some of the younger players were developed under Ruff. Myers, Grigorenko, and I am sure I could come up with many more. Just seemed to either never give them a chance or mismanaged their play. It's possible. They picked Friday for the press conference. Why? The GM is named, and unless he cannot get to town, the presser is almost always the next day, right? I wish I had more than just my memory to go off of. I could see two press conferences as I do not see them working together: One in the AM and one in the PM.

Are there any ties between Botterill and Housley? I am not sold on Tocchet, but I wouldn't be angry if he came in, like I was with DB. But I have to agree with WGR that how can the Pegula's preach character and allow Tocchet to come in after his troubled past. Forgive and forget -- I don't know. If the coaching search opens up, I just wonder if Botterill has done much with USA Hockey where he would be familiar with Housley, or if they played together, or have any connection. I really want Housley.

Not like our defense is so deep that we don't need anyone on that list. I think Brodin would upgrade our defense (maybe the 2nd pairing) but that contract looked a little heavy.

Is there anyone on that list that you would like to see on the Buffalo Sabres roster? At first glance, I didn't see anything.

From what I believe I have seen here, Dubas is an analytics guy. Does that mean someone like Ristolainen, who passes the eye test to me, would be shipped out? I like the analytics, but I just think there is more to the job than just numbers. I never bought into Moneyball. I think there has to be a time and place for logic and emotions to factor into a decision.

Paul Gaustad role, right? I read that there would be a clause that if he was sent down to the AHL, he could return to the KHL. That tells me it would be a two-way, and also tells me he would be given every opportunity to make the big club.

Interesting -- I had posted on the political board that my tax plan would have favored a flat tax that was really low, say 10%, and then a mandatory charitable election for another 5-10%. My belief was people would rather give to something they support -- not just have the government take and then let a bureaucratic and inefficient government decide where it goes. I think you are confirming my belief. It will be interesting to see how the elimination of deductions plays out. Do you know for sure that under the proposed plan your taxes would increase? I am a small business owner and what Trump is proposing is pretty attractive from my perspective. Welcome aboard! My son (7) was reading a book and it ranked the top 10 NHL uniforms of all-time. I was shocked the Sabres traditional logo didn't make the cut. I thought maybe I was biased, so it is nice to hear that logo was enough to pull you in as a fan. At the 40th anniversary of the Sabres, a book and video were compiled. I believe that would be a nice summation: https://www.nhl.com/sabres/news/relive-forty-years-of-sabres-memories-with-the-release-of-limited-edition-book-and-dvd/c-543291

Boy, maybe I missed the theme of the Pegula press conference: Communication, Character, ... TM is gone because the structure was in shambles: The coach lost the team. The players didn't put forth a consistent effort (which I think was on TM, DD, and the players.) The GM had to put a disciplinary plan in place for the team with 10 games remaining in the season. Reports that Eichel had a rift with DD. TM was very brash. He was not a people person. Terry didn't like that. The forwardness and brevity that we liked ("Buffalo selects Jack Eichel") cost him his job. I think if TM was a "good guy" he would have been given another year. The team could have used another defenseman or two and that is on Murray, but a "good guy" would be able to say -- 'Terry, the asking price at the trade deadline was too high. Next year, we will have Guhle and I have the fast-track on Antipin. I will look at additional options in the summer.' TM didn't have a personality and style conducive to how Terry operates.

The guy is a winner. Winners associate with winners. I would love the culture and structure he would put into place.

You're being ridiculous -- LaFontaine needs to come in as Head of Hockey Operations.

I was immediately thinking Drury, but I agree that he is too green. However, I wouldn't be opposed to seeing him in the system in some capacity. The guy is a winner -- the antithesis of Russ Brandon.

Wow! I am shocked! Taking the heat was admirable, but when you take the blame and criticism, sometimes it comes back to haunt you.

It sounds like a split room. It's usually not the complacent individual who is going to be against the coach. If that can be accepted as true, how many were firmly in the DD camp? And who are those people??? Ship their ass out of town with the coach! My guess is that it is some of the grinders, some of the veterans who feel loyalty is admirable, and some of the young guys who are naturally skittish because they know they need to impress anyone and everyone. Now, if you can accept that as being true, when the new coach moves in, there shouldn't be an issue with either the veterans or the rookies. Shouldn't be that big of a deal for the team to make the move. The only one really impacted is Pegula's pocketbook.

