Taro T

That psychopath McDaniel wouldn't even admit that Tua had a concussion on the Milano hit. They called it an ankle injury. Had they treated THAT like a concussion, maybe he doesn't get a second major one in less than a week and maybe just getting bounced off a guy's bicep doesn't result in what might be a career ending concussion. Ironically it was Hamlin that "hit" Tua and this hit happened the same week that the psychopath got an extension through '28. The guy that "died" on the field "killed" the Fishies chances this season right when the guy who caused the whole problem got shown the money.

Looked at the article and didn't see anything about college & junior hockey being included in this. 2 Questions. Q1. Are you sure college hockey will be included in this FLO package? Q2. Does this mean college hockey won't still be on ESPN+? Know ESPN+ is still showing a LOT of college sporting events. And was planning on catching a few games this year on ESPN+. (Mainly around tournament time.) If either of those Q's were answered in that article and yours truly missed them, apologies.

And again, see this as an opportunity to get a look at all the Amerks that aren't going to qualify as vet exceptions along with a handful of other prospects. Johnson is firmly in the Amerk mix and will need a lot of things to break his way to be a Sabre coming out of camp. Having a young guy slated to be an Amerk playing in this tournament doesn't seem odd at all, especially for one with all of a single season of professional hockey under his belt. That the Sabres have been in the position that guys in his spot have been gifted an NHL roster spot prematurely for essentially a decade plus is what is odd. (Not for the Sabres - it's SOP. But for most of the rest of the league it's odd.) While realistically he's likely 8th on the depth chart (ahead of Bryson), he doesn't need to clear waivers and they're going to want him playing rather than sitting in the press box in Buffalo. Again, he's very likely an Amerk and an Amerk with only 1 year of pro experience. He qualifies for the tourney and personally would find it odd if he WEREN'T playing in it.

Anecdote, so obviously only a snapshot in time and it could provide a very misleading picture. But in that game that the Amerks got eliminated, there was exactly 1 memorable "Carubba collision" and that was Rosen absolutely destroying a guy just inside the Amerks blue line. Had to do a double take to make sure it was him. It was a hit that Campbell would've been proud of. And it was a legal hit, unlike what many of Campbell's would be today. So, maybe he can.

What's odd about it? The roster is the young Amerks and a handful of others to round out a tournament roster. This is essentially getting the Amerks 3 extra games together. Johnson, unless he has a crazy good camp, is Ra-cha-cha bound to start the year.

It wasn't even that those guys were the wrong ones for Buffalo. It's that each of the GM hires wanted to build a team in a way and had a prototypical preferred player that significantly differed from his predecessor. Keep them being guided by the same team building principles & then Botterill just has to undo the Winnipeg trade, not the O'Reilly one along with ridding themselves of other useful players too. The resets were entirely self-inflicted. They weren't actually necessary in principal.

Easy there, that's PTR's schtick. 😉 But back on point, yeah, it looks like they won't spend once again, but there's still time for that to merely be appearance and not reality. The Aisles grabbed both Boychuk and Leddy essentially out of thin air right before the season kicked off the year the Sabres had their pick lined up to be unprotected. They absolutely were still a discount team last year. But, until the season kicks off and Terry pulls that football away at the last second am going to maintain hope that 2W is just a few weeks away.

The Sabres best run of the past 20 years had co-captains. When the co-captains both left and there was a bit of a leadership void there were rotating captains. Personally could see Tuch the captain at home games and Dahlin the captain at road games. With either Thompson or Cozens wearing the 2nd A any given night. (Maybe T&T at home and they play CD's on the road (again w/ the other captain wearing the 2nd A when not wearing the C).

This one might be worth the dispensation to go back to bourbon just this one time. 😉

Personally, believe the budget constraints have already been lifted, but then read a post like @Brawndo's implying that Adams had a deal for Zegras worked out and Pegula nixed it and realize that belief could be seriously off-base. But also, kind of personally need to believe the constraints are off, because otherwise this whole thing just gets too exhausting. And life in general lately is exhausting enough. This is supposed to be the entertainment / relaxation portion of the day. Am really tired of being left at the end of the day with "it could work." So, please make that one more move and come out of Europe 1st in the Adams (old school Adams, not Kevyn's personal 1 team league 😉 ) and build on it from there. Because if they go on an early season Kreugeresque campaign, doubt that the metrics won't be backing the fact that it's real. And this place could be really fun should that happen.

