GAME DISCUSSION THREAD

[LabattBlue]

I'm assuming Labatt Blue was absent knowing his record...

 

My last game is next Saturday...Labatt?

Not only wasn't I there, I didn't see most of the game as I was out and about :) . I DVR'ed it and started to watch it when I got home around midnight, but fell asleep before the 1st period ended.

 

I don't know about Saturday(my list of 5 remaining games is at work), but I will be at the Arena on Thursday looking to break out of my 1-8 slump. :(

[carpandean]

After last nights games decided to check NHL.com 3 stars:

1st:

Michal Handzus 3G 0A 3P

2nd:

Martin Gerber 37 SV 38 SA .974 SV%

3rd:

Olli Jokinen 2G 0A 2P

No love for The Skill with 4 points. Definitely should have been in over Olli but of course, NHL loves their superstars first.

Those are Thursday's three stars (Olli had two goals against the Flyers on Thursday, but the Flames, as a hole, only had one goal against Carolina last night.) Last night's three stars are up now and Timmy is 2nd after Whitney (hat trick.) Marty Turco got the third star even though Lalime's numbers were better last night.

[PASabreFan]

Max is definitely playing for his next contract, but I don't see it happening here. Given how his last two years have gone I highly doubt he wants to re-up with Buffalo, and with the amount of money the Sabres have committed to Pominville, Connolly, Roy, Vanek and Miller, I don't think there would be room in the budget for Max -- at least not anywhere near what he's making now.

 

Tim Schmitt makes the same point, less emphatically:

 

"Maybe Afinogenov has finally realized those huge checks he gets each week will become exponentially smaller if he doesn?t shape up. Maybe he genuinely wants to assert himself as a leader in a dressing room he?s spent almost a decade in. Maybe he?s simply healthy.

 

Chances are it?s the first one."

 

http://www.niagara-gazette.com/local/local..._065225431.html

 

IMHO either viewpoint is extremely presumptuous. Unless you know what makes the man tick, how the hell would BM or Tim or anyone else know what motivates him? Whenever I hear a fan say this or that player is just in it for the money, I hear, "If I was a professional athlete, I'd be in it for the money."

[Bmwolf21]

IMHO either viewpoint is extremely presumptuous. Unless you know what makes the man tick, how the hell would BM or Tim or anyone else know what motivates him?

Can't argue that, because no one knows what makes Max tick. Seems that Lindy has been trying to figure that out for years in an effort to get him to put it all together and make the jump to the next level.

 

That being said I find it hard to not believe that Max's play is about his next contract, given how many times we've seen guys have career years in their contract campaigns. That next contract and the chance to audition for other prospective employers are great motivational tools for Max to play well down the stretch.

 

My point, though, was not the opinion that Max is definitely motivated by the thought of his next contract, but that it is a cold, hard fact - what Max does down the stretch will help determine what kind of contract he gets this summer, whether in Buffalo or elsewhere. So he is playing for his next contract right now.