I thought that was telling. I have no doubt that DD will be fired before the 2017 NHL draft. And, I think the spoiled kid (Eichel) talk is overdone. It's Jack's team. Someone posted on here, and so I read, Lemieux was unhappy with his coach and a change was made. I have read that Crosby was unhappy with DD, although Crosby denied it, and a change was made. It happens and my opinion of Jack is not going to be any less if it is solely Jack that gets DD fired; and I don't think that is the case because there is a lot more of the team in that camp.

NS is right on -- if you are concerned about Google, then Microsoft should also be a concern. Going out on a limb and guessing NS is not a fan of Microsoft. I am not in love with OneDrive, but, as NS pointed out, it does the same thing as Drive, and is free for me. With OneDrive, you can invite people to see certain directories/folders. You can also send permission via link for individuals to see certain files. Honestly, I would not pay for OneDrive if it wasn't free. There are too many services out there that are free to have to pay for Dropbox or Citrix ShareFile. Google Drive is one of them, but if you Google search "sites like DropBox" or "best free alternatives to DropBox" you will be in good shape. Just a word of caution, some of those sites are owned by the company doing the list. So, their product appears as the top spot, and all the negatives for the other companies could be exacerbated.

That sums it up... next! (Although it is possible that Pegula pushed DD onto Murray when Babcock fell through and Murray had to just deal with it.)

Last summer when Buffalo was courting Vesey, there was a tweet (from someone that I follow/trust) that Jack didn't have a lot of good things to say about DD to Vesey. This was the first that I heard of friction. Unfortunately, it may have factored into the Vesey decision. Anyone here get recruited by their friends or family to go and work for a company where they hate their boss? If there was any truth to this, it was unfortunately short-sighted, but it does show the power of Eichel. Vesey would have looked good in Blue and Gold (minus DD, of course.)

Agreed: Please use better paragraph formatting. I gave up after a couple of lines. In the Columbus game last night, the Blue Jackets were repeatedly "punting" the puck into the Pittsburgh zone as they just hoped to hang on in the 3rd period. There was no interest in puck possession. I was thinking, except for having 5 goals on the board, this looks a hell of a lot like Buffalo! And, when Pittsburgh scored with :30ish to go, I thought the Blue Jackets did themselves in. ALL PREVENT DEFENSE PREVENTS IS WINNING. I believe I heard the announcers in the Caps/Leafs game comment that this is nothing like watching the Devils. Something to the effect of fast-paced, back-and-forth with little/no defensive trap. Duh, it is exciting to watch that, and both teams are doing well with it. But leave it to Buffalo to select a system that is boring, AND doesn't translate to wins.

I had been paying for a Dropbox account, and it was easy to use so I had no complaints. I started looking at alternatives at the end of the subscription. It was at that time that I realized I had access to Microsoft OneDrive as a Office 365 subscriber. Office 365 is what I use to host my domain, and it gives me access to Word, Excel, Outlook, ... I am pretty sure OneDrive comes with 1TB and included in the fee for Office 365. It was a no-brainer to save on the fee for Dropbox and begin using the OneDrive in my plan.

Blue -- as professor, I would be curious as to your take on this one. (God, this is going to reflect VERY poorly on me.) In college, during the Spring semester of my senior year, I loaded my schedule with the biggest fluff courses imaginable -- Intro to Sociology, Photography, and a class where I was able to make up the coursework because it wasn't offered at my college. To save face, I worked my arse off for the prior years and I wanted to have a little fun before graduation. I remember the OJ verdict was being handed down and I wanted to see it, so I either called my professor (or sent an email) saying that it was a monumental moment in history and I wanted to see it live and firsthand. That's true, but I really didn't want to go to the class. It worked. I did fine in the class and the professor never mentioned it... to me. I am sure this is one of those stories that he now tells his colleagues -- this one time, my student told me he was going to miss class to watch the OJ verdict.

Housley was mentioned by Pachla on HockeyBuzz. He also mentions a couple others -- it's a good read. Personally, I'd love to see Housley or a young coach instead of Sutter.

I used to be one of those a-holes, until a friend of mine lost his 8-year old son in a car crash. The driver was distracted and blew through a stop sign. Having 2 kids that age, it made me think of how selfish I had been. I have not been the same since.

Ugh -- I wish I could derive the pizza place you're referencing but I don't have enough numbers. I am glad to know others do this. My brother and I randomly brought up this topic and were amazed that each of us did this.