The bolded is true. But there is one thing that MIGHT work in the Sabres favor (presuming Adams doesn't manage to get one more deal done before they head off to Europe) is that darn near nobody has tried this current approach (bring a bunch of guys up very young and get them all used to playing together and playing at NHL speed getting through to that 1st 200 NHL game threshold while the majority of them are still barely legal to drink if they even are with most of them on ELCs & 2nd/bridge contracts) which is essentially testing a theory that it's games played rather than physical maturity that gets a guy to his "prime" level of play. Nobody else tries it because you almost definitely guarantee yourself a lot of losing seasons getting a critical mass of talented bodies to that 200 game threshold. And a lot of losing necessarily means less fannies in the seats and less concessions and merchandise sold and most owners don't have the hubris to try to ride through all the growing pains. (Most fans don't either.) But Adams & Pegula seem to have had the hubris to see if it legitimately can work when run to it's conclusion. (Those young guys actually getting en masse to & beyond those thresholds.) The cursory view of it says it can't work without nearly everything falling into place because it's only been done extremely rarely in the past decade. That's probably where the smart money should be too. But this team is built significantly differently than other teams have been, so they might not necessarily align with the normal metrics. AND should they bring in a 2W/2C in the next few weeks, the team will be outside those normal metrics anyway. They need Ruff to be A right coach for this squad and they need the goaltending to be what it was overall post January (and ideally what UPL was in January and what Levi was down the stretch which would be even better than that) to realistically have a shot at the playoffs. But if both of those bets pay off, they don't need all that many more of the variables to fall their way to make the playoffs. (in no particular order, good health, obtaining that 2W/2C, guys getting back to their 2023 levels, Byram being the guy he was in the playoffs, the PP being what it should be now that Ellis can't warp it, the new guys fitting in and gelling together, Power elevating towards being a legit #2, Quinn & Benson not having "sophomore" slumps (sophomore in quotes because last year was Quinn's sophomore year but he missed most of it, guys relearning how to play for a coach who expects them to follow the system he has picked out for them over TC rather than October & November, winning the Euro series w/ Joisey to kickstart the year.) Get about 1/2 of those to go their way and they should be in good shape, even possibly with a relatively low payroll. Personally, still expect that Adams true target for really excelling is next year and thereafter. But if the team ends up where it did last year (seriously doubt it will, but we'll see, there's a reason they play the games), doubt he gets the chance to make it to that target. And do believe that he is targeting playoffs for this season. (He targeted them last year as well, but misjudged just how far a young 91 point team really is from the playoffs.)

Ftfy. 😉

RIP Darth.

Doubtful. This was game 1 (remember how Luke Wilson looked in game 1 last year?) against a QB who didn't take a preseason snap and has only 5 games of film in the last nearly 2 years. And, their best defender was lost in the 1st series. They adjusted at 1/2 time & took command. If not for the kick return, the Bills win this one going away.

The refs were inserting themselves in the game, but not for 1 team or the other. They were just really bad. Like Sean Hocculi or Jerome Bulger bad. Unlike those 2 though, they blew calls both ways. And would rather have several other crews than the one we got; but they were at least better than those other 2 crews as they had no clue but didn't have a horse in the race.

Everything they touch sucks, except their NG holdings, the Bills, the Bandits, the Amerks, the Kin-ig-hit Hawks, and their tennis playing daughter's career.

Could very well see the delay on getting a deal worked out for him being based on another deal in the works that has not been finalized yet. And the team that is looking to get him as part of the package wants to be able to set his contract. Would expect him to be part of any deal for a 2W (2C?) coming in and that his contract will be signed within a day or 2 of a trade happening. And if Adams can't work out a deal that Pegula signs off on, then he'll sign right before the team leaves for Europe.

Though it's a contrarian opinion around here, don't honestly believe that Adams has a directive to not spend the Skinner savings. But do believe he has a directive to not simply spend it to spend it. Wouldn't be shocked if we do see a move during camp. Wouldn't have money on it, but won't be surprised either. And, rightly or wrongly, and we'll know about 8 months from now which it is, Adams is sticking to his plan. Would be really nice if he can get that 2W deal done; would add a degree of wiggle room to what needs to happen to make this season successful.

'Bout as serious as your trigger warning. 😉

Yup. The Bowman is strong in this one.

Don't see any way the PP isn't at least good (top 12 in the league) and could be very good (top 6). They have one of the best set up men at the point; a great shot at either side, at least one of which is a reasonable set up man; and at least 1 more good set up man at the bumper who can also shoot; along with another really big power forward to be battling for loose pucks and working screens. And they still have solid offensive talent on the 2nd unit as well. Getting Skinner off the PP, and not having a set entry that even Squirt level coaches wouldn't want to implement, along with increased movement of players and the puck, along with a willingness to have players not named Benson within 15' of the net when the puck is on Dahlin's stick will all enable the PP to be a strength of the team.

Difference in the 2 situations being there was a very good chance KC still ends up with Worthy even if the Bills don't trade with them. Bills still got the guy they wanted and took a midround pick out of KC's arsenal. Had the Bills not traded with KC, Mahomes almost definitely ends up somewhere else.

Ummm, WHAT? 4 prospect D-men are relevant because Mittelstadt was traded away but 4 prospect C's aren't?

Again, yes, they traded a top 6 F for a top 4 defender. But getting hung up on LH / RH on the D is silly in this particular instance. Dahlin prefers to play on the right side. Power has played effectively on his off-hand and IIRC so has Byram. You can say that bringing McLeod doesn't fill a hole, but he does. Even with Mittelstadt on the roster, the team did not have a "true" 200' 3C. Have said REPEATEDLY that this kid personally is NOT a fan of the Mittelstadt for Byram trade (because of their relative ages and where they are each on their development curves and the Mitts/Byram trade realistically being focused on what the team looks like in '26 not last season nor this) but Byram does NOT have to be better than Power to make the Mittelstadt/Byram and McLeod/Savoie trade end up a 2 holes filled (3C + 4D) for 1 spot with depth (2C) situation. Byram merely needs to be better than Jokiharju for that to be the case. And, really truly don't see how you can say prospect forwards are "irrelevant to this entirely" when at least one of them will, barring incredibly few injuries at F over the course of the year so none get an opportunity, be a Sabre by the end of this season and then follow that with a list of prospect D that are all further away timelinewise from the NHL than Kulich is.

Disagree that he was top 5. Now, if you want to argue Bergeron was top 5, you might be able to make a case. But probably not. He was top 10.